Even the most well-intentioned homeschool parent sometimes falls behind on their homeschool record keeping, so if you find yourself in that situation, you’re in good company! Recently I talked to a friend who needed a transcript right away (in a day), but had nothing put together! She hadn’t thought she would need one, but her son suddenly decided that he wanted to enlist in the Navy, and they required him to submit a transcript! What a rotten situation to be in!
Another friend needed some help with her homeschool records, because she couldn’t quite remember what they had done over the years. She opened up her folder where she kept her homeschool records, and—there was nothing in there! She had labeled a few things, but had not kept any papers, records of curriculum, or anything! We looked through her tub of homeschool papers and paraphernalia, and tried to piece together some courses and a transcript. We spent hours going over every aspect of her homeschool, and documented all the courses her children had taken. As I was leaving, I asked her what the family’s plans for the weekend were. She replied that they were going to a Latin competition…but she had never mentioned that they had taken Latin! There wasn’t anything in her binder or her tub that talked about Latin!
No matter how great a homeschool teacher you are, if you don’t keep high school records, you won’t be able to come up with a high school transcript, and in all likelihood, you will need one at some point in your child’s life. That doesn’t mean that you have to keep strict records and spend copious hours writing everything down. Even if you take time once a year to record what happened that year, sort of like I do with my taxes, you’ll be able to create a successful transcript. If my friend above had made a transcript every year, she would never have forgotten something as significant as four years of Latin!
Make sure that you set aside time each year, and preferably more frequently than that, to record what you’ve done in your homeschool. Set aside copies of the papers your children have done, some of their tests, pictures of what they did, and books or curriculum they used. You can take pictures of curriculum instead of storing the actual books themselves, and for anything that’s too big to store, pictures also work well. Look at your calendar to remind you of the activities you spent time on, and look at your checkbook to see where you spent your money. Ask your kids to look over the list, to see if they remember anything that you’ve forgotten. Homeschool records don’t just create themselves; you must be diligent to record what you’ve done! The payoff will come when you apply for college admission and scholarships, and can show the schools all the great stuff your child was involved in, and how well they excelled. Colleges love kids who are involved in unusual or unique activities, so make sure that your child’s individual interests and passions shine through on their transcript!
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