Email of the Day:
Hi, I have home schooled my kidlet for the past X years. For each grade, *he had an assessment or test at the end of the year by a teacher. I am wondering how long I should hang on to her work from these years? It’s beginning to take up quite a bit of space. Thank you.
Answer:
Aside from the test or assessment results from each year, you are free to keep (or discard) as much (or as little) work as you like. If you want to box up every single last piece of it and recycle/ pass on all of it on today, you may. (It’s too hot today in Spokane to do that kind of heavy lifting — I would wait for a break in this infernal (inferno?) weather).
Here are things that I would consider keeping, beyond what the law requires:
If you have an inkling that you’d like to send her to highschool, and you cover WA state history (not a homeschooling requirement, but a public school graduation requirement), keep a lot of solid documentation on that so it can transfer to the highschool.
Once she is in highschool (homeschooling highschool), keep good enough records that you can create a transcript (or create the transcript as you go along). Reading lists and currricula lists are useful, but none of it is required.
Finally, do not think of what you have saved as part of your “mis-spent” youth — you’ve just laid a firm (if overbuilt) foundation for keeping highschool records. You’re not likely to be one of us who had to wrack our brains in a mad scramble to create a highschool transcript.
Let your files go without a second, maddening, guilty thought. They’ve served their purpose, which was to remind you that you’re doing a great job. You know that — and they’ve told you that, which is why they freed you to write this note to me. You’re ready.
Warmly,
–Jen Garrison Stuber, WHO Board Advocacy Chair