Record keeping

[brasilmom]

Greetings,

 

This year will be our official first year of homeschooling. My dd will enter first grade and I will notify the department of instruction that we will homeschool her.

 

Now, while in WI I am not required to provide any information as for curriculum being used and the child is not required to be tested, I can do whatever I want. However, I do not know tomorrow. For the sake of my own sanity and safety, I want to establish a record keeping system, so if in the future I need to present any information concerning my children home education I can do so in a proper order.

 

Initially I will do tracking of her academic subjects using a software. That seems to cover the bulk of the records of her education. However, I would like to ask around here, how people go about keeping records of books read, extra curricular activities, field trips, etc. I am a bit of a systematic person (can you tell??) :tongue_smilie:

 

Anyway, I am considering creating a "form" for books we get from the library. Maybe like title of book, author, location in the library, date checked out and date returned, subject covered (or something to that effect).

 

So, where are all of you systematic bunch? Please help me to get a good start. :001_smile:

 

Thanks. Be well

 

Miriam

[boscopup]

I'm using HST+, which has the library book/field trip/etc. record keeping built in. If you're planning to use software for your lesson plans, you might want to take a look at it. It's not free, but it's a one time fee with free upgrades for life, and it's very thorough in hits record keeping. I find this to be one of my best homeschool purchases, as it really keeps me organized and on track.

 

Otherwise, a plain old spreadsheet would do just fine too. Have a tab for library books read, a tab for field trips taken, etc.

 

I'm not required to keep those kinds of records either, but I do, just in case. We have no plans to move, but if DHR ever came to the house and had questions, it'd be easy enough for me to say "See everything we've done in school this year?", whether I'm legally required to do so or not.

 

It will also be nice for me to be able to look back at the end of the year and say "WOW, we did so much this year! Woohoo!" :D

[brasilmom]

That's probably the one I am going to use, as it gets lots of good reviews. So, for the library book, does it let you print out a list of books, say, that I will need for next few weeks study. Say, I can enter the books and locations, print go to the library and pick them up? I like the idea of being able to print not only that, but also the week or weeks plan. This way we all know were we are going this week and so on.

Thanks for the input. I will check more into the HST. Be well

[boscopup]

That's probably the one I am going to use, as it gets lots of good reviews. So, for the library book, does it let you print out a list of books, say, that I will need for next few weeks study. Say, I can enter the books and locations, print go to the library and pick them up? I like the idea of being able to print not only that, but also the week or weeks plan. This way we all know were we are going this week and so on.

Thanks for the input. I will check more into the HST. Be well

 

Yep! :D I have all the library books we'll potentially need programmed into HST+, and on library day, I pick which books I want to get, and I have it print a library report (I don't know if you can say "Print the books I need for the next 3 weeks of assignments", as I haven't looked into that yet, but keep meaning to). I have things grouped by subject (like "Elemental Science Intro", "Biblioplan K-2 Readers", etc.), so it's easy to pick what I need the next few weeks even if I haven't officially assigned them (you make lesson plans without dates, then "submit" the assignments to the assignment grid on a periodic basis... I usually do one week at a time, but this last time I did 3 weeks because I knew how fast we'd go in each area, plus we're planning a break at the end of that 3 weeks).

 

Anyway, I go to the library with a list of books and their call numbers nicely printed out. It looks great, is easy to read, etc.

 

I also started printing out supply lists for each week (that does let you print out a report for the assignments you've submitted), so I know I have what I need for science and history projects.

 

Ok, just looked, and yes, you can print out a library book list for just the assignments used. It's the report for "Resources by student". I'll need to uncheck some resources like textbooks and such that I don't need reported, but after doing that, I'd be left with just the library books I need for the week.

 

Oh, and I keep *every* library book listed in HST+... If we check it out, it goes into HST+, even if it's not school related. I put the date it's due and which library it's checked out from (I'm a member of 2 county systems). Then when I need to return library books, I can go into HST+, group by location borrowed from, then by date due, and I have a nice list of every book I need to pick off the shelf and take to the library, and I know which one I'm going to. :D

 

I seriously love HST+. Just make sure you learn how to group and how to copy. Those are the two features I use a LOT to make life easier for me. :)