How to prepare a homeschool Portfolio

By Elle Cole

8 min read

In Parent

Not all states require homeschool parents to keep a portfolio of their child’s work. In fact, when I checked online today, only 12 out of 50 states require a portfolio. Our homeschool state does require us to send a letter of intent at the beginning of the school year and also keep a portfolio which is reviewed twice a year.

Last year during my first official homeschool year I was terrified about the portfolio. Right before my review I had to scramble to get everything together. The stress from my first review was overwhelming. So if you have anxiety about keeping and sharing your homeschool portfolio, I’ve been there. However, this year I was determined to be on top of my game and prepare well in advance. I also get my two students to help keep all of their completed work in one place.

The best advice I can give a homeschool parent is to start preparing before hand, the earlier you start the less stress you will have later.

What do you need to start your homeschool portfolio?

Materials

3-ring binder with pockets ( You can use a 1″ for each semester or a 3″ for the entire year)
A hole puncher
A printer (wireless makes printing easy. With my HP printer I can print even while I am away from home)
Page dividers for each subject
Reading Log
Field trip Log
Sample schedule/attendance log
Sheet protectors (optional)
A stapler/paper clips (optional)

Portfolio Organization Instructions

Organize your student’s portfolio according to the subjects your state requires you to teach. At the end of all the required add the subjects you also teach but are not required by your state. If your state provides you with a Homeschooling Portfolio Review Worksheet, which lists your student’s subjects, materials, utilized, and concepts completed then write down the name of each subject on the dividers and add them in the same order so that the reviewer from your state’s education office will easily be able to see which assignments were completed.

Everyday after you grade and review your child’s work add their completed assignments and worksheets in their portfolio under the correct tab. Also Take a few pictures to include in your portfolio when written work is not relevant.

In the front of the book add your child’s:

Sample daily work schedule
Reading Log
Field trip log
Pictures
Assignments separated by subject dividers.

: Pictured is our Homeschooling Portfolio Review form. To complete the form add the materials used and which concepts your child learned.

: For PE you may not have anything to write, but it could be helpful to take pictures of some of your activities and include them in your portfolio.

: If you have your children complete #lapbooks you can add them in the pockets of your binder for the portfolio review.

: Some artwork you will be able to include directly in your binder, but others you may want to snap a picture of them and add it as a collage.

: You don’t have to include all of your student’s schoolwork but providing a full sample from different areas is advised.

: For health and science we take pictures of projects completed that we cannot save.

: Tenmarks is a math program that we use. Of course it is online, so we don’t include every screenshot, but we do printout their reportcard to show their progress and which lessons were completed.

: Add dividers to help separate each subject. The dividers picture came from the Dollar Store.

Free Printable

If you are using Classical Conversations for your homeschool curriculum, each week I share the visual materials I create for my students based on the Foundations guide. Unfortunately, I do not have these printables created in advance, so if you’re able to go ahead and create future materials for the upcoming week, please feel free to share your materials with me as well. If you are a part of CC, join CC connected and printables for weekly lessons will be available to you. CC connected is $6/month for community members and $60/month for non-community members.