How To Set Up a Homeschool Portfolio with Free Printables

It’s the end of the homeschool year and many of us homeschool moms are attempting to set up a portfolio of our kids’ work. This is the very first year I have ever set up a portfolio, but I wanted to show you how I have set it up for my three oldest children who are currently full time homeschoolers. Today we are going to take a look at how to set up a homeschool portfolio with free printables. 

What Should Be Included in a Homeschool Portfolio?

Let’s get started with this basic question. What should you include in your homeschool portfolio? Each state is different when it comes to requirements for a homeschool portfolio. I have only homeschooled in two states and neither had requirements for a portfolio, so I could choose whatever I wanted. Make sure to look up the requirements for your state, but here’s a run-down of what I have included in my homeschool portfolio:

• School Calendar
• Attendance Record
• Curriculum List for Each Subject
• Group Read-Alouds
• Field Trips
• Individual Student Samples: math, language arts, science, handwriting, writing, history, art, individual book logs, etc.

You could also include a P.E. log if you wish. 

I tend to keep about three samples of each subject for my students. For example, you could have a handwriting sample from the beginning of the school year, the middle of the year, and the end. The goal is to show progress in your portfolio.

You could also include any progress reports you’ve kept through the school year, goals sheets you made, and note you’ve taken.

You’ll see in my video that I attempted to take notes of our school year every month. Those sheets are included in the portfolio, as well as “about me” pages my children completed when we began the year.

How Do I Organize My Homeschool Portfolio?

I use one large three ring binder to assemble my homeschool portfolio. The first page in our portfolio is our school calendar, followed by our attendance record. I then include all of my teacher’s notes, group subjects page (created using a word doc), and our field trips.

Each child then has their own section for me to place samples of their work. This works especially well for subjects that we do not use notebooks for such as language arts, spelling, handwriting, math, and all of my kindergartner’s work. Since we use Teaching Textbooks for our older children, I simply printed their scores for our portfolio. I used a page protector to hold artwork that the kids wanted to keep.

We do use notebooks with My Father’s World and The Good and the Beautiful science and writing. Our science and writing binders will be on-going, so the kids will continue adding to them throughout elementary and middle school. When we finish a year in My Father’s World, I simply remove all of their notebooking pages from their binders and use my binding machine to keep them together. And that’s it!

Homeschool Portfolio Pack

If you like the look of an organized portfolio, you can get cover and divider pages for FREE! I do plan to design my own, but for now I am using these super cute free homeschool portfolio pages from Bless My Budget. She even has graduation certificates!