Homeschool Portfolio Fixes

     I have been working on our homeschool portfolio this week. I knew we were supposed to keep one and I have been, I just found out I was doing it wrong. I was putting all of Kaine's school work (art, projects, handwriting, worksheets for math, science and phonics) into the 3 ring binder with a sheet of notebook paper that was logging his day/week. So, it looked like this:

1. Sheet of notebook paper with written schedule of what we did that day/week:
1. Prayer, Pledge, Weather, Calendar activities
2. Math -Whatever workbook pages he did, if we did an activity (such as matching objects, building patterns with Lego blocks, sorting, etc.)
3. Phonics- Our ABC book (pasting, cutting, finding pictures), Reviewing/Learning sounds of letters, or worksheets of letters (sounds, shape, writing)
4. Hand Writing-Worksheets 
5. Religion-Memory verse (written on board and recited every day), activity(s) from "Who Am I?" and Memory Verse book, Bible readings (including music or the passages read)
6. Science - Workbook pages, pictures of science experiments
7. Miscellaneous - O2B Kids work (art projects, pictures of sports, science projects)
2. Presented in this order:
1. Worksheets in order of: Math, Phonics, Handwriting
2. Crafts from Religion, Science, O2B Kids, Math (in clear page protectors)

What I didn't have:

1. List of books read from start of school to present (which was substantial, I had to go back through Goodreads.com, library account, current books reading on our shelves and memory to write out a list- I am sure there are books missing. Good news, we did have over 50 books in a 6 week period!)
2. Attendance Sheet (I do have this, it just wasn't/isn't in my portfolio)
3. List of textbooks (I have this also, just in my lesson plan book, not portfolio)
4. Work organized  by subject (dividers, with notebook pages as a separate "log")
5. Log of days work, organized into a section (see #4 and above)
6. The portfolio also needs to have a copy of your "letter of intent" (saying you are homeschooling and sent to the school board of your county). However, I don't need to do this until Kaine turns 6 (they don't require it until that time and Kaine is officially registered as a school child through Kolbe Academy). This will be added when Kaine starts 1st grade or turns 6 whichever comes first. 

What I have to change:

1. I need to organize the portfolio into sections. This is easy to do, I just need to get dividers and organize Kaine's work by subject
2. Keep a log of daily/weekly activities at the beginning of the portfolio (the notebook paper)
3. Add our lists of Textbooks, attendance and books read at the beginning
4. Double check to make sure that is all the portfolio needs (as appointed by the state)

      So, as you see, work needed/needs to be done. I have already placed the notebook log in the front and added dividers. I need to go through his work, by subject, and place it back into the portfolio. The one thing that is suggested is to keep the first item ever done and one of the last (example: beginning writing pages and end of unit pages). This is to show the child's progress. I, however, am going to keep ALL work (mainly because I won't throw it away anyway and it will be organized enough to keep/look at later). 

     It is nice to have a portfolio on hand. I didn't like it at first, but now I am able to see improvement in subjects (such as handwriting) that I would not have seen otherwise. It is very encouraging, especially when you don't think you are doing so well. I think it will also be nice to look at, at the end of the year, to see how much we have done and the progress we have made. I am sure the portfolio and I will be great friends after a few years!