I've come a long way since my first student was in high school. First time through high school, I was just trying to figure out how to complete the "required" high school courses. (The state of Maryland has required courses for public school students. I wanted to follow these guidelines in case my students wanted to go to college.)
My oldest graduated in 2004. My student was part of a co-op for History and Literature. I got her into outside classes (usually that means I paid someone else to teach her) for Algebra I, Geometry, Biology, Anatomy, Chemistry, Latin and flute. I created a chart of the requirements and turned it into a transcript, filling information in as she completed courses. She started some of her high school work in 7th and 8th grade, which gave her extra time in later grades to work part time and pursue many outside interests.
She was passionate about violin, and joined the local Montgomery County Symphony Orchestra, which met once a week in the evening.
Getting her violin restrung, she was offered a part-time job at the violin shop and developed skills as a luthier.
She was very active in 4-H, and loved baking, candy-making, and did a significant amount of sewing, crochet, and knitting.
Eventually she was crowned 4-H Queen of the Montgomery County Fair.
How did we do it? That is the question. In 8th grade #1 began high school coursework through a co-op (Tapestry of Grace) in English Composition and Literature, Latin and History. #2 had co-op classes as well, which I helped run. She also took flute lessons. There was no child #3, and I announced my pregnancy in May. In 9th grade, #1 continued in co-op, but I think we gave up the co-op for the younger group. #1 was also taking Latin at the same location, and taking Biology and flute lessons at locations near home. We may have been working on Algebra 1 at home, or she may have taken it at someone's home, I can;t remember. #3 was born in November, days after we had a unit celebration of a Medieval Feast.
For awhile after the birth friends helped me out transporting #1 to classes. I did my best keeping #2 on track at home. Eventually I was able to get back to actively transporting her to activities again.
In 10th grade #1 continued on in the co-op, taking Latin 2, Anatomy, and flute as outside classes. Can you see a theme here? For most of high school I was a taxi. Since the classes she took were co-op, that meant I taught a class about every six weeks in rotation with other parents. She began working at the violin shop this year. In 11th grade #1 took her fourth co-op year of high school level English Composition/Literature, her fourth year of high school level History/Government, and continued flute. She took Driver's Education and got her license. She took Chemistry outside the home as well. In 12th grade #1 was done with most of her classes. She spent more time reading, playing violin, and working at the violin shop. It was 15 years ago, so I may have gotten some of the order wrong - she may have taken one of the earlier-mentioned math or science courses this year. She graduated with a group of home schoolers from our church's home school group.
As I think back on those years, I have glossed over the struggles we experienced, the tears, the stress, etc. I don't mean to white-wash things. It was a very difficult time for our family, and the stress on our first-born was huge, and she suffered as a result of it. We did the best we could. For us, getting it all done, fitting it all in involved a lot of outside classes. I know that doesn't work for everyone. What is working in your homeschool high school? Other members of the Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew are also blogging the 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement. To read more posts, please click the button below.
Beyond the fact that my son is graduating, are you seeing a theme here?
In May I leave home schooling behind. I started home schooling in January of 1992. For all practical purposes we might as well say Fall of 1991. That means I've home schooled 27 years.
So this year the topic of "Organization" no longer means scurry to plan and purchase for next year. My first order of business, at this point, is purge most evidence of home schooling from my household.
I recently boxed more than 15 boxes of school materials and headed to a home school used curriculum fair. It was only one hour long. I sold $130 worth of stuff and came home with ONE BOX LESS than I left with.
So now I'm working to figure out if I take the time to sell, or do I just find a quick way to get rid of stuff. Hubby wants me to just be done with all this stuff. On the other hand, I know there is money there to apply towards college text books, and I want to take the time to try to sell. We'll see. So this week includes:
Tub man comes to resurface tub tomorrow;
Adjuster comes to see what damage the recent wind storm did to our exterior;
Tomorrow is the day my son gets to select his dorm room/room mate;
Make an appointment for my son's physical;
Make a date to get my annual portfolio review done, and
My son needs to fill out the Air Force ROTC Application
Next week will include:
Having tub man resurface tub #2
Listing some of the books for sale;
Senior photos being taken;
I can't even think what else right now...
So that's what "Organization" plans look like in my life right now. What do your spring organization plans look like this year?
This is the year my baby graduates our home school high school, and I want it to be special!
