Our homeschool paperwork has reached critical mass

[....]

I need help - really!  Our stack of homeschool papers is literally THREE feet high.  We just keep hiding it in the corner of our schoolroom and "covering it with a blanket".   :crying:   I'm surprised it doesn't move around the room on its own!

 

I am great with actually working with the kids, but horrible with planning/recordkeeping.  Add 5 kids + around 8 years of homeschooling (I lost track of how long) + all their paperwork, notebooks, projects, lab reports, etc and we are in deep trouble.

 

What do you keep??!  Do you have an awesome system you would like to share with me? (that doesn't involve a blanket)

 

I am thinking about 2 possibilities...  

 

1.  I'm thinking about making some sort of electronic portfolio and saving it onto a flash drive and just throwing everything in the recycling.  But, how would I do this??  Scan everything that's important and just save it onto the flash drive?  That might be a mess, too!  How would I organize it on the flash drive.  Would I just open it and there's a bunch of documents with no rhyme or reason?

 

2.  I'm also thinking about getting one 3-inch binder for each kid's work from K-8.  And just save samples from each subject.   :confused1:   But, then I will be carting around 5 bulging binders for the rest of our lives.  And how do I choose what to save?

 

And don't get me started on workbooks...

 

 

 

What is your system?

Edited June 7, 2016 by Evanthe

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I have a system for how to keep stuff organized as you go. (It is a 3-ring binder, but that beats a stack of papers.)

 

Then at the end of the year, for each subject, pull out work samples from the beginning, middle, and end of the year to show progress, and toss the rest if you like. (Until for the high school years -- I save everything from those years.)

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/516216-so-helpful-hints-tibbie-dunbar-how-did-you-add-proof-your-homeschool/?p=5680984

 

[Farrar]

I'm sorry to laugh when you're in pain, but your three feet tall paper pile hidden with the blanket! Oh my! I'm so sorry!

 

I do a lot of what I think of as lazy recordkeeping. Here's our system. Once you've cleaned out, this might work for your style.

 

1. Each boy has a finished stuff box. Everything gets shoved in there - projects, workbooks that are done, notebooks that are finished, artwork, random papers they accumulate, programs from things they went to or performed in, awards they received - anything.

 

2. Every x months (usually about every three), I set a reminder to do a clean out. We take a day "off" school (though, this is a form of assessment and reflection so I think it *is* school, but we don't do other work that day). Each boy takes their pile. I make a list on the board of things they have to find. Usually something like 4 examples of math, 2 examples of dictation, 2 logic puzzles, all the essays or writing projects they did, their 5 favorite pieces of art, etc. etc. You make the list that seems to make the most sense for your homeschool. I go through the pile too and help them pick things.

 

3. Once the example work is picked, pages pulled out of old workbooks and notebooks, artwork chosen, awards that matter piled up, etc. then they have a pile of just a few things. EVERYTHING ELSE GOES IN THE TRASH/recycling. No looking back. We put the special work examples into plastic sleeves and shove them in a notebook for keeping. Even when it's just a workbook page of math, it looks very official and nice in a plastic sleeve. ;) Alternately, instead of plastic sleeves, you could just scan and save that little pile.

 

4. Lather, rinse, repeat three months later.

 

In terms of your current pile, I'd take a day and just sift through it. Resolve to choose just a few special things and recycle everything else. And then, whether it's my suggestion above or something completely different, start anew with a totally different system. No more three foot tall hidden piles of old junk.

[....]

(Until for the high school years -- I save everything from those years.)

 

 

Oh, no!  I'm worried about that, too!  I wonder what's the bare minimum we could save?

 

I'm googling *homeschool record keeping* and I'm finding blogs where they keep everything in a big 3-ring binder each year for each kid...but the bloggers only have 4th graders and under...   :confused:  (and their binders are so decorative and beautiful - not our reality!  - LOL)

 

 

Edited to add: By the end of high school, the pile will be 20 feet tall and I will no longer be able to hide it!   :tongue_smilie:

Edited June 7, 2016 by Evanthe

[hornblower]

I think this depends on 3 things:

1.your region's legal requirements

2. the age of the students

3. your sentimentality 

 

 Keep what you need to keep authorities off your back. If you live in an area where you must do certain # of days and certain # of subjects, keep enough records to satisfy the authorities if worse comes to worst. A curriculum supply list, a schedule, a calendar & the current school year's work is enough. You can usually toss older work or just keep monthly samples or a few year end samples. 

