Organization. Some of us love the process; others dread it. Virtually all of us struggle to keep it done. We’re sharing some tips on the hows and whys of homeschool portfolios as well as our new Printable Homeschool Portfolio Pack.
I consider myself a homeschool veteran. You would think that means I have all the answers and I am a super organized homeschool mom, but if you saw my dining room table, you would know otherwise.
I always seem to start off strong, but a few months in, I have papers everywhere. I have found myself in disarray at the end of the homeschool year more than once and being so happy to break for summer, have tossed everything in a Rubbermaid container.
That doesn’t make for an organized homeschool portfolio, does it? Using portfolio printables and creating a homeschool binder can make end of the year organization and storage of papers a breeze!
Why Should I Create a Homeschool Portfolio?
Maybe the first question to answer is why you need a homeschool portfolio in the first place. There are many reasons, such as:
- state homeschool requirements – while some states require actual portfolios, others don’t but require that you keep a record containing some of what you do during the school year; a homeschool portfolio is a simple way to do that
- space – unless you live in a 30-room mansion, chances are that you don’t have space to store every piece of paper every child has ever worked on for the rest of your life; a homeschool portfolio lets you choose what is most important and organize it by child and by year
- memories and special moments – homeschool portfolios are great ways you can all sit down together as a family and see what you’ve accomplished in the last year; maybe dad wasn’t able to see every experiment or grandma and grandpa don’t live close by – sitting and paging through the portfolio together is a great way to remember all the stories you wanted to share
- goals – homeschool portfolios can also be great tools to help you and your children define your homeschool goals for next year and record them so you can work to reach them together
What Should I Include in My Homeschool Portfolio?
If you don’t clearly define what you want to store in your portfolio and how to organize it, you may end up with several unorganized binders instead of a stack of organized boxes. That won’t really accomplish the main goal! Let’s look at what we need to include:
- First, you must understand what your state requires for homeschool records. Meeting these goals is one major role of your homeschool portfolio.
- Get the supplies you need to create and organize the binder. A three-ring binder usually works great, and there are lots of ways you can break it down to meet your needs.
- Take pictures of large projects, such as science experiments, hands-on activities, and field trips, to store in the binder. Include the images so you don’t need to keep the entire project on hand.
- Print lessons from computer-based materials to include.
- Choose 5-10 pages of your student’s best work from a workbook and keep only those pages.
- If kids are older, save important essays, tests, and research papers as well as anything that represents a milestone, community activity, etc.
Our Homeschool Portfolio Pack will help you get organized!
This Homeschool Portfolio Printable Pack is the perfect tool to help you take control of the mountains of homeschool paperwork.
You can grab it for free from our subscriber library if you are an existing subscriber, or sign up now and get access to over 20 free homeschooling resources!
Take a look at what you get with our Homeschool Portfolio Printables:
- Cover pages and spines
- About Me page for students to record their favorite subjects, achievements, and more
- Attendance Sheet
- Basic Daily Schedule
- Extra Curricular Activities Sheet
- Curriculum and Resources List
- Book Log that includes a rating system so your child can record what they thought of each book
- Goals Sheet to help them set goals for next year
- Field Trip Log with space to record things they learned and what they enjoyed the most
- Report Card
- Subject Evaluation
- Subject Binder Divider Sheets for language arts, spelling, math, science, geography, history, Bible, and foreign language along with several blank pages for you to customize
Sign up to get it for FREE!
Once your portfolio is completed you will may want to use it for an end of the year portfolio review. We have created a Portfolio Review Checklist to help you put together your portfolio. You can check off each item as you add it to your binder to make sure you haven’t forgotten any important information.
If your students would like to further customize their portfolios, we also have tons of FREE cheat sheets they can use to keep key information at their fingertips. They can find great information on art, Bible, civics, foreign language, history, geography, and more.
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Bonnie Rose Hudson’s heart’s desire is for every child to feel the love of God and know how special they are to Him. She would love for you to stop by her website WriteBonnieRose.com for homeschool and history curriculum, resources to help teach your children about missions and the persecuted Church, free history and writing printables, and to check out her newest release from JourneyForth, The Hidden Village, an early reader set in India.
