How To Record Attendance for Homeschool (Easy Methods)

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Homeschooling parents take on the many responsibilities of what traditional schools do. They choose the curriculum, plan lessons, schedule activities, chauffeur, and keep records! But how can you record attendance for homeschool and still keep your wits about you?

Here’s how to record attendance for homeschool using easy methods:

Buy and use a planner that makes you happy.
Download free or low-cost templates for recording attendance.
Record attendance with color-coding, annotations, stickers, and more.

Record-keeping can seem monotonous and cumbersome, but it doesn’t have to be. This article will focus primarily on recording attendance for homeschool in easy and colorful ways. Then we’ll take a brief look at reasons to record homeschool progress and the types of homeschool record-keeping.

This post may contain affiliate links.

1. Buy and Use a Planner That Makes You Happy

If you like the feel of turning and flipping pages already organized for you, then a planner might be the way to go.

Some people love a planner with beautiful pastel colors, a funny meme or cute animal on the cover, or inspiration sprinkled throughout the pages. But others like simple planners that get the job done.

Amazon offers a variety of options that can help you do all of your record-keeping in one place, which includes keeping track of attendance. Please note some planners are year-specific, so make sure you buy the right one.

And remember, the following options are all found on Amazon.com.

Polaris Publishing Homeschool Planner

This planner, designed for grades and attendance, works for families with multiple children. The soft and glossy paperback cover says, “I’ve got 99 problems, and homeschooling ain’t one.” because it has homeschooling parents in mind so that they can organize days, weeks, and months all in one place.

This planner includes space for planning monthly action goals, projects, and weekly and individual lessons. You can also store student information, track assignments, annotate teacher notes, and take monthly attendance.

The planner comes with US letter-sized paper and is made in the USA.

Paper Pony Planner Lesson Planner

If you need more organization, this planner is designed for use with lesson plans, worksheets, curriculum, attendance logs, and checklists. It is US letter-sized and provides 40 weeks of organized space. It can also be used for year-at-a-glance, grade register, weekly note keeper, and a place for ideas, thoughts, and reflections.

Alexis Douette Homeschool Planner

The floral planner helps parents record weekly and monthly lesson plans, daily schedules, and tracks assignments. The dated monthly calendar spreads out over two pages and can also track goals, important dates, and to-do lists. You can also keep a record of book lists and reflection notes.

JJPRO Store Wall Calendar

If you want just a calendar and not a planner for recording attendance, check out this planner that can be used for any calendar year and can give you a big picture of the entire year and help you track attendance. This calendar comes with accessories for use right away.

It includes six colored dry-erase markers, a self-adhesive marker holder, 16 thumbtacks, and 16 removable mounting tapes for installation. The product description states that the board is easy to clean even after the marker has sat on the calendar for months.

It can also be cleaned with a wet cloth for easy re-use. Since this is erasable, make sure you take a picture of it each month or at the end of the year to maintain evidence of attendance.

ComplyRight Attendance Calendars

Try a 25-pack of attendance calendars for a smaller and paper version. This folder of blank calendars can be used for multiple children to track attendance data throughout the year while storing them all using the two pockets inside.

The size of this product makes it easy to store inside a standard size filing cabinet.

Each calendar page comes with shorthand codes to indicate the type of day it was, and even though these are geared for business, these abbreviations might be helpful. For example, “I” is for illness, “H” is for a holiday, and “V” is for vacation.

2. Download Free or Low-Cost Templates for Recording Attendance

These easy-to-use attendance tracking templates can help with organizing your paperwork. Homeschool.com offers several free planners for organizational and attendance tracking needs:

Sanity saver homeschool planner: This includes chore charts, a meal planner, reading records, field trip planning, attendance records and calendar, and a weekly planner for parent or child use.
Homeschool help printable pack: This pack helps you organize how to get started, checklists, snack ideas, receipts and purchases, daily plans, grade book, attendance, and a planner for scheduling, appointments, etc.
Printable planners for youth or teens: You can use these to lay out your plans for the year as well as a place to keep attendance.

Other Resources

TeachersPayTeachers.com is a site that homeschooling parents can access too. Here you’ll find many downloadable, printable, and digital products for teaching, educational games, skill practice, themed activities, and classroom organization.