 

If you're getting into high school years & things that will go on transcripts, be more deliberate about keeping book lists, work samples (copies of essays) etc.  esp. if you think you might use them for a portfolio. 

For the rest, if you're sentimental keep stuff or take photos and keep a digital record. If you're not sentimental, toss it.



 

[freesia]

I just keep writing and any tests-usually just math before sixth grade. We do have to do regular standardized tests, so I figure that "counts". I also keep good Art work and projects. No one will ever want to see old grammar, math, etc.

 

Wait! I do hold on to the previous years work for s while.

High school --I have been keeping everything. I put it in folders and store it in a Rubbermaid bin in the attic.

[....]

2. Every x months (usually about every three), I set a reminder to do a clean out. We take a day "off" school (though, this is a form of assessment and reflection so I think it *is* school, but we don't do other work that day). Each boy takes their pile. I make a list on the board of things they have to find. Usually something like 4 examples of math, 2 examples of dictation, 2 logic puzzles, all the essays or writing projects they did, their 5 favorite pieces of art, etc. etc. You make the list that seems to make the most sense for your homeschool. I go through the pile too and help them pick things.

 

 

OK, that gave me an idea, then!  For each grade, I could save 5 samples in each category: math, writing, grammar, history, geography, art, science and then any awards or special projects they did.  So 7 categories x5 is 35 samples per grade.  times 8 grades...that's 280 samples of work.

 

sigh...  I could scan those and save them onto a flash drive.  Would 280 documents fit on a flash drive?  I could buy one drive per kid?  (I'm a technology idiot, BTW) 

[....]

High school --I have been keeping everything. I put it in folders and store it in a Rubbermaid bin in the attic.

 

Oh no!  You guys are scaring me!   :ohmy:

[prairiewindmomma]

We keep our planner from each year, plus a small sampling of work from that year for grades K-8.  That allows me to meet the requirements for my state, and I have samples of progress.  I have a filing cabinet with a drawer where such things live.  Each of my high schoolers will get a paper banker's box where their high school stuff will reside.

[freesia]

Oh no! You guys are scaring me! :ohmy:

I'm not sure it's necessary--but we have the room so I do it. If I didnt, I'd keep essays on a flash drive and then just tests and lab reports Snd samples/ pictures of Art projects.

[....]

I think this depends on 3 things:

 

1.your region's legal requirements

2. the age of the students

3. your sentimentality 

 

 Keep what you need to keep authorities off your back. If you live in an area where you must do certain # of days and certain # of subjects, keep enough records to satisfy the authorities if worse comes to worst. A curriculum supply list, a schedule, a calendar & the current school year's work is enough. You can usually toss older work or just keep monthly samples or a few year end samples. 

 

If you're getting into high school years & things that will go on transcripts, be more deliberate about keeping book lists, work samples (copies of essays) etc.  esp. if you think you might use them for a portfolio. 

 

For the rest, if you're sentimental keep stuff or take photos and keep a digital record. If you're not sentimental, toss it.

 

 

 

 

 

We are in Texas, so our school district doesn't even know we exist.  There is no reporting, testing, or anything.

 

My kids are a 9th grader all the way down to a 1 year-old.

[Farrar]

OK, that gave me an idea, then!  For each grade, I could save 5 samples in each category: math, writing, grammar, history, geography, art, science and then any awards or special projects they did.  So 7 categories x5 is 35 samples per grade.  times 8 grades...that's 280 samples of work.

 

sigh...  I could scan those and save them onto a flash drive.  Would 280 documents fit on a flash drive?  I could buy one drive per kid?  (I'm a technology idiot, BTW) 

 

280 scanned documents - or just hi res images of them or whatever - is nothing for a flash drive. :D

 

I agree that high school is a different deal. I'm glad we're not there yet.

[Soror]

Fwiw in another low reg state- 

 

I keep a good chunk of things throughout the year. At the end of the year I pull out a handful of samples from each subject and throw it into a manila folder. When I file it I then throw everything away from stuff 4 yrs ago- I only keep things from the last 3 yrs. I'm not the sentimental type and hate keeping stuff. I'd guess you've forgot most of the things in there I'd honestly just throw almost all of it away except for the big kids stuff but that's just me.

