I'm often asked by new homeschoolers in PA, "What should I include in my portfolio?"  Usually this is accompanied by nerves and flutters of excitement or even terror.  It's understandable, but unfortunate.  After all, the evaluation marks the end of the school year.   It should be a time of celebration- like the holidays... another great year wrapped up in a tidy red or blue package with a little gold bow... and you aren't buying it?  Ok, fine.  At least remember this:  it is NOT mom's report card.  It's not a "make or break, sign of the times, decision on whether or not you are allowed to continue to homeschool, doomsday event"!  So, now that I've assuaged your nervousness (or at least attempted to) what to put in the portfolio?  Let's start with what the law requires:

1. the attendance log- a record of days of attendance
2. the reading log- a record of books and/or textbooks used
3. samples of work- examples of completed work from the beginning, middle and end of the year
4. test scores if applicable (3rd, 5th, & 8th grade)

  The Attendance Log
Here are a number of attendance logs I've used.  I really can't say I prefer any one of them over the others:

• Undated Log
  
• Rainbow Log
  
• Dated Log
  
• Academic Calendar
  

The Reading Log
This is quite simple and no form is really needed.  Just write ortype a list of books your child has read.  You may use just titles or add author, genre, date finished.  Howebver, none of this extra information is required- just a list of books used for instruction. 

Samples of Work
Admit it, this is where you are losing your mind.  What's "good enough" and what will be rejected?  How much is "enough?  Are some types of things better than others?  RELAX!!!

Nothing can be rejected as a sample of your child's work.  Whatever your child has done is good enough to show.  No one is comparing against state or national benchmarks of any kind.  We just want to see what you've enjoyed learning! 

Enough is a pretty simple thing too.  The idea is the samples shouldcome from the beginning, middle and end of the year.  This means that three pages in whatever subjects you have done is "enough".  As for the types of things to include- whatever you enjoyed most is the best to show off in your portfolio!   If you're truly stuck, here are things you may have done that would be great to include:

• math and other worksheet type pages
  
• writings- creative, essays or paragraphs, book reports, copywork or written narrations or oral narrations transcribed by you.  PRintouts of powerpoint presentations are also great.
  
• drawings of things studied or coloring pages that correspond to a lesson (where age/ability appropriate)
  
• maps and timeline work
  
• nature journal pages or nature photos taken by the child
  
• photos of other things- field trips, projects, experiments, cooking/baking, life skills, working with letter tiles or math manipulatives
  
• printouts of recipes, experiments,sheet music, etc
  
• actual samples of recipes made (baking or cooking, home canning, etc to sample)
  
• lists of videos, documentaries, educational tv shows, etc used as instruction
  
• lists of outside classes taken or outside activities
  
• lapbooks
  
• Lists of educational sites and games used
  
• a checklist of skills you are working on with dates mastered
  

Now if there are things on this idea list that you have NOT done during the year- don't rush off to do them so you can include them!  This is a list of ideas.  Chances are, you will have done at least 3-4 things on this list.  Even if you have only done two things (like lapbooks and math pages) it is ENOUGH!

Test Results
This is pretty self explanatory.  There are a number of great places to get tests.  Seton, Christian Liberty, and Academic Excellence are just a few of your options. You can choose online or paper tests.  With my impatience, I prefer online, however the choice is yours. 

Putting it all Together
So what to do with all of this once you have gathered it?  Many people use a binder, but I've seen lots of other ways to organize it including an expanding file folder, a large manila envelope, and even a large box!

  This weekend, I had the privilege of speaking at  a workshop on Getting Started Homeschooling.  If you know me, you know I like to talk.  You also know there is no subject I like to talk about more than that of  homeschooling. 

As I was preparing for my talk, I searched online for the phrase "getting started homeschooling" just to see what was out there.  Imagine my shock when one of the main sites was PBS!  Homeschooling really IS becoming mainstream.  Woohoo!

One of the central points of my talk was that homeschool is different from having School at Home, even if you use a traditional curriculum, simply because you don't have 20 children all in the same grade.  (I think that would be physically impossible, anyway.  Ouch!)  Because of this, even if you have only two children at home, if you use a traditional curriculum, you can't possibly do it all.  Traditional curriculum was designed first for classroom use and has about 7 hrs of work in each day's lesson plan. 

