Records
and Reports
Updated October 21, 2010.
By Ann Zeise
Oh, how I despised homeschool record keeping and monthly reports!
Even more, I loathed to give up original material my son had
created to some bureaucrat who would not treasure these creations
of my child.
Our first two years, we homeschooled through a program at
our local school
district. The first of each month I had to turn in academic
plans
for the following month and a record
of what Scott had done the previous month, along with some material
proof
of what he had done.
As part of Scott's portfolio,
I would take photographs of his activities and works of art,
get them developed at "double print specials," and
these were often acceptable. Check with your advisor first. I
liked being able to keep the art
and a copy of the photos.
Next, I found that a self-created spreadsheet in Microsoft
Excel (Mac X or Windows) could be used to both plan our homeschool
days and be edited as we went along to reflect what we really
did do. If we needed to, we could bump a plan to the next day
by using the "insert" function and pushing the cell
one more day to the right. I've included a copy of the file here for you to download. It
should work with most Mac and Windows systems that have a copy
of the application "Excel" (included as part of Microsoft
Office - Mac or Windows). You may need to adjust the margins
to print correctly on your printer. It is suppose to print side
headers and Mon-Sun activities per page printout.
Excel Planner
UPDATED FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2011-2012
Download the template mentioned in this feature. It is a 209K
file named hsplanner.xls that will run on Mac, Unix, Linux, and
Windows with any xls-compatible spreadsheet application already
installed.
You may purchase Excel through Amazon through these links:
Macintosh - 2011 versions.
Office Mac Home and Student 2011 - Family Pack (3 Licenses)
Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 - Single License
Excel for Mac 2011
Windows 2010
Windows Office Excel 2010
Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Student)
The spreadsheet also works with Open Office
from SUN that you can use if you are on Linux, Sun Solaris, or
Windows. Available in Asian languages. Homeschoolers and educators can get
Oracle Open Office for free.
It may also work with the following products, but we haven't
tested it on them:
For those of you without an xls spreadsheet, such as Excel,
I shall explain how this spreadsheet looks and works in the little
table below:
| |
Total Time |
Day of Week & Date |
| Day Count |
|
1 |
Whole Family
Activity |
|
Event entered here is copied on plans for other children
as well. |
| Time Spent |
Sum of time spent on family |
Time entered here copied to others. |
| Subject 1 |
|
Brief description of plans
& accomplishments |
Time Spent
on Subject 1 |
Adds up all time across row
for full year for each subject. |
Enter time spent in hours and
minutes in this format: 1:30 |
| Repeats pattern of previous
two rows |
Daily Time
Totals |
Total time (in column) spent all year on
all subjects. |
Total time spent today computed from times
entered in this column. |
"Whole Family" rows automatically duplicated from
#1 to subsequent sheets for other children. Spreadsheet is set
up with 3 worksheets for 3 children. May I suggest that if you
have more than 3 children, that you make another copy of this
file and have one, say, for the teenagers and one for the elementary
aged kids.
My advisor really liked this format. I found it easy to work
with because of Excel's various functions. Date columns widths
can be reduced to 0 when no longer needed to be viewed or printed.
The printed version will always have the first 2 columns and
top 2 rows on it. I've given you a couple of days' samples of
activities an unschooler might include. Play around with the
time fields for a bit until you understand how they work.
As we unschool, weekends
are included and so are holidays. Kids get "credit"
for learning all the time! You'll be pleasantly surprised how
the hours add up. Your children may even finish a whole school
year of required "work" in far less time than their
schooling counterparts.
In 2006, I've fix it so the start date for Child #1 sets the
dates for the other children, too. So if you want to start on
a different date than what I have, Just type in your starting
date once, and the whole family is set to go.
In 2005, I've added a worksheet for tips on using the spreadsheet,
and another for handy links while planning. Subjects are now
linked right into directories of A to Z Home's Cool to make it
easier to find what you need while you are planning.
In 2008, homeschool parent Felicia B. Gershberg, MAT, PhD, sent me her version of the Planner set up so that only weekdays appear across the top, as that is what her charter required for reporting. She also preferred that the times be recorded and add up in decimals. You may download Felicia Gershberg's Excel spreadsheet planning template with only weekdays for the homeschool year 2008 - 2009. Time expressed in decimal fractions.
If you pass this spreadsheet along, please just tell the person you got it from this website
or link to this page. Modify it to suit your needs, but do NOT
remove the footer. If you have a good improvement, email
me a copy! Suggestions welcome. You may not, however, post
the whole spreadsheet on your website or redistribute in any
way for personal gain. Webmasters, link to this page and NOT
to the downloadable file, as I change the file name from time
to time.
Educationese for Homeschool Reports
Educationese -- or Teacherese -- is the name sometimes given to the jargon too frequently employed by some of those who train our schoolteachers.
Edu-speak,
the dictionary
One of the reasons educrats use language like this is because,
whether they're conscious of it or not, it gives them power over
us mere "lay" parents.
Learning
Logs
Instead of trying to design a curriculum for her daughter, Ivy
Rutledge helps her daughter follow her own interests by using
learning logs. By Ivy Rutledge, HEM J/F 06.
Responding
to Requests from Officials for Our Homeschooling Records
Homeschooling records serve two separate and very different purposes.
One is to meet our family's personal needs and wishes. Second,
some of us also need to submit records to someone outside our
family. Laws in your state may require that homeschoolers report
to the state at regular intervals; your homeschool might come
under investigation by social services or some other agency,
although this is very rare; or you might be involved in a custody
dispute. By Larry and Susan Kaseman, HEM.
Schools
Are from Mars, Homeschoolers Are from Earth
I'm all for schools and homeschoolers figuring out how to peacefully
co-exist - indeed, even cooperate! - but sometimes I wonder if
we're even talking about the same thing when we discuss children
and learning. Judging by the language we use, I wonder if we're
even on the same planet. By Patrick Farenga.
Unschooling
Record Keeping
Many people wonder how you can unschool and still keep records.
Many people view unschooling and record keeping as being at odds
with one another. By Karen Gibson.
Using a Day Planner as a Life Planner
Been there? Done that? Lost a dozen? Using a day planner one
of the most essential coping skills that a woman with ADD can
develop, but it's one that you need to practice and develop.
By Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D.
User
Friendly Homeschooling Records
For both new and experienced homeschoolers, questions arise such
as: Should we keep records, and if so, how? Is record keeping
worth the time and the effort it requires? Can records increase
our children's self-confidence and our family's confidence in
homeschooling? Larry and Susan Kaseman, HEM.
See also:
Goal Setting |
Free Planners |
Binder Systems |
eBook System |
Mac Recordkeeping Software |
Web-based Recordkeeping |
Windows Recordkeeping Software |
|
