The following is a post from contributing writer Sarah Small of SmallWorld at Home.
I hear this question frequently in homeschooling circles: how much paperwork do I have to keep? That is different for every state, of course, and I recommend keeping good records for high school. But I don’t keep worksheets and consumable workbooks and all that. My treasure is in our Big Boxes of Books. We’re up to two full boxes now, and with seven years left, I’ll have to find another good box or two.
So what’s in the Big Box of Books? Books. Lots of them!
There are lapbooks…
Our annual About Me books in a variety of styles …
Books made in co-op classes…
And lots and lots of homemade books that go along with our regular studies…
Every year on the first day of school, we spend about an hour going through the boxes. This is where the real memories are. “Oh, I remember this!” And “Awww! Wasn’t I cute!”
Our favorite part is probably going through the “All About Me” books that we do every year. We love to compare heights and favorites and all kinds of personal data.
These two boxes are my greatest homeschooling treasures. Besides writing samples, this is pretty much all the “paperwork” I keep. It’s not for a portfolio and we would certainly never bring the Big Box of Books and present it to the Dean of Admissions at a prospective college.
It’s all for me, and them. If you don’t have a big box, start now! Throw away all those math worksheets you’ve been keeping in a file, and start making some books.
Sarah Small writes about homeschooling, writing, parenting, and life in general at SmallWorld at Home. She is in her 13th year of homeschooling, currently with a 10th grader and a 6th grader. Her older son, who was homeschooled all the way through high school, is a junior in college. The Smalls live near the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee.
What’s the Titanic Book of Hindsight? Sounds kinda awesome :)
It was a book we did about all the “mistakes” that were made during the whole Titanic fiasco. Kind of a “what if” book.
I just came across a solar system lapbook my daughter did two years ago, and she was reall encouraged looking at how far she’d come with her handwriting. It was a special treat for both of us!