Occasionally I hear of well-qualified homeschool graduates not being accepted into universities because their records were not clear and convincing. And I hear of parents who quit homeschooling for fear of this, or who are too overwhelmed by it all to continue. These things don’t need to happen.
You can keep on homeschooling, and your kids can get into university or college. In our homeschool, the Comprehensive Record Solution has been an indispensible, empowering, and calming influence. We needed that desperately for three reasons:
- Most significantly, our records were a jumbled mess because I was too ill (celiac disease) during my eldest’s high school years to keep up with the paper work. In fact, I recently found a whole year of unmarked English tests among the piles of papers!
- On top of that, we are eclectic homeschoolers, using textbooks, real life, Charlotte Mason, and classical methods. We encourage our children to follow their own interests and even to design their own courses. There’s no easy preliminary record-keeping solution for this method of homeschooling other than keeping absolutely everything.
- Furthermore, I did not know how to take all that hodge-podge of learning, spread out over the high school years, and turn it into something that admissions officers would understand. And, somehow, I had to translate narrations and other semi-nebulous evaluation methods into grades, documenting it all so that an admissions officer would know what my children had done, and that they’d done it well.
Managing all this was a huge amount of work, and I could easily have become completely overwhelmed. It is a tribute to Lee’s system that I could organize our records at all. Her Comprehensive Record Template was my lifeline and kept me focused. (Read my preview here.)
This Comprehensive Record Template is a well-designed document, including transcript forms, to help organize and record students’ work in a format that universities and colleges appreciate. I took my daughter’s piles of papers, records, and reading lists and began recording textbooks, grades, course descriptions, and more. Because of the template, I could focus on just one step at a time. It was almost like filling in the blanks, and that really reduced my stress level.
Although the course descriptions were occasionally difficult to write, Lee’s many examples helped. What’s more, she provided personal feedback for four course descriptions. This part of the Comprehensive Record Solution was so helpful. I would take a record I had written and email it to her. She would send back her comments, and they were great.
Lee was able to see some significant problems in my course descriptions, but she did not make me feel bad about them. Instead she also pointed out the positive aspects of each course description. When a mom is busy preparing for university admissions as well as homeschooling and doing everything else, she needs encouragement as much as hands-on help, and I am grateful to Lee for her positive words. She seems to be a very sweet and knowledgeable lady…and I’d like to have her over for tea.
Would the Comprehensive Record Plan Work for your Family?
Obviously, for someone who has kept up with homeschool paperwork throughout the years, organizing high school records need not be as overwhelming as it was for me. Even so, record-keeping is intimidating to many of us homeschooling moms, especially when we realize that our teen’s academic future may hinge on how well we do. The Comprehensive Record Plan was a life-saver for our family, and, now that I’ve finished preparing Miss 18’s records, I’m already working on Mr. 15’s and Miss 13’s.
Of course, there are always aspects of a product that will make it less helpful for some people. Here are a few things you should consider before investing in this package:
- You need to be comfortable with Word.
- Note that, in the seldom-seen authorship information, your document will say it was created by Matt Binz. This may or may not be a problem for you.
- Your teens may not want or need a transcript. (Even so, I encourage you to keep some sort of record; you never know when they’ll need it.)
- If you are a compulsive type, you’ll need to know when you are finished and then stop. You could easily go on forever, refining course descriptions and so on.
- If you’re preparing your records at the last minute, you might not be able to use this entire package. However, Lee includes help for last minute transcripts. (I recommend you do not procrastinate if at all possible.)
- If you are confident, organized, have adequate time, and are willing to do the research, you could do all the work yourself like Lee did. I, however, am very glad she did it for me; I have only 24 hours a day to meet all my commitments.
Obviously, the Comprehensive Record Package will not work for all homeschoolers, but it will benefit most of them. In fact, I’m sure investing in it will pay off handsomely for almost every homeschooling family that does not have transcripts, records, and portfolios completely under control…and maybe even for some that do.
Currently, the Comprehensive Record Solution is available for $97 US. I know this is a lot of money for the average homeschooling family, but it’s just a drop in the bucket for parents of college students. Investing the $97 now will save many homeschoolers hundreds and maybe even thousands of dollars later. If, however, you decide that the program doesn’t work for your family, Lee offers a 60 day unconditional money-back guarantee.
Later addition: You can read more of my thoughts on this program here. You might also want to read about my son’s unexpected scholarship success and my daughter’s scholarship success, due partially to this program.
Disclosure: I received The Comprehensive Record Solution in order to share my experiences and my honest opinion. I do not receive any compensation for any of my reviews, and my opinions are entirely my own.