I was paid a wee bit to write this review, but just like with all things from The WOLFe Pack, what you will find here is an honest opinion from a seasoned homeschool mom with a Master’s Degree in Education and a decade of experience in the classroom…who also happens to be a mom with way too little sleep, too many dishes to do and only 9 months left on her homeschool clock.
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Homeschool Records
Whether you are a brand new homeschool mom with one kid in Kindergarten or a seasoned homeschool mom with 6 kids in High School…
Whether you are an unschooler who does not give tests, let alone keep track of scores, or a Classical Conversations leader who has been calculating grades in 8 subjects for 5 kids over the past decade…
Whether you create every piece of curriculum yourself or you outsource it all….
Whether you live in Florida where annual records are not necessary or New York where quarterly reports are required…
Whether your students are college-bound or going straight into the workforce after graduation…
No matter what, at some point, you will need to keep a record of your student’s grades if only just to issue a High School diploma.
Personally, I did not assign letter grades until Middle School and, even then, all I did was write an “official” letter grade on the front of whatever I had printed to memorialize what we had done for that subject that year. After we completed the first year of High School, I had the foresight to start a list of subjects and final grades for the year, but that is all I did. It was not until college applications were looming that I finally forced myself to think about making a transcript. But, the little research I did, left me feeling really overwhelmed and stressed out.
That’s why I was so happy to learn about Homeschool Records!
Read on for a full review.
WHAT IS HOMESCHOOL RECORDS?
Homeschool Records is a platform designed for homeschool parents to track hours of instruction, keep track of attendance, record volunteer hours, and log reading assignments. But, for this stressed-out-because-college-is-on-the-horizon Mom, the most important thing Homeschool Records does is make it easy to make sense of building a High School transcript. And not only does it help homeschool moms build a transcript, it enables you to securely send an official transcript to the college(s) of your choice via Parchment.
WHO CREATED HOMESCHOOL RECORDS?
Homeschool Records was designed FOR homeschool moms BY (retired) homeschool mom, Joan Girkins.
HOW IS HOMESCHOOL RECORDS FORMATTED?
Homeschool Records is super easy to use. You first create a parent account with your school info and then you create your students (also super easy!) They also make it very simple to make corrections and changes.
The dashboard has six pages (attendance, courses, hours of instruction, reading log, resume and reports,) but you can also deselect items if you do not want them to show.
Each page is very easy to navigate, but, if you run into trouble, there is a clear and concise video tutorial to walk you through everything.
HOW IS HOMESCHOOL RECORDS HELPFUL?
- It tracks a lot of different things.
- The courses have pre-determined subjects and titles but you can also create your own.
- Meets NCAA requirements and allows for honors, AP, and dual enrollment classes.
- The designer is open to modifying it to meet specific needs.
- Records can be printed or saved as a PDF.
- Transcripts can be sent to schools via Parchment.
- Reasonably priced.
- Free Trial is available.
WHO NEEDS TO USE HOMESCHOOL RECORDS?
Like I mentioned at the start of this post, at some point, everybody will need a resource like this. Whether you start in Middle School or High School, having an easy way to track grades that can be used to create an official transcript is the way to go!
HOW SIMPLE IS IT TO USE HOMESCHOOL RECORDS?
So simple! Check out this video that walks through setting up a few courses and getting started on a transcript!
ANYTHING ELSE?
As mentioned in the video above, the courses are assigned per semester (fall, spring, summer.) Apparently, colleges prefer to see the semesters as separate courses that (hopefully) show improvement.
Also, it has been suggested by many that having course descriptions easily linked to a homeschooler’s transcript helps colleges accept the grades at face value. I do not think I will do add these details for every course, but I am glad the option is there and plan to use for several courses.
Last thing…on’t be fooled by the plain-looking site. It’s not flashy or pretty, but, to me, that’s actually a good thing because it helps busy moms get done what needs to get done instead of focusing on fancy details and colorful widgets. Plus, the way the site appears has no bearing on how the transcript appears; and that’s what really matters.
WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFO?
Homeschool Records offers a FREE TRIAL which you can sign up for here. To me, that’s the best way to see if might fit your needs!
