Do any of you keep a journal of what you do?

[CAmomto1]

I suppose if you have to keep records for the state or whatever then you do...

I was just wondering how many of you document what you and your child(ren) do each day, via a journal, a portfolio, etc.

This is something I think would be a nice thing to do, and fun to look back on.

[anythingelse]

BY any chance do you live anywhere near redlands CA?? My hubby is apparently seriously trying hard to get a job there and just let me know, he thought he would not qualify but does. I kow nothing about that area and am trying to hook up w someone to get an idea of what it is like.
about the journaling, yes I do that. I have to in order to remember what the kids are doing and when they did it. lol sometimes I scribble notes even on our calendar if we went somewhere spur of the moment for a filed trip or ran into a library story time KWIM?? We use a drop in sleeve in a drop in sprial binder to keep the kids work, one binder for each child, and it makes a nice scrapbook to look at for them. Also if I worry about not doing enough, I want to remember what book someone really liked, I can thumb through. HTH

any CA moms want to pm me with a hs group in that area of CA I would love you for ever!!!! here is some magical homeschooling educational dust

Mary
mom of four great kids

[CAmomto1]

I'm sorry, but no, I don't live near Redlands.
There are several CA homeschool Yahoo groups, though - you might find someone that way.

[SagMom]

We keep a journal/scrapbook. I think it'll be nice to look back on--we fill the scrapbook part with photos of the kids and their projects and with ticket stubs/fliers ect from places we've gone. In the journal I write things they've said, stuff they've explored, book discussions, general happenings.

This is just for us--our state doesn't require anything. But I also figure, if the kids ever wanted to go to school, or if we moved out of state, I could use our journal as a refference to compile whatever documentation they might need.

[applejuice]

I keep a kind of portfolio which is an accepted method for documenting children's work.

I do not think it is a good way, but it is acceptable for recordkeeping.

I have kept a personal journal since I began homeschooling him, but this is for me, not public consumption.

[Queen Gwen]

For quite awhile I just jotted things down in a spiral notebook day by day, like "Math -- pattern blocks" or noted "science -- sketch crocus". Then we got on this checklist binge -- I printed out a checklist of ideas for the day/week and dd checked off what she did. Example: heading of "Language" with lines like "write note to Grandma; fill-in-the-blank story (from Games for Writing); play Grammar Bingo". I'd just throw the old checklists into a file. Unfortunately the past couple of weeks have been brutal here, so we haven't done this (guess these will be "the lost weeks" when we look back on this time). Dd really loved this. She likes having a little control over what she does, but not too much -- this was just about right.

We also keep a history notebook, a science notebook and a writing notebook. These are sort of scrapbooks of any 2-dimensional projects, action photos of us doing stuff (we have a digital camera, so I printout immediately), lists of books we read on various subjects, etc.

Our state doesn't require any of this.