4Real Forums: Keeping records

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Topic: Keeping records

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3ringcircus
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Joined: Dec 15 2011
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Posted: June 11 2012 at 9:12am \| IP Logged

Do you keep records if you aren't required to? What do you record? Attendance? Materials used and/or completed? Concepts covered in the materials (ie. do you put the name of the book, or "telling time")?

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Christine
Mom to my circus of boys: G-1/06, D-1/04, S-4/10
Started HS in Fall'12

SallyT
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Joined: Aug 08 2007
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Posted: June 11 2012 at 9:55am \| IP Logged

I wouldn't for elementary-aged kids (we use an umbrella school which does require some minimal grade reporting), though I've always kept a log of what we do.

As it is, I use an online grading service, and I assign E/S-type grades to my younger kids. Basically an E is anything with which someone was really engaged, above and beyond; an S is anything else. The real record, though, is my weekly log. None of this information is anything I share, either with my kids or anyone else, other than the grade-reporting service.

I start keeping more detailed, formal records in 7th grade. My experience has been that a) it's useful to start at that age to transition a student into the idea that on some levels, quantifiable performance does matter -- it doesn't matter to who they are, but it does matter to future college admissions offices/employers/whoever; and b) some work from the 7th-8th-grade years may be counted for high-school credit, so it's good to have those records and grades available. For example, I counted middle-school participation in a community children's theatre (not only acting but also playwriting and directing) as a high-school drama credit for my now-college-student daughter. When we were in the thick of college applications, it was very nice not to have to go back and reconstruct things and assign a grade in hindsight.

When my oldest kids were first homeschooling, I did keep far more detailed records -- books read, complicated breakdowns of subjects covered, etc. But really I didn't need to. Unless you're having to report to some official entity which demands grades, I wouldn't do it. It's make-work for yourself, and in the early years, it makes much more sense to focus on learning for its own sake, rather than attaching it to an explicit performance standard.

We do have to keep attendance as part of our state requirement. Otherwise I wouldn't. Any day we're breathing is a day in which some learning takes place.

And in my own log, I generally just list books, though occasionally I'll write up summaries of our progress -- what people have accomplished beyond what they were able to do before.

Anyway, that's how I handle things. The bottom line is that if I'm not going to need a record for college admissions (which means pretty much any record from a grade lower than 7), then I don't bother much.

Sally

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