If you have two children, you end up trying to cram 14 hrs of teaching, plus housework, cooking, yard work, errands and outside classes into 24 hrs.  Wait.. I forgot time to sleep!  See the problem?  Simply look at your curriculum and eliminate the stuff that's just busywork.  The average schoolteacher tells me she only gets about three hours of direct instructional time in one day, so you're doing great if you try to cut down to about 3-4 hrs of work.  This eliminates the school at home aspect and risk of burnout.

Traditional school is only one form of homeschool method, however.  At the opposite end of the spectrum, with regards to structure, is unschooling.  This is probably the most relaxed form of homeschooling.  It's also probably the most misunderstood.  The motto of unschoolers could be this:

 “Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If he’s not interested, it’s like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating.” ~ Katrina Gutleben

Of course, the reverse is also true.  No unschooler, (contrary to popular opinion) plunks her child in front of a TV and waits for learning to mystically unfold.  Unschooling is simply learning in life, but it emphasizes a fuller and richer life, filled to the brim with things the child is passionate about.  Thus an unschooling parent will offer a buffet of possibilities to the child and allow him to snatch up and drink deeply of those that capture his heart and mind- from books and movies about his topics of interest to outside classes and field trips, scouts, and even textbooks!  The one thing you won't be likely to see is this child sitting in front of a TV all day!

Similarly, a Charlotte Mason education focuses on spreading a feast of great things to feed the child's mind, heart and soul.  A Charlotte Mason education is more parent led and more structured than unschooling but far more flexible than a traditional school approach.  This is the method I use, though I tend to the more relaxed side of Charlotte Mason. 

Charlotte Mason emphasized allowing a child to savor great works of art, literature, music and of course the greatest of all works- nature.  Instead of asking questions to lead a child to certain conclusions, she encouraged the child to tell back or narrate what he learned from his lessons.  Thus the child is freed to make his own connections, which we now know from a neurological standpoint deepens the connection of neural pathways in the brain and from there, the learning itself. 

There are many other types of educational methods used in homeschooling, of course, but time and space prevent a detailed analysis of each one, so I'll briefly summarize the rest.  A classical education, like Charlotte Mason, emphasizes great works of literature, art and music but from a more analytical and structured approach.  It tends to tell the child which connections should be made and relies much on training the memory.

Unit studies are again more laid back, but still make the connections through studying one topic from all angles.  While great literature and art may be studied, it is as likely to draw upon the commonplace writings of ordinary people.  There are likely more hands-on activities than other methods typically include (with the exception of unschooling).  Even more hands-on is Montessori, which would require at least a whole post of its own just to scratch the surface.

Finally, there are those who enjoy aspects of many of these methods.  They choose components of each style that appeals to them and draw them all together into a cohesive whole.  Most of the experienced homeschoolers probably fall into this category.

It's important to realize that all of these educational options are valid and each has its own strengths, reaching different types of learners.  In fact, you may find yourself drawn to different methods at different seasons of your homeschool life.  Just follow the whisperings in your heart.

If you'd like more information on the Charlotte Mason method, you can find many of her books here: 

In which we go off in search of a tolerable Geometry course and find a delightful surprise!

Sometimes, a child has such an affinity for a subject that almost any book will do.  At other times, however, the book you NEED hasn't been published.  Once in a rare while however, you decide to settle for a resource that looks like you could at least tolerate it, only to discover that it was the perfect tool for the job!  Such was our search for Geometry last year. Having a teen boy with ZERO interest in art or drawing of any kind, I needed a geometry book that didn't look too much like the dreaded art.  That's kind of like ordering a cheeseburger without the cheese!  

First, I searched all of the standard curriculum publishers to no avail (though there was one we could settle for if nothing else turned up).  Next, I tried the non-standard but they weren't any better. In fact, some were much worse!  What I needed was a textbook that approached geometry from a logical rather than an artistic point of view, I reasoned.  Where to look for that but in the books from days gone by, when logic as taught in schools!  ("What DO they teach them in schools these days?" as the professor asked.)

