Sunday, May 27, 2012

Uggg, the record keeping...

Another year has slipped by me. You ever feel that way? "What? Wait a minute! How did you get to be a MIDDLE SCHOOLER?! I'm not ready for that yet! I never got to cover x,y,z, with you!"



It's been a very trying year in my life. I spent a large part of the school year having and recovering from foot surgery. I was house-bound for several weeks and dependent upon family and friends to get the kids time out and away from me (for which I am eternally grateful). When I was finally out and about, I was physically slow and trying desperately not just to keep up but to try to make up for time lost.




I'm so much better now, but as the traditional school year comes to a close and we start slipping into summer, I know it's time to tackle the records I was supposed to have been keeping all year. The huge pile of papers and other work on the floor of my office has grown to such huge proportions that you can hardly walk in there.

For some reason, the State of North Carolina requires that each homeschool keep "attendance" records (seriously?!) (Yes, my kids are here... they LIVE here... duh.), a copy of immunizations, and some record to show that you haven't been letting them sit and watch TV all day every day for the past 9 months.


Well, I'm finally getting my ducks in a row. I had a general plan at the beginning of the year of what I wanted to cover with them, but I didn't really follow it. I've kept a log of our daily activities, so that's good, but it's very time consuming to go through it all and tease out the various topics and subjects and say, "See, we did these classes and field trips and went through these books for Math." It shouldn't be too hard to make it sound like it was all planned that way. Don't get me started on "Social Studies", what does that mean exactly? I think it means "whatever else that doesn't fit into all these other categories".


On the bright side, I know it is good for me to go through and make an accounting so I can remind myself what we were doing in October (I tend to forget) and have a better picture of how to go forward for next year. More often than not, when I have the list in front of me I go, "Wow, did we really do all of that?!". Suddenly, all the stress I was feeling about things not covered recedes and it seems like it was a productive year after all. I'm sure that will happen if I just stop blogging and get to work.:)


We also usually take part in a year-end event my homeschool group sponsors each year called the "Homeschool Showcase". Families and students present some of their work from the past year for family, friends, and anyone in the general community who is interested in seeing what homeschoolers do. Many come because they are thinking about jumping in and want to get a feel for what it might entail. For these people, it's a great way to meet and talk to families who have been homeschooling for a while, and for the kids, it's a great way to show off their accomplishments and put a period at the end of the "school year" (though I must say that many, like us, are "year round").




For the first time since our family started this adventure we will be out of town and not taking part in the showcase, but if you live in the area and are curious you should come by. Here are the particulars:


Cary Homeschoolers Showcase
Saturday June 2, 2012 2:00 - 3:30 PM.
Middle Creek Community Center
123 Middle Creek Park Ave  Apex, NC 27539


The organizers have even put up a website this year. You can take a look at it here:
http://homeschoolshowcase.org/index.html 


On another note, I have been evolving my daily record-keeping over the years. I never did buy any packaged organizers because I know myself well enough to know that I would never keep up with something that I didn't tailor to myself directly. I think I have finally hit on something that is simultaneously easy to keep and glance at on a daily basis, but also allows me to preserve the details of our daily life. 


In the past I have just kept a large notebook and written by hand everything done or accomplished that day. Again, somewhat tedious to review and sometimes illegible.:) Mid-year this year I decided to go to a grid broken out by topic. The idea is that I write down very briefly what was done by subject and then I keep a more detailed log on my computer, which I update when I have time. So far I think this works. I'll let you know in a few weeks if it has made this end-of-year tallying easier.




Do you keep records of your homeschooling? If so, what works for you? 

No comments:

Post a Comment