Sometime during summer break, the boys and I put together their portfolios for the past school year. We go back through all the papers and projects that we have saved, and we select the best examples of their work in Bible, art, math, reading, writing, etc. Some subjects such as history and science require their own notebook, so work from those subjects usually doesn’t make it into the portfolios.

We organize the work by subject and date, hole-punch it, and place it in a sturdy three-ring binder.  That is the hard part. Then comes the fun part. I have designed a cover template for them to fill in with a listing of all the books they used in each subject and space to answer several questions like the ubiquitous “What was your favorite subject this year?” I don’t know why I put that question on the portfolio cover each year because the answer from both boys is always “science!!!”. Then there is a large space in which they can list what they like to do at this particular stage of their lives. They love naming all the stuff they like to do. And I enjoy looking back at the previous portfolio covers to see how their modes of play and entertainment have changed over the years. Actually this is only Ben’s second portfolio, so I don’t have that much to look back on...but I can with Jake.  And finally, we browse back through all our photographs from the past year, and I let them select (with some guidance) a favorite picture of themselves to put on the portfolio cover. This usually takes some time; it is hard to choose just one!

Here are some pictures of their portfolios for the school year 2006-07.

Jake is our third-grader. He likes his picture because he is wearing his “Lion of Judah” shirt which has an Aslan look about it and because he is standing in front of a gorgeous waterfall in the Smokey Mountains. Ben is our kindergartner. He likes his picture because he is holding up a mushroom he found that was the size of his head. This poor mushroom met a terrible fate; a few minutes after this picture was taken, Ben set it on the driveway, got a running start on his bike, and CRUSHED the shroom. Of course, it was big enough to make him wreck and skin his knee, but in his mind it was all worth it! Especially since Pa got the whole thing on video. If we ever need a big laugh, we will take a look at Ben crushing the mushroom with his bike. Hysterical!