Nov

30

Single Mothers Homeschooling Part 3: Setting up a Portfolio

Posted by singlemom

November 30, 2008 |

I am not a very well organized person by nature, so I end up putting together our portfolios at the end of the year. I do, however, take the time to set up an assignment book and fill it in for the year before school starts. This makes my life a lot easier.

For my high school age daughter, I use The Homeschooler’s High School Journal. They have assignment/record keeping books for lower grades as well and, in fact, there are other systems out there as well. You can type homeschool record keeping into your search engine and choose what you believe will work best for your family.

The Homeschooler’s High School Journalis very helpful, and I do include it as part of our portfolio. It includes pages for materials, reading lists, a calendar, an attendance record, a schedule of homeschooling events, a yearly requirements worksheet, a lending and borrowing resource list, objectives and resources pages, grading sheets, a field trip log, etc. It is quite thorough.

Now our portfolio is not really a portfolio. It is the assignment book as well as workbooks and projects and reports. But, when my daughters were young, we had a huge binder for each of them. I made my own work complete sheets, attendance logs, field trip logs, etc., on the computer and printed them up. I also used index dividers to separate out each subject, and I put all of their work into the corresponding section from the first day of school to the last.

In Maine, the portfolio reviewer (a certified teacher, practicing or not) does not have to see all of a students work, but keeping everything together helps me to keep track of everything.

We are supposed to keep all of their school records, from what I understand, for life, but I intend to send theirs with them when they move into their permanent adult homes.

Here are some ideas for what to add to your portfolio:

  • Attendance record.
  • Assignments/work complete for each day/week.
  • Samples of work for each class.
  • Photographs of projects.
  • Reading list.
  • Materials list.
  • You will come up with more things to add.

When Zowie has her portfolio review, it is very simple and does not take much time. Cheryl, our reviewer, sits with us and looks at her attendence record, flips through Zowie’s assignment book, and looks at a few samples of her work in each subject area. She may also ask her a few easy questions, but it is not like a test. She is very nice, and has been doing our reviews for a few years now.

Portfolio reviews will cost money. I have paid anywhere from $5.00 to $60.00 per child. But the service is well worth it for the advice that comes with it. My reviewer is very helpful and, if I have questions that she does not know the answer to, she will find the answers for me.

Here are some tips:

  • Use reinforcements (little stickers) when putting pages into a binder. This ensures that pages won’t be tearing out all of the time.
  • Reuse the binder and index dividers year after year, purchasing large mailing envelopes to put each years work in after your review. This will help to keep things organized, save you money, and save storage space.
  • Use reinforced index dividers.
  • Index dividers with pockets help to store brochures and small projects.
  • Get binders that have clear covers so that your children can decorate the covers each year.
  • When creating your own work complete sheets, use both sides of the paper, one for each day, for example. These binders can get very heavy by the end of the year, and work complete sheets take up a lot of space in the binders.
  • Purchase the thickest binders that you can at either sale prices during back to school sales, or at clearance sales after school starts. By paper, reinforcements, a three-hole paper punch, and index dividers at this time as well.

Shannon

P.S. If you have any questions about portfolios, or advice on the subject, please post them in the comments section below.


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