Portfolios

This week my goal is to finish the speech therapy evaluations, put together a list of supplies, and figure out which curricula I'll be using this year. I only have a couple of textbooks that are "must have". The rest I either already have or can get through the library.

One thing I'm looking into is finding a way of organizing the kids records so that I can show they do indeed work on schoolwork without taking up a lot of space in the house. One book I've read talks about using portfolios of the kids' work. The idea is to only keep the stuff that highlights the year, kind of like an artist or writer's portfolio. I'm not sure how involved Rachel would be in the process (probably very with the way she's been lately)... I know Sarah would love the idea. :) Not to mention my other children.

And, of course, the reason I'm looking deeper into organization is because I will have four children in homeschool this year. One is starting to transition into doing this herself but she won't really be at that point for another couple of years. The other three need quite a bit of supervision and I need a system that practically runs itself. I understand portfolios (I was building one for myself for a while there) so I'm hoping this works out.

The most difficult part of schooling right now is space. All records and textbooks are kept in my room due to a certain little child's love of ripping paper, especially books. Until we train him otherwise, I've kept the really important stuff in my room. However, this means I don't have the luxury of a stand-alone workspace. Instead, I've dedicated some of the shelves in our room to homeschool storage. Once I get it organized, I may post some pics.

So, IEP's and evals today and curriculum stuff the rest of the week. Wish me luck!