When we first start homeschooling, we either keep everything or keep nothing at all. What exactly do you need to document what your children have done all year? If you don’t know where to start, these essential elements of a homeschool portfolio can provide you with a basis of what each student needs.

For all the new homeschoolers out there, you may have heard the words “homeschool portfolio” thrown around here and there. Just the idea of it may seem intimidating.

What exactly is it? What should be included in a homeschool portfolio? How do I organize my homeschool portfolio? You are not alone if you have had these questions.

What is a homeschool portfolio?

In homeschooling, a homeschool portfolio provides a means for families to document their children’s progress in their educational journey.

Some states have specific requirements for what they require homeschoolers to document to prove are actually homeschooling. For some states, a portfolio and yearly evaluation are required to stay eligible for an education program at your home. Families are required to be evaluated by an objective third party educational professional is required.

Whether your state requires a portfolio or nothing at all, it is good to note that most colleges require homeschoolers to submit a homeschool portfolio.

Keeping yearly portfolios make it easier to write transcripts when your child is ready to graduate.

How do I organize my portfolio?

There are a few ways you can organize your portfolio. Some portfolio styles homeschooling families use are:

• 3 ring binders
• Accordion folders
• File folders
• Scanned documents on your computer or saved to a cloud drive

What should be included?

Here are some essential elements of a homeschool portfolio:

• Lesson Plans
• A log of educational activities
• Reading Log
• Samplings of student’s work (written work, Bible scriptures memorized, tests and scores for each subject, photos of experiments, etc.)
• Grades
• Artwork/art projects
• Extracurricular activities (document sports, music, weaving, etc.)
• Community service hours
• Term attendance records

Using Homeschool Planet makes homeschool record keeping extremely simple. The number one essential element of a homeschool portfolio is explicitly laid out for you in Homeschool Planet’s homeschool planner online.

Homeschool Planet Lesson Plans can be customized to your schedule.

Homeschool Planet features fit perfectly for the essential elements of your homeschool portfolios.

You don’t have to stress about capturing your student essential elements for a portfolio when they are all embedded within an online planner.

Here are some features in Homeschool Planet that will make homeschool record keeping super easy:

• customizable grading categories
• customizable Report Cards and Transcripts
• reports to help you manage grades, attendance, activities
• professionally designed lesson plans
• automatic attendance records

Is there anything else you would put in a homeschool portfolio? What else would you consider an essential element of a homeschool portfolio? Leave some tips in the comments section for our Homeschool Planet community.

Check out Homeschool Planet for yourself with a 30-day FREE trial. No credit card information is necessary to give it a try!

At last — an easy, flexible, full-featured online planner that doesn’t require hours to learn. Just launch, click on the calendar, and start adding classes, assignments, and appointments!

With Homeschool Planet lesson plans, homeschooling has never been easier!