How do you decide what to keep from year to year. Do you keep everything your children complete? Just some of it? I have been boxing up everything my children complete from year to year since oldest was in kindergarten...I am running out of space.(he is starting grade 6)I do the same with taxes...I actually have a fear that "they" would "audit" me and want to know what I have been teaching. yikes I actually said it out loud. I live in a state that doesn't require you to show anything after the fact though...you only need to submit a scope and sequence at the beginning of each year. help please

gr8cook,

This will be our first year homeschooling but coming from public school, we have SO much paper stuff sent home. In the past, and I plan to continue, I keep all their stuff in a pizza box. When that box starts getting full, I sit down with my kids and have them go through with me and we, together, decide what to throw out. It all has to fit in the box. At the end of the year we get a great big mailing envelope (not sure what size, it's bigger than 8.5x11) and do it again, weeding out until we get it all to fit in that envelope. We label it with child's name and grade and year and put it in the attic in a Rubbermaid box. The really special stuff goes into a scrapbook I keep in my nightstand.

I figure this year I'll probably keep writing assignments, their Bible Study course and just a few tests to show progress througout the year. Recently my mom gave me everything I ever did in school. I'm hoping NOT to do that with my kids.

One other option is to either scan or take a picture of their work and keep it on a CD or make a nice "yearbook" on a site like Shutterfly with pictures of projects, unit celebrations, field trips and other pictures taken throughout the year. That still lets you see what they did but also gives them a nice little keepsake, all tidy and organized.

Hope something here will give you some relief