Liber / What is a Learning Record?
What is a Learning Record?
A Learning Record is the record of a child's learning over time, built from the moments your family kept, in your words.
It isn't a lesson plan, which is what you intend to do. It isn't a report card, which is someone else's judgement. It's what actually happened: the questions, the projects, the outings and the small moments, kept as they happened.
How one is built
Most of the learning in a homeschool is never written down. A Learning Record starts with writing some of it down, a line or two at a time, on the day it happens.
- Your journal holds the everyday moments, as you write them.
- Each child's Record gathers their moments together as they build up.
- A Learning Record is what you prepare from that Record when you want to show someone. Preparing and exporting Learning Records is part of Liber Plus.
Because it's kept as you go, a Learning Record grows with your family. Something that seemed ordinary in March can look different in August, sitting beside everything that came after it.
An example Learning Record
Four pages from an example Learning Record, prepared from one family's journal. Swipe or scroll sideways to see each page.
An example, written for this page"Watched the tide fill the rock pool and asked where the water goes."
One moment, in a parent's words, with its date. A Learning Record is made of moments like this.
Is it the same as a portfolio?
Close, but not quite. A portfolio is usually a selection: the best pieces, chosen to show someone. A Learning Record is the broader record, kept as learning happens, so nothing needs to be remembered or rebuilt the night before a review.
Many families use their Learning Record as their portfolio, or as the backbone of one, alongside work samples or anything else their state asks for.
Why keep one
Two reasons, and most parents have both. On the days you doubt yourself, a Learning Record shows you what has actually been happening, in your own words. And when someone asks to see the learning, whether that's an authorised person in Australia or a review in New Zealand, you already have it, gathered as you went.
You don't need a curriculum to keep one
You write down what happened. If you'd like your record organised by your state's learning areas, or by your own categories, you can choose that. You can also skip it. It changes how the record is organised, and nothing more.
Questions parents ask
Will a Learning Record satisfy my registration requirements?
Requirements differ between states and countries, so check your own. Liber gives you dated, organised evidence of learning to draw on. It isn't a guarantee of approval, and it doesn't write the learning plan for the next period that some states ask for.
Do I need to record every subject?
No. You record what happens. Liber never counts what you haven't recorded or shows you what's missing.
Does Liber decide what goes in it?
No. A Learning Record is built from the moments you wrote, in your words.
Is preparing a Learning Record free?
Preparing and exporting Learning Records is part of Liber Plus. On the free plan you keep your journal and each child's Record, and you can export your raw data.
Free to start. No card needed.