Include the name of the course, the subject that it relates to, a brief description of the course and a list of the educational goals the course should meet at its completion. It can also prove useful to list all the materials that will be required throughout the course, so the student is as prepared as the teacher is.
For the students' clarity and for recordkeeping purposes, list the course start and end dates; that way, it is evident whether the course will be completed in a month or if it will extend for the full length of the school year. For example, your student's language arts course may run for the full year, but you have decided your student will study art appreciation for only one quarter of the school year.
Listing your grading policy for the course will make the child and a portfolio reviewer more aware of how different portions of the course affect the grade. For example, you may not give grades for lecture-related portions of the course, or perhaps a test will represent 50% of the final grade.
Including resources for the course in the syllabus that includes a list of books, periodicals, websites and other useful sources will help the child to further understand the topic at hand and can even prove useful as a quick guide for the parent when in need of extra information from which to expand upon during a lesson. A sample resource listing for a first-grade social studies course would include items such as a kid's atlas or storybooks with historical or geographical references in them.
It is preferable to some homeschoolers to include an outline of the course lessons in the syllabus. The purpose of the outline is not to serve as an actual lesson plan, but to briefly describe the topic in the lesson and possibly even the materials used. An example phonics outline for kindergarten may resemble something like this:
Lesson 1: Singing the ABCs: Kid songs CD, ABC flashcards