Grading, transcripts, & college prep for my 9th-grade Fun-Schooler

Grading
After lots of research, here’s what we landed on:
Subjects with clear right/wrong answers—like Life of Fred and Keep Going with Latin—get traditional grades. We’ll track lesson points, effort, and focus to calculate a final score.

Everything else? He earns an automatic A as long as he’s staying focused and completing assignments.

College Prep
We have mixed feelings about college —there are strong pros and cons. But since he’s set on automotive design, which is tough to break into without a degree, we’re planning like he’s college-bound unless that changes.

College is expensive, so we’re focusing on earning free college credit during high school:

Modern States + CLEP Testing + Petersons for test prep
Modern States offers free CLEP prep courses and reimburses test fees. CLEP lets you test out of general ed classes = saved!

He picked two CLEPs to start with and will self-study first (we can access Peterson’s Test Prep free through the library—check yours!). Then he’ll review with the Modern States course and take the CLEP. His goal: two CLEPs per semester.

Dual Enrollment
We’re lucky to live in a state with generous dual enrollment. He’ll start next year while continuing CLEP prep.

Residential Dual Enrollment (Possibly Senior Year)
He’s thinking about a residental program at a private school, where high school seniors live on campus and take a full college load. He’s older for his grade, so he’d be 18 most of the year anyway. If he goes this route, he could graduate high school with at least two years of college credit—basically getting all gen eds done for free and transferring to finish his degree later.