You’ll need to create an account, and then you search all that this site has to offer. Type in “editable attendance sheet” and see what the site offers.

You can also sort by grade level and price, and you’ll find free options as well.

You can also try a Google Image search and find free and blank monthly calendars. Print them off and get ready to track your attendance.

3. Record Attendance With Color-Coding, Annotations, Stickers, and More

Okay, so now you have your calendar, datasheet, or planner for record-keeping, and you wonder how to use it to fit your needs.

It’s important that your calendar is easy to use and can be accessed every day that school is in session. This ensures that you stay on top of your record-keeping and don’t have to figure out information after too much time has passed. Perhaps you can put it on the top of the pile each day or in your lesson planner as the first thing you see.

You may find that your children can help you take attendance each day. Consider the following ways to record attendance and see what works for you.

Use Annotations

If you have more than one child in your homeschool, decide if you want to make separate sheets for each of them. You could allow for a notes section on your attendance sheet if anyone follows a different schedule for a particular month.

If you don’t want to use separate sheets, make copies for each individual’s portfolio at the end of the year.

Mark the days with a “P” for present, or place a checkmark for each full day of instruction. You can write down the hours if necessary too. Consider using other letters for days off from school, such as holiday (H), illness (I), or special days such as field trips (F).

For example, it may look this:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	P	P	F	P	P

Or, you can use an “X” or shade in the box for days you’re not homeschooling. If you follow a traditional 5-days a week schedule (Monday – Friday), you don’t need to cross off the weekends. However, if you do weekend learning, such as going on field trips or following a 4-day schedule, you may want to mark yours daily to make this clear.

Here’s an example:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
XX	P	P	P	P	XX	F

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
000000	P	P	P	P	000000	F

Use Color Coding Techniques

Also, you can write in colored pens or use various highlighters to color-code days of school attendance.

Bright colors can make your attendance sheet bright and colorful, and your brain will notice your sheet’s patterns and make overall observations at a glance. Write your code at the top of your attendance organizer for reference, and then color away.

Here’s an example of a traditional 5-day week:

Green	School Day
Blue	Field Trip
Yellow	Holiday
Red	Illness

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	0000000	0000000	0000000	0000000	000000

If your children want to help, they can fill in the colors or marks, or you can even use fun small stickers to mark each day of attendance.

The Fashion Angels Stickers (available on Amazon.com) is a collection for kids of over 1000 pieces. Kids and teens can enjoy fun designs like colorful letters, ice cream, space objects, emojis, etc.

Try Checkmarks Instead

Another consideration is that you could assign multiple children different colors. You might have a checkmark for days when everyone does homeschool, but use colors to show individual children’s attendance.

At the end of each month, add up the number of homeschool days for the end of the year documentation. Don’t forget to count field trips as well.

So, a monthly calendar might look like this:

Total days for the month: 19

If you have to keep track of hours, there’s plenty of space to write those numbers in your calendar or sheet. Make sure to include a total for your hours at the end of each month.

If you prefer to skip all of the extra paper in your workspace, consider trying Homeschool Tracker. A page in their system offers a way to track attendance. You can mark P (present) or ½ for a half day. The program will automatically calculate your total days of schooling.

Why Keeping Records Is Essential

There are several reasons why record-keeping is essential when homeschooling:

State regulations: If your state requires records, then it’s mandatory.
Accountability: Having records holds both you and your children accountable for assignments, lessons, and taking steps towards goals. This fosters motivation, perseverance, and a sense of accomplishment.
Organization: Records can help you organize lessons that were taught, need to be taught, to-do tasks, and assignments to grade. You can plan for breaks, holidays, and special events by staying organized as well.
Tracking progress: Record-keeping helps track progress on steps and skills towards bigger goals.
Transcripts and report cards: Creating a record-keeping system for courses completed and final grades will help you confidently create transcripts for your high schoolers and keep track of progress over the years for younger children.

Types of Homeschool Records

Your state homeschool laws determine precisely what kinds of records you must keep. The local school district will inform you of the expectations when you send in a letter of interest each year to homeschool, thus resulting in your withdrawal or un-enrollment of your child from the public school system.

