Tips for Homeschool Record Keeping
Whether you’ve been homeschooling for years, or you’re just getting started, the concept of homeschool record keeping has surely crossed your mind. You might have questions like:
- How are you going to keep track of everything?
- What do you need to keep records of?
- Are you doing enough to meet your state’s legal requirements?
- How can I show my student’s learning in a homeschool portfolio?
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into record keeping by exploring not only what is mandated, but also what can serve as a memento!
What Is Required for Homeschool Record Keeping?
The scope of the records you are required to keep varies state by state. While record keeping is not mandatory in every state, it is a good idea to keep detailed records regardless. Most states require basic record keeping that proves you have fulfilled attendance or subject requirements. However, the requirements beyond this vary significantly.
If you’re from New York, you have a laundry list of required records, including course names, descriptions, hours per subject, and annual assessments. If you live in Indiana, however, attendance is the only record required. Regardless of whether you live in the Big Apple or in Big Springs, we’re here to help!
Do I Have To Keep Records if My State Doesn’t Require Them?
Even if your state doesn’t require it, we recommend keeping your own records. Good records will help you and your child if you transfer back to public school, enroll in private school, or even apply to college someday. Records are also an important part of monitoring student progress. Good records can help inform your decisions about what works best for your child and what their goals should be. Monitoring student progress shouldn’t just be done by a parent or a teacher, however – the best record keeping is a collaborative effort between you and your student!
Feedback Enables Progress
You can empower your child to track their own progress, make their own goals, and give themselves feedback. Giving your child more autonomy in the record keeping process makes them actively involved, and reduces some of the burden on you! While we wouldn’t suggest handing transcripts to your first-grader, children of any age can be a part of the process. Your student can select work that makes them proud to add to a portfolio, identify work that was more challenging to revisit, and engage in conversations about their learning to deepen their understanding.
Creating Your Homeschool Portfolio
Many parents feel worried they aren’t doing enough record keeping, following all the rules, or staying organized enough. However, once you come up with a system that works for you, record keeping can be all but effortless! There are lots of ways to keep records. Some parents use:
- Accordion folders with pockets for each subject
- Excel spreadsheets or specialized software
- Tabbed binders with a section dedicated to each month
Others aren’t sure what to keep, so they keep every single thing! (This is not what we recommend, unless you like living among boxes and boxes of old math lessons and macaroni art.) If you aren’t sure where to start, follow this guide to create your own homeschool portfolio:
Two-Binder Homeschool Record Keeping System
A two-binder system allows you to follow state regulations, keep detailed records, and develop your child’s growth mindset. We find that large three-ring binders work best. To organize your binders, use tabs and sheet protectors to preserve each item or piece of paperwork.
What Should Go In My Homeschool Record Keeping Binder?
The first binder is a place to keep your formal paperwork. Make sure to check your state’s specific requirements for documentation that you may need on hand. Regardless of your state’s requirements, a basic checklist of what to keep in your records is…
- A list of your state’s requirements
- A copy of your notice of intent, letter of withdrawal, or Private School Affidavit (if applicable to your state)
- Any correspondence with school officials
- Immunization records/waivers (if applicable to your state)
- Attendance records
- Courses of study with name, description, hours, progress, credit earned, final grade, description of material, and list of texts and workbooks for each course
- Test and evaluation results
- Report cards, annual assessments, or written narratives of progress
On our site, you can click on “Reports” to create a report card for your child. This report is automatically generated and includes information on attendance, assignments, and hours of study per subject. These reports can be an easy way to stay on top of your homeschool record keeping!
Giving Your Child Ownership of their Homeschool Portfolio
Your child will organize and maintain the second binder. In addition to the information listed above for each course, many states also require samples of student work. A second binder will fulfill that need, acting as your child’s homeschool portfolio, while also giving them ownership over their work! You can help your child get set up by putting sheet protectors in their binder and encouraging them to decorate the cover.
Give your child the freedom to choose work that makes them feel proud of themselves. This work will be saved in their portfolio. Whether it’s an essay they felt confident about, a photo of a science project that went well, or a screen capture of the score they got on a Mia practice game, your student can keep them in this portfolio. Explain that this portfolio is truly for the crème de la crème of their work. Of course, we think everything they do is great! But this portfolio is for pieces that have been carefully selected by your child to truly show off how much they have learned.
How to Use Miacademy Reports in Your Portfolio
Our reports include your child’s study time by subject, a list of all their completed assignments, and the scores of all the assessments they have taken. Parents are able to customize these reports as well, including or excluding lessons or subjects as they see fit. We make it convenient to select specific dates as well. You can easily generate and download a report for the last school year, this week, or even just today!
Our reports simplify the process of documenting your child’s attendance, courses of study, and time spent learning. But it’s not only Miacademy’s reports that you can use in a portfolio. Your child might want to add a PDF from one of their lessons, an article they wrote for our site’s newspaper, or their artwork. They could even include a screenshot of their work from their Design Studio, Art Shop, or the graph of the sales they are making in their virtual business!
Reflecting
When a child decides what pieces of work they will put in their homeschool portfolio, they have time to reflect back on what they have accomplished, as well as where they struggled. Many children focus on getting a good grade or a high score, and if they succeed, they feel like that’s where learning stops! This time of reflection is important for helping your child understand that there is always room for improvement, and that getting an A is not the point of learning! Some of the questions that you might ask your child are:
- If you could complete this assignment again, what would you do differently?
- What advice would you give to another child completing this task?
- What aspect of this assignment makes you the most proud? Why?
- What is one goal you would like to set for yourself for the next assignment in this subject area?
- Was anything frustrating about this assignment?
- What do you want people to notice when they look at your work?
Asking questions that require your child to look backward, inward, and forward can help them set their own goals. They can journal these questions on a paper that gets added to their portfolio, or simply discuss them out loud.
Homeschool record keeping doesn’t have to feel daunting or overwhelming. While keeping these records does require detail-oriented organization, the focus should be on your child. Stick the important paperwork in your binder, download reports from our site, and get back to your child and their successes, strengths, proudest moments, and goals for improvement. When it comes down to it, that’s what homeschooling is all about!
If you have any questions regarding record keeping or Miacademy reports, don’t hesitate to reach out to our amazing customer service team!