How to Homeschool Part 4

Part 4: Portfolio and Evaluations

Hello there,

This is our last and final blog of this "How to Homeschool" workbook series.

Keeping a Homeschool Portfolio - Florida Specific - Don’t forget to check the laws in your state on what is required!

You may have heard the term "portfolio" tossed around while looking into homeschooling. A portfolio is your child's work from his or her time homeschooling. Families who are new to homeschooling may have some worries about this, but it is much easier to maintain this living body of work than a lot of parents know.

Here are a few tips about keeping a portfolio:

By law, a portfolio needs to have 2 things:

1. A log of educational activities that is made contemporaneously with the instruction and that designates by title any reading materials used and reading log

2. Samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials used or developed by the student.

Log of Educational Activities defined:

A good way to maintain a log of educational activities is to document what you did at the end of each day. Some parents create lesson plans weekly and then check off everything they actually completed. Whichever way you choose to do this is fine! You can also make it so that you say what you did in the past week. Since this is supposed to be Contemporaneously (around the same time) you do not want to wait too long to record your work.

Samples of student work

This is where families can get creative. The goal of this portion of the portfolio is to show that your child has made progress throughout her or his school year. You don't need to keep all of their work, but have something from at least every two weeks to show growth.

There are many ways to keep samples of work. A lot of parents choose to keep everything in big three-ring-binder. Another option is to file student work into folders as you go along. Some families set up an album on Instagram or Facebook or even email photos to themselves of students' work and log of activities. I, personally, combined keeping an album on Facebook and filing the paper assignments. I like that I have two formats so that if I lose one for whatever reason, I have a backup somewhere.

Performing an Annual Evaluation

According to Florida Law, parents must have their child evaluated annually based on the date they filed their letter of intent. The parent is responsible for choosing which method of evaluation they use and sending a copy to their district. See the different methods below.

1. A teacher selected by the parent shall evaluate the student’s educational progress upon review of the portfolio and discussion with the student. Such teacher shall hold a valid regular Florida certificate to teach academic subjects at the elementary or secondary level;

2. The student shall take any nationally normed student achievement test administered by a certified teacher;

3. The student shall take a state student assessment test used by the school district and administered by a certified teacher, at a location and under testing conditions approved by the school district;

4. The student shall be evaluated by an individual holding a valid, active license pursuant to the provisions of s. 490.003(7) or (8); or

5. The student shall be evaluated with any other valid measurement tool as mutually agreed upon by the district school superintendent of the district in which the student resides and the student’s parent.

Most parents choose option 1 by having a certified teacher fill out an evaluation form after reviewing the students portfolio. We offer this service at Kind Academy and you can usually find evaluators in the groups we discussed earlier. See examples of the form we use in Broward here.

Activity Time: Write down which option you think you would choose for your own child’s annual evaluation and the reason why.

Reminder! Terminating your Homeschool Program

One thing I was not aware of before I started homeschooling was that we also have to notify the county if we ever decide to stop homeschooling. This is called a notice of termination. This must be done within 30 days of ending your homeschool program.

See the reasons this could happen below:

1. You are moving from one county to another (this has now changed and you can use a transfer form - request one from your district).

2. You are moving out of Florida

3. You are graduating your child from homeschool

4. You are enrolling your child into a public or private school or full time tutoring program.

Thanks for reading us!

I hope this 4 parts blog on "How to Homeschool" was helpful in answering your questions, please feel free to reach out at kindacademyrocks@gmail.com if you ever have anymore!

We look forward to seeing you on this homeschooling journey and glad to have you along for the ride! It truly is some of the most fun I have ever had!

Contact us

Facebook www.facebook.com/thekindacademy

Instagram @kind_academy

Web www.kindacademy.org

Phone 754-204-8310

Homeschool 101 Workbook

Presented by Kind Academy Founder : Iman Alleyne

*Please be aware that you should always check the homeschool laws in your specific county/state before homeschooling*