In traditional schooling, it is commonplace and even enforced under strict governmental legislation that a student’s record of progress be kept. Why should you care? You’re homeschooling now. You’re free from all that paperwork! Yet, keeping a meaningful record of your child’s progress is beneficial on so many levels. Here are 4 powerful reasons why you should start now.
Assessment and Evaluation
A tangible record of growth will reveal areas where your child excels and where they might need improvement. Over time, you can refer to each assessment as evidence of mastery over a certain length of time. Your evaluation data also allows you to tailor your teaching approach, adjust curriculum choices, and provide targeted support as needed. How so? Detailed records help you understand your child’s learning patterns, preferences, and strengths. They may even expose learning disabilities that require immediate intervention. We work with strengths to build further confidence and use strengths as anchor points to return to in times of discouragement and frustration. We are aiming for optimal engagement and growth. The more information you have at your fingertips, the better decisions you can make for your children.
Reaching beyond the details of your child’s progress, have you ever considered how well you are doing? Has your child excelled in a particular subject? Is that your doing? Has your child fallen behind the benchmarks and goals you’ve set up in their learning journey? A strong record of progress may provide the evidence you need to discover your own strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. Asking yourself questions like; “What did I do right?”, “What seems to work well?”, “Where have I dropped the ball?” and “How can I improve my methods?”. If you’ve documented the journey, and you’ve been honest of humble in the process, you will have plenty of useful information to draw from to make the needed changes in your methods and even play off your strengths as an educator.
Documentation for Transitions
If, for any reason, your child must either return to the traditional school setting or wants to apply to a college or university in the future, your records will provide valuable documentation for any future transitions your child may undergo. Your collection of assessments and evaluations serves to highlight their accomplishments, abilities, and readiness for the next steps. They may also serve as valuable insight into problematic areas where your child may need remedial instruction by you or a trained professional (no offense) before a transition is even considered. In this way, we are not throwing caution to the wind and simply moving forward, hoping for the best. Rather, we take the needed steps in advance to ensure that our children are moving forward with greater confidence, knowing that success is an achievable reality. Consider also that even if your child never transitions from homeschooling to another form of education, at least you’ve built a beautiful portfolio of their learning journey. My mother has kept my macaroni and string collage art for over 40 years and I love her for it!
Accountability and Compliance
Of course, we have the law. In many jurisdictions, provinces, states, and districts, homeschooling parents are required to maintain records of their child’s education and progress. It will then be imperative that your records are both accurate and comply with legal requirements as set forth by law. Some places are refreshingly flexible and respect your choice as a viable means of alternative education. They have seen enough proof in their district that homeschooling is working well. Other places have seen failure pouring out of too many households, where parents have thrown accountability out the window, proving that they had no visible structure or set of educational goals in place. If you are asked to provide specific documentation on an annual basis, please don’t wait to gather your paperwork a week before your submittal deadline. Lessen the shock by keeping careful records filed throughout the year. Sort of like receipts and taxes.
Is it all bureaucratic BS? Try to see it from the government’s perspective. It may have come to their attention that a significant number of parents in your area have failed to provide satisfactory proof of their child’s mastery over core subjects such as reading, math, and the sciences. If we can adopt a view where the local authorities may indeed have our child’s best interest in mind, this will make it easier to display an attitude of compliance. Being accountable for actions is part and partial of being an adult. Parenting is accountability on steroids! When you decide to homeschool, you take educational matters into your own hands and while I commend your bravery and courage, you’ve raised the accountability level even higher. If you’ve kept a careful record of progress while educating your child, you will be in a greater position to supply proof to local authorities that your homeschool is a force to be reckoned with.
I’ve saved the best for last…
Motivation and Encouragement
Child’s perspective – What does a careful record of progress do with regard to nurturing self-respect and confidence? When we offer generic praise and commendation without specifics, our children may view it as average everyday speech. When everything is “great, good job, fantastic” the sheen wears thin. Where can we get super specific with our praise? Your record of progress will provide a wealth of pinpoint commendation details to choose from. “Mom is proud of you because you learned to blend consonant digraphs.” Or “Dad is so happy that you learned all the planet names in our solar system.”. The record can also be used to show your child how far they have come and the milestones they’ve achieved along the way. If you’re writing all of this praise on a ‘celebration’ cake, you’ll need more icing. And a bigger cake. That’s always a good thing.
Parent’s perspective. Has your child succeeded in reaching certain goals and milestones along the way? Who’s responsible for that win? YOU! Spend a little extra time in front of the mirror and add a few more details to your self-affirmative “Well done!”. Embrace the all details of your teaching journey. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Open your child’s record of progress and see where all the dips, challenges, setbacks, and victories took place along the way and how you overcame those challenges. If your child has successfully hit the milestones you set in place along the way, who’s conducting that success train? You are! This is a win for the whole family! You can milk it for all it’s worth because it’s all in the details. Details found in your child’s record of progress. Oh ya, in this case, I would order a second victory celebration cake. You’ve earned it!
a final thought
Overall, keeping a meaningful record of your child’s progress in homeschooling ensures accountability, provides a comprehensive view of their education, supports personalized learning, and provides motivation and encouragement for both you and your child. While we are in no way trying to clone the traditional public school environment, there are still a few aspects and accountability features that are worth considering even in homeschooling. If you are new to keeping records, try to document one core subject at a time. I strongly suggest you try Reading and Literacy first as these provide clear and definable goals that can be easily implemented and monitored in any curriculum. A program like Treehouse Phonics does all the work for you! Discover how deceptively simple it can be to teach your child to read and keep a meaningful record of progress along the way.
This article was an extension of my very first blog post here at Treehouse Phonics. Keeping a record of progress was point #9 in my 10 Steps to Kickstart Your Homeschool post. You’re welcome to check out by clicking the pic below.
