Getting organized from the start is always huge for helping me (as our homeschool administrator) have a great year. When I have things organized and in place everything else just seems to flow better, especially the evaluating and reporting. Thankfully we don't have to do much of that here in southern Mexico, but as a trained teacher, I still keep track of things as if we were reporting them in more detail, because you never know when the educational atmosphere will change.
Here are my tips for organizing your computer for the school year. Just a few minutes of on-purpose set up will make it extremely easy for you to file things in the right places throughout the year. The results of this will save you hours when it comes time to report at the end of the year.
How to Organize Your Computer for the School Year
Option 1, Organize Files by School Year
2015-2016 School Year
- Child 1
- Child 2
- Child 3
2016-2017 School Year
- Child 1
- Child 2
- Child 3
Option 2, Organize Files by Child
Child
- Age 5/Kindergarten (2015-2016)
- Age 6/ First Grade (2016-2017)
- Age 7/ Second Grade (2017-2018)
For each child each year, you want to keep track of such things as attendance, your curriculum list, their reading list, any extra-curriculars, report cards and test scores, samples of work, etc. According to what your state requires you to keep. These can be documented in various forms such as scanned papers, photos, videos, audios, digital etc.
You can also organize any digital curriculum either by child, by subject or by grade, but we'll discuss that in more detail in another post.
Having these file folders all set up makes it very easy to save things to the correct file as you go and makes end of the year reporting a breeze. And if you like to keep paper records instead, you can apply to same type of organization to the files in you box or drawer.
Links to Printables:
- Attendance form
- Curriculum list
- Report cards
- These 2 resources are also fabulous and filled with all of the forms and recording you'll need this year. Click the images below to check them out!
April D says
Thanks, Katie! Great ideas!