do you keep records?

[okiemama]

I was just wondering how many of you mama's keep records of your kids schooling and why? Is it required by your state? It's not required by Oklahoma law but part of me is thinking it's a good idea to keep records in case I'm ever challenged on the homeschooling issue. Any tips? How to's? Organization tips and what I should keep record of and what doesn't matter as much would be helpful.thanks!

[7 for now]

I don't. Our state requires nothing and I am not going to do extra work. That said I use homeschool Tracker and it archives each school year as far as my schedule and lesson plans. But beyond that I don't do anything extra.

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[tallanvor]

I don't, though I will probably start with ODD next year because she's almost in high school. She'll be in 8th grade, but doing algebra, so I figured I will start keeping track of stuff then. I have mo idea at this ooint, though exactly how I'm going to do it.

[jen_batten]

We do keep records because MO requires it. They don't do anything with them, or even look at them, but I do them to make sure my bases are covered in case anything ever comes into question. I use a teacher's plan book, which has each day of the week divided into 7 columns. The first column for us is reading, the next one is writing.... We just jot down what we did and how long it took. Like for today in the reading column, there is "reading review game 40 min.", "'or' sound 15 min" and "pg 41 wbk. 15 min". We do the time because MO has you log 1000 hours for the year--if you don't have to log hours I wouldn't do that. It's hard to say what would be the most important thing to log...if you were thinking about only logging some subjects I would probably just do the core subjects. If you are wanting to start keeping records, you just have to get into the habit of doing it. It will be hard to remember at first, but then no biggie. We also keep an example of work here and there. If you don't have to keep records at all, I would probably just keep a few examples of work and that way you'll have documentation in case anything came up and you'll have a nice momento.

[HeatherlovesCDs]

Depends on what you mean by records. I keep the written work they do. We only have K behind us so far and I have all the worksheets and written work he did. I won't keep all of it from every year and eventually will toss some from last year too. But, I'm planning to keep samples of their work from every year for now. Right now, I don't keep track of what I do each day or anything like that. I'm sure as my kids get older and older and enter high school, I'll need more exact records. I do know that some people using my curriculum put the dates in the manual as they do each day and they keep that for records.

It isn't required for our state, but we are required to test or have their work evaluated. I feel like I need something just in case our home school ever gets called into question.

[Southern Momma]

My state (SC) requires that records are kept. Each year I have to keep a journal (what we did that day), a lesson planner, attendance records (we have to log 180 days) and samples of work for each subject. I don't have to show it to anyone unless our homeschool is challenged.

I use this site and keep the pages in a 3 ring binder: http://donnayoung.org/index.htm

[somo_chickenlady]

Originally Posted by jen_batten We do keep records because MO requires it. They don't do anything with them, or even look at them, but I do them to make sure my bases are covered in case anything ever comes into question. I use a teacher's plan book, which has each day of the week divided into 7 columns. The first column for us is reading, the next one is writing.... We just jot down what we did and how long it took. Like for today in the reading column, there is "reading review game 40 min.", "'or' sound 15 min" and "pg 41 wbk. 15 min". We do the time because MO has you log 1000 hours for the year--if you don't have to log hours I wouldn't do that. It's hard to say what would be the most important thing to log...if you were thinking about only logging some subjects I would probably just do the core subjects. If you are wanting to start keeping records, you just have to get into the habit of doing it. It will be hard to remember at first, but then no biggie. We also keep an example of work here and there. If you don't have to keep records at all, I would probably just keep a few examples of work and that way you'll have documentation in case anything came up and you'll have a nice momento.

This. We are in MO also. I use a teacher's planner, which has a full page for each day of the year. Before each of our sessions (we work year round, 4 weeks on/1 off, rather than take a full summer off) I will go through each workbook and separate it into daily work sessions, then write it on the page. For example, for tomorrow I have written down:

History - Read pg 45; answer 2.73-2.79
Math - Complete lesson 14
Language Arts - Take Self Test 2
Biology - Vocabulary 1&2, Critical Writing
Sign Language - Number 21-30, 31-40; Practice numbers
Reading - pg 275-293
Typing - #10,11,12,13

That is a typical day for us, DS is in 8th grade. On occasion, some days will be lighter. This works really well for him, b/c he knows exactly what to do and he doesn't really have to ask me a lot of questions. He keeps track of how long it takes him to do all of his work (ex - he will write down "history reading 12:15-12:45, history work 12:45-1:30).

At the end of the day I grade all of his work, then I put it into Homeschool Tracker with the times it took him to do all of his work, since we have to have a certain amount of hours per year. I have him list his reading and work separately, b/c I input the reading or other work that I don't grade as "in class" and his work that I do grade as "homework", and then tests also get input separately as "test".

It all seemed very overwhelming when I first started, but it is really easy after all. It's just second nature to me now, and we just started this year.

[AbbieJack]

Sort a kinda LOL . Our state does not require us to but I just like having the proof.

I keep almost everything we do. We have a monthly folder that sits on the main table and when DD is done with her work she puts it in the folder. Things that we have made that are too big or are perishable, I take pictures of and add them to the folder. The same with field trips I take a picture and add it to the folder with a small label about what we did. I also keep a daily log book of what we did. It looks like this.

Wednesday November 14th 2012

Morning work ~
-Sing Abc,Months of the year ,Days of the week songs
-Count by 2's & 3's
-Pledge of Allegiance
-Pledge to Texas Flag
-Pledge to the Christian Flag

Bible~

Bible Bee
- Thankfulness

Memory Verse
- Colossians 4:2

Discover God's Word Lesson 29
-Jesus is thankful
-read Luke 22:7-19
-Drink Grape Juice and Break Bread
-Color a loaf of bead and cup

Math~

-Lesson 56

Language Arts~

Reading
- Explode the code book 3 pgs 31-34
- Readers 15min

Grammar
-Good words pg 12-13

Spelling
-Pgs-41-43

Science~
You observe with taste!
-taste -sour,sweet,bitter,& salty
-Make a paper tongue and label (sweet ,sour,bitter & salty) then list things in each category

[Southern Momma]

Things that we have made that are too big or are perishable, I take pictures of and add them to the folder. The same with field trips I take a picture and add it to the folder with a small label about what we did.

I LOVE this idea!