[Momto4inSoCal]

I have a school memory book that has questions for each year. Each page is also a folder where you can keep samples of that years work. I try to have a couple of academic samples and art samples. I'm not very sentimental so I toss everything else. In fact school ends Friday and already all our old works is in the trash. I keep some work in case my kids want to see it when they are older. I realized just because I'm not sentimental doesn't mean my kids won't be. You could easily create a portfolio for each child. Set a number like 2 written samples and 1 history 1 science or something like that and toss the rest unless your state has laws that require keeping it. I keep a list of what curricumum we've used so I could always look back if needed to see what we have or haven't covered.

Edited June 7, 2016 by Momto4inSoCal

[Arcadia]

My kids are finishing 5th and 6th. I just let my kids pick what they want to keep at the end of the year and I toss the rest. The only thing I bothered keeping are standardized test results in a binder for each kid.

 

I have work samples scanned in and they are sorted by name of child and academic year and subject. I find that when an organization ask for my kid's work sample in digital format, they rarely ask for anything other than current academic year so that is why I catalog that way on the flash drives and my laptop.

 

For high school level work, I am keeping all tests/exams, all lab reports and some writing samples both the original and a scanned copy. My neighbors' high school kids in public and private high school aren't given anything to keep so I am not tempted to keep lock, stock and barrel.

[Jackie]

We are in Texas, so our school district doesn't even know we exist. There is no reporting, testing, or anything.

 

My kids are a 9th grader all the way down to a 1 year-old.

How sentimental are you and your kids regarding this completed work? If you're not, I'd toss the entire pile and start your new system (whatever it may be) from this point forward. If you have sentimental kids, let them do the sorting. It's much easier to implement a new system when you don't have a backlog. Especially a 3 foot high backlog.

[Faithful_Steward]

Just throw it all away!!!

[Lori D.]

1. Each boy has a finished stuff box. Everything gets shoved in there - projects, workbooks that are done, notebooks that are finished, artwork, random papers they accumulate, programs from things they went to or performed in, awards they received - anything.

 

2. Every x months… We take a day "off" school (though, this is a form of assessment and reflection… Each boy takes their pile. I make a list on the board of things they have to find. Usually something like 4 examples of math, 2 examples of dictation, 2 logic puzzles, all the essays or writing projects they did, their 5 favorite pieces of art, etc. etc. You make the list that seems to make the most sense for your homeschool. I go through the pile too and help them pick things.

 

3. Once the example work is picked, pages pulled out of old workbooks and notebooks, artwork chosen, awards that matter piled up, etc. then they have a pile of just a few things. EVERYTHING ELSE GOES IN THE TRASH/recycling...We put the special work examples into plastic sleeves and shove them in a notebook for keeping. Even when it's just a workbook page of math, it looks very official and nice in a plastic sleeve. ;) ...

 

4. Lather, rinse, repeat three months later.

 

Brilliant!  :hurray:  Wish we had this system in place when our DSs were younger. I LOVE that it acknowledges and involves the students' input as part of the record keeping process. :)

[MerryAtHope]

First, what are you required to keep?

Second, what is so meaningful that you want to keep it (writing, art...)? 

 

We are not required to keep samples in my state, so at the end of each school year, I had my kids go through their school work, keep what they wanted and recycle the rest. I went through their recycle pile and kept writing and art work that was special to me, but that's about it. (Usually they had already pulled the special pieces I would care about anyway). 

 

Not 3 feet worth :-). Recycling is your friend!

 

As they got older, the writing was all on the computer anyway. I have all of their high school papers that way. 

[zarabellesmom]

Wow, I'm going to homeschool hell. Everything gets recycled except standardized testing records and I've only had to do that once. When my kids finish a math workbook, which is always a happy day at our house (and math is our favorite), they dance that book straight over to recycle. I've got enough of my husband's childhood crap to store to be holding on to school work.

 

I guess I'm just not sentimental at all about school work. Photos of my kids, well those I hang on to as if my life depended on it.

[....]

 When my kids finish a math workbook, which is always a happy day at our house (and math is our favorite), they dance that book straight over to recycle. I've got enough of my husband's childhood crap to store to be holding on to school work.

