Homeschoolers have the unique opportunity to start building their children’s portfolios early on, giving their children the advantage of being well prepared when they embark on their journey after homeschooling. A portfolio allows you to demonstrate your skills, abilities, and achievements to potential employers, clients, or collaborators. It provides evidence of your capabilities and helps you stand out from other candidates. It enables you to highlight your accomplishments and display the impact you have made in your field.
Creating a portfolio also helps you to look back on your achievements and progress over time. It boosts your self-confidence and reaffirms your abilities, which can be helpful during future interviews or meetings. Homeschoolers are no strangers to networking. Use this benefit to connect with like-minded people around you that will foster opportunities for collaboration and growth later on in the field that you choose.
Sharpen your skills with learning and improvement as you build your portfolio. It’s good to look out for areas that need improvement and growth. Continuously updating and refining your portfolio gives you the opportunity to enhance your skills, experiment with new techniques, and demonstrate your ability to adapt to changing trends.
How to Build Your Portfolio
Building a portfolio together with your children is a great way to help them showcase skills, accomplishments, and experiences. Here are some steps to take to start building that portfolio.
Building a portfolio together with your children is a great way to help them showcase skills, accomplishments, and experiences.
- Identify their interests—help them determine their passions and interests to guide the content of your portfolio. It could be about art, writing, coding, photography, sports, volunteering, or any other talent they possess.
- Start making a list of all their accomplishments so far and see what else they might want to add to their list.
- Be sure to include school projects. Let them highlight their best assignments and projects completed during school or extracurricular activities, especially the ones that represent their skills and dedication.
- Look out for internships or apprenticeship opportunities in their field of interest. These opportunities allow them to gain practical experience and add real-life projects to their portfolio.
- Get your children to start volunteering for community organizations and volunteer projects. Make sure they document their contributions and accomplishments.
- Encourage them to participate in competitions and contests related to their skills and talents. Look for opportunities to showcase personal projects. Whether it's a short film, artwork, code, or a unique invention, these kinds of projects can exhibit their abilities. Winning or becoming a finalist in these events adds credibility and value to their portfolio.
The NAHC is a friendly academic competition that exists to support homeschool families with college prep, SAT and ACT prep, and college financing. All homeschooled students ages 12–18 are eligible to participate in this exclusive opportunity for the homeschool community. Canadians are welcome to compete!
Registration covers NAHC access, Total College Success software, and Zero Hour Threat—an interactive game that preps students for the SAT and ACT. Let’s go: NAHCRegistration.com.
- Consider starting a blog or writing articles. Your teens can create a blog or contribute articles to online platforms related to their interests (with your permission of course!). This will showcase their writing abilities and passion for the subject matter.
- Encourage them to ask for recommendations and testimonials. As people discover their talents, it's okay to go and ask people to share their positive feedback! Get them to ask their teachers, mentors, or supervisors to write recommendations or testimonials. These will add credibility and validation to a portfolio.
Remember to continually update and refine their portfolio together as they grow, learn, and gain new skills and experiences. Building a portfolio takes time, so encourage them to be persistent, dedicated, and passionate about their work. You’ll both be glad you did when they’re ready to go out into the world, and they’ll be walking confidently with a portfolio in hand!
Here are some opportunities you might consider now.
Join a Schoolhouse!
Work together in a community and build your skills and talents with the support of your homeschooling community.
Find more information at JoinSchoolhouse.com.
Join the SchoolhouseTeachers.com community!
As a SchoolhouseTeachers.com member, you have exclusive access to members-only events that your children can utilize, not only to build their portfolio but also to be involved in the SchoolhouseTeachers.com community. Take advantage of the opportunities to hone your skills and talents by participating in the Art and Photography Fair, Science Fair, and Talent Showcase each year.
Not a member? Take a look at your options today!
This article has been written by homeschooling staff writers of The Canadian Schoolhouse (TCS). Enjoy more of our content from TCS contributors and staff writers by visiting our themes page that has a new theme topic added every month!
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).