What Our Homeschool Transcript Looks Like + Stay on Top of Paperwork and Grades (or go to JAIL?!)

Hopefully most of us won't have to worry about serving jail time for not keeping up on our homeschool paperwork like these Ohio parents (WHAT is up with Ohio?!), but still, there's a lot to keep track of when homeschooling your kids.  Even here in Michigan, where it's one of the “easier” states to homeschool since there's no required paperwork to file with the government, you'll want to keep on top of your kids' transcripts especially if they're planning on going to college.  Since people are always asking for a peek at what our homeschool transcript looks like, and also for help with grading, record keeping, etc., today I'll share my system that I've developed over time.  Note that my transcript is not fancy.  Some people may have a more professional looking document, but mine is just a plain list, which is good enough for us.

We need YOUR help too!

I'm sure some good stuff was missed here, we've only been doing this 4 years; so those of you with much more experience, I hope you'll add your suggestions in the comments!

How I organize and keep records, papers, grades, etc…

• I'm getting a little better all the time at remembering to SAVE a sampling of the paperwork the kids work on throughout the school year, just so we have the work to support their grades.  For each subject I keep a few assignments and quizzes or tests per semester, and I just toss them into a drawer once it has a grade on it, which makes things faster later.  For math I wait until the end of the school year (or the end of the math program) and print out only their quiz and test grades.  (We use this math so it's very simple to do that.)  I also keep a list of the books they read or that we read together.

• At the end of the school year (well, that's the goal anyway, but usually I'm srambling at the end of the summer), I'll go through all of those papers and figure out their final grade for that subject.

• THEN I work on the transcript, and I've copied a sample of that for you below.

• Once that's done, I make sure it's saved on my computer, which backs up a few different ways (I'm super crazy about having lots of backups of my computer files), and then I make a paper copy to keep with those saved assignments, which all go together in a manila folder.

• In case you're curious about what's next, even though it's nothing to do with record keeping or transcripts…  At that point I start to hit it hard as far as planning the next year's curriculum.  By then I may know what I'm planning in some subjects, or I might still have a lot of research to do.  I often switch things up year to year based on what's working and what isn't.  I use a spreadsheet in Google docs where I keep all goals, notes for each subject, and future plans for each kid. Next I get any new materials ordered, and often I'm cutting it close on having them in time for school to start!  Then I'll reorganize their book baskets and get their daily schedules all set for fall.  I do this in iCal and have a different colored calendar for each kid that I print off weekly, so their to-do lists (chores and schoolwork) are clear and I can quickly look and see what they haven't checked off yet each day.  This year for our son who is a senior, I'm going to give him a list of his work for the whole week and let him figure out when he'd like to get it done, as long as it's done by a set day/time.  He has a job now, plus he goes to his tech school classes each afternoon, so I think he'll like having more control on when to do his work.  Plus I'm all for any system that has me nagging less!

What Our Homeschool Transcript Looks Like

This is just a sample using part of our son's transcript.  You can copy and paste what you see here into another document and then fill it out with your own info.  I've taken out some information specific to our son, and left enough so you can use this as a simple transcript template.  Wherever you see a star*, that's where you'll need to fill in your information.  Every year may not look exactly the same, it just depends on your child and their activities, sports, awards, interests, etc.

Note that I don't include a description for every class/subject, because I have all of that in my Google doc if it's ever requested, but some do include that information in just a few lines.  Also, a friend asked why I include info from the kids' elementary and junior high grades on the high school transcript when most colleges don't look at that.  The reason is because the transcript now is mostly for my own records, I'll copy over just the high school transcripts someday when it's time to send it to colleges.

*Insert child's name 

TRANSCRIPT
Date of birth: *, Gender: *, Social Security Number: *

St. John Neumann Academy (*Insert your homeschool name here)
*Home Street Address
*City-State-Zip code

K-7th grade — *This is where I listed the public school our son went to before we started homeschooling.

8th grade — St. John Neumann Academy transcript for 2012/2013:

Religion — Pass — 1 credit
History & Geography — Pass — 1 credit
Language Arts — Pass — 1 credit
Mathematics — Pass — 1 credit
Science — Pass — 1 credit
Latin — Pass — 1 credit
Fine Arts — Pass — 1 credit
Physical Education/Health — Pass — 1 credit

(I only give pass/fail grades until high school.)

*(List name of your homeschool enrichment building here) Homeschool Enrichment classes:
Art (one semester) — *grade here
Spanish (one semester) — *

*List any extra-curricular activities here

9th grade — See 2013/2014 file for transcript from Mother of Divine Grace School

Algebra I — * grade here — 1 credit — *GPA
American Literature — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Basics of Latin — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Computer web design — * — 1/2 credit — *GPA
Earth science — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Faith & Morality — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Fine Arts — * — 1/2 credit — *GPA
Intro to Grammar — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Physical Education — Pass — 1 credit
US History & Geography — * — 1 credit — *GPA

Total credits/GPA = 9 credits/*GPA

Work Experience: Neighborhood pet care and lawn care

Volunteer Experience/Service Hours: See other document with this information (We keep that separate)

Extra curricular:  *List any extra-curricular activities here for this school year

*(List name of your homeschool enrichment building here) Homeschool Enrichment classes:
Art/drawing (one semester) — *grade here
Web Design (one semester) — *

10th grade — St. John Neumann Academy transcript for 2014/2015:

Sacraments and Apologetics — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Ancient History & Geography — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Ancient Literature — * — 1 credit — *GPA
English 10 (part was online course) — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Algebra II — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Natural Science & Biology — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Latin II — * — 1 credit — *GPA
Fine Arts — * — 1/2 credit — *GPA
Physical Education/Health — Pass — 1 credit

Total credits/GPA = 8.5 credits/*GPA

Work Experience: Neighborhood pet care and lawn care, babysitting

Volunteer Experience/Service Hours: See other document with this information

Extra curricular: *List any extra-curricular activities here for this school year

Interests: *List interests here

Other information you should include, if applicable:

• Trade school/tech school information
• Work/job information once they're old enough
• Dual enrollment/honors class information
• Awards/achievements
• Any standardized testing scores/dates
• Anything else at all that is significant
• Graduation date
• Parent signature and date

Now please let us know in the comments how this compares to YOUR transcripts or how YOU do record keeping?

Here are some of the new materials we're using this year:

• This Dave Ramsey course for high schoolers!

• We loved this chemistry DVD last year and are using the Physics DVD this year.  It was actually so interesting, even the younger kids were into it!

• Somewhere I heard good things about this art book, I'm hoping it'll motivate my kids and that they'll like art more this year:

More posts you might like:

• 3 Ways We Finally Found Our Groove (also the BEST Homeschool Materials and… am I an UNschooler?)
• Top 5 Things I Love (and Do NOT Love) About Homeschooling
• Homeschooling is NOT Primarily about Academics, and Other Encouraging Words I Needed to Hear — This was a good reminder before we begin this school year!
• 12 Tips For Keeping Toddlers Busy While Homeschooling

photo