My first student graduated in 2003. Our home school support group had a graduation ceremony, and I got some nice graduation photos. There was no actual diploma awarded. I didn't know anything else about graduations. I knew some people gave their kids parties, but I didn't know how to manage that and it didn't happen. I regret that now. My second student attended a private school for her senior year. Leading up to graduation day, my mom was in hospice care. Sadly, the day of graduation, my mom died. As you can imagine, while we tried to make a big deal out of graduation, there was no party. There has been an 11-year gap between graduations in my home. My youngest has been an "only child" in home school his entire life. I've had plenty of time to consider how to celebrate his graduation. My situation is different now (than previous graduations) in so many ways, and there would be no excuse to let this wonderful event go by without the appropriate celebration! So I was excited to learn I would get to review Homeschool Diploma's Cap, Gown, Tassel and Diploma!
Our oldest will be flying in from Denver for the event.
My middle daughter and her husband will be driving in from another state to help us celebrate.
We also might go out for dinner, or we might serve a nice dinner at home. We will definitely have a nice cake! And my son will be presented a very fine diploma in a very formal way!
Let me tell you about this wonderful diploma! I have concealed name information for privacy reasons. Our beautiful diploma has a black padded cover that is gold-embossed. It has a beautiful emblem that states "Thy Word is Truth: Scholarship/Christian Education/Godliness". Below the emblem it has our home school's name, and our student's name in the lower right hand corner.
I ordered the Vintage-Style High School Diploma, which is one of the Standard Diploma options, with foil embossing. The diploma says my student has successfully completed the course of study required for graduation and is thereby being granted this high school diploma with the date and a place for his father and I each to sign. The lower center has an "Excellence in Home Education" seal. I was most excited to be able to include a special seal that says "High Honors" because my student worked so hard and got such excellent grades in high school. I did a search to see which "Honors" seal I could award my son based on his grade point average, and I awarded him appropriately.
In addition to the diploma itself, we were able to get a miniature, a laminated wallet diploma that our son can carry to pull out to show when he is asked if he earned his diploma. I wanted him to have this wallet diploma, and this reminds me of a dilemma many home school students encounter when they graduate: when they are asked if they earned their diploma they aren't sure how to answer. Yes, they graduated, but no, they did not receive a diploma. For this reason I was glad I would be able to award my son with a diploma!
I also ordered a spare diploma to keep filed in case anything ever happens to the diploma I give to my son on graduation day.
In addition to the diploma, my graduate has a gown and a cap with a tassel that he will wear when we award him his diploma. I love that he will get a tassel! I graduated after summer school and never had a graduation ceremony and never had a tassel. All my friends had tassels that they hung from the rear-view mirrors of their cars, but I didn't. My son will have his graduation tassel. I think it is fun for our home school graduates to get to have graduation tassels! Oh, and in the bottom photo my son asked, "Shouldn't the diploma be signed?" I answered that it would be signed when he finished in May, before we present it to him formally.
For the photo, my son did not know to wear the tassel in front! I love that the cap and tassel came with instructions on how to wear the tassel. Before the diploma is awarded the tassel is worn on the left. After the diploma is awarded the graduate moves the tassel to the right.
If you are home schooling high school, I want to strongly encourage you to plan to make a big deal out of graduation! Our kids will only graduate from high school once. As home schoolers we do not want our kids to feel like graduating was no big deal. It IS a big deal, and we should really make a big celebration out of the event! Homeschool Diploma makes this easier to do. In addition to the Cap, Gown, Tassel and Diploma, they also offer graduation announcements, rings and gifts, and a very helpful blog! Take a look!
In addition to materials to celebrate high school graduation, Homeschool Diploma also has materials that can be used to create celebrations from Kindergarten and 8th Grade.
Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed the High School Diploma, the 8th Grade Diploma and the Kindergarten Diploma. To read more reviews, please click the button below.
I first began home schooling in 1992 in Colorado. I was not required to make an annual portfolio at that time. I still thought it was nice to keep my year's lesson plans and a few work samples for each student.
