Homeschooling is a great way to give your child the best education possible. But with so many responsibilities on your plate, it can be easy to neglect to track homeschool attendance. Here are some tips for keeping track of your child’s attendance and ensuring they get the credit they deserve for their hard work!
How to Keep Track of Your Homeschool Attendance
Keeping track of your homeschool attendance is a must. You need to know your requirements and how to keep it simple so that you can track all your hours of school work.
You have two options: keeping a paper logbook or journal or using an online program with attendance tracking.
1. Choose a Record-Keeping System That Works for You
There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a record-keeping system, but the most important one is that it works for you. Different people find different ways to be productive, so there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. You’ll need to find the system that fits your personality, learning style, and time constraints.
If you’re still not sure which method to keep track of homeschool attendance would work best for your family, make sure you look into these factors:
- Time available: How much time do both parents and children have available? If they cannot dedicate too much time to record keeping, then an online option might be best as it’s quick and easy for everyone involved. Or if their schedule permits more flexibility during those times when homework isn’t required—for example, holidays or summer vacations—then maybe pen-and-paper tracking could work better than computerized methods since it gives everyone more control over what information gets recorded each day.
- Detail needed: Do any specific details need recording? For instance, do parents want certain aspects of their homeschooling experience documented so they can prove them later on down the line? Should anyone ever question whether or not their child was actually attending classes every day according? If so, consider using some sort of software like Homeschool Tracker, which allows users access logs containing attendance records and other relevant details such as grades earned each semester.
- Cost: You should look at what kind of expenses you want to have regarding record-keeping before investing in one method. The cheapest way is to use a google calendar on your phone, it is free, but you must remember to log your time.
2. Keep It Simple
There are many ways to keep track of homeschool attendance. The best way for you to do this is to keep it simple. You don’t need a complicated system with multiple calendars, logbooks, and apps. Just find the method that works for you and stick with it. Here are some ideas:
- A paper calendar
- A paper logbook or journal
- An online attendance log (Google Calendar is free)
- Homeschool Tracker
- Record keeping online through your homeschool video or courseware program
3. Know What You’re Required to Track
Before you can start tracking attendance, you need to know what law requires. Each state has its own laws regarding homeschool attendance—some require parents to submit lesson plans or proof of instruction for their children, while others have no regulations.
In order to find out what your state requires in terms of homeschool attendance, check with the Department of Education website. You can also check out our guide to homeschooling by state. Each state has different regulations. You might also want to ask other parents who have been through this process in your area before making any decisions about how you’ll keep track of homeschool attendance.
4. Keep A Paper Logbook or Journal to Keep Track of Homeschool Attendance
Although many homeschooling parents use software or app to keep track of their children’s attendance, some prefer to use a paper logbook. If you belong to this group, there are several ways to keep your logbook organized and easy to navigate.
One way is by creating an index at the beginning of your logbook so that it’s easy for both yourself and your child to reference lessons when needed. For example, if your child has completed one unit of history and moved on to another subject within that same unit (for example: if they have recently finished studying Ancient Egypt), then they would look under “Egypt” in the index instead of being forced back through all the units they’ve completed since starting school again after the summer break; this will save both time and frustration when trying figure out which subjects were already covered by previous lessons before adding new ones!
Another way is by keeping track of attendance according to each individual subject rather than as one block whole class period at once (i.e., Monday through Thursday means three separate days for each subject). This may be especially helpful during holidays where there may not be any schoolwork due yet still need proof either way before returning after the break ends next year though not everyone has enough space available on their calendar pages without going over budget with buying additional items such as file folders.
You can also simply use a check-in check-out method. What time did you start school? What time did you end school? Maybe have the date and a notes section for the subject. If this kind of paper log sounds helpful, then you can get our free homeschool attendance log printable from the printable library.
5. Online Curriculums Keep Track of the Days You Logged In
Online curriculums are a great way to keep track of homeschool attendance. They can be used to do just that and serve many other purposes. For example, they can help you keep track of days when your child logs in and out of the curriculum. This means that if your state requires a certain number of hours per year or per day (depending on their requirements), you can ensure that your child has logged enough time using a particular curriculum to count as their attendance record.
However, there are many online record-keeping options to choose from:
- Online curriculum and courseware
- Power Homeschool
- Homeschool Tracker
- Google Calendars
- Time4Learning
6. Make Attendance-Keeping a Part of Homeschool Routine
Making attendance-keeping a part of your daily routine will make it easier to keep track of how many days your child has attended school. This is because you won’t have to put extra effort into remembering and recording each day’s attendance later on but rather can focus on the rest of your family’s schedule for the day.
The first step in making attendance-keeping a part of your homeschool routine is setting a time and place where you’ll take attendance each day. The best times are when everyone is together and occupied with working on a lesson. Simply fill out your log or check into your attendance tracker.
Homeschooling Means You Are Responsible for Your Children’s Education, Including Record-Keeping
Homeschooling means you are responsible for your children’s education, including record-keeping. This can be a challenge if you have several children, but there are ways to make it easier on yourself.
- Keep good attendance records in your planner or calendar. If you don’t already use a planner or calendar, consider starting one as soon as possible. It will help keep you organized and remind you of important dates such as report card due dates and other school events throughout the year.
- Record daily activities for each student in the morning before going anywhere else (i.e., after breakfast). The goal is simply to get through each day without forgetting what happened during the course of that day so that later on when writing out reports or essays (for those who homeschool older students).
I hope that this shows you how easy it can be to keep track of homeschool attendance. You don’t have to stress about it, but if you want your children to get a good education and keep your family on track with the law, then you will need some kind of record-keeping system in place. The key is finding one that works for both of you—and if all else fails, there are always paper logs or journals!
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