Wednesday, September 13, 2006

WFMW - Homeschool Records



I homeschool in Missouri, where we are required to keep, among other things, a daily log of our schooling hours. The process of logging hours has, quite frankly, been the bane of my existence as a homeschool mom. One of the things that makes it difficult for me is that we are not required to produce our records unless we are called on the carpet (aka - accused of truancy). It's a remote enough possibility that it's unmotivating on a day-to-day basis, but real enough that I wouldn't want to chance having my kiddos taken away because I didn't have them "in school" as required. Then there's that whole Romans 13 thing with authority being given by God. So, yeah. Gotta log.

Well, I'm a computer person. I never thought I'd make that statement, but my husband's turned me into a minor geek. So I've looked for computer driven solutions to my logging problem. I've been excited about several nifty programs, but none of them worked for me. Well, it wasn't the programs that failed. It was me.

Long story short, I realized that, as a simple schooler, I need a simple logging program! And, I have found by many trials and many errors, I need it to be on paper. So I set out this summer to create as simple a logging program as I could, and yet one that would help me meet the requirements of my state.

LoggingSimply.xls is the result. I did the sheets in Word at first, but after a couple of months of using it, I love it so much that I want to share with other desperately simple schoolers. I thought I'd spiff it up a bit by putting it in a spreadsheet file, so things could be lined up properly (something I wasn't worried about too much myself), and all in one downloadable file. If you're interested, you can take a look.

NOTE: I have done my best to follow WFMW guidelines, but I'm new at this, so if you see I've done something wrong, please let me know gently. Thanks, and God Bless!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been homeschooling for 5 years and HATE HATE HATE the logging-the-hours thing.
Great lay out and well presented! :)
BTW--I don't think there is a WRONG way to do WFMW. :)
Anything that works better for you that you share qualifies. :)
Ty for your work to make my life easier! :0)

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I'm in Missouri also and this is my first year having to officially log hours. The other programs or log books didn't work for me either and I certainlly didn't want to rewrite/type what I already had nicely laid out for me. I think yours might work.