Why I Started Diligent Homeschool (by the Founder)

Hi! My name is Elizabeth Lawrence, and I’m the founder of Diligent Homeschool Recordkeeping System.

This post is to provide some background information about me and a behind-the-scenes look at how Diligent Homeschool got started.

I’ve been homeschooling my own children for almost 20 years (how the time flies!). I’ve also worked as a software engineer for almost that many years.

{Yes, working full-time from home while homeschooling is a special challenge, but it is necessary for some families. I can delve into these challenges and what has worked for me at a later time, if there is interest in this topic.}

Homeschool Recordkeeping by Hand

For the first several years after I started homeschooling, I would setup a lesson planner for each of my kids, where I planned out their lessons on the weekends for the following week’s homeschool work.

I would go to our local teacher supply store at the beginning of each school year and purchase a planner for each child for the upcoming year.

Each weekend, I would plan out each child’s work for the following week and write out their assignments in their planners.

In the same shopping trip, I would purchase a teacher grade book for recording grades. I would mark in the grade book each assignment from the lesson planner, then add the assignment grades as I checked my kids’ work.

Periodically (each week or two), I would check the grade book for missing grades and write out a list for each child of anything he or she had not yet turned in.

At the end of each quarter, I would get out my handy-dandy calculator and compute each child’s grades. I would re-calculate it 3 or 4 times to make sure I had tallied it correctly.

Then I would open up an Excel spreadsheet and type out a report card from the grades in the grade book.

Homeschool Recordkeeping Online—Simpler and Automated!

One of the things I love about being a software engineer is that I can take a repetitive task for users and make it easier by automating some part or all of the process for them.

After following this tedious handwritten process of recordkeeping for several years in my homeschool, I decided that I should automate it to make it easier for me!

I whipped up a simple website where I could create students and subjects, and enter assignments and their grades.

I then added an option to print out a lesson plan so the kids would have a list of everything they needed to accomplish for the week.

As I checked their work each day, I would add the grades to the assignments.

I added filters to the list of assignments so I could quickly see what had not been completed for any given date range, by child and/or subject. It also showed the cumulative grade for each subject at any given time (i.e., no surprises at the end of the quarter!).

I then programmed a grade report/report card that could simply be printed at the end of each quarter—no calculator required!

Diligent Homeschool Is Born!

I became very excited at the amount of time and headache that this process was saving me! I started to think that this could help other homeschool parents as well, so why not set it up so that other people could create a membership to do the same thing that was saving me so much time and hassle?

I started researching the various state requirements for homeschoolers across the country to see what other recordkeeping needed to be covered. I also researched different ways that homeschoolers conduct their homeschool.

From this research I started adding new features, such as attendance, weighted categories (e.g., quizzes, tests, daily work), custom grading scales, GPA scales, and transcripts!

We continue to add new features to the system, while we regularly look for ways to make your job as a homeschool parent easier, allowing you to focus on your children—not the paperwork!

If you would like to simplify your homeschool recordkeeping tasks, check out all the features we offer and sign up for your membership today!