High School Record-Keeping

High School Record Keeping Tools

Our team of homeschool moms has found homeschooling high school exciting and quite an adventure! Yet, one area that many of us dread is high school homeschool record-keeping. Once your student reaches high school regardless of your homeschooling method, records are very important for college, technical school admission, and job applications.

Find homeschool high school printable templates, guides, and downloads for the following:

 

Track Your Daily and Weekly Grades

Printable Homeschool Grade Book

Most homeschoolers know that taking daily grades in elementary homeschooling is optional, but once your student reaches high school tracking those grades in order to have a formal foundation for the high school transcript is so important. There are several options for tracking daily and weekly grades in your homeschool.

Printable Homeschool Report Cards

This is an optional area of record-keeping, but one that many homeschoolers agree makes transcript creation just a little easier. You see, if you’ve been creating a progress report or a report card every nine weeks throughout high school, then you’ll have all your student’s grades right at your fingertips.

Homeschool Volunteer Work and Extra-curriculars

Printable Community Service Log

Community service, internships, and volunteer work is a great way for your teen to broaden their horizons and get experience in the fields that they are considering for their future career. However, as your teen spends those hours volunteering, it’s important to track that valuable experience. You’ll want to keep a record of what he/she does and how many hours they spent doing it. We’ve saved you some time and created a simple volunteer hours tracking sheet, just click and print.

Homeschool Athletics and Extra-curricular Tracking

By the time your teen graduates from high school you’ll have your official “record-keeper” title. Seriously though, don’t forget to track any and all athletic and extra-curricular activities that your teen is involved in. This can include individual as well as team sports, and also any music, drama, fine arts, speaking, and leadership activities.

  • Athletic and Extra-curricular Tracking Log

Your Four-Year High School Plan

Why You Need a Four Year Plan

Once your teen is ready for high school, it’s always a good idea to help them think about their future. What do they dream of becoming? And then help them ask the tough questions like, “What do I need to do to accomplish my dream?”, “What is the best path to arriving at my dream career?” These questions will help them begin to formulate a plan. Along these lines, it’s a good idea to find out what is required and then build a high school course of study that supports preparing the teen for that future dream. This plan is typically referred to as a “four-year high school plan.”

It’s also very important to keep track of what courses have been taken at each stage of homeschooling high school.  Student’s should have a goal in mind and each year choose courses that align with state requirements and support that goal. As the student progresses through the four years of high school, tracking the course progress is important to determine which courses you should take next.

 

Creating a Four Year High School Plan

Weekly Planner for Parents and Teens

One of the best ways to organize your homeschool is to use a planner. Our team of homeschool moms has decades of experience with homeschool planners, some of which are super helpful. Over the years, we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t and have taken the time to pull together our experience and create a homeschool planner that really does “save our sanity!” Welcome to our Sanity Saver Homeschool Planner series.  We have a planner for everyone in your homeschool, from the little ones just learning how to plan all the way up to mom who needs a plan for homeschool, the home, and even meals. Our planners are free for you to print. We encourage you to print them in color because they are just seriously beautiful, but also put them in a three ring binder to help you re-arrange and print multiples of the pages you’ll reuse often.

 

Homeschool Planners for Everyone

Calculating a Grade Point Average

What is a High School GPA?

Another mystery of high school homeschooling is how to calculate a high school grade point average, also known as a GPA. Yes, it can be tricky especially if you decide to weight some of your student’s AP or college prep classes. However, our guide to calculating a GPA takes you step-by-step through the process simplifying it for all of us!

 

How to Calculate a High School GPA

High School Transcripts

How to Create a Homeschool High School Transcript?

Creating the homeschool transcript is by far the most daunting part of the homeschool high school experience. But, don’t worry! Making a high school transcript does take time and effort, but it isn’t impossible.

Begin with a good solid daily/weekly record-keeping method and your foundation is in place. As you proceed through high school, record and describe each course that is taken. Finally, taking note of all your student’s academic and extra-curricular achievements will put the icing on the cake for college admissions officers. Your goal is to make a transcript that in one glance, describes your student to an admissions counselor. Do your best to paint the full picture with academic, extra-curricular, and social achievements.

Guide to Homeschool High School Transcripts

The Highschool Diploma

There is always a myriad of questions surrounding the homeschool high school diploma.

Does my child qualify for a diploma? Can I make my own diploma?

You Can Make Your Own High School Homeschool Diploma

However, in most states in America, the high school diploma is simply created by the homeschooling parent (considered the “teacher of record”) and is considered a legal document. You will, of course, be obligated to have the records that prove your teen has completed the required course of study for your homeschool. However, a sampling of those records or even your official grade book will do. Then you create the diploma or use a high school diploma template, fill out the necessary information, and add your official signature and date of graduation.

We’ve taken the time to create a package of four high-quality professional-looking diplomas that you can print on ivory diploma weight card-stock. Choose your favorite from the pdf below.

High School Homeschool Diploma Tips

 

Guide to Homeschooling High School

If you’re still unsure of where to start and how to reach your goals for high school homeschooling, you’ll want to take some time to read our Guide to Homeschooling High School. We created it from our own experiences homeschooling and graduating our students over the past few years. It’s a simple easy to understand ebook that you’ll find valuable for years to come!

 

Start with a solid foundation, click below.