3 Quick and Simple Ways to Record Homeschool Attendance | Homeschooling (FREE Printables Included)

Keeping track of homeschool attendance shouldn’t be difficult! If your state doesn’t have strict requirements for attendance records, then we have 3 quick and simple ways to record homeschool attendance with FREE printables that will take record keeping from a chore to a quick and simple task!

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Simple ways to record homeschool attendance exist, and you can usually find free printable sheets to help. However, we have found many to be more detailed than we need them to be. That makes it feel like a chore for me. It takes what should be a quick task to something I actually forget to do altogether. Therefore, we came up with 3 quick and simple ways to record homeschool attendance with as minimal effort as possible. It’s not to be lazy, but it’s so we can be as efficient with our time as possible.

Each state has its own requirements and rules for many things including attendance records. However, most states require 180 days of home education to be completed in a 12 month period. So, we created these methods and printables to cover a 12 month period even though many homeschooling families complete their homeschool year in 9-10 months. We show you the pages in this post, but to download the printable versions of the pages, make sure to scroll down and fill out the box at the end of the post.

Disclaimer: These printables are not sufficient for every state. Always be sure to know your state’s requirements for attendance records. Find your state’s homeschool laws here. These printables and methods may be best for homeschools in states with low requirements for homeschooling and attendance records. Choose the one that is the most suitable for you.

Hi, I’m Priscilla!

As a young, growing family facing job loss in 2013, with a toddler and a newborn baby, I wanted to learn how to grow food to supplement our rising grocery bill, but I had no experience. So, I called on my mom to help me start my first garden as cheap as possible. I remember her stewarding a small garden from time to time when I was growing up. We started one with blocks, soil, seeds, and a few starters that she helped me invest in. And that’s how I started!

Before I was a homesteading, homeschooling mom I was a professional musician and music teacher. I carried over my teaching experience into homeschooling my children, but I learned it was much different teaching your own children. And, when I started homesteading, I started with NO experience. It was something I never imagined doing. I had to do a lot of researching and learning each season. So, I know how hard it is to start homeschooling and homesteading with no experience! 

After 2020

After the events of 2020, we saw the vital need to learn to grow and raise real God-given food in abundance, and continue homeschooling all of our children. We felt God had a new call and season for us. So in 2021, we left everything behind, and moved from northwest Indiana to southern Georgia. And we just got started!

How we can help you

Now, I’ve homeschooled for 11 years and have 6 children of homeschool age with 1 more in waiting. And, we established our homestead in 2021 with lots of research and no experience. We began taking and completing several homesteading courses, and we continue our education every year. And, I’m always looking for ways to make things more time efficient by making them simpler to do and sustainable. When things are simpler, they are more sustainable in our already full lives.

Therefore, we want to help others do the same, no matter what their skill set is and no matter where they live. Building up all things home will allow us to sustain our families no matter what the future holds!

We are still learning on this adventure every day. But, we knew if we could do it, others could do it too! So, we started this blog to encourage other families to start homesteading and homeschooling, with Christ at the center, for a more abundant life no matter where they live; NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED! We offer simple solutions, resources, and encouragement for your Christ-centered beginner homesteading, homeschooling journey.

Important Things to Know about Homeschool Attendance

There are many different ways to record attendance. The most important things to know are your states’s requirements for:

• How many days your child must attend homeschool per school year?
• How many hours of education is required per day to be considered a full day of homeschool?
• What subjects must be included to be considered a day of homeschool?
• What else may be considered a full day of homeschool? (For example, a field trip. What are the requirements for a field trip to count as a day of school? etc)
• Does your state require attendance records to be turned in? If so, how do they require those records to be kept?
• If your state does NOT require attendance records to be turned in, but requires attendance records to be kept, does your state require them to be kept a certain way?

Again, these 3 quick and simple ways to record homeschool attendance are NOT suitable for everyone or in every state. They may be suitable for personal use, or for states with low requirements for record keeping. Always research your state’s homeschool laws which you can find here.

Tips for Any Type of Homeschool Attendance Record Keeping

Have a homeschool record per child

For any homeschool attendance record, it is good to have one copy per child. This is because kids will be sick on different days, especially if you have a large family like ours. It is totally possible to keep track of all of your children’s attendance on one sheet by finding a more detailed attendance record, but to us, it was easier to fill in a little circle per child.

