Homeschool Portfolios

It's that time again.  Yep, it's time for me to slap together our homeschool portfolios.  I know that time has already come and gone for most homeschoolers, but while our state law requires that we keep portfolios, it does not require us to show them to anyone - all I really have to do is throw some papers in a binder sometime before the first day of the next school year.  And that's all I've ever done.  Until now!

This year I've decided to step it up a notch.  Okay, probably two or three or eleven notches.  I decided a portfolio would be a fun thing for the kids to look back on when they're older, and maybe it'll make up for their pathetically sad and empty baby books which mock me from the depths of my closet. (Whoever came up with the idea of baby books deserves to be nibbled to death by ducks.  Just needed to get that out.) 

The portfolios consist of fancy three-ring binders The Goobers picked out down at the office supply store.  They are divided into the following sections: 

I.  Administration

    A.  Attendance (I use a modified version of this form from donnayoung.org)

    B.  Curriculum List (I use this form from donnayoung.org)

    C.  Reading List (I use a modified version of this form from donnayoung.org)

    D.  Video List (same form as above, with different modifications)

    E.  Lesson Plans (printed from Homeschool Tracker)

    F.  Journal (printed from word processor)

    G.  Progress Reports (I use a form provided by our homeschool association)

II.  Samples of Work

    A.  First Quarter

    B.  Second Quarter

    C.  Third Quarter

    D.  Fourth Quarter

III.  Activities (this section has a pocket divider in which I've place all the brochures, postcards, and other papers from our trips, along with playbills and DVD recordings of their public performances)

    A.  Classes (I make an illustrated document describing the class)

    B.  Field Trips (same deal as the classes)

The binders have pockets, of course, and in these I place little things that don't really fit in anywhere else, like their rifle targets or Junior Ranger booklets from the National Park Service, or even replies to letters they've sent through the year.

The kids love their portfolios because they fairly scream, "Oh, the cleverness of me!"  I'm very glad because I'd hate for all that time I spent putting reinforcement labels on their papers to be for nothing.  Next year I'll definitely be delegating that little chore. 

Oh, the cleverness of me.