New blog purpose!

This is the first year that I've had a child who is "in the system" and in just a few months, she'll be required by the state to either take a standardized test or have a portfolio reviewed by a certified teacher. We're choosing the portfolio option, but I've not been very diligent at record keeping -- especially difficult when the learning and academics aspects of life are pretty free-flowing, spontaneous, and interwoven in the fabric of the rest of life. I have an overstuffed folder of drawings and writings and scribbles, and a stack of different things that are widely recognized as learning... but it's a jumble. My theory is that this blog can serve as a sort of record that helps me keep things organized so that when "portfolio time" rolls around, I will actually have a framework and basis to build said portfolio around, something that demonstrates to this random certified teacher that my school-age child is, in fact, learning, progressing, growing, and experiencing. I will naturally also be including the similar exploits and antics of her younger siblings.