Record Keeping For This School Year: Catching Up + Free Template
It’s that time again—when I have to admit that I did not do a great job with record keeping for this school year. But here we are, closing out our 8th year of homeschooling with our third grader and seventh grader, and diving headfirst into our ninth year. That means it’s time to play catch-up, organize our homeschool records, and get serious… finally.
Hi, I’m Shanna, and welcome back to Making Everyday Magic, where I share our secular homeschool journey—the wins, the fails, and everything in between.
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Why Record Keeping Matters—Even If It’s Not Required
Here in Texas, we’re lucky. Homeschool record keeping isn’t required by law. So for years, I… didn’t do it. But now, with one kiddo headed into 8th grade (hello, high school credit territory), the stakes are higher.
She took Algebra 1 this year. That means we’re officially entering “transcript territory.” And while we may continue homeschooling through high school, we’ve also had a few tiny conversations about possibly applying to a magnet school for 9th grade.
Cue the panic.
Have I done enough? Can I document it? Am I going to regret not keeping better records? (Spoiler alert: yes.)
My “Better Late Than Never” Homeschool Record Keeping Strategy
Last year, I created a free homeschool record keeping template for myself. You can grab it too—it’s available in monthly newsletter. I told myself I’d use it this year. I didn’t. But now that our school year has wrapped, I’m jumping back in.
Here’s how I’m catching up with record keeping for this school year:
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Open all the tabs. Seriously. Every resource we used is up on my browser:
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Royal Fireworks Press (Michael Clay Thompson)
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Coursera (Dino 101 course)
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Free Fun Texas History
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Middle School Chemistry
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Denison Algebra
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Film School for Teens
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Art History, World History Detective, Tech Essentials, Evan-Moor, All About Spelling, and more
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Plug in the details. My Canva template includes:
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Course name
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Description
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Length/frequency
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Number of lessons
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Final grade
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Credit earned
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Copy + paste descriptions straight from the publishers’ sites into the template
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Print or save a PDF for each student’s records
The Real Reason I’m Doing This
Because if we do head back to public school—or apply to a magnet program—I need to show what we’ve done. Not just for the system, but for myself. I’ve poured years into this. I want to know it counts.
And let’s be honest: telling you I’ll do it helps hold me accountable. (Thanks for that, by the way.)
Inside the Template
The template is clean, simple, and color-coded by student. I duplicated a page for each subject and student, dropped in course details, and now I just need to add final grades and credit notes.
➡️ You can get the free homeschool record keeping template right here!
The Goal for Next Year? Start Strong.
My plan is to start filling in records as I plan for the 2025–2026 school year. Will I actually do it? Hopefully. But at least now I have a system that works and a reason to stay on top of it.
If you’re like me and playing catch-up with record keeping for this school year—it’s okay. You’re not behind; you’re just real. Download the template, open your tabs, and start where you are. You’ve got this.
Let’s keep making everyday magic—messy records and all.