In 1996 I moved to Maryland where home schools get reviewed each year. Home schools can choose to have the county school system do this review, or they can pay a fee to an "umbrella" (oversight) organization to do the review. A portfolio must be created for each student with work samples from each subject. The state also dictates that (before high school) the school cover each year English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, Physical Education and Health. The law actually also says, "or a course plan similar to what similar students study in public school" or something to that effect. So the sad thing is that the public schools don't cover all those subjects every year, but there is no easy way for a homeschooler to find out what the public school students cover. I learned at one point, for instance, that public schools here don't teach Health in like Kindergarten through 4th or 5th Grade, for example. But most home schoolers here don't know that and so they struggle to cover that subject even when teaching Kindergarten.
So homeschoolers are reviewed here once or twice a year. They just put together a portfolio to take to the review that shows samples of the student's work in each subject. If the portfolio review finds the home school to be non-compliant (not doing everything they are supposed to be doing), they get a warning. If they can't show that they have corrected the situation at the next review, they can be required to put their student(s) into a formal school, public or private.
So, anyway, this is about the portfolio, so let me get back to that. I do two things to help me keep organized with my portfolios. First, I bought brown flip top expandable folders to store my year's portfolio in. This one is old and reused, so it has a lot of black sharpie on it, but here's a photo:
Then I invested in some inexpensive two-pocket folders, one for each subject:
Initially I tended to save a lot in certain subjects, like Math might have a test every week (36 tests) with one to three quizzes per week. That's a lot of paper. And the county wanted to see samples of their daily lesson work as well, so more paper. Before I go much further, I want to tell you a story about my family and county reviews here. At the beginning we were assigned a fabulous reviewer. Each time we were reviewed she was so impressed with the things we were doing and encouraged us to keep doing what we were doing. When my oldest reached middle school, we were required to change reviewers to one who was familiar with middle school. Now let me add here that my second had learning disabilities in math and language. She did not read Hop on Pop through on her own until she was ten years old. When we got to this first review with this new reviewer, her reading had taken off. We had a mid-year, and my records showed that my little princess had read sixty library Science books on her own. I was so pleased! She had written a report in Social Studies about Argentina, which was an amazing accomplishment for her. It had been a struggle, but she was fairly on track in her Math curriculum. All of our subjects were done and documented. The new reviewer looked over my records and saw that my records showed all this reading in Science. Her comment was, "Where's your documentation." I said, "You're looking at my documentation." She said, "No, I mean you have to have tests. How do I know she actually read all these books?" I said, "Because I told you she did. We don't do tests. We talk about what she reads." She said, "Well why didn't you write down questions and have her write answers so you would have documentation?" I said, "We don't do tests! She doesn't test well." She said, "Then next time you should write down the questions that you ask and then write down her answers." Keep in mind this was BEFORE computers. Next she read the report on Argentina. Now the kids weren't required to be at the review, but I didn't have anyone to watch them so I had taken them with me to the review. So meanwhile daughter #2 had been watching this interaction about the Science reading and, with her mother, had been getting a bit of attitude. So the reviewer read the report on Argentina and then looked at its author, daughter #2, and said, "I see you say in your report that you like Argentina and would like to go there some day..." The reviewer smiled as she leaned toward my daughter. My daughter leaned back and crossed her arms on her chest and said, "Yeah, no, I don't really want to go there. I just said that because I thought my mom would like it." The reviewer leaned back and said, "Oh! I'm from Argentina!..." I was mortified. After that, we never went back. I told my husband we needed to go under an umbrella organization. She didn't mark me deficient but she implied it and said she wanted documentation next time. In my opinion we had a difference in our understanding of what she could require of me. I felt I was compliant and I did not want (or intend) to make the changes she wanted to require. Our reviews within our various umbrella organizations have never found me non-compliant. So, back to the portfolio. For grades K through 8 my folders were marked with "English", "Math", "Science", "Social Studies", "Art", "Music", "P.E.", and "Health". There was also always a paper daily lesson planner that was shared between the students. I made sure it was clear on the planner which assignments went with which student. The first four folders were fairly easy to come up with documentation for. For P.E. I often kept one running sheet of paper (think now one document in Word) where I had a line entry for each P.E. activity. A line entry might say, in columns, the date, the activity, and how much time was spent doing it. For Music I tended to have documentation for my student who took violin and my other student who took flute lessons. For #3 we were using AmblesideOnline.org. There is a music rotation/Composer Study and an Artist Study/art rotation. Sometimes I kept a log sheet, but sometimes I just referred to the daily lesson planner to show what we had done. Similar for Health. For Art many projects were not flat and would not fit in a folder, so I started taking more photographs. But I did love the way having a portfolio kept us organized. When county fair time came, I could pull out the folder and help my kids select art projects to enter in the county fair!
