We have to keep a homeschool portfolio for each child for each year that we homeschool. I have been keeping physical, paper portfolios for each year, only to scan the work my kids have done so that I can send it to our school board. This has gotten me to thinking that maybe instead of keeping a paper portfolio we should just keep a digital copy.
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Keeping A Digital Homeschool Portfolio
You may not need to keep a portfolio, make sure to check with your state or school board. Though it may be a good idea to keep one for future reference. I will continue to keep one for each of my kids even after we leave Saskatchewan, I like having a record of things done throughout the year.
Shortcuts for Keeping a Digital Homeschool Portfolio
There are some shortcuts that I have taken in keeping our portfolios that I am going to share with you here.
Update Your Homeschool Portfolio Frequently
Once a month, usually at the end of the month I update it. I update with any reading done, field trips, extracurricular activities, etc.
Utilize Google Drive for your Homeschool Portfolio
I started using Google Drive to keep my periodic log for my kids this year. What a game-changer! I found myself wanting to add something we were doing to their periodic log while we were out, but couldn’t because I had always had it on my laptop. Now, I can add it from anywhere, which works great for those times when they are busy doing their thing and I’m sitting on the sidelines waiting for them, killing time.
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Library Reading History
Our library gives you the opinion to track what books have been checked out over a long period of time. Because there are five of us using one card, the reading history on my account is quite long, but I can usually tell which books have been checked out and by whom.
Use an Instagram Hashtag
If you use Instagram to share things that you’re doing in your homeschool with family and friends, or in general, create a unique hashtag to tag photos with. I tag the ones that are working on something special, or field trips, etc. For me, it makes finding those photos easy than scrolling through my profile at the end of each month.
Keeping Work Samples for your Digital Homeschool Portfolio
If your kids aren’t only doing online/digital work, you are going to need a scanner or a camera to snap pictures of their work. We have a three-in-one printer which has been a dream come true for our homeschool so I scan their work sample. I already scanning them to email to the school board at the end of the year, so why not just keep the scanned/digital copy?
Less Cluttered Home and School
Keeping a digital copy of their portfolio for me, mean that I’m not having to store their portfolio binders, or at least I won’t have to in the future. As we try to cut down on the clutter and get ready to move these are binders that won’t have to go with us once I make sure to have them backed up on my Google Drive account.
Having digital copies meant that when we moved across the country, I wasn’t having to make room for or haul copies of work, or heavy binders with us.