Homeschool Planner and Record Book: Attendance, Grades and Portfolio Log

This is a planner and record book designed for parents who homeschool one to four children and want the year's plans and proof in one place: attendance, grades, reading, trips, portfolio and reports. Nothing is dated, so you can start in any month and print it again next year. US Letter and A4 are both included, with a fillable edition for typing into.

Most homeschool planners help you plan the week and stop there. Then June arrives and someone asks how many days you did, what each child studied and whether there is any work to show. This book is built around those questions. The weekly pages are where you plan, and every Friday they feed the records: the attendance count, the grade record, the logs and the portfolio list. At the end of the year the reports are a matter of copying totals.

How it works

1. Before the year, about an hour. Fill in your homeschool, a year plan for each child (subjects, curriculum and resources, goals) and the school-year calendar.
2. Every Sunday, ten minutes. Plan the week on one two-page spread. Each row is a subject for one child, or for everyone together. Each day has a box for the lesson.
3. Every school day, seconds. Check off each lesson when it is done. If the day went another way, write what happened in the last column.
4. Every Friday, ten minutes. Write the week's dates on each child's attendance page, add any marks to the grade record, add books and outings to the logs, and choose one piece of work for the portfolio.
5. Each quarter and at the end of the year. Copy the totals into a one-page progress report, an end-of-year summary and a one-page year record laid out like a transcript.

Every form is shown filled in for one example family (three children aged 12, 9 and 6) before you are asked to fill in your own. The example's dates, day counts, hours and grades agree from page to page, so you can follow one week all the way into the records.

What is inside (162 pages)

• Start here: what the book is, how to use it in ten minutes a week, a filled-in week, what records families commonly keep and why, a table of which pages to print and when, and a binder cover.
• Year set-up: our homeschool (with a place to write the rules you looked up for where you live), a year plan for each of four children, a one-page school-year calendar, and terms, breaks and key dates.
• Attendance: a 180-day record for each of four children. Every school day has a numbered box for its date, so the count is always in front of you. There is a box for hours at the end of each row, and totals for each quarter.
• Weekly pages: 36 undated two-page spreads. Ten subject rows, Monday to Friday, a check box for every lesson, a column for what changed, and a weekly attendance table for four children.
• Grades: three simple ways to grade if you never have, then sixteen grade records (four children, four terms). Each has a table for marked work and a table for end-of-term grades.
• Logs: a reading log for each child, a field trip and activity log, a one-page guide to what belongs in a portfolio, and a portfolio log for each child.
• Reports: sixteen quarterly progress reports, an end-of-year summary for each child, and a year record in transcript style for each child.
• Six section dividers, with a tab printed down the edge of every page.

What you download

• The book in US Letter and A4, for reading on screen.
• A fillable edition in both sizes: every line is a box to type in and every check box can be clicked.
• A print edition in both sizes: white pages that are light on ink and clear in black and white, in one ZIP with a one-page Start Here sheet.

Good to know

• Both paper sizes are in the download. You do not have to choose when you buy.
• Every child's page comes four times, marked Child 1 to Child 4. With fewer children, leave the spare pages unprinted. With more than four, print a set again.
• It works with any curriculum, or none. It is a planner and record book, not a curriculum, and it does not tell you what to teach.
• Secular. No dates, no holidays and no country's school year are printed.
• Homeschool rules are different in every state and country. This book does not say what yours are and is not legal advice. It tells you to check your state education department and gives you a place to write down what you find.
• The attendance pages count to 180 because that is the most common length of a US public school year. If your number is different, stop at yours or print the page again.
• Write-in lines are 8 mm apart. Side margins are wide enough for a hole punch.
• The fillable edition is made for a desktop PDF reader such as the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. Many phone and tablet apps do not keep typed entries. To handwrite on a tablet, use the print edition.
• Print at 100% or "actual size", not "fit to page".
• Spelling is American. Terms, semesters and quarters all work.