What assesments do you use?

[Nan411]

Hi everyone, I do not currently homeschool but I'm thinking about it as a future possibility. I would like to do a kind of "trial run" this summer and work on some things with dd. I'm looking for an assesment to use to gauge where she is and to see how much she improves. I would like it to be something "hands on" and fun for her. She is currently in kindy, going to first grade next year.

[pigpokey]

I do not need to do assessments as I am with them and their lessons every day.  If they are successfully completing their work they are making progress.  If they struggle with something we need more repitition. 

Mine are 6 and 7.

If you can be more specific about your concerns, maybe I can be more helpful.

When you home school with purchased materials, you are not flying on faith.  So in general, I know that my children are at or above age-grade level in math, reading, and spelling.  I know this not because of assessment tools, but because reading levels are printed on the children's books they read, their math curriculum has a grade level, and I recently bought a spelling book that matched their age-grade and wished I'd bought the next grade (but am using it to practice printing).

I believe they are poor printers for age compared to full day school kids of this generation, but they have started cursive (I chose not to emphasize writing in these early years and am not sure of the value to an adult of super great printing if they are capable of fluently and legibly filling out a box form).  I note that many extremely high wage earners we know spend next to no time with handwriting.  My husband's is legible enough but hardly shows any of the work he did as a child and he says he cannot remember cursive. 

What you spend time on is a trade off.  So the time that we do not spend in extensive printing practice, my children can spend on other activities I value more.

I caution you against being overly concerned about comparing your child's work to what they do in school.  School curriculums vary widely and have different intentions from a home school curriculum. 

[mattemma04]

If it is for the district requirements you can have a teacher look over their work,or you could have them do a  standarized test. I did IOWA testing a few times with my kids. Ordered the tests from Piedmont in NC. I like the IOWA testing as it gives a graph of where the fall according to the test results.Ofcourse that is just one test and the results can be different every time they take it.

[moominmamma]

Pigpokey has explained it well. My homeschoolers are 8 through 17 and we have not used any assessment tools until they began for-credit coursework as high schoolers through a hybrid school / homeschool program. The assessments they've done at the high school level have confirmed what I knew all along about their mastery, that's all.

People who start homeschooling with a short time-line and specific expectations for measurable progress have their hands tied, in my opinion. They can't engage in the months of deschooling that is beneficial in terms of helping their child discover intrinsic motivation, personal interests and a the most conducive rhythm for their daily lives. They can't use trial and error to investigate resources and approaches and formats that suit their child optimally, a process that most homeschoolers find takes about a year. To start homeschooling in the summer and assess at the beginning and end of that experiment strikes me as being a bit like planting a seed and pulling up the germinating sprout a few days later to check how the roots are growing.

Miranda

[MomtoDandJ]

My oldest is 4 but I use this kindergarten readiness assessment. After you complete it, the website has a lot of information about each developmental area and activity suggestions and free printable worksheets. Hope this helps!

[Nan411]

Well, right now dd is above grade level in reading and writing. I guess my main concern about homeschooling is how I will know if my child is where she's supposed to be. I get what pigpokey says about knowing by the books they read and the workbooks they use but what about those parents that don't use workbooks or a pre-packaged curriculum. I guess I'm afraid I'll miss something important that she's supposed to know. I love reading and writing and I'm afraid that I'll over emphasize those two at the expense of math and science and the stuff that I'm not so good at.

[moominmamma]

If by "where she's supposed to be" you mean in comparison to your state's scope and sequence of educational expectations, you can check those things on-line most places. World Book online also has a comprehensive list of skills and expectations normed by grade level for kids in the US. Eyeballing something like that and thinking "yep, can do that, and that, and that, and knows about that, and yes, we're working on that..." would probably be plenty enough to give you an idea.

Personally I have little time for the government's lists of what school children "should" learn at particular ages so I almost never look at those lists. When my kids have been entered or interfaced with the school system they have measured up very well indeed. I'm happy to continue letting them set the pace.

Miranda

[pigpokey]

Well one option would be to buy math and science curriculum materials and complete them and do the rest your way. 

My own opinion is that children will likely unschool very well for useful science or homeschool in the practical sciences.  Science does not require drills if it is relevant.  There is too much of it for nonspecialists to remember besides the basics, which nonspecialists will rarely use.  Not everyone needs to be a scientist.  In the current world, a practical education about household chemical reactions, basic first aid, medical consumerism, science of cooking, etc. is much more useful (but rarely offered by any school).  The scientists will go their path.

I do drill basic math, and see a math education through basic algebra as necessary for most anyone, statistics being useful after that for a large group.  I would prefer the schools leave the rest to specialists, but that's me.

I really do see specialization and finding one's place to be an important role of education.  One reason I think parents do a great job compared to the schools is that the apples don't always fall far from the trees and parents I think are a little better at teachers at figuring out the core of a child.

Another way to look at it is that you share your gifts with your chid and contract out the rest.  There are numerous math and science classes available for homeschoolers in my area.  Even stuff like Kumon, has pretty well saturated the US and is a good option for home schoolers who do not want to handle their children's math education.

[umsami]

Are you planning to try just a few subjects?

You could try one of the placement tests for math as an option--but honestly, at the Kindy/1st grade level--I think you'll see quite plainly her improvement. Most math programs have built in assessments through problems and stuff. Even with a program like Right Start, which is not worksheet heavy, you see it as you go along... does the kid get whatever? If you feel you need worksheets, the Saxon math program has various assessments built in at regular levels.

Do you have a curriculum your planning to use? Are you planning on going to a curriculum fair/homeschool convention? Know that it can take some tweaking to find a curriculum that fits your child's style of learning (and your style of teaching)... but honestly, even with bad curricula, you're bound to see learning going on.