Gel Pen Learning

December is the month that every homeschool parent in New York suddenly remembers:

“Oh crap…quarterly reports are due January 30.”

And if you’re already drowning in holiday events, church programs, travel, bell ringing, cookie exchanges, birthday parties, and your hundredth trip to Target for “one more thing,” the last thing you want is a pile of ungraded assignments staring at you from across the room.

So let’s fix that.

I’ll come out and say it. The second quarter sucks. It is the messiest in every possible way because there’s barely 45 days that can be squeezed out of it, no one anywhere is learning, your brain is mush, your kids are ready to be on break, and your house looks like a holiday bomb exploded in it. But the district is sitting there tapping their toe on January 30^th looking for their paperwork.

Here’s the good news:

You can prep your quarterly reports in December so that they are basically done before the break even starts.

No, this isn’t complicated.

It’s not a month-long project.

Yes, it’s allowed because as long as you hit the 80% minimum, you covered what you were supposed to. As long as you adjust your reports if you didn’t hit minimums, it doesn’t matter if you write them in September or on January 29.

Let’s get our mindsets right. Quarter 2 is the “minimum viable homeschool” quarter. We aren’t getting ahead. We are doing the bare minimum. Consider it a Christmas gift to yourself if you need to.

So let’s walk through exactly how I get Quarterly Reports off my kitchen table, before Christmas break, so I can enjoy the holidays like a normal human being.

1. Accept the Truth: Nobody is learning anything in December…even the public schools

Let’s be so for real. December learning is a box checking formality.

Public school kids aren’t deep-diving into literature analysis in December.

Teachers aren’t handing out new math units on December 12.

Everyone is limping to the finish line.

So why are homeschoolers out here trying to redefine rigor?

This quarter is about minimums.

Hit the minimum.

Stop.

Eat cookies.

Have eggnog.

Pivot.

Move on.

This isn’t cheating or lazy. It’s reality.

Step One: Know Your Minimums

Before you do ANYTHING, you need to know the bare minimum to keep your homeschool legal for the quarter.

For each subject, you need:

• The number of lessons
• a list of topics covered
• progress made

That’s it.

So I start my December prep by checking where we are in each subject.

Then I ask:

• Have we hit the minimum?
• Are we even close to the minimum?
• Which subjects are lagging?
• Which subjects are ahead?
• Which subjects are the easiest to front-load?

The moment we hit the minimums in a subject, we stop doing that subject. We just pivot to the next one. Until that one is done. And then the next.

This alone saves weeks of unnecessary work.

Step Two: Grade Everything Now (Batch It)

Most people drown in quarterly reports because they have a pile of ungraded assignments sitting in a basket.

Here’s how I avoid that:

I batch grade.

I don’t grade every day or even every week. I don’t chase the kids around with red pens.

I sit down ONCE a month and grade everything in one giant session.

Is it a pain? Yes.

Is it faster than trying to stay on top of grading every single thing? Also yes.

Before anyone freaks out, I have eyes on all my kids’ work all the time, I know they are understanding the materials. Grading is a formality for the school district, not for us.

The point is, I don’t let anything sit. I get everything graded before Christmas break.

Why?

Because January is a sprint month.

The minute the ball drops, we need to:

• rebuild routines
• make up for lost time
• push core subjects
• re-establish discipline
• and prep for the second-half-of-the-year grind

The last thing I want is to start January with a backlog of grading.

So December: everything is graded and logged.

If it’s not in the grade book, it gets finished before break.

Period.

Step Three: Draft Your Quarterly Reports Before Break

This is the part everyone thinks takes forever but actually takes ten minutes if you set yourself up correctly all year.

Because if you’ve followed my advice:

• you already have a grade book
• you already have topics tracked
• you already have lesson numbers recorded
• you already have attendance/hours
• you already know which subjects hit the minimums

So drafting your report is basically:

1. Copy topics from your grade book

2. Write: “Student has completed at least 80% of required coursework.”

3. Save as a draft

4. Walk away and live your life

The goal is NOT to finalize your quarterly report yet.

The goal is to have it roughly done so that when January comes, all you have to do is update the grades and send it off.

You are not sitting there January 20^th screaming into the void trying to reconstruct your quarter from memory and post-turkey haze.

Step Four: Pre-Plan Your January Sprint

This part is optional, but I personally cannot stand having open tabs when I’m on a break.

January is a rebuild month.

No one hits the ground running unless they put their shoes out the night before. Having a plan is the same way.

Once I’ve drafted the report, I sit down and make a January plan. If you didn’t read how I schedule my 2^nd quarter, you can find it here.

Once I know what the schedule is, I verify that it still holds true:

• Is there a subject we didn’t quite finish?
• How far behind did we get?
• Are we ahead anywhere at all?
• What subjects work together best to optimize brain function?
• What subjects shouldn’t be scheduled on the same day?
• Are there holidays or events I forgot to account for in January?

I also tend to:

• Skip co-op
• batch science day
• do two weeks of math every day just to get it done
• throw in a random weekend for good measure

When you know where you stand with Quarter 2, you can hit Quarter 3 with precision and clarity instead of chaos and dread.

Step 5: Stop Overthinking December

December is not the time to be ambitious.

We’re not trying to be superhuman teachers trying to single-handedly change the public perception of what it means to be a homeschooler. Spoiler: the public isn’t asking for that.

We just need to:

• hit the minimums
• clear out the grading tasks
• draft the report
• put all the school stuff AWAY before break
• and enjoy the holidays without the dread.

Quarter 2 is a minimum quarter. Embrace it.