Now, when I go to reviews, I have my folder system, but I also keep a similar file system on my computer. I take my laptop to the review and am able to open up documents I don't have printouts of and can show photos of artwork done during the year. I have a file called "Homeschool". Within that file I have a file for each student. Within a student file I have a file for each grade. Within each grade I have a file for each subject where I store documents, curricula and/or photos. So that's how you put together a portfolio for your students. I highly recommend that you do one each year for each student even if your state doesn't require it. It is particularly important when your students reach high school! Colleges want to see samples of your students' work in their own handwriting! Sometimes that might even mean taking a typed composition and writing it out by hand! Just so you know, I didn't experience the colleges that require this. The colleges my son applied to were happy with his typed work samples. So that's what you need to know. If you have any questions, drop me a comment down below. Thanks for reading!
The first thing you would find helpful is the basic answer to "How to Make a Transcript" in the first place, right? Well, my first student graduated in 2003. I created a one-page transcript template to use and created the transcript based on the courses completed, course plan was created around state expectations for high school graduation.
High School Credit Report
Student Name:Date of Birth:
Social Security #:
Address:
We hereby affirm the completion of
the following courses by our child.
Requirements
on this form are based on the graduation requirements for the state of Maryland.These requirements should be filled in
according to your state.
The transcript is actually long-ways left to right, but this gives you the basic idea. So next I filled it in with things like "English 9", 10, 11, 12, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Biology, Chemistry, etc. For social studies we were doing Tapestry of Grace, so my titles were like "History of the Ancient World," "History of the Middle Ages", "History of the 19th Century," and "History of the 20th Century". Then I realized I could also tweak some of my other course titles. I added in student-specific electives and changed some other things. Schools like to have parent signatures on home school transcripts.
Name of Homeschool
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
Official High School Transcript
Student Name:_________________________Date of Birth: ___________
Social Security #:__________________Phone Number: _____________
*Classic Literature of the Ancient
World, Composition &Grammar
(Honors)
P
1
*Classic Literature of the Western
World: 500-1800 AD, Com-position &
Grammar (Honors)
P
1
*Classic
Literature of the Western World: 1800s, Composition & Grammar (Honors)
P
1
*Classic
Literature of the Western World: 1900s, Composition & Grammar (Honors)
P
1
Math
3
Algebra 1
P
1
Geometry
B
1
Continuing Algebra Concepts
P
1
Science
3
Biology
A
1
Chemistry
B
1
Anatomy (Adv. Biology)
A
1
Social Studies
3
*History of the Ancient World(World History I) (HONORS)
P
1
*World History II
(Fall of Rome to Colonial America)
(Honors)
P
1
*World History III: America in
the 1800s(Honors)
P
1
*History of the World IV:America in the 1900s
P
1
Health/PE
1
Health
P
1/2
Phys Ed:
P
1/2
Phys Ed/Drivers Ed
P
1/4
Elective
4
Latin 1
A
1
Latin 2
A
1
Music Theory
P
1/4
Elective
Introduction to Computers/Keyboards
P
1
Work/co-op: Lashof Violin Shop
N/A
1
Work/co-op: Lashof Violin Shop
(current)
N/A
1
Advanced Computer Applications
P
1/2
Elective
Violin 2
P
1
Violin 3 and Montgomery Symphony
Orchestra
P
1
Violin 4
P
1
Home
Economics
N/A
1
Elective
*History of Fine Arts: Ancient World
P
1/2
History
of Fine Arts: Medieval to 1800
P
1/2
History
of Fine Arts: the 1800s
P
1/4
History
of Fine Arts: the 1900s
A
1/4
Total Credits by Grade
21
Ninth Grade
7
TenthGrade
8
Eleventh Grade
7-1/4
Twelfth Grade
6-3/4
*TOG - Tapestry of
Grace Curriculum, Years 1 - 4.See
www.Tapestryofgrace.com for more information.
My first student graduated in 2003, so I've had a lot of time to learn new things since then. I learned most of my best stuff from a woman named Lee Binz, The Homescholar. She gives free video teleclasses, but also has some fabulous products that she sells. I invested in her products.
