Welcome to the 365. I’ve been sharing my favorite system for keeping our family of 6 organized. I love to use thematic 3 ring binders to store our documents. It takes some effort to find all the documents and put them in the binders but once that’s done the maintaining them is so easy and so worth it.

The COLLEGE binder is the second stage of record keeping as your child grows educationally. I start a COLLEGE binder per child beginning in 8th grade and store all documents 8-12th.

WHY

Assuming your child will go to college or pursue further training or education it’s important to have your own records easily accessible.

Freshman and sophomore year the goal is to keep up the GPA and be involved in your school. Junior year is still academic but this is the year to take the SAT/ACT to superstore for the highest possible score. Begin those college tours. Some colleges have an Oct 1 deadline for applications so you want to have all your tours wrapped up by fall of Senior year ideally.

With 2 college students and one high schooler so I can attest that I have depended on these binders heavily for college applications. It is so very important to keep good records during the high school years.

I will say that my junior in high school hates school and has since middle school. I don’t know if he will go to college or choose a trade school. The trades desperately need young men and women to learn trade skills and they can command some great salaries without a college education. He will further his education in some way and I keep the records so he can choose his own path when the time comes. And that 4th child of ours in 5th grade? Who knows what he will decide to do but you know this momma will have all his documents on the ready!

HOW TO GET STARTED

Grab a 3 ring binder, give it a label and put in some page protectors inside. Start gathering your documents and creating sections. The hard part is getting started and then it’s easy to maintain. I promise.

SUGGESTED CONTENTS

-all report cards/transcripts/GPA from 8th-12th grade. You will need their GPA for drivers insurance and later to self report grades for college applications

-record of any dual enrollment courses, their log in and contact info for later sending transcripts

-records of any online classes taken, their log in and contact info for sending transcripts

-all SAT and ACT scores (you can self report on some applications and remember they can superstore)

-current immunization records (you will provide a copy to the college)

-a portfolio of awards, club memberships, athletic participation and recognition. Keep a log with the number of volunteer hours, dates, description and point of contact who can verify them. I recommend you keep the portfolio separated per year to make it easier on applications

-college tour notes, materials and information

-college applications, enrollment time lines, log ins etc

Pretty sure this covers the contents of my COLLEGE binder. Name it as you wish- it’s essentially keeping the records needed for life after high school 😊

Happy gathering and filing ~

Kristen