Glossary
Homeschooling, in plain words
The vocabulary that turns up in curriculum catalogs, co-op meetings and homeschool groups, defined in a sentence or two. Where a term's meaning depends on your state, we say so rather than guess.
Attendance record
A homeschool attendance record is a dated list of the days school happened, often with the hours, kept per child.
Carnegie unit
A Carnegie unit is a long-standing American measure of high school credit based on time in class over a school year, commonly given as about 120 hours.
Charlotte Mason method
The Charlotte Mason method is an approach based on the ideas of the British teacher and writer Charlotte Mason, built around living books, narration, short lessons and time outdoors.
Classical education
Classical education is an approach organized around the trivium: a grammar stage of learning facts, a logic stage of reasoning, and a rhetoric stage of expression.
Course description
A course description is a short paragraph explaining what a high school course covered, the materials used, the work required and how the grade was decided.
Curriculum
A curriculum is a planned set of materials and lessons for a subject, usually bought from a publisher, such as a math program or a history series.
Deschooling
Deschooling is a period of adjustment after a child leaves school, when the family slows down and lets the habits of school fade before settling into homeschooling.
Dual enrollment
Dual enrollment means a teenager of high school age takes a college course and may earn credit toward both high school and college.
Eclectic homeschooling
Eclectic homeschooling means mixing methods and materials from different approaches, choosing what works for each child and subject.
Evaluator
An evaluator is a person who reviews a homeschooled child's work and progress, usually at the end of a school year, and may write a letter or report about it.
GPA (grade point average)
A grade point average is the average of a set of grades converted to points, most often on a 4.0 scale where A is 4, B 3, C 2, D 1 and F 0.
High school credit
A high school credit is the unit used to measure completed high school coursework; one credit usually means a full-year course.
Homeschool co-op
A homeschool co-op is a group of homeschooling families who meet regularly to teach classes, share activities or study together.
Living books
Living books are books written by an author with knowledge of and enthusiasm for the subject, usually in a narrative style, rather than a summarized textbook.
Loop scheduling
Loop scheduling is a way of planning in which subjects take turns in a fixed order instead of being tied to particular weekdays.
Morning basket
A morning basket (also called morning time) is a short daily block when the family gathers for shared reading, memory work, music, poetry or prayer.
Narration
Narration is a child telling back, in their own words, what they have just read or heard.
Notice of intent
A notice of intent is a document some states ask a family to file to say they are homeschooling a child.
Portfolio
A homeschool portfolio is a collection of a child's work and records from a school year, used to show what was learned.
Sabbath schooling
Sabbath schooling is a year plan of six weeks of school followed by one week off, repeated through the year.
Scope and sequence
A scope and sequence is the list of topics a course covers (the scope) and the order they are taught in (the sequence).
Transcript
A transcript is a summary of a teenager's high school courses, credits and grades, with a grade point average.
Umbrella school
An umbrella school (also called a cover school) is a school or program that homeschooled children enroll in while their parents teach at home.
Unit study
A unit study teaches several subjects through one theme or topic for a stretch of time, such as a few weeks on ancient Egypt or on birds.
Unschooling
Unschooling is an approach in which children learn mainly through their own interests and everyday life rather than a set curriculum.
Weighted grades
Weighted grades give some kinds of work more influence on a final grade than others, such as tests counting for half and homework for a quarter.
Work sample
A work sample is a piece of a child's actual work, such as a page of math, a written narration or a photo of a project, kept as evidence of learning.
Year-round homeschooling
Year-round homeschooling spreads the school days across the whole calendar year, with shorter breaks throughout instead of a long summer.
Whatever your method, keep one record
Charlotte Mason, classical, unit studies or a mix: subjects, lessons and the learning log all end up in the same attendance, hours and portfolio.