I wrote this little article for a friend's blog, but I thought I'd share it on here for the other people in my life :-) We all need help in homeschooling, myself included, and for those of you who homeschool, I hope this will be a help to you!
Organized Homeschooling: How to Keep
Those Records Straight!
I love to be
organized! Who doesn’t? or may I say, who wouldn’t?! Oftentimes when it comes
to home educating our children we seem to take one of the two approaches.
First, we take the approach of “recognized organized curriculum, schedule on
the dot, finish every paper in the workbooks, my-kids-have-to-be-the-best-in-everything Mom”, or we take the second approach of
“here’s the papers, do the work, hope you learn something because I forgot to
prepare for today, and I really don’t know what I’m doing or how to get it all
together”. Do you fit in either of these categories? I’m sure you do because
guess what? WE ALL DO! Yes, those above statements sum up homeschooling at its
best and worst. I’m not going to tackle the broad subject of homeschooling, but
I am going to hopefully help you with a very important, and often overlooked,
aspect of homeschooling. You may say “ what is that?”. Good, glad you asked J I’ll tell you, it is the organization
of the very core of your homeschool,
your records.
Now, in this
particular category of records I am including the organization of your
attendance records, grades, lesson plans, state forms, testing materials,
projects, tests, etc. I’ve been homeschooling now for seven years and the
system I use now has been a work in progress, but I believe it’s now in a very
functioning and easy to keep up with state.
When I first began homeschooling my first child, I did NOT have a clue
as to how to go about it. I was raised in a family that homeschooled, but being
the student and being the teacher are two TOTALLY different things. I also had a very creative Mother who
was very artistic and made state of the art projects of out of toilet paper
rolls and newspaper, so creatively organizing her school was not that hard for her,
and no, she did NOT have the internet back then…oh well, that dates me doesn’t
it? J Well, I’m NOT that creative as I can
imagine that most of you reading this are not like that either! I needed something simple and effective
that would help me effectively organize my most important aspects of my school
without bogging me down.
So, what did I
do first?
Glad you askedJ
Drumroll…….I
went to the internet.
That’s it? You
say? Yes, I admit it. I went to the internet. I typed “homeschool organization”
into the search bar and this wonderful and beautiful little site called www.DonnaYoung.org popped up! WHALA! This
was just the thing I needed! Listed on this gem of a site is everything that
any homeschooling Mom would ever need to get her records straight! I was
thrilled! I eagerly began searching through all the different options to find
printables (and they are ALL FREE btw!) for planner guides, how to plan,
attendance records, grades, extra curriculum supplements, you name it! So, I
printed and I printed and I printed and I had all these print outs laid out all
over my table! Yay! Oh, what do I do with them now? I had all these wonderful
papers and yet, I still didn’t know what to do! So, guess what I did? You guessed
it!
I went back to
the Internet.
I went to these
three sites.
I began to read
on what all my state required of me as a homeschooling parent. Then, once
again, I began to print and print and print…I now had mounds of papers on my
table! What was I supposed to do with all of this? So, I sat down and I began
to think of my homeschool as a regular functioning private school. I didn’t
look at it through the eyes of “how can
I keep the ‘homeschool’ look out of my cute little house” but began to see my
house as the residence of a real classroom. I went back to my private school
that I attended during my high school years and remembered how I saw my
teachers area laid out. Desk (don’t have
room for one so the table will have to suffice), grade book, attendance book,
and the most important thing, a large filing cabinet. I began to remember
helping teachers grade papers and file documents during Study Hall hours that I
didn’t have anything to do in. I remembered the many tabbed folders and the
organized system in which those were laid out in. BINGO!
A filing cabinet is a must have for
EVERY homeschooling family.
It is the key to being organized with every other aspect of your homeschooling!
See, as homeschooling Moms we are not just the teacher. We are also the
secretary, the principle, the records office, the physical education and home
education instructors, and the library. The key to being balanced at all of those responsibilities is the filing
cabinet! Who would have ever thought that one of those would be so crucial to
your mental well being and effective homeschooling? J
Then, the fun
begins….
Now, we must
look at how to get all those mounds of papers organized into the filing cabinet
in a functional and effective way! I also want to include in this
organizational project, my own personal three ring binder that I keep out of
the cabinet and on my “school shelf”. In it I keep my daily records and lesson
plan forms. This is easier for me to access on a daily basis and I have
everything right at my fingertips when I need it. But first, let’s take a look
at the filing cabinet….
I have two
cabinets for my homeschooling. In the larger cabinet, I use the two bottom
drawers to organize all my seasonal activities and music records for teaching
piano privately and in a college setting. In the smaller black cabinet you will
see that I use hanging file folders to organize my middle child’s daily
worksheets, school attendance records from all the years I’ve been schooling,
yearly testing records, school supply purchasing receipts (I feel very strongly
about purchasing materials for my school…there are free resources out there,
but the main subjects required by the state should be purchased for integrity’s
sake) and any other important documents that should be kept on file as required
by your particular state’s requirements. I believe that it is very important to
have proper documentation on file for everything pertaining to your school.
It’s easy to access and it looks very organized and professional! I also have five folders labeled with the
five schooling days of the week. On Sunday afternoons, I go through my middle
child’s workbooks and pull out every page she needs to complete for everyday. I
then put those in the corresponding folders and file them. That way, each day
that we have school the papers are easily accessible and also are there as a reminder that we have
school to do. This is just another way to help you
get organized and stay scheduled!
