Record Keeping    

by Heidi Strawser   

My family and I live in Pennsylvania, which is considered one of the more strict states when it comes to homeschooling. In addition to having to turn in an affidavit, course of study, and list of goals before each school year begins, we also have to get our children evaluated at the end of the year (which includes turning in a portfolio of their work). Because I tend to be a paperwork perfectionist, I take the compiling of our portfolios very seriously!   

Several years ago, after trying several different styles of planners, I came to the realization that if I wanted a planner to fit my needs, I'd need to create it myself. So, I made a list of the various things that we like to keep track of throughout the school year (field trips, books read, Bible memorization, extracurricular activities, etc.) and I created forms to track these things. I also developed my own lesson plan forms. Little did I know at the time that I would be asked to develop a new planner for The Old Schoolhouse� Magazine! My planning fetish came in very handy!

Are you familiar with The Schoolhouse Planner? It has grown and changed quite a bit over the past four years, but it's still very much the "planner of my passion." If you've got record keeping to do and are looking for a place to get started, this is the place! The planner comes with monthly calendars in three different formats, so you can choose the one that works best for you and your family. It's got lots of great articles for the homeschooling parent-these will help keep you encouraged throughout the year, as well as give you hints and tips for teaching various subjects, homeschooling through adversity, and even ideas for record keeping! We've got a full section of recipes, all submitted by busy homeschool moms, and forms for planning your weekly and monthly meals and grocery lists. We've also included a section of "must-know" lists for your kids.

But, my favorite part of the planner is the forms! There are two sections of forms, one for homeschooling and one for household planning. The homeschool planning forms come directly from the format I created years ago to use for my own kids. (I know they're good because I get the nicest compliments on my portfolios every year!) In addition to the forms that my partner and I created for the first edition of the planner, over the years we've polled our users for more form ideas, and this year's planner is more than 800 pages long (with more than half of that being forms)!  

My kids get a little frustrated with me sometimes because my perfectionist tendencies mean that I am a stickler for neatness (which my kids are not). So, I absolutely adore the fact that our whole line of Schoolhouse Planners are interactive (yes, I said "whole line" because we've added Student Planners for your kids to use too). If you're not familiar with interactive products, that simply means that you can type directly into the fields on your computer, so when you print out your forms, they are wonderfully neat!

Keeping good records is one of the best things you can do as a homeschool parent. And, even if you live in a state that doesn't require portfolios, I'd encourage you to consider creating them anyway. They make fabulous keepsakes for the kids. I'm a confessed former packrat (who comes from a long line of packrats), and I've learned that whatever does not go into our portfolios can be thrown away after our school year. I'm so proud of myself!   

If you'd like to learn more about our portfolios, I'd love to have you stop by my blog and read a post about them (complete with pictures). If you're interested in learning more about the Schoolhouse Planner, please check out the sample or e-mail me with any questions.

Though I feel totally inadequate to fill Gena's writing shoes, I'm thankful for the opportunity to visit with you this week and share a little about my passion for planning and record keeping. I'd love to hear about your record-keeping methods.

Happy homeschooling,
~ Heidi
Special Projects Manager

www.themailbox.com/HomeSchoolminute1  

The good news is that the record keeping needed for documenting homeschooling is generally fairly simple. The bad news is that record keeping, if ignored, can drive you crazy. As a veteran of looking at homeschoolers' records, I can say that the best records seem to be those kept most easily. Set up something that isn't overwhelming.

First, find out what your state or school requires. Don't do more than you have to do. Keep what is needed, or what it takes to show others what you've been doing with your time and effort. Include your children in the record keeping whenever possible, because record keeping is also a great form of review.

For me, the only way I could hope to keep a daily log of our homeschooling activities was to do it while we ate lunch. We enjoyed lunch, sitting together to eat before the many things that would go on in the afternoons. I kept my log near the table, not expecting to be able to find it if I moved it to some more organized spot! I would ask the children to help me remember what we did, and so they would cheerfully rattle off all that we had done, which also made me feel better about our school day.

When my children were in high school, we would take a day after each six weeks to go over our records. My children kept a log of what they did each day, with the subject areas and time spent. We would add up the hours and look at our course totals, checking to see what work remained. It was great to find out that they were close to finishing a subject that they had spent a great deal of time on, and to know what they needed to focus on more. One of my children liked to complete one or two subjects at a time, then move on to the others. With this system, we were able to keep track of progress and remaining work. Customize the system to fit your children as much as possible so that they see the encouragement of their progress as well.

When my children finished high school, we created both a transcript and a resume for each of them. The resume was a good description of work experience, sports, and service and included letters of recommendation from coaches and pastors. It was a good start on what is needed for life, but it was also a great way to sum up the amazing experiences they had as a part of homeschooling.

~ Debbie