Homeschooling Record Keeping in Illinois?

Question

I want to know what record keeping methods other homeschoolers use. I live in Illinois and although record keeping is not mandated, I want to start record keeping. Do you keep attendance records and grades? I want to unschool mostly so how do i keep records for that? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

Its the sameway here in KS, but I keep recordes of all my son does, all the grades, everything, its called "covering oyur butt", because I know for a fact here were we are, tehy can & "Will" come to talk you out of homeschooling. Luckily, when it happend to us, our homeschooling advocate just happend to be at my hosue at the time.

Bythe time our adovacte got done with them, they couldnt wait to ge to ut of our house!!!

Once, they knew, we knew, our rights, they backed off!!!

But I'm also very organized too, I've had other homeschool moms ask me how come, Im jsut the type to keep everything organized, if not I go nuts!!

Answer 2

If you are an unschooler I would suggest making a ledger page for each subject you want to cover. As you do actvities record them under the appropriate subject. Sometimes they will fit in several categories.

For high school you will want to record hours as  well. For the lower grades, a brief description and the date is sufficient.

This way you can "practice" for high school and your kids will learn to keep their own records. You can also see if their is a subject or area that you want to encourage in your children more by periodically reviewing the ledgers.

Warm Regards,

Jana

http://www.purehomeschooling.com

Answer 3

I live in Texas where no record keeping is required, so I have chosen not to keep them, but there are several ways you can do it.

You could use a computer program like homeschool tracker.

http://www.homeschooltracker.com

Or you could use printable record keeping sheets.  Donna Young has free homeschool record keeping printables on her site:

http://www.donnayoung.org

Since you are considering unschooling, you may just want to keep a portfolio of your child's work.  Keep a notebook or box of writing, art work, projects, etc.  You could even keep it in the form of a scrapbook or journal.  Blogging is another great way to keep a record of what your family is doing.  I love looking at past posts of my homeschool blog:

http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/...

Another simple way to keep records is to just take a calendar and jot down what you did each day and what subject area it covers.  Some people also choose to do this by week.  Write down books you read, places you visited, activities you participated in.  Don't forget to include stuff like building and cooking for math., nature walks for science, etc.

Hope this helps!