Portfolios

I thought I would post a little something about how I do the kids' portfolios for the year. The state of Illinois does not require us to keep a portfolio or records. But I keep them anyway. It's a great way to create physical memories of the kids accomplishments and memories of school projects and what not. And it's a wise thing to do if we ever move to a state that does require it. I will already be in great practice!

I know when I first started homeschooling I didn't have a clue how to do all this or what I needed to include. Some of it just comes natural like creating a daily plan of objectives and goals in a plan book and collecting their school work; keeping the pieces that show improvement and accomplishments. And other parts are not so natural like school attendance records. But after lots of reading and picking the brains of other homeschool moms I have managed to create portfolios that are functional and would withstand scrutiny from critics or a state whose regulations are more stringent. 

So here is how the kids' portfolios are broken down. I place them in three ring binders and place a current picture on the front cover along with their name, grade, our home school name, the current school year, their date of birth, and age.

The first section is the Attendance Section and it contains a calendar of the school year that I print from www.printfree.com. It's the entire year on one page with small blocks. I simply mark the days on the calendar with one of five letters. P for present, F for field trip, H for holiday, I for Illness, or V for vacation. 

The second section is the Health Information/Official Information/ State Home School Laws Section. It contains miscellaneous information such as the kids' immunization record, school physical form (that I get done even though we home school), a copy of the Illinois state home school laws (that I print from the HSLDA web site), and any other information.

The third section is the Curricula/ Course of Study/ Resource List/ Extracurricular Activity Section. It contains a brief list of curricula and other resources used by subject. And it notes how many days a week we do each. I note in this section to see the curriculum itself to see exact objectives etc. And then there is also a list of extracurricular activities that I add to throughout the year that show the kids' outside activities. 

The rest of the portfolio is divided by subject. I put samples of their work to show their progress throughout the school year. 

Each of the above sections has a title page with a bold title and brief description of the section placed in a page protector. The contents of each section are just hole punched and placed behind the title page. The school work sections are divided with actual dividers and labeled.  

I included some pictures of last year's portfolios. You can see the kids' pictures on the cover (great way to see how much they grow from year to year) and you can see how FAT the portfolios got over the year. There are some bigger projects as well as the workbooks they complete in a storage container where these portfolios will be stored. The container is labeled with what school year and what child's stuff is inside. You can see the pictures of the this year's portfolios as well. They are divided up and ready to be filled. Hope that gives some of you some portfolio help and ideas. Have a great school year!!