The end of our school year is quickly approaching.  (Praise the Lord!)  It's been a long, drawn out year for us - starting July 1st, taking a huge baby break and then starting up again.  I think we're down to 12 "official" days.  We'll continue some light, fun learning through the summer, but more on that in another post.

So many people ask me, "What do I need to keep for records of our school year?"  So, I'm going to tell you what I keep.  In KY, we are required to keep an attendance record and proof that we have taught the required subjects.  For a list of required subjects, visit http://www.chek.org/bestpractice/index.html

Each year, I keep my record of attendance, lesson plans, curriculum list, letter of intent, certified letter to the DPP receipt, any other legal correspondences and narrative report cards in a 1" three-ring binder.  I keep the entire binder as part of my yearly records. 

As you can see below, we keep everything we've done all year in various folders and notebooks - one for each subject.  At the end of the school year, I go through most notebooks (or subjects) and pull out a sampling from the beginning of the year, middle of the year and end of the year.  I choose well-done work only and try to choose things that show a good progression of skills from the beginning of the year to the end.  The subjects I narrow down like this include handwriting/copywork, math, grammar/phonics, spelling and art.  I tend to keep more art than just a few pieces, but I try to weed out all but the best.

 For science and history/geography, I keep all the work.  We spend a lot of time putting together nice notebooks, lapbooks and timelines.   They make great resources for us to go back through as we move on to other science topics and history eras.  Not to mention, if the DPP ever shows up at my door, I would just love for him to see the fun we have learning as he looks through these!

After I've gathered the lesson plan book, the science and history things and the folder with a sampling of all other work, I add any co-op awards, school pictures, certificates or other important things to each child's pile.  In such a lovely and highly technical fashion, I rubberband each child's pile and then file them away in a Rubbermaid tote!  This tote is holding five years worth of records.

So there you have it.  It's a very simple system.  I have proof if needed and a great reminder of each school year!