Most of my past posts have been focused on artwork, but today I want to share with you something from another large piece of my life. That is homeschooling. We’ve been homeschooling since the Princess and the Peanut were 3 and 5 respectively. They are now 12 and 14! I’ve heard it said that the days are long but the years are short, and I couldn’t agree more.
If you have homeschooled for any number of years or even if you have children in a brick and mortar school, you probably have the issue of taming the paper beast. Maybe all of those artwork pieces that are so special are beginning to pile up, because you've run out of wall space. Or perhaps, you have forgotten what color your refrigerator is because it's been plastered with memorable quizzes and special reports longer than you can remember. All of this evidence that shows how much they have learned is beginning to take up space, creeping into every nook and cranny available. If this sounds like you, you're not alone!
Since we are heading back into lessons for this school year I thought it might be helpful to share how we keep track of all of those papers so they do not take over the house.
For me, I keep our attendance record and grade tracking records. We live in Illinois where homeschooling is considered a private school and we do not need to report anything to our local school district. However, I still keep records, because I want to be sure that I’m documenting everything just in case. Also, it’s good practice for high school transcripts, which is right around the corner for us.
For our daughters, we have come up with “yearbooks” to organize our paperwork, but also to have as reminders of what we accomplished in each year. They are great to share with family members too. The girls enjoy sharing their yearbooks with their grandparents when they visit.
Here’s what you’ll need supply-wise:
· 1 – 1 inch Dollar Tree binder per student
· Clear sheet protectors (approximately 15-20 sheets per student)
· Paper to attach photos and mementos (scrapbook paper or color copy paper work well)
· Printed photos (details outlined below)
· Double-sided tape
· Scissors (we have fun scrapbooking scissors with different edges)
· Markers
· Stickers/glitter/embellishments (completely optional)
There are three main steps that I follow throughout the school year to prepare us for putting it all together at the end of the year. 1) I have a drawer where I stash mementos, such as playbills for theatre trips and ticket stubs to museums, etc. Everything that I think will be meaningful goes in there. 2) We hang onto all school work until the end of the year (drawings, reports, etc.) Any large projects we photograph if we are not keeping it. 3) We take lots of photos of our activities, including things we make, places we go, and benchmarks of learning or growing.
At the beginning of every school year, the girls each fill out their “first day of school” form. This goes into the mementos drawer. Below is a sample of what we use. It's very basic.
At the end of the school year, I collect all of these items together: mementos, schoolwork and printed photos. I organize the photos by month of the year and the girls put the yearbooks together. They construct them somewhat like a scrapbook, titling each page or spread with the month and year. On those pages they include photos and mementos from that month. Then, they sort through their paperwork and keep only the work that they want to keep. It’s their book and it should include the things that they deem most important. Of course, there are things that I insist on including too. When it’s all finished, the final piece that is added is the “first day of school” page. This is the first page of their yearbook.
This is a huge win for us for lots of reasons:
· I don’t exhaust myself by doing all of the work.
· The girls enjoy looking back over the year as they put their yearbooks together.
· It’s a great portfolio of the year’s work.
· It’s a great keepsake.
· It takes up minimal space on the shelf.
I hope this has inspired you to let go of the cluttered shelves of schoolwork in exchange for a more affordable, memorable, and relaxing method. Below is a photo of our shelf of yearbooks from past years.
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