Homeschool Record Keeping: How to Create a Managable System

Keeping records is of course necessary when you live in a homeschool state with stringent laws that require regular reports or annual evaluations, however even if you live in a state with very relaxed home school laws, it is still beneficial to employ a good record-keeping system.

Why Keep Records?

For one thing, it is good to be prepared in case the state board of education ever questions or challenges your right to homeschool. Even if you think this might be unlikely, there have been occasional cases of a disgruntled neighbor or relative with sour grapes over some other family argument reporting an innocent person to officials. Suddenly, there is a knock on your door one day to investigate these reports, and if the investigator has any prejudices against homeschooling, you could have a lot of convincing to do. On the off chance this should happen, it pays to have the information ready at your fingertips.

Another reason to keep records is for your own use. It helps you look back at your child's activities and accomplishments, which can help you determine which direction to go in the future. If you have more than one child, and they are a few years apart in ages, you may want to look up what your older child did at a certain age to help guide you in planning activities for your younger child.

In addition, having these records can benefit your child. If your child ever returns to school, or decides to go to college, or applies for any special programs or scholarships, they might find themselves in needs of records of their homeschooling endeavors. It's easier to have information that was kept track of all along than to sit down and try to piece together what has been accomplished in the last few years.

Finally, it is a nice keepsake of all the hard work both you and your child have completed.

Where To Start

For some lucky, organized people, record keeping is as easy as breathing. For the rest of us, it requires a bit of effort. It might take time to find a system that is not only easy to manage, but convenient to keep up with on a regular basis.

A good place to begin is to find out what your state record keeping requirements are, if any. If your state requires at the minimum an attendance record and reading list, you'll want to make sure to include these. Remember, though, you don't have to stop at what your state requires for your own personal records.

Once you know what you need to include, you can decide what else you would like to include. Begin by creating categories, or sections, for your records.

There are some core things that are highly recommended for every portfolio, even for the most unstructured unschoolers in states that don't require records. Attendance record, an activity log, or updated journal- some way to keep track of your day-to-day, or week-to-week activities- will not only provide a reminder of what you've been doing, but will help serve as proof should you ever be questioned. Other things that you should keep track of is a reading list, a list of resources, and some work samples

If you are very structured, you may like to keep a copy of your schedule, grades, transcripts or progress reports (if your child gets any from an umbrella school or if you make them yourself), and the results of any formal testing and evaluations.

If you're keeping work samples for every subject or unit, you may wish to divide a portion of your portfolio into subject areas or unit studies to file a selection of completed assignments. A nice addition is a scrapbook or photos/mementoes from these activities, especially if there were models, displays, field trips or hands-on activities involved.

If your child takes part in any workshops, classes, groups, clubs, teams, co-ops, or volunteer work, log these things as well.

Keeping a journal, either a parent's journal or a child's journal, is a nice addition for reflecting on the homeschooling journey.

A contact list with the names of your board of ed. liaison, homeschool group contacts, evaluators, instructors for online or distance learning programs, etc., is always a good thing to have. You might also want to keep a copy of your letter of intent and all correspondence between you and the Board of Education.

Don't try to kill yourself by keeping up with more categories than you feel are necessary or beneficial. Try to find a level of comfort so that you can maintain a portfolio with ease- don't overburden yourself by keeping up with 27 sections on a daily basis or you'll spend more time record keeping than homeschooling.

Likewise, You don't need to keep every single piece of paper your child scribbles on; at the end of each week, month, unit, etc., just choose a few completed samples of work- reports, worksheets, art projects, essays, etc.- in different subject areas to slip into your permanent records.

Choose Your Vessel

Think about where you want to keep your records. A lot of people find computers the most convenient way to keep track of things since they are so frequently utilized. The only problem with keeping computer records is that some of you will probably also have to maintain a certain amount of paper records (such as your child's art work or hand-written work), and thus your records will not all be in one place. But if you are primarily a computer-oriented organizer, you should keep them on the computer because it will be most accessible and convenient to you. You can always print copies of computer records, or scan copies of your child's non-computer work.

Another good option is getting a three-ring binder with subject separator pages and drop-in page protectors, or getting a file box or accordion file folder. This is a good way to keep papers organized and sort your categories. Try to avoid getting a planning or record book made especially for teachers, as they are not always compatible with homeschooling because they are designed to keep track of 20 or 30 students rather than one, and don't usually offer spaces for the child's work samples and more personal elements of your portfolio.

Whatever you choose, make sure it is something that is easy for you to utilize.

Create Your Own Forms

Forms can be useful. By creating and pre-printing various forms for your own categories, you can keep information neat and easy to file. Whenever you want to write something down, you don't have to think about it and start on a blank page.

For example, if you want to keep a section of field trips, you could create a form that offers space to fill in the day, time, name of the place, things you did, things that were learned, and extension research. Pre-print a bunch of blank forms and whenever you get home from a field trip either you or your child can fill one out and file it away.

Other form possibilities are:

- Daily/Weekly work logs: listing subjects, pages/projects completed, websites/resources used, approximate amount of time taken.

- Weekly/Monthly reading logs: listing fiction, non-fiction, magazines, etc.

- Grade reports: One column for a list of subjects, a column for dates and a column for grades of quizzes and tests.

- Lesson/Unit Plans: Make a space to list the name of the lesson or unit, list resources, topics covered, materials used, activities/projects.

- Classes/Workshops: A weekly or monthly list of classes and workshops participated in with the date, name of the instructor, topic, and accomplishment.

You can create a form for any category you plan to update regularly, just print out some blank ones and keep them on hand so you can just grab, fill in and file as you go through your day or week.

Updating

Realistically, this is the hardest part for many of us. While we can throw a well-sectioned binder together, or make files on our word processing program and print out a few forms, reminding and motivating yourself to update records can sometimes, as life gets busy, fall by the wayside.

Decide if you prefer to update your record keeping on a daily basis, weekly, or bi-weekly. Anything longer than that may lead to the disorganization and procrastination you are trying to avoid by causing you to search for paperwork or trying to remember things you did four weeks ago.

Getting into the habit is the key. If you sit down with your children for lessons each day, then keeping your book handy and jotting things down as you go along might be a good option. If you prefer to sit back and review the child's progress at the end of each week, then start filling in the records then.

At the end of the year, you can simply throw away anything that didn't make it into your portfolio, store your old portfolio, and start fresh with a new one.