Homeschool Record-Keeping Simplified

One of the biggest challenges homeschoolers face is that of keeping accurate, up-to-date records of their children's homeschool work. Some states require daily journals of work done or a portfolio, while other states require little to no records. In those states, there is a temptation to keep no homeschool records. However, if you decide to re-enroll in public school or your child will be attending college, you will be required to prepare a transcript. If your homeschool has not kept some form of records, it will be very difficult to create a transcript! Therefore, a journal, portfolio, grade book, or running list of materials used is essential in the home school.

How you keep records may be determined in part by your state's requirements, but it will also be determined by your homeschool educational philosophy and your personality. You may even keep records differently for each child in your family. You should be aware that many high schools and most colleges require extensive documentation for home school honors, AP, and lab science courses - you can't just say that your child did this work, you need to be able to back it up with a list of materials used, samples of your child's work, and test results.

If you have a highly structured, lesson-plan driven school day you may wish to keep grades for each assignment and test. It is very easy to set up a grading system in Excel or any spreadsheet program. Using this system, you could also give grades or points for conduct, or provide a system of rewards for chores being done on time. In this system, you should record a list of books used for each subject, a brief overview of the subject's scope (for example, Fifth Grade Science might include life science and earth science), and any labs, field trips, and so forth. You can be as detailed as you like, but in the elementary grades there is no need for excessive detail. Let your needs dictate what you keep track of, and do not become a slave to the details.

If you unschool, it may be easier to simply jot down notes each day. Keep a journal, either on the computer or in a notebook, of field trips, apprenticeships, labs, learning opportunties, books read, and programs participated in. It's best to make this a daily habit - if you don't, it's easy to forget things! Ask your children every day to relate what they've learned, too - they may surprise you with things they picked up on, and you never noticed!

Yearly, you should make a single-page document with the child's name, address and phone number, date of birth, parents full names, and grade level. Below this, create a chart with the subjects the child is studying this year, with space after each for semester grades and final grades. Be sure to include any extracurricular studies, such as music lessons, if you are counting these as part of your homeschool. Staple a photocopy of your child's immunization record to this sheet, and place it in a folder marked with this year's school year. While this document isn't required in most states, this is something you should do for your convenience! This also gives you every bit of information you should have on hand, should your homeschool be investigated or questioned at any point.

You should keep your children's school work for the previous year, organized by subject or by date. At the end of the year, the two of you should go through it together and choose five to ten papers which represent the child's best work - preferably from several different subjects. The rest may be discarded (assuming your state does not require that you keep it, and you do not wish to keep it for sentimental reasons). These papers should be kept for several years, because a principal or college admissions counselor may wish to see them as proof of your child's academic ability. Additionally, if you conduct annual standardized testing, you should retain these for several years. At the end of the year, update the grades and add the samples of your child's work to the folder you've created, so that each year is ready at hand.

When it's time to prepare a transcript, it will be easy for you to list the grade level, subject and/or work performed, and the final grade. If an admissions counselor requests samples of your child's work, you'll have those right at hand as well. If you are required to document the books and materials used, those will be handy also!

Homeschool record-keeping can be time-consuming if you make it so. However, it can also be simplified by keeping up with the task daily, deciding what details you will track, and keeping a simple folder of your child's grades and work so that when it's time to prepare a transcript all of the information is at hand.