Do you have to grade your childs work?

No. You can assign grades if you want. Or if your child works better with them. Or if it makes your relatives feel better about the child's education. But many homeschool parents simply make the child revise work that's not done properly until it is of acceptable quality, instead of worrying about grades, as they want the child to learn from his mistakes rather than focus on doing just enough to get a particular letter grade. We personally do use a graded system. It helps my son, to understand whether he is progressing or not. Because he went to public school he is used to this, and we have continued it.