How to make your homeschool diploma legitimate?

Well isn't that cute? 

Despite what people may think homeschooling parents can issue and make diplomas for their children.  Truthfully, a diploma written in crayon is just as valid and legitimate as one that is nicely typed up.  I advise you go with the nicely typed up. If you don't want to type it up yourself you can pay a small fee to a company that will make a diploma for you.

Why use a nicely typed up diploma? Well it looks professional, nicer, and generally speaking is questioned less then one written in crayon.  The one written in crayon would most likely be dismissed as a joke.  You don't want your child's education to be seen as a joke.

If you are homeschooling during the high school years, you will want to keep records, detail records, even if you state doesn't require records. This makes transcripts easier to do at the end of the your child's high school career. Armed with good transcripts, records, and other things like test scores your child should have no issues with their post high school choices.

Actually, many colleges seek out homeschoolers and many even list what they require from homeschoolers on their websites. Or you can talk to the admission department of the college you're thinking of and ask them what they would want from you.

If you go the make your own diploma route, besides avoiding crayons, you will want to include certain information like: It's a high school diploma, your child's name, and wording that indicates your child completed the requirements needed for graduation.  HSLDA site has more details.


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Keeping Papers, Records, and other things.

How to keep homeschool papers? I want to keep my kids' papers. How do you store them?

My advice. scan them! If it's paper scan it. save it on the computer, use file folders, and make sure you have a back up.  What if it's something that can not be scanned like a marshmallow sculpture? Take a picture, save it to the computer, and have a back up. Simple!  Best part: It takes up no more space than what your computer does. And if you back it up or save it to a cloud service you can access it anywhere.

You can also share with family.  Sharing on a blog is one good way to share things with family and have a back up.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something.

Record Keeping! ACK!

Record keeping, lesson plans, and all that have never been my strong suite.  I have Homeschool Tracker Plus which is good and fine, but I have been wanting something online, something accessible on many device (ie. tablets/smartphones) and something easy to use.

Homeschool Tracker does have an online version, but I hate to pay monthly/yearly fees for something I already own outright.  So I have been looking at the freebies.  Many of the freebies I didn't like they weren't easy to use that's why several years ago I bought Homeschool Tracker Plus.  There are other freebies out there, now, but my head is still spinning. Recently I did find a nice review of just a few of the online record keeping options out there: What is the best online planner?

While it's helpful I'm still not sure! So tell me what do you use? Not only that but how do you stay consistent in your record keeping?  I'm telling you it's a chore!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something.

More On Linux!

I mention the other day that I was testing Linux. Well since that test DH has totally wiped out my computer and loaded Ubuntu 9.10 on it! So now I'm totally windows/Microsoft FREE!

We found compatibility software via Ubuntu that allows me to still use my palm, camera, and video camera. I have OpenOffice.org for all of my word processing, spreadsheets, needs. As a matter of fact OpenOffice.org is compatible with Microsoft Office.

The downside is that pretty much all of our software, including the children's games, are not compatible with Ubuntu. However, we have found games and software for Ubuntu/Linux that is comparable to what we have so we are going to be using that instead.

One big thing that did NOT work was Homeschool Tracker Plus! I guess my statement about being Microsoft free was false! OOPS! We have a 3rd computer that my husband remote connects to for work while he's at work. It's a machine that he uses to test things while he's working. He as loaded Homeschool Tracker Plus onto that machine for me and has given me remote access. So when I need to use my tracker program I just remote connect to that 3rd PC from my computer. This is because I really did not want to give up Homeschool Tracker Plus! This worked for us, because we have that 3rd computer for my husband's job.

The other downside is that we have found our printer is not compatible. So we will have to get a new printer at some point, unless DH can find a patch for our printer to make it compatible with Ubuntu. Printers are somewhat inexpensive and I would at this point rather get a new printer then having to deal with a computer that crashed all the time because I was trying to do to much at once! LOL

I have not have any crashing issues. As a matter of fact things are running faster and better. I feel like I have a brand new, super fast, machine that can handle all of my needs! Especially my "need" to edit pictures, layer pictures, and make "movies". LOL

Record Keeping

Lesson Plans, Record Keeping, Scheduling, all just a click way, I hope! This as you may know by now is my last week of our first year of homeschooling! We made it through one whole year! 3 cheers for us! Hip, Hip, Hooray; Hip, Hip Hooray; Hip, Hip, Hooray.

Record keeping has not been our strong suit! That if anything is the one thing I need to change for the up coming school year. I'm hoping I can find (very soon) a software program that will make record keeping easier for us. I don't care if it's a program on the PC or if it's web-base. I do have a few things that I have in mind. Perhaps I can get some help from my fellow homeschoolers!!!

There are some basic things that I think would make a program good!

• Allowing easy scheduling. I can pre-enter a schedule with "certain days" for "certain subject", but flexible enough to allow me to edit each individual day schedule as needed.
• Can easily assign "assignments" for each subject as needed.
• Can enter in sick days, vacation days, etc and it will automatically adjust the schedule and assignments
• students' page for the kids to be able to view and check of their assignments for the day, etc
• oh and price, I prefer it to be FREE!
  

I've tried out homeschool-inc web based planner. It did most everything I wanted but the critical flexibility per day scheduling. We are going to working on a 5 day week. However we will have only 4 days of "book work" and allow the 5th day be be open for field-trips, errands, etc. That day will be on Fridays. However I have one week where I want that day to Monday and I can't adjust that week to reflex that....At least I'm not seeing how too!

I've taken a look at homeschool tracker and I've downloaded the FREE basic version, but to be honest it's to confusing and an NOT very user friendly in my opinion. Plus the basic does not have many of the features I want. The plus version may, but I find the basic NOT to be user friendly, so I assume that the plus will be the same. The PLUS, also, comes with a steep price tag $50. I don't want to spend $50 on software. I really don't want to spend anything, but that's besides the point.

However I'm hearing from Sara at A Shower of Roses that the plus is actually user friendly. So I really don't know any more!

So what do you use? (beside the good, ageless, paper and pen method LOL)