 

 

 

You're my hero!   :D

 

Well, it got worse yesterday.  Besides the huge stack of papers in the school room, I dragged two large bins from my closet and...sure enough...they're packed with old schoolwork.  So, I have piled every piece of schoolwork we kept from my 14 year-old on the dinner table.  I set up a 2" binder with her name on it and I'm going to dwindle the pile down to samples that will fit into the binder.   :svengo:

 

I'm going to do this for each kid over the next few days.  We are going to have a very full recycle bin!

[Mergath]

Wow, I'm going to homeschool hell. Everything gets recycled except standardized testing records and I've only had to do that once. When my kids finish a math workbook, which is always a happy day at our house (and math is our favorite), they dance that book straight over to recycle. I've got enough of my husband's childhood crap to store to be holding on to school work.

 

I guess I'm just not sentimental at all about school work. Photos of my kids, well those I hang on to as if my life depended on it.

 

Same here. I keep the occasional drawing or story, and the rest goes straight into the recycling. We don't have to keep any records here, so that helps. I guess I just don't have the desire to look back at dd's subtraction with regrouping work fifteen years from now. :P 

[klmama]

Good for you, OP!  Choose the best, recycle the rest.  Using space well is important, too!

 

When I was growing up, a friend of mine had a tiny, tiny bedroom.  Her dad built her a raised bed with drawers underneath for clothing storage and a storage cabinet above, with built-in desk and bookshelves on the opposite wall.  It was difficult to move in her room, as there were literally only a few feet of floor space, and every surface was crammed full to overflowing with her possessions.   As we neared high school graduation, she proudly showed me what was in the huge storage cabinet above her bed.  She had saved every single paper from K-12!  If she had recycled the papers in that storage space, she could have stored all of the things that cluttered her tiny room, but she had no intention of getting rid of the papers just because she was graduating.  OP, may your corner and closet have a better future than hers!

 

 

 

[Another Lynn]

I keep it all.  (former accountant here - CYA files, anyone?).  I do organize a couple time through the year and at the end with folders.  By the end most of each child's work fits in a 5 inch accordion file with some overflow for workbooks.  I can usually get two school years (per child) in a banker's box.  So, yeah, I have a closet with lots of banker's boxes.  But I like being able to look back and see what we really did (or didn't do), because sometimes it's different from what I remember.  I also keep a notebook for each child containing a one page summary of the year, reading log, and test scores (when we do them) for every year at home.

[happypamama]

I have a file for each child, separated by subject, for anything loose during the school year.  Then I pull from those and our notebooks to make our portfolios for our evaluations.  Once I get the evaluation done, I save everything until I hear back from the school that there are no problems or concerns.  Then I add anything that I really want to save (like maps -- I only put a couple in the portfolio for the evaluation, but the kids work so hard on them that I like to save them), and everything else gets recycled.  I do not need a hundred math pages.

 

Yes, I do have a portfolio (1" binder) for each child for each year, and that's a lot of binders, or at least it will be by the time I have five children's worth.  By the time my younger ones are in high school, my older ones will be graduated from college, and I can probably get rid of their binders, or at least pass them along to the kids themselves.

[....]

 I'm always nervous--friend of mine whose kid went to TAMU, and was the leader of the Corps of Cadets, had to produce his high school work AFTER her kid graduated from college. And the Secret Service gave mom 24 hours to pull it together. Seems the kid is in the pipeline to fly Air Force One... 

 

That is ridiculous!   :ohmy:   What if they had a house fire or tornado or something and didn't have his old schoolwork??    

 

My sister homeschooled high school and no one ever asked to see anything...not even what curriculum she used.  She ended up going to a very prestigious law school.  That's the extent of my experience.   :tongue_smilie:

[....]

I also keep a notebook for each child containing a one page summary of the year, reading log, and test scores (when we do them) for every year at home.

 

I really need to start doing this!

[...................]

