Using the documents of the department of education as guides in how to word and present the documents we prepare for our children's educational records can help us put our documents in a language and form that educators are familiar with. This will give them more credibility in the eyes of the educators.

Almost all of the information we need is available to us quite easily through the internet. The Department of Education has a very informative web site which provides access to most, if not all, of the documents needed. Two areas of the web site that I think are most helpful are the Program of Studies and the Outcomes.

Program of Studies

Every year the Department publishes a Program of Studies which outlines the educational plans for the different levels for that year. There are minor changes to the Program of Studies over the years as they change curriculum and resources but these changes are minor each year. The new Program of Studies is not normally available until September of the school year. I tend to do my planning over the summer so I use the Program of Studies for the previous year as a guide.

Here is a link to the Program of Studies of the 2002-2003 School year: http://www.gov.nf.ca/edu/sp/pos.htm . This contains links to PDF (Printable Downloadable Form) files of program of studies for Kindergarten, Primary, Elementary, Intermediate, and Senior High Programs. It gives the subject descriptions and recommended resources for each level.

I am not suggesting that we use this as our school plan. I am suggesting that we can borrow from it to help in wording any documents we prepare so that it is in a form that educators will be familiar with.

Course Outcomes

The Department of Education's educational program is an outcomes based program. They have a list of outcomes for each subject area for each level. The outcomes are basically a checklist of things that are to be accomplished. The outcomes are written in "educationese" (a unique language of educators) so sometimes they are a little hard to understand, but if you can cut through the wordiness of it you can get the gist of what is expected.

This is a link to a list of outcomes for the different levels: http://www.gov.nf.ca/edu/k12/co/main.htm . In each of the different levels the outcomes are sometimes further divided into grades.

Once again I am not suggesting that we follow this rigidly, but it can give us guidance. We could even print of the outcomes and check them off as we accomplish them and use them as a guide as to what things to keep in a portfolio.

Summary

The Department of Education's Program of Studies and Course Outcomes can be tools we use in educating our children. I am in no way suggesting, however, that we rigidly follow it or that we glibly copy it all for our records. The biggest advantage that I see to home education is being able to tailor the learning to the child. We have to make it our own plan and the records also have to indicate that, but we can use the information from the Department as guides to help in presentation and wording of any records we want to keep.