NH Homeschool portfolios

a log of reading materials by title, and also samples of writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials used or developed by the child.  The goal is for these reading materials and samples to show the child's educational progress over the period of a homeschool year.

Record the books that the child read or that were read to him.  In order to document the child's abilities and show progress over the school year, it can be helpful, if you want, to indicate which titles the child was able to read on his own.  The books could be listed according to which month they were read.

Several dated samples for each subject from the beginning of the school year, through the middle months, and towards the end of the school year will document progress made over time.   These may be sample worksheets, writings, or something else created by the student.  Photographs of any projects , field trips, nature observations, or experiments can be used to demonstrate learning.  Two or three sentences might accompany the picture to indicate the subject/location, date, and what the child learned.

New Hampshire requires the following subjects to be taught at some point in the homeschool program:  science, math, language (refers to English language arts), government, history, health, reading, writing, spelling, the history of the constitutions of New Hampshire and the United States, and an exposure to and appreciation of art and music.  Not every subject is required to be taught every year.  A study of the constitutions, for example, may be done at the high school level as opposed to in first or second grade.  Art and music, as another example, may be studied in some years but not every year.

Although not a requirement, it can be very helpful to include a subject summary for each subject in which the parent states what learning goals were met and what educational progress was observed in the parent's chosen curriculum.  You might record, for example, that the child  began the year reading single syllable words and progressed to reading multisyllable words or that he moved from doing single digit addition to multidigit addition.  The text, materials, or experiences used for learning in each subject could be listed here.

Other items that could be included in a portfolio are certificates of achievement in a sport or outside activity, sound or video clips of music or dance, volunteer activities, standardized test results, or anything else that indicates a child's learning.