A question parents ask

How do I know if my homeschooled child is really learning?

The short answer

Ask your child to explain the work and then teach it back to you in their own words. Keep copies of what they make, and once in a while show it to someone who works in the field.

The reasoning

Judge by what a child can do, not by what they've been told. Progress that looks too smooth deserves a check.

The cheapest check is also the best one. "Now teach me what I just told you, in your own words." It takes a minute. A child who can do it understands. A child who can't has just shown you where to go back.

It's the same rule the best proof follows. A pilot flies a check ride with an examiner beside them. A surgeon logs hundreds of operations under supervision. Whatever road you take, someone who knows the work watches you do the work. At home that's you, and now and then a person who does the thing for a living.

Set the bar before you start. Locke and Latham's review of nearly 400 studies found that specific, difficult goals with feedback lead to higher performance than easy goals or "do your best." So agree on what "done well" means, then check the work against that, not against your mood.

Work samples also stand up in research on adults. Schmidt and Hunter found they predict performance far better than years of schooling.

The research behind it

Work samples predict performance far better than years of schooling. Schmidt and Hunter (1998).
Specific, difficult goals with feedback lead to higher performance than easy goals or "do your best," across nearly 400 studies. Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, American Psychologist 57, no. 9 (2002).
Airline pilots must pass a practical test with an examiner; federal rules do not require a college degree. Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 61.
Work sample tests are among the strongest predictors of job performance. Schmidt and Hunter (1998); Sackett and others (2022).

Try this

Run the false-progress check once a month. They explain it. They teach it to you. You keep copies of the work. And now and then, you show a piece of it to someone in the field and listen to what they say.

Where this falls short

A child can explain a thing and still not be able to do it, so ask for the doing as well. The work-sample research studies adults being hired, and a family isn't a hiring process. Take it as a reason for the habit, not a guarantee. Check your own state's rules too, since some require testing or a portfolio review for homeschoolers.

Also asked as

How do I test my child without grades?
What is the teach-back method?
How do I know my homeschool is working?

The ideas behind this answer

Results
Judge by what the child can do, not by what they've been told.
Manage standards, not people
Good leaders don't manage people, they manage standards.
The five parts of good proof
Good proof of skill is real work, done under real conditions, watched and recorded, judged by people who do the job, and checkable by anyone afterward.