There can be a huge advantage in making your own homeschool transcript. The advantage is that you can provide rigorous academics to your children and then reflect it on your transcript. I know that there are people out there who feel like failures – like they are doing a terrible job. But have you ever considered what failure really means?
What is the graduation rate at your public high school? Sometimes our school district talks about the incarceration rate of their high school students. How many homeschools think about incarceration? I really don’t think that our definition of failure is quite like the world’s definition of failure. Perhaps we are not providing a college level great books program but then again, neither are the public schools!
We are simply providing rigorous academics at the level of our children because what is really important is that you are teaching them at their level. If that means math is pre-algebra for a few years in a row then they are going to be learning more than if you pushed them beyond what they were able to do.
Another advantage is the freedom to document all these outside classes. That is one of the reasons why homeschoolers tend to have huge transcripts – they can take all of their classes, both from inside and outside a classroom, and place them on a transcript. It just looks much better on paper when your child can develop interest in things like economics or chess or other crazy stuff.
A homeschool transcript will be a way for you to identify the special giftedness and passion of your own child. Every child has their own thing. The transcript will show the individuality of your own child. Your transcript can also reflect the values and priorities of your own family.
It’s also a way for you to capture all of the academics they do regardless of where they do it. So if they go to Bellevue Community College, then they do a court class, and they have music at the public school, you’ll be able to pull all that together so nothing will be lost. It becomes a much more comprehensive and accurate picture of who your child really is, instead of the one-dimensional piece of paper that they might get from a public or private school.
Your home-made transcript can truly represent your homeschool. It’s not just one piece of it but the whole of it. That’s a huge advantage because it will demonstrate not only who your child is but where they came from and what their roots are.