You keep the tests, the cute projects and the recital programs. You take pictures on the first day of school. You have your weekly school schedules from the past two semesters in your homeschool binder. And now the year is over. You could introduce it all to Mr Recycle Bin. But then again, it also represents a year’s worth of work. Not just for your student, but for you. Your job, for the past 9-10 months has been this. This stuff. It’s not just a pile of papers, it represents thousands of hours of work and your student’s progress. So I like to get creative with it…
Using a large binder and some colourful (pocket!!!) dividers, I catalogue our freshly-completed school year. It’s a fun scrapbook of all the hard work. No, it’s not for meeting any state homeschool regulations. It’s how I close the mental tab on another school year and celebrate my student’s progress. So far, I’ve made three of these binders. It only takes a few hours to put together and then I’m free to clean out my school drawers and pack away textbooks. If you’re thinking of making a scrapbook of your homeschool year, let me first convince you that you definitely must try this and then share some ideas of what you could include.
8 Reasons You Should Make a Homeschool Portfolio Binder
- It’s fun. This is a chance for you to be creative and reflect on the school year. (And close that mental tab.)
- It’s a great way to celebrate your student’s progress. My daughter loves to flip through her binder once it’s completed.
- It’s an easy way to show dad or the grandparents what your student has accomplished this year.
- It’s a record to look back on when you’re planning a younger sibling’s school year.
- It’s a way to motivate your student to write well and take care with his work – it’s not going to end up in the bin, it’s going to be preserved in his binder.
- Even if you’re only sharing the binder with your student, it’s a great way to stay motivated to be thoroughly organised with your homeschool materials. I know some homeschool mothers have a difficult time staying on top of school schedules and paperwork, so this should encourage you to keep professional records. Not for anyone else necessarily, but for you.
- Everything needs a place. Don’t pretend you didn’t take a picture on the first day of school or at that important recital. Now those memories have a designated spot – not just on your phone’s camera roll.
- Space-saving efficiency. If you were already planning on keeping the school stuff and were considering a large plastic bin, then please, consider being selective and fitting it all into a cute homeschool binder instead. Much easier to flip through, enjoy, and store.
What do you need to make a homeschool portfolio binder?
- Binder: This depends on the amount of paperwork you’re keeping, but for me, by 2nd grade I was up to a 2-inch binder.
- Pocket Dividers: You will need enough for each subject you’re including, plus a few extra.
- Typed-up Inserts: This will be entirely up to you, but I like to use Canva to type up cute lists like what curriculum we used for each subject.
- Printed Pictures: I print the pics on my phone from the first and last day of school as well as other big moments during the year, like recitals and tournaments.
- Glue, Paper, & Pens: Whatever you need to make a cute cover.
- School Papers: You can see everything I included below, but this will be whatever schoolwork you want to save, including projects and/or crafts that fit. You can be selective here! What represents the best of your student and shows progress?
- Extras: Think the recital program with your child’s name, a certificate for completing another year of a club or activity, any kind of academic or extracurricular recognition that is worth including. If you saved it somewhere this long, might as well include it in the binder!
Things to Include in Your Homeschool Portfolio Binder
Schedules & Lists
If personal record-keeping is one of the reasons you’re making this binder, then I would definitely include all of your weekly schedules. (I shared how I make my weekly schedules in this post with a free printable.) Especially if you have younger kids and want to be able to look back at what you were doing in this grade, then having the actual schedules is a great idea.
And because I don’t use one single curriculum, I also type up a list of what textbooks were used for each subject. Again, it’s a great idea to keep a record of this information if you have younger kids and want to see what worked (and what didn’t). It’s also helpful if your student was using multiple textbooks for a subject or was ahead a grade in one subject.
Book lists are another record I keep for my student. At first, I got fancy and included cover art. Now I just keep a list of the books that she read during the school year – title, author, and total number of books.
Use Those Pockets!
The reason I advise splurging on the dividers with pockets is for pictures, certificates you don’t want to hole-punch, and any other random paraphernalia that you want to include. No, I don’t use all of them, but they are super nice for some of the sections.
Don’t Forget the Music
I like to include a copy of my daughter’s violin recital piece(s). It’s a record of the level of her playing at this moment in time, which will be so much fun to look back on in a few years. I also include any competition pieces, orchestra programs and copies of the orchestra music played. And of course, pictures!
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Walk-Through of a 3rd Grade Homeschool Portfolio
If you’re still curious about how to put this together, here is what I included in my daughter’s 3rd-grade portfolio this year:
- Table of Contents page, list of curriculum used for each subject, and the year’s weekly school schedules.
- Tests from Christian Studies I as well as some art from Sunday School and music she sang in the kids’ choir at church.
- Arithmetic tests and speed drills, as well as her sticker chart for memorising the times tables earlier in the year.
- English is where I insert her reading list for the year. It also includes spelling tests and creative writing assignments – she learned how to write a paragraph this year, so several of those.
- A selection of her cursive penmanship worksheets.
- French worksheets and translation exercises from First Start French.
- Tests from Latin and Greek Mythology.
- Recital program and a copy of her violin recital piece. As well as her competition pieces and orchestra pieces. Again, it’s fun to look back and see what level she was playing at in this grade.
- I have a section for ballet where I include her report card from the school, pictures, and a program from the end-of-year recital.
- Finally, I have a section for taekwondo. I type up a list of what belt ranks she went up this school year, tournaments she competed in, and how she placed. I insert her certificates and maybe a picture.
And then you’re done. No more random papers floating around. No more worrying about whether you should save tests or a cute craft. Select the best for the binder and toss the rest. Now you can organize the books, separate teh reusable books from the consumable books and start prepping for the next school year.
Keep Reading About…
How to prep a school year or how to make a weekly school schedule.
Read reviews of some of the curriculum we used this year:
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