Homeschool World Forum

For our family...no.

Failure isn't really an option, because if they do something and are HORRIBLE at it, they have at least learned something through the process.

As far as academic subjects, failure isn't an option because we work on it until they get it. I choose what I want my children to learn and have a reason for all of it. I guess I figure what's the point of wasting my time and theirs to just move on if they don't get it. I want them to "get it."

Sometimes, I want them to have complete mastery of a skill and sometimes I want them to just grasp the beginnings of a concept to expand on later. That's one of the benefits of homeschooling, YOU get to decide what level of mastery is necessary at a given point in time.

It's not like school where they have instruction, some practice, a test and then everyone moves on...even if they "failed".

Hope that helps.

It depends on the State. As a homeschooler you can decided per class/subject if they are "passing". In NY you are required to test every other in starting in 4th grade and then every year starting in 9th. If the child does not meet the 33 percentile then the district can implement steps to have their homeschool put on probation. I have not met anyone that has happened too. Now I am working with a high schooler at the moment and she can certainly fail. She is graded on her work/effort (depending on the project) and she gets % and letter grades for her transcript. She will get whatever she earns. She has not failed any quarter yet but some have come close (in certain subjects she does not like). I want her to be ready for college and understand that she has deadlines to met, standards to keep and if she does not then she has to take the consequences. I prefer her to learn that now rather than when she is paying to take classes.

It's next to impossible to fail at homeschooling unless you aren't even trying.

I felt that my young children did not need to experience any more failure in their lives. Two of them started public school, I didn't take them out until they would have been in 3 and 4th grade. Already, my 4th grader was suffering from years of failing. She LEARNED TO READ when she was 2 yrs old. Come on, folks! This was not a learning disabled child! But the PS was destroying her spirit. By 3rd grade, she was in remedial reading, title 1 math, and seeing the school psychologist twice a week for severe depression! Then the teacher told me that I had a below average child, who was doing the best she could, so Back Off! <grrrrr>. I took her out, and that first year, although we did do KONOS, we didn't work very hard. My goal was to let my kids have a year to learn how to be kids again. I let them play. We had a big yard, a big swing set and sand box, a big old barn, and some HS friends their age. Well, when they took the standardized achievement test that spring, they both placed Three Grades above where they had been the year before. And we weren't even trying! So, I didn't let my kids fail in grade school. If they didn't learn something right, then they had "do overs".
Lorelei