Homeschooling  with Autism

The organization and keeping track of homeschooling work papers, artwork, and other important documents can be a difficult task. For each year of your child’s homeschooling year, it is a great idea to use a file box to store papers and work. This way you have a safe place to put all their work in there that you wish to keep. When the box is full, you can go through it to determine what is important to keep and what needs to be recycled. At our house, we have a colour-coded system for each year of homeschooling. We found that coloured binders, file folders, and notebooks have helped us stay organized. The colour-coding system has helped us better manage our schedule and our homeschooling supplies. For binders, you can keep tabs on the subjects you need making it easier to file. For charts that we like to reuse several times that can be written on with dry-erase markers; we laminate them or use page protectors.

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Homeschooling Portfolios are a great way to show a visual representation of your child’s learning progress for each year they are homeschooled.  A Homeschooling Portfolio is encouraging to both you and your child along your homeschooling journey.  It provides both of you the opportunity to look back and enjoy reviewing days gone by where your child has conquered a challenge with success and can see how far they have come!

 

While you should keep your Homeschooling Portfolio for several years after to document your child’s growth and development, it is not necessary (or reasonable) to keep every single piece of work that your child has done.   It should only contain the best and most relevant pieces of their completed work to emphasis and highlight their academic and personal achievements by a collection of sample work, documents and photographs of projects or activities that your child has accomplished throughout the homeschooling year. It should also contain important legal documents such as your “Notice of Intent/Letter of Acknowledgement” and any important medical information. Creating a Homeschooling Portfolio offers many positive benefits to your homeschooling and it is a rewarding keepsake.  Creating a Homeschooling Portfolio from the beginning  and during your homeschooling journey will relieve some stress and worry involved in the process and you won’t have to panic and scramble to get everything all together all at once at the end of the year.

 

In Ontario, you are not required to have a year-end evaluation, however, the law can change at any time and you never know if there will ever be a need that arises where you need to have evidence of your homeschooling. 

 

By tracking your child’s homeschooling work and medical information, you are creating important proof that you are providing “satisfactory instruction at home” as outlined in the Ontario Education Act in accordance with subsection 21(2), clause (a) the person is receiving satisfactory instruction at home or elsewhere; and (b) the person is unable to attend school by reason of sickness or other unavoidable cause;

 

A Homeschooling Portfolio could be created in print or digital format or a combination of both.  While we take every effort possible to be paperless to avoid excess amount of paper items in our home as well as the important issue of being environmentally friendly, there still are some things that simply can’t be avoided when it comes to paper items, especially when homeschooling.   If you strive to be as paperless and environmentally friendly as possible like we do, we scan documents for our records for our digital format Homeschooling Portfolio and have a binder for the unavoidable paper items.

 

Printed:  If you would like to have papered items, they can be inserted into a folder, binder or a scrapbook.  Put any physical documents or important paperwork that you would like to save in plastic sleeves or have them laminated to protect them.

 

Digital:  If you would like to have a paperless portfolio, you can include electronic school work files, photographs or scan documents that can be compiled into a Word document, which can later be turned into a PDF.  Be sure that you back-up the information to protect it from being lost.

 

Each homeschooled child should have their own portfolio or at the very least, their own section in one folder.   If you do choose to have 1 portfolio per child, it is easier to separate the portfolio into sections for each subject/activity they have complete that year.

 

While it can be challenging keeping up to date, try to develop a habit of dating the work.  All work should be dated and compiled throughout the homeschooling year.  You can use a date stamp for quick and easy dating.  This will help make the structure process easier and a less daunting task at the end of the homeschooling year.  

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What should be included in A Homeschooling Portfolio?

 

Here are a few general examples and suggestions of what could be included in your Homeschooling Portfolio:

 

Confidentiality Statement:  Your Homeschooling Portfolio contains private and personal information about your child and yourself.  A confidentiality statement for sharing purposes can be added where you can state your conditions on who the recipient can share the information of this document with to protect your privacy and the privacy of your child.

 

Laws and Policy Information:  Include information about the laws and policies of homeschooling for your province and local school board so you can refer to it conveniently.   

 

Letter of Intent:  Include your “Letter of Intent” in your portfolio.

 

Letter of Acknowledgement:  Include your “Letter of Acknowledgement” that you receive from the school board.  This document can be used to access other services.

 

Letters of Membership:  If you belong to any homeschooling groups or are a member of a homeschooling organization/club/co-op, include your membership information.  This documentation can also be used to access other services or receive discounts.

