Learn how to create a homeschool portfolio with this simple tutorial. With just a few basic school supplies, you can create a homeschool portfolio to record your homeschool year.
We have been busy enjoying springtime outside, watching the flowers bloom and painting watercolors of the bumblebee that we found dead in our kitchen.
With the blossoming spring, comes the reminder that we are closing in on the end of the school year, and we need to begin to think about creating a homeschool portfolio.
Each year we complete a portfolio to comply with the record keeping requirements of our state’s homeschool law.
WHAT IS A HOMESCHOOL PORTFOLIO?
A portfolio is simply a tool to demonstrate academic progress. It is basically a compilation and memorial of the education that took place over the past year. In short, a summary of your school year.
A portfolio may be digital or physical. A traditional physical homeschool portfolio may be a binder, folder, lapbook or any other item used for the organization of papers and objects into a presentation of school work for the past year.
There’s nothing like flipping through the pages of a finished portfolio!
A portfolio is a wonderful way to remember the fun and hard work, as well as the progress and growth, of the past year of your (homeschool) life!
Once you have completed a portfolio of your homeschool year, it will feel like icing on the proverbial cake of the last year of your efforts!
It is such a sense of accomplishment!
WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN A HOMESCHOOL PORTFOLIO?
You MUST include everything required by the law! However, you also MAY want to include more than just the basic requirements.
The purpose of our homeschool portfolio is to demonstrate “sustained progress” in our overall homeschool program.
Along with fulfilling our legal obligations, we also use our homeschool portfolio as a delightful way to document the growth, development, and life of each child throughout the school year.
Ideas of what you COULD include in your homeschool portfolio:
- Copies of the legal documents (depending on your laws, this could be a copy of your affidavit or notice of intent, immunization records, annual objectives, etc.)
- Standardized test scores
- Attendance chart or hours of instruction record
- Curriculum
- Reading log
- Field trip log
- Educational movies, shows or documentaries watched
- Extracurricular activities, including community service activities
- Awards and certificates earned
- Student work samples, writings, worksheets, workbooks, or pictures of other samples
- Short summary of the learning that took place for each subject or topic studied
How to Create a Homeschool Portfolio
1. Research your requirements.
To begin, it is important to research the homeschool law of for creating a portfolio where you live.
I have found www.hslda.org to be an excellent resource to research the laws in my state. If you live in the United States and would like to learn more about your local homeschooling laws, I highly recommend that you take some time to look through their website.
The state of Pennsylvania has a requirement that I must maintain a portfolio for my students as documentation of our homeschooling year. Our state’s homeschooling law dictates some of the specific contents of our portfolios.
I am not an attorney, so the information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. All information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. You should contact an attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter.
Your local laws may have no requirements or completely different requirements! Be sure to research what is required where you live.
2. Gather your supplies
Now you may have a better idea of what you want to include in your portfolio, it is time to gather the needed items.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
Materials and supplies you may need:
- A Binder for each portfolio (one for each student) https://amzn.to/3ipZGdW
- Subject dividers https://amzn.to/3puhMwN
- Page protectors for paper https://amzn.to/3zdZX9Q (or a 3 whole punch to insert the papers directly)
- Page protectors for photos https://amzn.to/3g0SAL0 (or glue and cardstock paper to insert the photos directly)
- Pen or marker https://amzn.to/3cnPE92
- Optional: Computer/Paper/Pen
- Optional: Notepad/Post-It Notes/Pens
First, look at the items you have on hand and make a note of what you may need to pick up or order. The take some time to order (or pick up) the supplies you need.
Now you’re ready to begin building your portfolio!
3. Compile the contents
Because of our homeschool style, it makes sense to for me to organize our portfolios by subject.
You may find that it would be a better fit for your family if you organize your portfolio by date or by unit study.
Here are the simple steps to compile the contents of your portfolio:
How To Create A Homeschool Portfolio
Materials
- A Binder (one for each student) https://amzn.to/3ipZGdW
- Subject dividers https://amzn.to/3puhMwN
- Page protectors for paper https://amzn.to/3zdZX9Q
- (or a 3 whole punch to insert the papers directly)
- Page protectors for photos https://amzn.to/3g0SAL0
- (or glue and cardstock paper to insert the photos directly)
- Pen or marker https://amzn.to/3cnPE92
- Optional: Computer
- Optional: Notepad
Instructions
- Label your first divider with the first subject (or date, or topic, however you're organizing your portfolio).
- On a piece of paper, list out the curriculum or books and materials used to study the subject.
- Next, write a summary of how learning took place for specific subject.
- Insert your list of curriculum and summary into a page protector behind the subject divider.
- Add photos of the subject.
- Finish the section by including samples developed by the student.
- Repeat steps 1-6 until each subject is completed.
Notes
Keep your homeschool planner handy to help jog your memory on things you want to include in the portfolio.
#1. Label your first divider with the first subject (or date, or topic, however you’re organizing your portfolio). To organize a portfolio, I list out the subjects specifically outlined in our law, and then I rearrange them according to my preference.
I arrange our subjects as follows:
English – Which includes reading, writing, and spelling
Math
Science
Social Studies – Which includes geography, US History, state history, and civics
Physical Development – Which includes safety, fire safety, health and physiology, and physical education
Fine Arts – Which includes music and art
Enrichment – Which includes summer learning activities, skills learned and practiced, field trips and gameschooling log!
#2. List out the curriculum or books and materials used to study the subject.
I usually record the curriculum we use in bibliographic style, and I include the author, title, date of publication, and the publisher. I do this for my own benefit. If I ever wanted to re-use the same curriculum, I would know exactly what I used previously! However, for the non-curriculum books that we use during schooling, I usually just record the author and title.
#3. Write a summary of how you studied that specific subject.
This is when I find it extremely helpful to pull out my homeschool planner. I flip through the pages and jot down notes on what we did to study specific subjects throughout the year. I’ll be honest, I simply do not have the extra brain cells to remember things like our fossil dig at the state park, our day of exploring and enjoying the historic Giant Wooden Slide (so fun!!), the afternoon we learned and practiced the life skill of following a recipe, nor the evening we spent “attending” a virtual Nutcracker Ballet performance.
I also enjoy keeping track of the idiosyncrasies of each child in this portion of the portfolio. For math, I might write something like,
“Christiana continues to excel at keeping track of time. Christiana enjoys keeping track of dates and special occasions, and many times will make a special calendar to count down to whichever special date is on the horizon. Christiana is continuing to work on timed fact sheets this year, and finds it a challenge to not get stressed out while completing the fact sheets. Christiana is learning to use basic math skills in everyday life as she follows recipes to make some favorite foods, and she enjoys making coffee for her dad.”
Christiana’s 4th Grade Portfolio
During this process, you may also find it helpful to make a note of what pictures you want to include in the portfolio.
#4. Complete the section by including samples developed by the student.
4. Add the finishing touches
Just for fun, I like to create a cover for the portfolio binder. If you would like to use one of the designs I created this year, you can download it below for free!
Finally, you should send the photos you want to include to the printer to be printed. Once printed, I insert the pictures using the photo page protectors.
5. Enjoy your work!
Ta da! Now that you’ve completed the portfolio, you will have an incredibly meaningful binder to keep as a fun memory book of what you did throughout the year.
I hope you and your student find the portfolio to be a treasure! A delightful binder you can look through again and again to remember the memories and some of the ways you have learned, grown, lived, and built your relationship throughout the year.
If you would like to see the finished product of our portfolio, here is a video I created to give you a look at a completed portfolio!
