Homeschooling For Dummies
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Homeschooling is more than recreating school at home. It’s the opportunity to guide your children through their education in the best way possible for them. Turn here when you’re looking for useful homeschooling websites or inspiration and encouragement from friendly newsletters and magazines. When you feel that end-of-the-semester crunch and the method for calculating grade point averages slips your mind, you can find that here as well.

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Invaluable homeschooling websites

Homeschooling websites offer solid educational material whether you’re looking for great articles worth reading, online lesson plans, or even textbooks and unit studies to ease your planning load.

Site Name Site Address Why You Care
CK-12 Foundation http://ck12.org Free textbooks for K–12
CNN 10 www.cnn10.com/ Ten minutes of news to start your students’ day
Dad’s Worksheets www.dadsworksheets.com Over 9,000 free worksheets for math and other subjects
The Internet Archive www.archive.org Public-domain novels, history, art, and more
Khan Academy www.khanacademy.org Video help in every school subject, including SAT prep
PBS Learning Media www.pbslearningmedia.org Educational videos with support materials
Secular Eclectic Academic Homeschoolers www.seahomeschoolers.com Homeschooling support and resources
Teacher Vision www.teachervision.com Lesson plan collection for Grades K–12

 

Invaluable homeschooling newsletters and magazines

When you want a good read for yourself or the students in your life, turn to online newsletters, print magazines, and a mix of the two. Some of the periodicals listed here are designed specifically for homeschoolers, while others are written for children who aren’t necessarily homeschooled but whose publishers and content embrace homeschooling.

Title Readership Phone Number Website
Ask Grades 2–4, arts and sciences 800-821-0115 www.shopcricketmedia.com
Beanz Ages 8 and up, computers and technology www.kidscodecs.com
ChopChop Ages 8–12, cooking and cuisine 617-924-3993 www.chopchopfamily.org
Cobblestone Ages 9–14, American history 800-821-0115 www.shopcricketmedia.com
Dig Into History Ages 9–14, world history, archaeology (order back issues) 800-821-0115 www.shopcricketmedia.com
Home|School|Life Secular homeschooling www.homeschoollifemag.com
Humpty Dumpty Magazine Ages 2–6, healthy creative growing www.amazon.com
Jack and Jill Ages 6–12, stories and activities www.amazon.com
Kids Discover Ages 6–14, topical issues, history and science  

 

www.kidsdiscover.com
Life Learning Unschoolers, issues online www.life.ca/lifelearning/
Muse Ages 8–14, science, technology 800-821-0115 www.shopcricketmedia.com
The Old Schoolhouse Christian homeschoolers www.theoldschoolhouse.com
Pooka Pages Ages 5–12, pagan stories, activities www.pookapages.com
Science Weekly Grades K–5, science www.studiesweekly.com
SEA Homeschoolers Secular homeschooling www.seahomeschoolers.com
Smore Ages 7–12, STEM for girls www.smoremagazine.com
Studies Weekly Grades K–8, social studies www.studiesweekly.com
Zoobooks Ages 6–12, animals www.zoobooks.com

 

How to calculate grades in your homeschool

If you decide to keep grades in your homeschool, or you need to because of your state’s homeschooling law, this is an easy and consistent way to figure a grade point average.

To determine a grade point average, follow these steps:

  1. Assign a point value to the final grade. Generally A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, and F = 0.
  2. Multiply the grade value by the amount of credit for that particular course. This gives you the number of grade points for the course in question. (Course credits are also known as Carnegie Units.) To make it easy for everyone, most yearlong courses equal one unit. This gives a one-year course that was worth one credit a final point value of 4 (assuming your stellar student got an A.)
  3. Add all the grade points for the semester, year, or four years, depending on the span of time you want the grade average to reflect. This gives you a total number of grade points. If our mythical stellar student takes two courses and gets an A and a B, the total grade points would be 7.
  4. Divide the grade point total by the total number of classes. This gives you a grade-point average, otherwise known as a GPA. Your stellar student receives a GPA of 3.5 because 7 (the total grade points) divided by 2 (the number of classes taken) equals 3.5.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Jennifer Kaufeld has nearly three decades of homeschooling experience. She is a regular speaker at state and regional homeschooling and education conferences, and frequently contributes expert advice to several communities on Facebook and elsewhere online.

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