Transcripts Made Easy by Everyday Education {Product Review}

High School. I won't lie and say that I'm super eager to homeschool that grade range. Things about it excite me, but also scare me to death. One of the things that can bring about anxiety is thinking about the official transcript I will have to make for each semester. I still have time (he's only finishing 7th grade), but it will be there before I know it! For the last several weeks, I've been reviewing Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork from Everyday Education. My goal with this review was to receive the tools and encouragement I needed to not be intimidated by this important document. So...how did it go?

About the Product

Transcripts Made Easy is the fourth edition for this best selling book. Designed to take the worry and hassle out of high school transcripts, it has already helped hundreds of homeschooling families breathe more easily about high school recordkeeping. This book was designed to show you how to do everything from grading to granting credit and everything in between! The result is that you will be able to create simple,
effective home-school transcripts and high school diplomas. There are also resources to help you keep simple records throughout the high school years.

Transcripts Made Easy is available as an instantly downloadable e-book or an 8 x 10” paperback (136 pages). Both versions come with reproducible record pages for each student in your family. The reproducibles include blank samples of different transcript styles, subject recordkeeping (specific and blank), reading records, and more.

I was given a copy of the downloadable e-book to review.

My Thoughts on the Product

The main things that I was looking for from this resource were in related to the actual record keeping, grading, and tips for noting any special courses my child has taken. Because there were some key areas that I wanted to learn more about, I was glad that there is a very clear table of contents.

The book is split into six different parts:
Part 1: Meet the Transcript
Here is just the basic what and why relating to transcripts themselves, including an overview of the process.

Part 2: Plan with the End in Mind
This section advises to not just go into high school haphazardly, but to plan the high school experience thinking about the end of schooling—whether just being done, going to apprenticeships, 2-year college, or 4-year college. It gives sample high school requirements, how to schedule courses, how to build habits for high school, tips about preparing for standardized testing, and more!

Part 3: Keep Simple Records
This part of the book does simply what you would expect: teaches you how to minimize the work and recordkeeping you will need to do. Advice over what samples of work to keep for each year. How to name classes. There is also a portion of this section for those with special needs children.

Part 4: Grades, Credit, and the GPA
This is where we get down to the nitty-gritty of how to put the transcript together. The bulk of this section is devoted to figuring out how you are going to grade your students. There are a lot of tips for making this less stressful—especially for the homeschooler who has never had to have grades before. The book even provides guidance for how to grade written work, including a rubric. No matter what style of homeschooler you are, this book really addresses how to make the best transcript possible. There are even calculation charts for figuring your child’s GPA.

Part 5: Create the Transcript
Here is where you will learn about different styles that your transcript can be. There is guidance for picking which will allow you to detail the classes your child takes to the greatest advantage. There are samples for each style to help the parent get an idea of what it looks like. The last section in this part is a quick run-down on how to create and design a high school diploma for your student.

Part 6: References, Resources, and Reproducibles
This is where you will find all the references and resource links that are mentioned in the book. Most importantly, this is where there are copies of all the reproducible included in the book.

While I initially wasn’t planning on really reading the whole book, I discovered that a large portion of the book was actually very helpful to me. Some of the sections I found the most important for me at this stage (with a soon to be 8th grader), were in Part 2: Plan with the End in Mind. I really appreciated the advice in the “Skills and Habits to Cultivate in High School.” As the first line in the first paragraph of this section states “No matter what kind of future your students envision, high school is the time to be sure they have the basic skills they will need in college, trades, or the workforce.” I really found this reminder to be invaluable because it strips it down to the basics: writing basics (including citations), online research, identifying reliable research resources, personal organization, time management, and test-taking skills.  This list of skills is SOOO helpful to me and will let me guide our high school experience in making sure my children are strong in these areas.

Another area that I found very useful was the section on college alternatives, where it addresses the fact that some children will graduate high school and move into careers where a college degree isn’t needed. I have two children who are pretty convinced they want to be more in trade careers. There is a section providing additional resources to learn more about preparing for that type of career.

The third section I found the most useful was the actual samples of the different forms, as well as the reproducible copies of every form mentioned. It’s one thing to just read about how to fill them out, but another thing altogether to actually see samples and then have blank copies to use for me.

All in all, I found that this resource really helped me know what to look for when planning ahead to high school. I will be able to print off these forms and use them to streamline recordkeeping throughout the high school years. This book will be a great reference for me as it really contains answers to most of the questions I had when it came to making transcripts for my children.

Want to Know More?

For the last several weeks, I've been reviewing Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork by Everyday Education to help prepare myself more for the upcoming high school years. You have read my review, but make sure you check out what other crew members thought of the book--especially some who currently HAVE high school students and need transcripts right away.

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