Keeping a Home School Gradebook

For me, the two most time consuming aspects of homeschooling are preparation and gradekeeping.  For younger students it is a little easier to keep track of grades but Middle and High School start to get complicated.

I've recently started using the free version of  Jupiter grades which has been a huge help in keeping track of everything and making sure there are no mistakes.  Jupiter used to be called Snap Grades and is used widely by public and private schools.  It is very secure and is completely online based. You can set up weighted grades and print report cards directly from the site.   Here are some pointers about setting up a gradebook with Jupiter.

1.  The first thing you need to do is set up an account on Jupiter Grades.

2. Next, you will set up a separate class for each student.  There will obviously only be one student per class unless you have twins or children who are in the same class.  I named all of my clases with the grade first and the name of the class second.  For instance, 9th Physics.  That way, I can easily see which class goes with each student.  So, at the top of my page I have 14 classes showing because each student has 7 classes.

3. Next, go to to Set Up> Grading Options and set up your grading periods, grade scale and how all of the grades should be weighted.  For example, Tests 50%, Quizzes 25% and Reports 25%.  You will probably have a different set up for each class.  Some classes might have a participation or assignment grade (daily work).

4  You might want to set up a time every week or two to log grades into Jupiter Grades so you aren't left during the last week of the grading period scurrying around trying to get it all done.  I have my kids record their grades every day in every subject next to their assignments for that day so all of the grades are in one place for each child.

5. To print Grades, go to Print > Report Cards.  You can choose to print just that quarter or the whole semester, or the whole year.  You can also decide whether you want number grades to show or just letter grades.  For high school, it would be better to have number grades listed with letter grades.  You can also have it calculate a GPA.

6. Watch the tutorials for other tips.

How do you keep grades for your home schooled students?  I'd love to hear your ideas.