Hi ,

I woke up this morning and realized I hadn't sent you an email in a bit. Oops. I'm trying to get my act together; I really am. I also had a thought that this time of year, many parents are wondering how to put what their kids have learned into a transcript, especially if they're not using a formal curriculum.

My kids aren't there yet, but I think I'll start practicing some, just for my own benefit. I also lurk in a LOT of homeschool groups and watch these discussions with interest. So, here's what I'm going to try:

1 Keep better records (starting at the beginning of the school year). My state doesn't have strict record-keeping requirements, so I've gotten pretty lazy with this. However, when my kids were younger, I created a Google spreadsheet to keep myself organized. If you want to try this one, just go to File -> Make a copy and rename it something sensible. I think I'll try having one for each child and a new sheet for each year. From here, customize it so it works for you. I included the 11 subjects WA homeschoolers are required to cover, and initially, I was taking notes each evening. This time around, I think I'll take notes each week, most likely.

These notes don't have to be anything fancy. If your kids help plan a field trip, they probably used reading, math, and geography in addition to whatever topics the field trip location was on. Count it for all of them; double-dip away. When my kids practice typing, they're also practicing reading, spelling, and writing. You also don't have to put something in every subject every day. The top row is frozen, so you can sort the columns from Z -> A to see what your kids have worked on in each subject over the course of a year. This year, I'm going to have to go off of memory.

2 Use a transcript template. I have not created one, but a quick Google search reveals tons of free ones. Here are a few for you to take a look at:

• Homeschool Mom
• Homeschool Boss
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Southern Utah University (this one goes directly to a pdf; no email list to sign up on!)
• Nautilus Homeschool: This is a generator and the one that I tried. This is what my son's (5th grade, not high school!) transcript looks like for this year, minus identifying information:

3 Translate the activities your kids participated in into "educationalese." Did your kids spend all summer playing in their nearby creek? That's P.E. and science (trust me, whether they knew it or not, your kids were learning about plants and animals, gravity, and friction!). Did they spend hours upon hours playing a video game? Ask them about it. Talk to them. MANY video games are great to learn about resource management which is math. Plenty of video games cover science, history, or geography. If you're not sure how to do this, either respond to this email and I can help, or reach out to your favorite homeschool group. If your kids are playing a lot of games, check out this spreadsheet I created (I'm working on updating it now!).

4 What about the high school years, though? For younger kids, I prefer jotting down notes of what they did AFTER it's done and let their interests lead a lot. We do things pretty seat-of-our-pants. However, the high school years are about preparing your child for their life after high school, whether that means college, trade school, an apprenticeship, starting a business, or anything else.

College is probably the easiest to prepare for as so many do it so the process is well-documented. Start by looking at some schools your child might be interested in and see what their admissions requirements are for homeschoolers. From there, plan what they'll need in reverse; if you know they'll need 4 years of math (most STEM majors require this), then make sure they'll get that.

Okay, I definitely need to make this into a blog post! Hah! Anyway, I hope this helps you this spring as you're maybe grappling with how to document your child's academic progress. Until next time,

Happy Gaming!

Ashley

Gypsy Gameschooler