Homeschool Record Keeping

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Linda Wooldridge. I'm a home school mom. We've been homeschooling since 1998, and in the state where we live we have to keep a record of what we've done. We actually have three things that we have to keep. We have to keep a log of what we do as we do it. We have to keep a list of the books that we've used, and we have to keep samples of our kids work. But it's a good idea to do this whether your state requires it or not, because this is your child's permanent record for their school, and if, for some reason you weren't able to teach whoever comes along behind you needs to know what they've already learned. Let's take a look at the log. That's the easiest thing to keep. Get a calendar, get a teacher plan book, or use a spiral notebook, whatever works for you. Keep a list each day of what work you actually did. It's great to have a plan made in advance, but life very rarely goes as we plan it. So, make sure that if you do have a plan set in advance that you either highlight the things you've accomplished, check them off, or something, so that you can look back and say wow, we really did do something today. And as you're doing that work keep samples of the pages that your child works on. It's great to use a dry erase board, or some other form of having your kid do work that you don't have a lot of papers, but every now and again, it's really great to have a paper to keep on file. Oh, and as a side note, don't keep the papers that didn't go well. Only keep the A work, the really good stuff. If your child's done some really great macaroni art, or an oil painting, or something for you that's just too big to keep take a picture of it and put the picture in the file. When you look back on these things years later you'll be amazed at what your child has done. And keep a list of the books that you used just in case you have a question. It's great to keep that ISBN number that's on the back too, so that you know which edition, because you know, publishers do change the books from year to year. Anyway, however you do it, keep a record of your child's work, if only so that you can look back on the great memories you've shared while you were homeschooling. I'm Linda Wooldridge. Have a great homeschooling day."