When do you fit in record keeping?

[phathui5]

We have a decent system for record keeping. I have a lesson plan book for each child that I use as a journal to write about what the kids are learning. The past couple of weeks, I've been good about doing it the first couple of days, then not so much on Thursday and Friday.

How do you keep on track with record keeping?

What does your system look like?

[EviesMom]

I use Cozi online for household scheduling, and they have a journal function. I type something up in that while DD does her own print journal writing. So far that's been working for us--some days are really short, just a list like "Mandarin, Reading, Math, Science=plant life cycle" and some are nice actual descriptions of the homeschooling day with a computer pic of DD working. I only have to track attendance in my state on a daily basis and then do very general quarterly reports, and this seems like it'll be helpful for both.

[zebra15]

My state does not require record keeping.(anything I keep for my benefit or DS's benefit) What I do is keep a spreadsheet of workbooks that DS has completed. I keep another spreadsheet of books DS reads. Thirdly I keep a running 'resume' of classes he takes. I find this method works great since some of his classes offer scholarships and require me to write up a mini application.

I update the spreadsheets as needed- usually when something is completed.

[*Jessica*]

I do most of my planning using Homeschool Skedtrack and the File Crate System. Since I know in advance what we're doing for the week I just check things off my list as we get to them. I also take pictures whenever we do a project, and those go on our webpage in what is basically a virtual scrapbook.

I know myself enough to know that I would have a hard time keeping up with the record keeping if I had to do it every day.

[CrazyCatLady]

I have a small binder filled with papers. Each piece of paper is good for a week, and on each paper there are boxes. On the tops of each box there's a subject listed (math, science, writing, social studies, language arts, spelling) Then down the sides is Mon-Fri. So for each day, for each subject I write a little about what we did. On the very bottom of the paper are lines titled things like "foreign language", "PE", "computers", and "art". And in those spots I'll write down anything interesting that we did that week in any of those subjects.

I feel like I didn't explain that very well. I just keep the binder open while we do work and jot stuff down as it gets done. Otherwise I'll never do it later. It's taken me a year and a half, but now I'm finally in a groove with record keeping.

[One_Girl]

I didn't have to keep a record, but I was worried that my dd's old teacher was going to report us because she was that kind of person so I kept all of the work dd did in folders by subject in our lesson box.

[naturegirl7]

I use the free program at homeschoolskedtracker.com and a blog.

It took a bit to do the initial set up, but now it is great! I don't put in specific activities or lessons though - I have courses set up, llike LA, math, history, science, PE, life skills, art, free reading - that sort of stuff.
Then I set up the master "schedule" for each course, 30-60 minutes depending on the subject and what days you want it scheduled. So you may have math and LA for 30 mins each on Mon and science and PE 30 min each on Tues. Personally, we have no set schedule here, so I scheduled everything for every single day (even weekends).
Then I log in once a day and go to the "today" option - it lists all the courses I have scheduled. I can click off the ones we did that day, adjust the time length, and make a quick note - all in that one screen! Click "approve" and done. It saves it all for me. I can list resources, tests (don;t do those though), field trips, etc. There is a calendar option, shows you the hours scheduled, field trips scheduled, hours actually completed, days you missed entering stuff into it, etc. You can bring up the courses and see a dated list of all the completed activities, or click on days to see what you did on a given day.
Like I said, it was a little bit of setup time initially - but now it is awesome. I can login, click off what we completed that day, and log out in under 2 minutes.

I also keep a private blog - once a week I update it with a "Week in Review" kinda thing and lots of pics of our projects, etc. I figure I can print it easily for a portfolio review when the time comes.

And everything is in binders too - A binder for history, with tabs for the various chapters. All the maps, history pockets, a list of activities we did with dates - goes into each section. I need to keep it all together or I get too overwhelmed.

[Smithie]

I note the work done each day in a mini appointment book, and file all completed worksheets and tests. At the end of the year I am required to submit a record of days attended and grades for each subject - so at the end of the year I guess I'll be going through that file and figuring out some grades. Grading a six year old is so piteously stupid that I find it hard to take the concept seriously, so I am grateful to live in a state that doesn't try to micromanage its homeschoolers.

[Jackie371]

Wasn't necessary record every session.

I know it's not the best advice, but, I started trying to keep records, but found it just too stressful. I scrapped it. I decided that if there was anyone that showed up from the Superintendent's office, they could just test my kids--oral and written tests as well.

I had a written plan each year that I followed loosely and I saved all their work.

I homeschooled two of my four boys for three years and never once was bothered by anyone. I put my kids in public school this year and one is at the top of his class--he was selected for a special combined class that pulled the top from his grade and the lower end of the grade above him. My other boy is at the top with a few others.

So, my advice is this--don't worry too much about the specifics of recording--just focus on doing the best you can to educate them. Good luck. I really enjoyed it, but, honestly, it was the hardest thing I've ever done.

[PGTlatte]

I have four parts:
1. an inexpensive "student planner" from Target. It has room to write down each activity for each day. It also has monthly calender pages for appointments/events. I write his work in this as he does it or right after.
2. A 3-ring binder for any written work. Every page gets a date at the top and they go into the binder in order of date.
3. A Googledocs spreadsheet. There I enter each activity by date and subject (of the six areas required by our state). I update the spreadsheet about once a week, using the handwritten information in the planner.
4. Summary reports - I've decided to do these every six to eight weeks. Just a summary of activities and progress for each subject area for the covered time period, in a Googledocs document. They would be easy to print and give someone if I needed to. I use the spreadsheet information to write this. I also flip through the binder of written work so I can notice his progress.

[naturegirl7]

Originally Posted by Jackie371

I know it's not the best advice, but, I started trying to keep records, but found it just too stressful. I scrapped it. I decided that if there was anyone that showed up from the Superintendent's office, they could just test my kids--oral and written tests as well.

You are lucky that you state makes it so easy to homeschool! I can't imagine not having to track what we do.


For my state, which is pretty homeschool friendly thankfully, we are required to keep a portfolio and have it available upon request for the school to examine. Plus every year we have to 1. take a standardized test (um, no thanks!) or 2. interview and portfolio review with a teacher

We don't need any sort of attendance log or dialy schedule - but I find it is super easy to keep track of what we are doing thru the Homeschoolskedtracker program. Helps me see where we spend most of our time and where we need to spend more time - like last week we took intentionally took the week off from math so there is nothing logged in for it.

When I do my week in review for my blog (aka my online so can't get lost porfolio) then I have a reference of what we did in addition to any pics I took that week. And DS loves checking stuff off.
I like that I can print out resource lists, field trip lists, course work, and even make up transcripts. It definitely helps keep me organized.