Total transparency here, I am NOT an affiliate. I share this information because I am constantly amazed by the number of people I come across regularly who have never heard of Lee Binz.
Here is a very helpful video for you. You can also go to YouTube and search for "Lee Binz" to find more.
If you sign up for her emails, she will send you links to her blog, invitations periodically to teleclasses, and sometimes links to wonderful ebooks on Kindle that post briefly for free for you to download. I invested in The Comprehensive Record Solution, and for a while, The Gold Club. Lee helped me make my son's transcript shine!
She also challenged me to give my son some credit for things I hadn't considered. For example, my son has a hobby tthat was driving me crazy because he wouldn't do the school work I had assigned but was always working on his hobby instead. He likes to make whips out of paracord. So why did I not give him an art credit and call it "Creative Crafts" -- a lot of public school students have such classes and credits. So I did! Lee also asked me why my son had only 1/2 credit in Health and 1/2 credit in Physical Education. Well, it was because that's what the state requires for graduation. But Lee said, "Your son is an Eagle Scout and is active in Civil Air Patrol. He's been camping and hiking, got a Personal Fitness Merit Badge, is marching in CAP, as well as their "Drug Reduction Push" training. He can probably have four credits in PE and several credits in Health." So I evaluated these subjects and increased his credits, although not to as many as she had suggested.
So using my original transcript template, I came up with an amazing transcript for my son, one that colleges are happy with:
High School Credit Report
Student Name:Date of Birth:
Social Security #:
Address:
We hereby affirm the completion of
the following courses by our child.
MC
ENGL 102: Critical Reading, Writing and Research
A
1.0
MC
ENGL 101: Introduction to College Writing
B
1.0
Math
4
Algebra
I
B
1.0
Algebra
II
B
1.0
Geometry
IP
1.0
Science
4
Biology
with lab
A
1.0
Chemistry
A
1.0
MC BIOL
101: General Biology with Lab
A
1.0
Social Studies
4
Ancient
Civilizations
B
1.0
Early
American History
B
1.0
MC
HIST 114: The World in the 20th Century
A
1.0
MC
POLI 101: American Government
A
1.0
MC
SOCY 100: Introduction to Sociology
B
1.0
Physical Ed./
Health
1
Personal
Fitness with Health 1
A
1.0
Personal
Fitness with Health 2
A
1.0
Personal
Fitness with Health 3
A
1.0
Foreign Language
2
Conversational
Spanish
B
1.0
MC
SPAN 101: Elementary Spanish I
A
1.0
MC
SPAN 102: Elementary Spanish II
B
1.0
Elective
Videography
A
1.0
Music
Appreciation
A
0.5
Guitar
A
1.0
MC
ACCT 221: Accounting I
IP
1.0
Elective
Sculpture
Technique – Modeling, and other Handicrafts
A
0,5
Sculpture
Technique – Construct, and other Handicrafts
A
0.5
Contemporary Crafts
A
1.0
MC
ECON 201: Principles of Economics I
IP
1.0
Elective
Driver’s
Education
A
0.5
Total Credits
Ninth Grade
8.5
Tenth Grade
8.0
Eleventh Grade
7.5
Twelfth Grade
6.0
Certification: Each credit represents one or more of
the following: (1) 150 hours of class time, not counting homework; (2)
successful completion of at least ¾ of a
standard
high school textbook, including all publisher-prepared problems,quizzes, and tests; (3) private high school
courses worth one traditionalcredit;
(4) community college courses worth at least two credit hours; or (5) private
courses taught by a private school teacher.
Next Lee challenged me to stop using my own transcript format and instead use her Comprehensive Curriculum Package, which I did. It has a table of contents followed by a transcript by year AND a transcript by subject. Then following the transcripts, I had to create (using Lee's template) a course description page for each subject my student was receiving credit for. The course description pages were followed by work samples. I can't show you pictures because these formats are Lee Binz's.
After my son had applied and been accepted by several colleges, some of the colleges were wanting to see the course syllabi for courses my son had taken in college through the dual enrollment program. I plugged these in where I had previously had the work samples.
I hope this post has been helpful. If you'd like my blank template for a transcript in Word format, drop me a comment below with your email in it and I'll send it to you. I can't encourage you strongly enough, though, to follow the links to Lee Binz. Some of her programs cost $99-$199 or so, but there is also so much free stuff that you won't regret it!
