Course descriptions are an important part of your homeschool student’s high school records, because they give colleges a great picture of what their homeschooling was like. Good record keeping is key to create those course descriptions. If you don’t keep good records, it will be hard to remember what he did, especially if you have multiple children. Use your records like the tools they are, and your course descriptions will be a breeze!

It is particularly easy to write a course description if you are using a textbook. Keep a photocopy of the book cover and table of contents, and you can create a complete course description with just that information. Another nice thing about using textbooks is that if you visit the publisher’s website or catalog, they often have course descriptions there, already written for you.

For a very easy course description experience, keep track of everything what you do is educational and use it to help you write your course descriptions. If you go to a museum, put the receipt in your records folder (or however you keep your records). If your student creates a sculpture, please take a photograph and keep it for your records. Every time you do something or go somewhere educational, figure out where you fit in and keep a record of it.

Of course, you don’t need to save everything! Your child will take a lot of tests and write a lot of papers, but he doesn’t have to keep all of them. Just keep the ones that are out of the ordinary, special, or a good performance, and include them with your records.

It is important to remember that record keeping is not a scrap stock! Those pretty pictures you took of the state fair should be kept in your scrapbook and not in your registry. If you have a tall football trophy from when your child was in fifth grade and won the Most Inspirational Student award, please don’t include it! That is a keepsake and not a part of your record keeping. Put away things that are academic in nature or things that are high school level.

don’t forget thatIt is relatively common for homeschool students to do high school level material. when they are younger. If, for example, your high school student is studying Algebra right now, be sure to keep some Algebra records even if they are not yet in ninth grade. It’s academic and it’s high school level, so it’s on the record!