Another good
tip for those with several children in school would be to have a folder for
each child that contains print outs such as, coloring pages, handwriting
sheets, activity sheets, quiz and test papers, that are needed for each one for
each day of the week. That way all that you have to do each morning is open the
cabinet, pull each daily folder for each child and you have absolutely
everything you need right at your finger tips! Since I have only one using
printables right now, I don’t print out everything that she may need each week. Once my youngest begins schooling, I
will do that!
In the last
half of the top drawer of my smaller cabinet, I keep every worksheet my
children do for an entire year. When the year is complete, I then securely bind
them together and transfer them to the container that I keep in the attic that
holds all the worksheets my children have ever done. I know you’re asking, “EVERY SINGLE ONE”?
Yes, every single one. “WHY DO YOU DO THAT”? Glad you asked that question. The
reason I do that (I even keep all the k4-k5-1st grade stuff that is
not even required to be recorded by the state until the child is 7) is because
if ever I had to present myself to a court on the grounds of caring for my
child’s educational needs, I want to be able to present years of personal time
spent with my child. You cannot deny physical evidence of containers of
worksheets, paintings, and completed projects. The “he said/she said” does not hold up in
court. I know because I’ve read hundreds of court cases on the matter. I never
throw away the evidence of my child having received education. Does it take
work? Yes. Does it take up space in the attic? Yes. But I’m not doing all this
just for me. I’m organizing my homeschool for the benefit of millions of other
parents to be able to continue homeschooling. When we, as homeschooling
families, are not organized with our school, we not only put our own
homeschooling rights in jeopardy, but the rights of millions of others. As a
side note, this is also why I will not do the state required yearly testing
myself or in my home. I arrange it with a certified teacher to have my children
tested with them at another site of instruction. It is ALWAYS in the best
interest of others to ere on the side of caution.
Now, I would
like to take a look at my wonderful 3 ring binder that I implemented on the
very first year of homeschooling. This
binder is my life raft! It keeps me accountable and organized.
When you have to check things off or write in specific dates of days you
completed your educational requirements, it really helps you to not get lazy
with your schooling. I know that for myself, if I do not implement a detailed
plan I will not remember true facts very well. It’s easy to say, “we schooled
this week” but if asked to recall how much you did of what and when you did it
on each day and you can’t remember, then it’s time to get organized!
On the outside
cover of my binder I have a document that I printed from www.donnayoung.org that
helps me keep my oldest child’s Saxon Math records straight. The reason I have
this on the outside is that it reminds me every day to make sure I grade each
individual lesson and record it. J
This really helps me not to forget to grade her math lessons since this subject
is separate from the rest of her schooling which is done with Switched On
Schoolhouse on the computer.
When I open my
book I have my lesson plans, daily checklist, and attendance records right at
the front. Every day when we start school, I plug in dates and make check
marks. This helps me make sure that I completed those important tasks. It also
helps me keep up with accurate records concerning sick days, holidays, and
vacation. Those are important and should be noted! I also keep all the lesson
plans from every year I’ve homeschooled in this notebook as well. This is just
another way to prove that you do school the way you say you do! I’ve included
detailed pictures of everything from the files in my cabinet to the order in
which I lay out my binder. I hope that the pictures give you a better “picture”
so it will be easier for you to organize your schooling than it was for me!
You may say to
yourself, “Is this really necessary to go through so much trouble?” Yes, it is.
You never know when you may receive the call or official letter in the mail
asking you to either mail in copy of records or meet at a local Public Library
with a NC DNPE official who wants to view all your records themselves. I know
because we received that letter once. Fortunately, we are registered with the
HSLDA (Homeschool Legal Defense Association) and had our lawyer contact them
about our rights and their rights to our homeschool. The letter also did not
scare me one bit because if I had to have gone and met with the official and
presented myself, I could have done so. Everything about our school was in
order with our State’s requirements and
I had daily proof recorded in an organized fashion of our home education. If
you are not registered with the HSLDA and are currently homeschooling, I highly
suggest that you look into it and consider having your school legally
protected. The $10 a month will repay
itself in one phone call for legal help, and then some!
As you begin
this new year of “Getting Organized”, I hope that what I’ve shared with you
today will be a help to you, not only as you organize your schooling if you do
that, but as you organize your life in general! The principles that I apply to
getting my school organized are the same principles that I apply to organizing
all the other aspects of my life and home as well. I have come to the
conclusion that the best principle to apply to organization in any form can be
summed up in one little word…. W.O.R.K. Yes, that little word that we want to
find some creative little way to hopefully avoid having to use it:-) This is just human nature, but work is
not something to fear or dread, it is to be enjoyed! So get out your folders,
notebooks, broom and mop, and some good
elbow grease and get things organized with a little good ole’ fashioned
work and have fun doing it! I remember the words that Mary Poppins sang as she
“helped” the children clean up and organize their untidy nursery, “In every job
that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and *snap*
the jobs a game!” Now, I wish that I could just *snap* my fingers and
find everything organized, clean, and Martha Stewart magazine picture perfect :-), but I can find the fun in my work and
turn the work into something that gives me great satisfaction that I completed
it, completed it well, and that from here on it will make my life easier and
more organized! Happy Organizing!!
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