Record Keeping

 

Ok so this is something I struggle with. I see all these other homeschool families that do this awesome job at keeping records but I  guess I am just not that good. I LOVE thisgs organized but paper work is just somewhere that I struggle at. I know I know it s very important to do so I grit my teeth and do the best I can.

There is one person I d not have to keep them for any more which is my 8th grader the program does it for me. All I do is print it off weekly and I get a detailed account of what she did her grades and how long it took her to do them. Yeah for computers. She is using Switched on School house . Vinny (5th grade) was using it too but he was struggling a lot with the curriculum so he is back to work books. That is one of the awesome things about homeschool is if you have a child who struggles with one way of learning you can cater to them.

As for my 2nd and 5th graders I use I guess you would call it a journal type records. This is what I did last year and it work and I am going to keep doing it. I just us a spiral notebook and write down daily what they did. Then I store them with that school years things. Like a few worksheets and pictures of project they did that year so if I do get check for what they are doing (which has happened to a few families her in town) I can show we actually do school.

Here are a couple of pictures of what I do. If you notice the Start date was August 29th is because we do school for a week or 2 before I start keeping grades. Its like a run through of sorts.

 

This one is just what it looks like on the inside. It is very informal but it works. On the inside cover of the note book I write the books that they are using and then the abbreviations I use for each one so I do not have to write out each work book name every time I put what they are doing that day. You will also notice that William doesn’t have science or social studies written on his section that is because we are doing a unit study with the both of them. Vinny just has to do a little more in-depth. I have him research more.

What I do at the end of the note book or year I just put it into a 3 ring binder and add other things from the year and label it for the school ear and store it for later use if we want to have fun and look for fun or if I need to show it to anyone. Nebraska is not to strict on its record keeping laws. I feel very blessed that we do not have to turn in quarterly reports or anything like that. phew……

I hope this helps anyone struggling with all the paper work to make it a little more simple. Also that you do not have to go to great lengths to show what your kids have been up to.

God Bless

Jen