Saturday, September 1, 2007

A Work in Progress

Well I've been working to put together a portfolio of some kind to organize Caleb's school work. Let me just say, straight from the get go, I have no clue about any of this. ;o) I have searched the internet and found some lists and suggestions, but nothing that included step by step instructions, so I am just winging it. lol ;o)

So far this is what I have come up with.

We found a lime green 1.5" binder. Just the color Caleb wanted. It has clear plastic on the front, back and side. I made a cover for the front. Sorry for the glaring picture, but it is the plastic reflecting the light.


I didn't realize it until we got home, but the binder also has pouches on the inside of the front and back covers. I thought this would be a good place to store important homeschool paperwork, like our application to the Dept. of Education. When we recieve our letter of approval back from the Minister of Education, then I will hole punch it and put it in the very front.

I used several (and I do mean several!) packages of subject dividers to keep each section by itself. So far the sections include..........weekly lesson plans, math outline, reading outline, grammar outline, math work samples, reading work samples, grammar work samples, library book list, media list (DVD, TV, Internet, Computer), reading list, handwriting samples, photos(in page protectors), field trips. And that is just to name a few. lol ;o)


This is a sample of the weekly lesson plan. I have the days listed across the top, and the subjects are listed down the side. I forgot to take a picture of the back, but it has the days listed and a spot to list chores, life skills, field trips, outings and outreach. Each month I will use a different color for the weekly pages. This month will be yellow, next month will be orange.....and so on. That will make it easy to find the month that I am looking for.


As I mentioned, I have lists to keep record of library books borrowed, media used (TV, Internet, computer, DVDs etc) and books read. I decided that these would get bright colored pages too! :o)


I'm still not 100% sure where I want each section to go just yet, so I have not labeled the dividers. So far, I have just used mini sticky notes to mark each tab. As I figure out where I want each one and in what order I want them then I will label them. For example, I thought I would have the math outline in one section and the math work samples in another section. Then I got thinking that they could be in the same section and I would print the outline on different colored paper so it would stand out from the samples.


So, as you can see, this is still very much a work in progress. I am glad that it is somewhat organized. That will make it easier to gather the samples as we go along and not have to try at the end of the year to pull it all together.

Now I just hope a 1.5" binder will hold it all!! :o)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I recently had to force myself not to buy the 3 inch binders! We could easily fill them up, I just don't have the storage space.

Debbie Ann said...

You are much more organized than I. With everything that's been happening around here, we haven't even 'officially' started our homeschooling year yet. My teenage boys are still working. My daughter has been keeping up w/her studies throughout the summer though so she's ahead at this point.

Debbie Ann said...

Hey-- while visiting the website Love To Learn Place, I found this:
http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/Discipline%20Helps/PortfolioIdeas.html

Thought it may have something here you might like to use.