Another fast way to do it is to record on one child’s record (since we homeschool together), and on the day a certain child is sick, just to mark the “S” on that day on that child’s record. Then, later you can go back to all the records for your children filling in the days completed (around the sick days) according to the one record you kept.

Use a key

Another tip we have that can apply to any of these free printables, or even many other printables you can find elsewhere, is to use a key. I always make a little box on my attendance records, or on the back, that show symbols, letters, or colors that stand for different things. For example, a simple check mark means a full day of school. A “1/2” written on the circle is a 1/2 day. “H” stands for a holiday, “F” stands for field trip, “V” for vacation day, and “S” for a sick day. For the last printable we offer, you would need to color code instead of letters or symbols. So, more on that later.

Plan your homeschool’s start date and end date

The next tip we have is to always plan your expected start and end date. Think of how many days you want off for holidays, vacations, or even birthdays! Yes, our family takes homeschool off for birthdays to allow ample time for quality time with each child on their birthday. Then, count out 180 days, or give a few extra, to plan your expected end date.

1. The 180 Days Attendance Record

This simple way to record homeschool attendance is by far the simplest, but it is the most minimal meaning it does not have much detail and may not be the suitable for you or in your state. This is mostly suitable for personal record and not official records. It is simply a template with only 180 circles on it. You simply fill in a whole circle for each completed day of school until all the circles are filled. For a half day, you would fill in half a circle until another half day that you could complete the circle.

On this type of form, you do not have to have dates, but you can include a start and end date for your school year. This form does not require you to record any holidays, sick days, etc, because you are simply filling in the circles until you’ve completed the required 180 days of school. This is just the most basic way to make sure you are fulfilling those days even in a state that may not require records. If your children complete more than 180 days of school, you can choose whether or not you want to notate that on the paper.

2. The 18 Weeks Attendance Record

We also created the 18 Weeks Attendance Record. The typically required 180 days of homeschool equals approximately 36 weeks of homeschool. So, we broke that down into 2 semesters of 18 weeks. There are lines for the dates of each week’s start, or you can write the start and end date of each school week. The reason our circles go from Monday through Sunday is because some families have different homeschool weeks, but also because sometimes we do our field trips on Saturdays as a family when dad can go too!

Each page only has 18 weeks on it to keep it simple. However, since not everyone starts homeschool on Mondays (we do!), we provided extra sheets to ensure you can keep track of 18 weeks of attendance. But, of course you can print out as many of any of these sheets as you’d like. Also, this sheet is where a key is especially useful. You can check mark, fill in, or put the number of hours completed in the circles. Or, use a key with symbols and letters like we talked about in the tips above.

3. The Year Attendance Record

Another simple template we created is the Year Attendance Record. Most states allow you 12 months to complete your 180 days of school. So, this template spans from August of one year to July of the next to cover 12 months. All you need to do is circle or highlight the days that are fulfilled according to your state’s requirements. If your homeschool doesn’t start in August, simply print out 2 copies to cover your year.

This template is best used with a color coding key to represent full days, half days, holidays, etc. This form also requires the extra step of needing to count to make sure your children have completed 180 days of homeschool. I typically plan my start and end dates before we start, and I choose my end date with all of our vacation days and holidays in mind. So, on this type of record you can mark your planned end date in a certain way. Then, if for some reason you had more sick days or days off than expected, you can adjust that end date. But, typically my set end date allows for a few extra days.

Quick and Simple Ways to Record Homeschool Attendance

All 3 of these templates allow for quick, easy homeschool attendance record keeping. With all we already have to plan and do, attendance record keeping should not be complicated or dreadful. It should be simple and delightful to remain a sustainable task in our full lives.

Whichever template you choose, print however many you need! (For personal use by downloader only). The less time we use for simple, but important, tasks the more time we have to do even more important things. We strive to be good stewards of our God-given time. We hope this resource is simple and helpful for you to help you live abundantly on your homeschooling journey. And, if you’re interested in more free printables, sign up down below for free access to our entire printable library!

Live Abundantly,

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