Cubbies, Tubbies and Binder Queens!
August 2007
How to Forget Four Years
of Latin
A few
months ago, I was working on a transcript for a high school
junior. We went over every subject area, and discussed in
detail, from high school algebra to American Sign Language.
Everything was complete. As I was leaving, I asked "What are
you doing this weekend?" Mom didn't hesitate for a moment,
but explained that they were going to a Latin competition that
weekend. "Latin?" I said. "You never mentioned
Latin!" That was how I discovered that her high school junior
had already completed four years of high school Latin, and her mother
had completely forgotten about it.
Now it's not like the four years of Latin was a repressed memory of
something horribly traumatic. It was obvious that the student
enjoyed it - that's why she was still competing. But this
points out why you want to keep high school records. It's not
just so you don't forget that your child did a two-week unit study on
economics. It's so you don't forget broad swaths of learning,
like four years of Latin. Keep high school records
so that, when the time comes, you can make a transcript that actually
reflects the courses that you taught. Keep records so that
you don't short-change your student. This mother is a very
gifted home educator, and has done an exceptional job homeschooling her
children, and even SHE forgot four years of Latin. Never
underestimate the human ability to forget! It can happen to
anyone! Now let's talk about record keeping, so you can make
sure it doesn't happen to you.
When it comes to record keeping, I have noticed that there are four
kinds of homeschoolers. There are people who keep records in
big plastic tubs - "tubbies" I call them. They keep all their
records from all of their children in that tub, and it's a perfectly
acceptable method of record keeping. There are parents who
keep records in cupboards, cabinets or drawers. Slightly more
organized than tubbies, "cubbies" will usually have one drawer for each
child and for each year. This is also a fine method of record
keeping, and it has the added benefit of organizing information by
year. Still other parents keep a notebook with their high
school records, and it's also a useful method of keeping
records. I am one of these "binder queens" and will go into
depth about how to do this in the next section.
The final type of homeschool parents are the ones I affectionately
refer to as "question marks". When this type of parent hears
about record keeping, a question mark will appear over their
ever-so-slightly-cocked head as they think to themselves,
"Records? Were we supposed to keep records?" This
is a method that I do NOT recommend! That's how you can lose
things like four years of Latin, or being an Eagle Scout.
Each homeschool parent can decide which method is best for
them. Tubbies keep lots of stuff but lack organization,
cubbies keep lots of records with minimal organization, and binder
queens have information on every class in an organized
fashion. I usually recommend that parents try to get more
organized each year. If the first year you are a tubby, try
to graduate to a cubby the next year. Move up the food chain!
When we first started visiting colleges, I asked what records they
wanted me to bring. They said, "Bring them all!" I
was astonished, but I did what they wanted. I traipsed into
the admission office with 6 binders full of homeschool records - one
binder for each year of high school for each child. By the
look on their faces, I quickly determined that perhaps they weren't
interested in necessarily SEEING my records; they more just wanted to
know that I actually HAD records. Using a binder system was
convenient for me, because I had a convenient place to keep something
from every class. If they every wanted to see something from
Latin or from Macroeconomics, all I had to do was reach into a binder
for a work sample. 
What do you actually put IN the binder? My binders were 3
inch, 3 ring binders, each with a creative title like "Kevin
2005-2006." Inside the binder, I had about twenty dividers
that I labeled. In the front I had records that I needed to
keep for colleges and for our Washington State laws. The
first section was for the transcript, which I actually made once they
finished the year. Then there were sections for the
Declaration of Intent to Homeschool, immunization records, and annual
testing records - because those things are required by our State
Law. I had a section for their reading list and a list of my
kids' activities and awards. Finally, I had a section divider
for each class that I intended to do that year; one for math, English,
history, science, etc. In the beginning of the year, that was
all it said: "math." Later in the year, usually in
the spring, I would go back over what we had taught and develop a
course description for each class. I notice that by having a
PLACE for records, I would actually KEEP records. Like my
bank records, they didn't often get filed like they were supposed to,
but once every couple months, I would methodically take all the papers
they produced and gradually fill in that 3 ring binder. I was
able to easily see which sections were filling up, and which sections
were blank.What to Keep
How do you know what records to keep? For some classes it's relatively simple: keep any tests or papers that they have written, and you're done! For some classes you may keep their lab reports, research papers or work sheets. But some classes don't have paper assignments. Then what do you do? Last spring, a mother was talking to me about record keeping, and she asked what records she should keep for her child who was learning how to cook at home. The answer is BE CREATIVE! Think methodically about what they DO for the class. In the cooking example, the mother mentioned that her daughter created a menu, did the shopping, and cooked with recipes. Why note use those for records? Save the menu, the shopping list, and photocopy the recipes that she uses - those are your records for "culinary arts." My sons play piano, and I was in a similar dilemma. We didn't have any reports or homework, so we kept a list of songs they learned to play, the piano books they used, and we saved the programs from their recitals.
There are other ways to keep records. Keep a reading list of
every book they buy, use, or read for pleasure. You can keep
track of how many hours you spend on subjects that aren't
"bookish." The credit value of courses like PE, fine arts,
and electives may be hard to quantify unless you keep track of
hours. You can keep course descriptions from co-op
classes. Some people will photocopy the cover and table of
contents from textbooks. Both of those methods will really
help if you want to make a course description for your
classes. If you write assignments for your kids, or have a
schedule for them, keep those things. You can also do it the
opposite way, and instead of writing down what you want them to do in
the future, you can write down what they DID do after it's been
completed. That will help parents who are conscientious, but
not into planning ahead. You can also have the student keep a
journal of all their school work. That would have never
worked with my kids, but I know it works for others. If they
do that, make sure they include every book, assignment and
experience. Most students will do some of their work on the
computer. You can save all of it, either by printing or
saving it to a file.When to Keep Records
Homeschool records become critical once student begins high school,
when they become part of a transcript that will be shown to
colleges. How do you know when your child is in high
school? In general, public school children are considered
high school age at about the age of 14, or once they reach 9th
grade. One of the delightful "problems" with homeschooling is
that it isn't always easy to label your child as a particular grade
level. I started keeping records in 7th grade, so that I
would train myself to keep records and be competent by the time they
were in high school. When my youngest son Alex was 14 years
old, he took and passed some CLEP exams (which measure college level
learning). This was a strong clue for us that it he was
probably already through high school in many subjects!
Because I'd been keeping records to "train myself" we were able to
collect enough information to make his transcript when we needed
it. If your child is in 7th or 8th grade, consider keeping
your homeschool records as if they were already in high school, so that
you are prepared for anything as you move forward. As you are
training yourself to keep records, strive to keep SOMETHING to document
every subject they learn. Keep records often! It's
a rare person who will update records every day, but everyone can put
"record keeping" on their calendar every month or
two.
Right
now, why don't you decide whether this year you will be a Tubby, Cubby
or Binder Queen (or King!) Get prepared now, and then
throughout your school year spend some concentrated time on collecting
records for your homeschooled high schooler.
When should you keep records? That's easy: Early and often!
Email: Lee@thehomescholar.com
Call Toll-Free: 1-888-LEE-2HELP
"Your transcripts and records were
the best organized and documented I have seen"
~ Bryan Jones, Associate Director of Admissions,
Seattle Pacific University
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