Day 8: Organize Your Home – Then School
Day 9: Carp Diem: Homeschool Schedule by The Day, Month, & Year
Day 10: Grocery Shopping, Cooking & Laundry, Oh My!
Day 11: Swoon Worthy Learning Spaces
Day 12 Creative Storage Solutions
Day 13: Streamlined Record Keeping
Day 14: A Homeschooler’s Back To School Supply List
I confess that when I first started homeschooling, record keeping was one fact weighing heavy on my mind. It even affected my view because I was sure that when the time came that I would send my son to high school because I felt he would be missing out on something.
Little did I appreciate then that my son’s high school years would be filled with unique, precious, memorable, practical and rigorous skills that I could offer him as I continued homeschooling. Record keeping would be a cinch. But, I will save my rant on that until Day 25: Homeschooling Happily Through High School.
Day 13: Streamlined Record Keeping. {31 Day Boot Camp For New Homeschoolers on My Blog}
Then to complicate my stress level about record keeping in my humble beginnings I lived in fear or at least had some anxiety about the homeschool laws changing so drastically that I would be called on to produce documents for my children at a moment’s notice. Somewhere lurked the homeschool police that only lived in my community.
As my confession continues, I touched on Day 7:Tied Up With Testing of negative effects of schooling when you school by the “what if” mentality. All I managed to do was have sleepless nights and worry got me nowhere.
I feel better now that I confessed. Though it would be nice to be worry-free, the truth of it is that it is hard to homeschool completely stress free. Any challenge brings responsibility, but it also brings life time benefits that have been worth every bit of self-imposed distress.
It really is a wonder that I even managed to have enough energy to focus on teaching my sons.
So I hope that I can ease your fears and lighten your load by explaining how to approach this subject. Dividing this up into topics, you can determine where along the record keeping path you are at right now.
5 Reasons to Record Keep.
What to Keep?
As you can see from the above reasons to record keep, it can really be divided into two categories. Unofficial documents or those that are for your eyes only and official documents that are mostly needed for high school and college.
Relax if you have younger children because you have plenty of time to mull over a method that will work for you. My method changed drastically when I worried about this in Kindergarten and then when my son actually got to high school. You will be a pro by then.
Unofficial Record Keeping.
Keep their “first” writing assignments.
Keep awards earned.
Keep crafts.
Keep first drawings.
Keep first hands-on designs and projects.
Keep standardized tests you administer.
Keep things you decide YOU can’t part with. {I have tried not to shed a tear as I have been writing this series, but long tears stream when I see their work in preschool and I end up keeping most of it.)
Official Record Keeping.
Whether you have to report to an agency or not, you want their grades in high school documented.
Keep field trip logs.
Keep awards earned.
Keep up with community volunteer service.
Keep up with trips abroad for older students.
Keep work records.
Keep attendance records.
Keep standardized tests.
Keep a diary or journal.
Where am I suppose to keep all of this?
One thing we all have in common is that most of us clamor for more book shelves and room for our lifestyle that is quickly growing with books and supplies.
However, where and how to store and keep records and deciding what to keep and not keep is very different for each homeschooler.
Look at these solutions below.
Can you take a picture or scan items, then toss it?
Thumb drives, free online storage and external drives are very cost effective.
A virtual online year book can store memories.
Folders, expandable pocket folders color coordinated for each child, and color coordinated notebooks for each child works too. I use the above system for a while and even notebooks. BUT, after 5, 6 and more years down the road, it can get more challenging.
For many years, I have used press board report covers by Wilson Jones side bound, pressboard because I could extend the brads as I added in work and the covers were moisture resistant as I put away each year in the attic. This is the kind of folder where the top and back cover are two separate pieces. I have one color for each child and labeled by grade. Too, though I wanted something where the pages could hang out or extend because a lot of work in younger grades is on bigger paper. Because this is stored away in totes in the attic, it is okay if the pages stick out because the binders are stored upright.
Using thick notebooks is good too for long term storage if it will be kept in a cool area and you can add pockets for storing small crafts that you can’t part with when they were preschoolers. I have separate pockets for storing things like that.
Another thought is to coil bind some of your papers. Your office supply guy make not like seeing you come, but then again you are storing memories. I actually have some of my boy’s math papers coil bound because they are mostly the same size.
Hidden storage spaces like attics, the top part of a closet, underneath the stairs and underneath the bed provide excellent places to store long term. Padded storage trunks or chest that doubles as a night stand or table is also a wonderful niche for storing long term items. Company that sits in your living room will never know that under that beautiful table is a hidden treasure of several years of work.
If you keep more than you need for the first few years, it is okay. Security counts when you are new to homeschooling and you are the only one to determine at night if you sleep sound because you kept a field trip log. You can come back later and declutter because then you will see that your children are making progress.
Streamlined record keeping is a must in homeschool, but it can be personal, unique and distinct to your needs. Even in high school, you can accomplish stream line record keeping.
Embrace record keeping. I cherish keeping my children’s hard work and seeing my earlier mistakes. Start slowly by adjusting your thinking to realize that you have the flexibility and freedom to make and adjust any “official” records that you may need. Control does allay fears. You are the teacher now.
Have you determined what you will keep and have a starting out niche to keep it in?
Hugs and you know I love ya,
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