However, school districts vary in what they ask of you, so it’s essential to know your rights as a homeschool educator.

The Home School Legal Defense Association, known as HSLDA, provides a search tool for the homeschool laws in your state. You’ll see a color-coded map that shows states with varying regulations, which allows you to explore detailed information that applies specifically to your state.

Don’t Worry About Mistakes

Doing any kind of record-keeping can be anxiety-inducing for anyone. You may feel the pressure to get them just right, make no mistakes, and you don’t even know how or where to begin in your organization.

You also might worry that more time will be spent recording and counting the days and hours than lesson planning and feel overwhelmed.

There are many options to help take the stress off record-keeping for attendance to give you time for balance and focus on the essential things in your homeschooled life.

Your state may offer you a way to send attendance information, but you can easily manage the record-keeping that translates to their requirements. Start your homeschool journey off with your record-keeping management in place. This way, you don’t have to backtrack and guess what was done.

And, remember, field trips and learning activities outside of a curriculum also count towards attendance days. So, don’t leave those out.

Record Keeping for Grades

Report cards, quarterly reports, and transcripts are records used to show students’ progress in specific content areas. High schoolers must have a transcript showing the compilation of their academic abilities and credits or units earned in completing high school coursework.

These are used for college admissions, employment, military admissions, scholarships, trade schools, and auto insurance companies. Transcript requests may be made during high school and long after graduation for situations such as job security clearance, promotions, enrollment in certification programs, financial aid, and more.

Record-Keeping Through the Use of Portfolios

Samples of your children’s work can be kept in paper or digital form, or a combination of both if your state requires it.

Regardless, you may want these work samples to show how much your child has learned and grown over their schooling years or to validate progress if necessary. These workpieces are also connected to great learning opportunities and memories to reflect on for years to come.

Portfolios On Amazon

If you need a good idea of what portfolios to use for your record-keeping, Amazon has a few good ideas:

Leslie Monroe: Portfolio of My Homeschool: This product is designed for 12 months of record-keeping and planning. The book has space to color, draw, and add examples of student work and photographs, set goals, record resources used, and celebrate success.
Savor Expanding Document Organizer: This offers 10 heavyweight expandable envelopes in full and half sizes to hold important papers. This is sufficient for storing a larger assortment of documents together in one place.

Keeping Records of Assessment and Achievements

Record all scores, achievement results, and grades from the state-required tests that your homeschooler takes. Again, refer to your state’s laws on this.

It can also be beneficial to record data and grades on any other tests that your child takes.

Achievement and testing records help to show your child’s accomplishments in learning skills and showing growth, as well as data that can help to guide instruction. Record keeping may also provide evidence if your child has special needs and needs support and services.

Don’t forget to include other forms of achievements, such as certificates, awards, and even pictures of memorable moments, including musical events, sports, debate, scouts, volunteering, etc.

Storing Important Documents and Records

There are other important documents that you should’ve stored in a safe place for use as needed. These documents include:

Birth certificates.
Immunizations records or waivers.
Records from any other schooling.
Copies of correspondence with school officials, including your notice of intent to homeschool.
Receipts for money spent on educational materials.
Evidence of any pieces of training or workshops completed.
Any other pertinent records related to homeschooling.

Records of Attendance

You might wonder why you need to take attendance since your children live with you.

Some states require these records to keep track of the actual days that schooling took place, while other states want to know how many hours per quarter or year are spent learning. This means that you must know what and how your state wants you to record this information.

Your schedule may differ from the traditional concept of five days a week learning in your homeschooled home.

Some families choose to follow a Monday – Friday schedule, and others will homeschool four days a week, extending learning time into the summer to ensure they’re still meeting the required number of days.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re super organized or not, recording attendance shouldn’t be a stressful part of your day. Choose your planner, calendar, printed organizer, or online version that you like to use.

You should keep your records indefinitely for use in your child’s future. Consider making printed paper or copied backups, especially if you keep records digitally. Store your paperwork by child’s name and year of schooling in a file cabinet in chronological order.

Knowing how to record attendance for homeschool has never been easier.