Determine whether an evaluation satisfies your state statute and qualifies as a viable means of informing the state of your child's progress. States such as Virginia allow evaluations, while Florida prefers testing. Homeschool Legal Defense's website can shed light on your state's homeschooling laws.
Decide whether an evaluation or testing is better for your family. Testing usually involves an array of subjects, depending on the test, that are geared toward public and private school settings. Homeschoolers can feel lost when asked what a crossing guard is when they don't go to a traditional school. Other similar issues can crop up in tests not created for your unique homeschool curriculum. Evaluations may be equally vague for your situation but not be adequate if you wish to send your child to a traditional school later. Consider both options.
Determine the time and resources you have available. Once you have your ducks in a row, move on to what is involved if you choose to do it on your own.
Contact your local Sylvan Learning Center or similar educational facility. Ask to speak to someone about evaluating your child. Most offer these services, but are often booked up several months in advance.
Check your curriculum to see if it has a section describing how to evaluate the child's work at the end of the year and whether the child made satisfactorily progressed.
Use this curriculum to determine whether an evaluation is more involved than you can do yourself or whether you need professional help. If you want to do it yourself, read the next section.
Organize your files from the beginning of the year. Clean out old work from previous years and children. Make a place for the present homeschool year and divide it into separate areas for each child and each subject. Keep everything. Keep the correspondence with the state in each child's section. Photocopy the correspondence if necessary. Keep the art work they do at the library or at an art class. Keep the worksheets and the journals they write. You won't have to turn everything in, but have it in the records in case you need it.
Compose a list of books the child read and any activities the child did regarding the books. The activities might include writing a journal entry or coloring a picture.
Write out a brief outline of each week. If your lesson plans came from a curriculum, copy off the table of contents or the day planner.
Take pictures of the kids' activities and work or scan the work into the computer. If the kids play baseball every Monday, take a picture and add it to the file on physical education.
Give yourself lots of time to compile the work for a portfolio. Purchase a three-ring binder and place the child's name, address, birth date and grade on the front. This keeps your portfolio neat and easy to use.
Create a portfolio. The portfolio should include a sampling of the child's work throughout the year and should indicate progress. To accomplish this, include a few spelling worksheets from the beginning, middle and end of the year. Lump each subject together.
Take the portfolio to a professional evaluator who will give the school district a report, or photocopy the work and mail the portfolio in to the school district. Many schools will return the portfolio. Send the portfolio certified mail so you have a record that the district received it.