Checklists are one of the three major ways you might assess your elementary or middle school child (as long as your state doesn’t require grading instead).

You can use them to keep an ongoing measure of your child’s progress and milestone achievements.

They’re simple to use, because all you do is check off each item your child learns!

You can create your own checklists based on your unique and specific goals for your child: character goals, habits, developmental milestones, etc. If you want inspiration, just search homeschool checklists on Pinterest, but you better be ready with a comfy chair and a cup of coffee because the options are endless!

Have you heard of a scope and sequence? It’s simply a list of what topics are covered in a subject or grade, in what order—and it can be a handy checklist. As a homeschool parent, you can create your own . . . or use or adapt scope and sequence charts that have already been developed by curriculum publishers, traditional schools, and educators. Learn more about scope and sequence charts and where to find them.

Just remember that the content and pace of scope and sequence charts vary widely. As a homeschooling parent, you have freedom to decide how to apply them to your unique child and what they are ready to learn.

State government education standards can be a source of age or grade-level checklists that you can customize for your child.

Now, let’s learn about rubrics—another customizable assessment option.