How I Keep Records for Our Homeschool

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As my family dives into our third year of homeschooling, I might have finally found a way to keep homeschool records. I’ve tried all different ways of keeping records: planners, plain notebook paper, Evernote, and Excel spreadsheets. But the latest system I’ve been using is really working.

In our home, homeschooling changes constantly —in a good way. If we do the same things all the time, we get bored. Because we change so often, making a permanent list of all the curricula to cover doesn’t work. Time schedules don’t work because we loop subjects.

What I needed was a single page to list what we were focusing on for the month and how often we studied the subject.

I was on the right track with the Excel spreadsheet listed below. However, it was too messy, not pretty, and difficult to look at.

I created a single-page document to keep records for our homeschool that gives us the freedom to schedule and study in a way that works best for our family.

Here’s how I use it:

Top Section:

Each sheet is for a single month. Across the top, I record our memory work for the month, a section each for prayer/scripture, poetry, and facts/civics.

Middle Section:

Next, going down the page, I included sections for Morning Time, Daily Subjects, Loop Subjects, and Memory Work. The lines below each section are blank so I have the freedom to change our studies from month to month.

To keep track of when and how often we touch on each subject, I mark off the boxes corresponding with the subject and the date when we cover it.

Bottom Section:

In the section labeled “Areas of Study,” I notate any resources we’re using for particular subjects that month. This helps me keep track since I pull curricula from different places or create my own.

Backside:

Since we read a lot, I needed a better way of quickly taking down what we read and when. I have an Evernote note with a list of books we read. But I want to remember when we read books, too.

I made a simple reading log to achieve that. At the end of the year, I’ll go through my records sheets to add the books to my master list of books.

Additional Records

One thing I’ve recently added to our record keeping is to review everything we did for the day. I heard another homeschool mom suggest this, and I thought it was a fantastic idea.

My husband will ask my daughter what she learned for the day, which puts me to the test. (I don’t think he realizes this, but I feel the pressure!) In one of our composition notebooks, I write the date on a page, and Juliana and I talk about what we did.

This achieves two ends: 1) it keeps specific daily records, and more importantly 2) it reminds my daughter of what she learned!

How I Keep Records for Our Homeschool