I listed some here but some more from an article I read – ideas for what to keep in a child’s portfolio… I use a three ring binder with page protectors and everything must be either hole punched and fit in here or slid into a page protector. If it doesn’t fit then we take a picture of it and put that in… if it’s something like piano performance or soccer picture or narration recording then we can burn that onto DVD and slide it in as well.

I do NOT do anything elaborate at this point but as they get older I want to be better about collecting this stuff for them and then eventually having them learn to gather it themselves. When they are 14 or so I will do this formally and begin to keep a “transcript” of the subjects taught and materials used, the reading list and the yearly evaluations (grades) from us and any other teachers they have and their standardized test scores (ACT/SAT) since at high school level we’ll need that more official transcript for college applications. But in Texas we create our own transcripts as a “private school” so we’ll just make something semi-official looking. I’m sure Kit can help with that. 🙂

Here are some ideas:

– attendance records (if required)
– record of subjects taught
– list of materials & texts used
– reading lists (child’s and family reading list)
– yearly evaluations: goals met, parent assessment, any co-op teacher remarks, could include checklists of tasks accomplished (print out TEA guidelines by year and check those met?)
– photos & descriptions of activities & co-ops
– samples or photos of the child’s creative work
– work samples (written work, assignments, book reports, worksheets, etc)
– video or audio footage of child’s narrations or activities
– tests, standardized or family administered

Okay, for example. Mine would be based off the “Schedules & Goals” links to the above left. For Christopher I would include for this next year:

Subjects: language, math, science, art, music appreciation & piano performance, history & geography, health & physical education, handicrafts, literature, soccer.

Materials used: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind level 3, Spell to Write & Read, Teaching the Classics, Saxon 3, whatever this science book is, Discovering Great Artists & Annotated Mona Lisa, piano book name, Dallas Symphony Orchestra “Recipe for Music” lesson plans, Story of the World book 3, Blackline Maps set 3, Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History, our book club reading list.

Reading List: book club list & C’s personal reading list.

List of goals for our school year, both his own and the ones we set up together (again, I list these in our “schedules and goals” page each year.)

Then a lot of writing and test samples, video, pictures, art projects, maps he’s labeled, science project summaries, sample video narrations, recorded piano performance, soccer picture, spelling & composition samples, handicraft projects/pictures.