I next went to my favorite site for out of copyright ebooks.  After a mere three to four minutes of searching, I found a book that looked like it would work.  The author's name even sounded oddly familiar though I couldn't quite recall why.  It was just there on the edge- no matter.  I presented the book,which my son reluctantly agreed to try.At least it had the logical proofs side by side with the drawings.  It might work.  

Two weeks later, he was loving the book.  He flew through the pages solving everything with the use of the logical proofs, only rarely having to resort to the drawings for guidance!  As usual, he asked if he could search for a set of flashcards on quizlet to study the terms presented in his book prior to the first unit test.  Imagine my shock when he found a quiz written for the same mainstream curriculum we had reluctantly considered earlier, which perfectly matched our book WORD FOR WORD!  

Curious, I went back to see if I could find any clues in the online sample from the publisher- and discovered it right on the front cover.  Yep, the author was the self-same William James Milne.  Apparently his book was considered so good that very little rewriting needed to be done beyond updating some problems and removing the "antiquated" logical proofs in favor of teaching primarily through the drawings.  Well, if this book was goo enough for that top-notch publisher, it was definitely good enough for me!  We finished the year with the best time we'd ever had in any math course we ever used!  This year, we're using an Algebra 2 with Trigonometry by the same author, and even better, we found that his geometric proofs put my son ahead in the algebra 2, giving us more time to devote to the trigonometry later! Win-win!

Here's the book. I hope y'all like it as much as we did!
Milne's Geometry
Blessings,
Rachael       

(By the way, there IS an answer key available online as well!)

We homeschoolers need to stop discouraging people from homeschooling!  Yes, you read that right, the homeschool community is double-minded.  We constantly  tell people on one hand that public schools are Horrible Places Kids Ought Not Go and on the other bemoan (or perhaps brag about) the $3,000 we just spent on curricula, the cost of our wonderful socialization group and the time spent running to this club and that outside class.  Worse, we sometimes blame our lack of desire to be socially involved with others who are not like-minded on our homeschooling!   I'm not saying these things are wrong... well not the outside classes, clubs and support groups.  The elitist attitude of the last example is definitely wrong!

I recently got into a discussion on social media about my homeschooling philosophy and why I should NOT tell people you CAN homeschool for little to no money and very little time or effort.  It was stated that this sends a dangerous message that will attract lazy people!  I disagree.  Lazy people are not generally drawn to homeschooling and if they are, they find it easier to plunk down a lot of money for a homeschool box that they can toss at their child and say, "Do This Thing!"  I'm not saying those who buy boxed curriculum are lazy.  I'm simply saying that a lazy person won't take time to lovingly gather her supplies in summer and draw a program together during her time off so that when the school season starts she can be confident in what her children will learn!  (Or to gather in the off weeks for those who school year round...)

It was further stated that one could not provide a QUALITY education without expending a LOT of either time, money or effort (energy).  If that were true then my children really would have been shortchanged!  Perhaps I should repent here and now for following the call of the Lord to homeschool my children!  Nope!  Not gonna happen, no way, no how as they say where I come from!  My health issues in the past left me with very little time, money or energy to work with.  For me to fulfill His call to homeschool, the Lord had to show me ways to do it that didn't involve a lot of things I didn't have- and He did!  Then He told me to share what He provided me, so I have,first with those around me who asked for help and now on here with you! 

Now my home is a relaxed, Charlotte Mason homeschool, which means I implement as many of the CM principles as I can but not the structure of her schools.  I am not a school.  To homeschool with reduced time, money or energy though, you don't have to use the methods i use.  You can do this with a traditional homeschool, a Classical homeschool, an eclectic homeschool, or by unschooling... ok especially by unschooling.  You just need to relax the structure, substitute a routine for schedule and find the right resources.  I was fortunate enough in my past schooling to be exposed to those resources.  I'd be happy to share them with you!  Stay tuned, as each week I'll highlight one resource I am using or have used in the past and tell you how I use it and why I like it so much!

Blessings to you! 
Rachael