 

Medical Information:  Be sure to include any important information about any illness or physical injuries or conditions that may have delayed your homeschooling schedule and provide appropriate documentation about the issues.

 

Homeschooling Year Summary:  A brief summary describing your homeschooling year.  This should only be 1 page or a few paragraphs. 

 

"About Me" Introductory Page:  An introductory page presenting your child with their name, age, school year, and an illustration they made.  This could be an “About Me” page with cut and paste.

 

General Daily Schedule:  A weekly schedule outline of your homeschooling.

 

Curriculum Overview:  Include bullet information about your curriculum including all daily living tasks, academic subjects and activities.

 

Breakdown Curriculum Content Information:   Information that could be an outlined paragraph about your curriculum, unit studies, the name and publisher, table of contents, lesson plans and methods of teaching, level and how the level was determined.  Focus on core subjects or areas that your child has completed including spelling or writing/typing samples (printouts, short stories, poetry) or math or number samples (printouts).  Include any daily living activities and life skills.

 

Goals or Awards:  Include any goals and awards achieved.

 

Lists:  Include lists such as book list, music list, magazine lists, video list, etc…

 

Computer and Tablet Information:  Keep track of computer and tablet use of online and offline programs, websites and educational apps used.

 

Trips and Outings Information:  Include information about field trips and collect brochures, or ticket stubs, etc…

 

Pictures:  Include photographs of educational and learning experiences, science or art projects, exercises, sports, field trips, group activities, musical activities playing instruments, etc…

 

Progressions:  Include “Before and After” of printable pages from the start, middle and end of the year, or other forms of progression of your child’s work in samples with corrections and improvements or charts.  It is important to show that progress is evident.  You can also include a paragraph about the progression of learning time length, progression of a daily living and life skill etc…

 

Report Cards:  Include any report cards you have created.

 

Tests:  Include any test you have created or formal tests or assessments taken.

 

Professional Documentation:  Include any professional follow-ups or private evaluation feedback documentation

 

Receipts:  Include any receipts that you may have for purchasing your homeschooling supplies or necessary equipment, or receipts for outings for proof of purchase.  This also helps creating an inventory list of your homeschooling supplies to prevent overbuying.

 

Keep in mind that since each homeschooling situation is different, not all of these suggestions will apply or be relevant to everyone’s Homeschooling Portfolio.  Feel free to add any additional material, documents or information that you think should be included.

Regardless of your child’s complex challenges and their unique abilities or what educational methods or practices you follow in your homeschooling, you can present your child’s learning, progress and achievements within a Homeschooling Portfolio successfully which you both will be proud of!

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Sharing Your Homeschooling Portfolio

 

While all parents, homeschooling or not, are proud of their child’s achievements and like to share the news with family and friends who are interested in their child’s accomplishments and success, however, sharing your Homeschooling Portfolio is something you will want to be mindful of.  You wouldn’t want to want to just share this with just anyone.  It contains personal content about your child and yourself and should be treated as sensitive and confidential information.

 

ALWAYS keep the original copies of all documents AND MAKE COPIES both in paper and digital format for yourself. 

 

NEVER share your Word document of your Homeschooling Portfolio.  This is your personal copy where things can be edited and changed.  When you are finished compiling it together, have it published to create a PDF of your Homeschooling Portfolio to retain for your records and back it up so it won’t be lost through a malfunction.

 

NEVER share or “send” your completed PDF.  If you have created a completed PDF of your Homeschooling Portfolio, don’t share the actual PDF file.  While a PDF of your Homeschooling Portfolio could be easily sent at the request of the school board or other authorities without compromising your personal copy, it is better to keep it yourself and you can show it to others directly at an in-person meeting by presenting it on your own personal device OR you can print it off yourself and provide a copy to the recipient if you are required to do so. 

 

NEVER leave your Homeschooling Portfolio (either digital or print) with anyone if you are going to be sharing it.  Remember that this is your personal document and your legal proof of your homeschooling. 

 

A Few little Extra Suggestions On Photographs and Videos

 

Along your homeschooling journey, make sure to take some photographs and videos of your child in their learning environment or during any special activities simply for capturing your own personal enjoyment and memory’s sake.  Your homeschooling time is precious to your child and to you!  Make sure that you back them up so you don't lose them.  These images can also be used in your Homeschooling Portfolio, but they can also be used in a family photo album, photo collage, or homeschooling scrapbook later on and make great “Homeschooler’s Year Books”. 

 

You can never have enough photos or videos of your child smiling, laughing and being happy while creating and learning!