I had a 2 inch binder for each year of school for about 7 and 5 for two kids..12 binders already!! way too much!!..I just decided their entire school lives could fit in two 3" binders, one from K-6 and another from 7-12.  Then I used tabs to divide the binders by grade, and picked out maybe 6 or 7 things from each grade, just the cutest, most interesting stuff and one math page just to prove mommy did teach them math.  Now the binders are much more interesting to peruse and we have only two binders for the last 8 years of homeschooling.  I will get two more and that'll be a total of 4, which to me seems ok.   :o)

 

YOu just need to make a perameter and go through it.  You can even let the older kids help.  They can tell what's super cute and itneresting and what was a boring worksheet no one wants to see again :o)

Edited June 9, 2016 by Calming Tea

[KSinNS]

I just recycled three bankers boxes. We are moving, and just don't have room. Hopefully no one will ever want it. Thenkids have a binder of stories and music they wrote and such.

[boscopup]

I keep computer records - what assignments we did, any recorded grades, electronic copy of standardized test scores if we do them. My cover school has me keep records of what subjects we taught and a grade, so I have that. I don't keep the actual work.

 

In high school, I could see keeping writing assignments and tests. I'm not there yet though, and the writing assignments would be electronic.

 

No one is ever going to want to see my 3rd grader's math workbook.

 

In a brick and mortar school, scores and attendance records are kept, not the work itself.

 

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

[LisaKinVA]

I could have written your post, and then we had to move overseas under a weight allowance.  It was a huge motivation to get rid of the extra stuff.

 

What I kept:

 

Elementary & Middle School Work:

 

1) Lesson Plan Book/Pages (essentially the academic plan/and would double as record of time in school, should it be necessary)

2) Every writing assignment from the year (not penmanship or copy work -- original writing).

3) I tore apart workbooks and kept two pages from the beginning, two pages from the middle, and two pages from the end.

4) I kept tests.

5) I photographed/scanned projects and got rid of them.

6) Standardized Test Scores (test scores are actually kept in my master school file, and as scanned copies on my hard drive).

 

Everything fits into a large clasp envelope (not sure of the size, larger than a 9x12, though).

 

High School:

 

1) Every writing Assignment (these are all submitted to me electronically, though -- the ones DS has from his course next year we will have to scan to save.)

2) Yearly Assignment/Grade Book (this has the assignments, books read, resources used, home work grades, quiz grades, test grades all listed).

3) Tests

4) Science Lab Binders

5) Projects/Art is scanned and/or photographed.  DD does have an art portfolio, so we keep more of that, just in case.  DS has a design portfolio related to engineering and architectural design.  He photographs all of his 3-D designs, currently.  Should he have some models he desires to keep, we will probably keep them for now -- but most applications for architectural design would not require us to submit a 3-D sample, but photographs & scans (digital copies) of his work.

6) Standardized Test Scores

 

I still dump a lot at the end of the year.

 

I don't have time to digitize/scan everything.  

 

 

 

 

[Another Lynn]

I keep computer records - what assignments we did, any recorded grades, electronic copy of standardized test scores if we do them. My cover school has me keep records of what subjects we taught and a grade, so I have that. I don't keep the actual work.

 

In high school, I could see keeping writing assignments and tests. I'm not there yet though, and the writing assignments would be electronic.

 

No one is ever going to want to see my 3rd grader's math workbook.

 

In a brick and mortar school, scores and attendance records are kept, not the work itself.

 

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

I totally agree.  I keep everything for my sake only and no one else's.  

[Shellydon]

I keep my kid's elementary handwriting books.  That's it.  I am now keeping my middle/highschool kids papers, but they are on the computer.  Everything else I throw away. 

[HomeschoolingHearts&Minds]

I went to file folders this year.  We used to do 3-ring binders, but there's some gene in our family that apparently makes it impossible to actually remember to put things in the right section of a 3-ring binder or to remember to clean it out every so often. ;)

 

So, this year for my 3 youngers each had a file folder for each child for each subject. As something was completed, it went into the appropriate folder.  I kept a file folder organizer on the top of my kitchen island and we just slipped all the folders into that.  At the end of the year, each kid put together their own portfolio for our state evaluation.  I just handed them their folders and they pulled out examples from throughout the year.  Easy peasy.  Getting them to let me throw away the rest...eh, not so easy.  But I can throw them all into a file box if need be.  We will keep the portfolios and ALL art projects (because art is important to us).  The rest will eventually go away. ;)

 

My high schooler does use binders, but he has a separate one for each subject. Similar process for portfolios, though I will be keeping most everything he does.

Edited June 11, 2016 by HomeschoolingHearts&Minds