Homeschool High School Carnival: Record Keeping

For all my sharing of schedules each year, one thing I haven't really shared recently is how we record the bookwork actually done by the children.

Should we keep records on how much work we've covered?  Do I need to list every topic for maths, science and history?  Does it matter?  For some this is a state requirement.  In Victoria (Australia) it isn't.  However, I do really like to see progress made and it's a nice history of how our homeschool worked each year.

You may not have noticed, but I don't write up detailed lesson plans or set goals to finish topics by due dates.  I'm a 'fill in the calendar as we go' kind of gal.  Yes, we have a broad set of goals to get to by the end of each term, but as long as there's learning happening and it's consistent, we really just move with the flow.

Writing it in as we go is also my way of being flexible.  There are times we do extended writing sessions (as we did today, actually!), so we didn't cover maths.  Well, we'll come back and do maths tomorrow.  I can also then check back to see how long it's been before we do another longer writing session (seeing as it went so well today .. I'm sure we'll do it again).

I've gone through many variations on the same theme, but always find myself only writing down achievements after the fact rather than filling in pre-emptive goals.

Here's what I'm now doing:

Each week we start a new page.  I'll write in activities we're due to do outside the home, and then fill in what's completed during the day.  The left-hand "Weekly Objective" column has become where we write in the theme of the week.  Eg: spelling has been focussing on 'ie' words, with particular emphasis on 'ceive' words for Mariposa, and Maestro's working on module 13 in science this week.

I also write in every time we start a new book, whether that's a story, textbook or learning program.

In addition to the recording of all homeschool 'work' achieved, we began keeping a binder of every certificate each child completed from a young age.  This is something I had when I was growing up, which now contains everything right through to my Curriculum Vitae and job references.  If the children complete a course outside the home, I ask for a letter or some form of certificate verifying the learning areas covered.  All of this is added to their binder.

I try to keep everything pretty simple, and I'm still a keen paper user.  I know there are apps for this and that, and I enjoy using my blog to record some of our happenings, but in the end, if someone's going to ask me to show them evidence, I have my paperwork to show.

There are some resources I've listened to and read online that have been helpful.  I started my journey of research, a couple of years ago, with some information from Jim and Sheila Carroll about using Charlotte Mason in the high school years.  This basically encouraged me to continue from where we were already going and keeping notes on what was achieved.  This is when I managed to then come across Lee Binz's YouTube videos.

I don't know if I'm doing it all correctly, but I do know I have to do something to show when the children apply for tertiary entry.  We'll be aiming to get to an open day where Maestro hopes to study in a couple of years, and I'll take in a summary of all his work to give them an overview of his study habits and check his eligibility to start studying there.  If we have anything to remedy, we have a couple of years to fine tune that.

If you'd like to read more about how other homeschoolers are doing their record-keeping, jump on over to the Homeschool High School Carnival.  Thank you to Vicki for hosting it this month! :)

Until next time,

Catherine