Short Term Paper Storage

For day to day record keeping, I use small, clear, plastic drawer sets. Each drawer is the perfect size for holding standard paper sizes. These drawers are a safe holding spot until filing day. Each child has a drawer in which we place completed school assignments, drawings, completed school checklists, and photos of completed projects. Every other Friday, I go through these drawers to organize the contents into a longer term system: our General School Notebook.

Long Term Record Keeping: General Homeschool Notebook

I keep one huge, three ring binder for ongoing record-keeping throughout the school year. To organize it, I purchased the following supplies:

  • A three-ring hole punch
  • Computer paper in one unique color per child: One daughter has purple paper for all of her records, one son has bluepaper, and another daughter gets pink paper. This allows me to very quickly find pages for a particular child.
  • Manila dividers with pockets on each side
  • Tabbed divider sheets

I use the tabbed dividers to designate the following categories:

1) Planning

    • Calendar
    • Library List: running list of books I intend to borrow
    • Books to Read: List of books I would like to read to the children, or I would like them to read
    • Objectives: Goals for each child, written at the beginning of each school year (color coded for each child)
    • Plans for Year: List of how I plan to accomplish the objectives, including activities, curricula and other resources (color coded for each child)

    2) Records:

    • Record of days schooled (color coded for each child)
    • List of books read (color coded for each child)
    • Readalouds (color coded for each child)
    • Log of field trips (color coded for each child)
    • Log of extracurricular activities and projects (color coded for each child)

    3) Portfolio Preparation

    • Subjects Learned and What We Did (color coded for each child): I update this list three or four times throughout the year.
    • Completed weekly check-off sheets (color coded for each child) are placed in manila pockets
    • Work Samples: I use the manila pockets to place samples of the children's work for beginning, midyear, and end of year, to show how they have progressed
    • Tests: Results of any standardized or informal testing

      Permanent Record Keeping: End of Year Portfolio

      At the end of the year, we go through General Homeschool Notebook and organize the contents into an End of Year Portfolio for each child. This is done in a scrapbook-style, and is for the purpose of looking back on what each child did that year.

      The portfolio is divided into the following sections:

      1) All About Me Pages

      These are fun pages filled with facts such as the child's photo, height, weight, signature, favorite books, favorite color, best thing that happened during the year, worst thing that happened that year, what they would like to be when they grow up, and so on.

      2) Records from the General Homeschool Notebook

      • Subjects Learned and What We Did
      • Record of Days Schooled
      • Test Results
      • Books Read
      • Read-alouds
      • Field Trips
      • Activities

      3) Samples

      Here, I put in those manila dividers with pockets on both sides, one per child. In one pocket, I place all of those weekly homeschool checklists. In the other side, I place samples of the children's school work. We take samples of artwork, copywork, essays, photos of projects, math worksheets, and any other available samples for the beginning, middle, and end of the year. Some subjects do not have concrete samples. This is fine, because the "Subjects Learned and What We Did" section gives a detailed account of all subject areas.

      When the portfolio is complete, we label the outside with the child's name, grade, and year, and insert a favorite piece of artwork into the outer sleeve as a design cover. Then we file it away! All other work samples can be thrown away if desired. This is all the record keeping that we need to do. Workbooks that are desired to be kept can be filed inside the portfolio as well.

      For younger children who don't need a whole portfolio, a small yearly Memory Book can be made as a place to keep samples of artwork, writing, photos and "All About Me" pages. For my preschool aged children, I keep several years of "Memories" all in one binder, and use dividers to separate the years.

      Student Binders:

      Each child has various subject binders, depending on what school subjects they are studying that year, and the practicality of notebook form. Each binder is used throughout the entire year. A few purposes which binders work well for are: Copybook, English Language Notebook, History Timeline, and Nature Study.

      If desired, some notebooks (Copywork, History Timeline, etc) may be kept intact and built upon in the following years. When it is filled, label the exterior, and file with that child's other notebooks and portfolios, and start a new one.

      Other Notes:

      For a few years, I made all of my own reproducible record sheets, memory book question pages, etc. Last year I purchased a book entitled, A Garden Patch of Reproducible Home Schooling Planning and Educational Worksheets. This has proven to be a very valuable resource! It includes every possible form that a homeschooler could need for planning and record keeping. The book also contains wonderful forms that students from preschool through high school can use for such things as book reports, reports, history timelines, science reports, family trees, Bible Study notes, memory verses, and much more. All I need to do now is photocopy a page whenever I need one.