Record-keeping is the part of homeschooling nobody enjoys and everybody has to do something about. The good news is that it is five pages, ruled once in August, filled in for about four minutes a week.
Every page below is written out in full. Copy them into a notebook or print this page.
First: check what your state actually wants
Requirements vary enormously. Some states want nothing at all. Others want attendance, or a set number of instructional hours or days, or subject coverage, or annual assessment, or a portfolio of work samples reviewed by an evaluator.
Find your state’s current requirements before you build anything — your state homeschool organization or education department page is the place, and it is worth re-checking each August because requirements do change. Do not build a portfolio system for a state that only wants a notice of intent.
What follows covers the common requirements. Rule only the pages you actually need.
1. Attendance
Forty rows covers a 180-day year at five days a week. Fill it Friday.
| Week | Dates | M | T | W | T | F | Days | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||||
| 2 | ||||||||
| 3 | ||||||||
| 4 |
The running total is the column that matters. Without it you have no idea in February whether you are ahead or behind, and finding out in April is too late to fix.
A note worth writing on the page: field trips, museum days, co-op and educational travel count as school days in most states. Many families under-count by leaving those off.
2. Hours
Only if your state counts hours rather than days. Estimate weekly — nobody sustains daily hour logging for thirty-six weeks, and a Friday estimate is more accurate than four days of guesses and one honest entry.
| Week | Child 1 | Child 2 | Child 3 | Running total 1 | Running total 2 | Running total 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | ||||||
| 3 | ||||||
| 4 |
What counts as instructional time is usually broader than people assume: reading aloud, documentaries, cooking as math, a museum, a nature walk, driving practice, a child reading independently. Check your state’s definition and count honestly rather than conservatively.
3. Subject coverage
The page that satisfies "which subjects did you teach" without requiring a lesson-by-lesson record. One row per subject, one column per month, a tick or a note.
| Subject | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Math | ||||||||||
| Language arts | ||||||||||
| Science | ||||||||||
| History and social studies | ||||||||||
| Health and PE | ||||||||||
| Art and music | ||||||||||
| Other |
Write the curriculum or resource used in the cell rather than a tick. "Saxon 5, lessons 1–20" is a record; a checkmark is not.
4. Reading log
Usually the easiest language-arts evidence you will produce, and the only record a child will fill in themselves.
| # | Title | Author | Finished | Read by / read to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||
| 2 | ||||
| 3 |
The last column matters for records: it distinguishes independent reading from read-alouds, and both count for different things. The format children will actually fill in is in a reading log your homeschooler will actually fill in.
5. Work samples
If your state wants a portfolio, keep a log of what you kept rather than trying to remember in May.
| Date | Child | Subject | What it is | Filed where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Rule of thumb: two or three samples per subject per term is plenty for most requirements, and one from early in the year plus one from late shows progress far better than six from March.
Photograph anything three-dimensional or oversized. A photo of a model volcano files much better than a model volcano.
How long to keep it
Requirements vary, but the practical answer most experienced homeschoolers give is: keep everything until the child graduates, and keep high school records permanently. High school transcripts and course descriptions may be requested by colleges, employers or the military years later, and reconstructing them is close to impossible.
Scan the whole file at the end of each year. It takes an hour and it protects against fire, flood and a leaking roof.
The four-minute Friday routine
- Tick the attendance row and update the running total. One minute.
- Estimate the week’s hours per child, if your state counts them. One minute.
- Note anything new in the subject coverage grid. One minute.
- Put any work samples in the file and log them. One minute.
Four minutes a week is thirty-six minutes a semester. Reconstructing the same records in May takes an entire weekend and is less accurate.
Where these pages live
In the planner, not in a separate folder. A record page in a different room does not get filled in on a Friday.
Put all five behind one tab near the front — the full section order is in the multi-child planner build, and a pocket divider at the back holds the work samples until they get filed properly.
Rule the attendance page today
Forty rows, nine columns, twenty minutes. It is the page most states want and the one that is genuinely painful to reconstruct.
Add the others only if your state asks for them.