Applecore Record Keeping System Review & Giveaway {closed}

Records of classes and courses . . . report cards . . . transcripts . . . oh my! Surely I’m not the only homeschooling mom who gets a little weak in the knees when I hear these words.

With my oldest child turning 12 next week, I’m more aware than ever that high school is just around the corner – which means that I have to get organized and create nice report cards and a professional-looking transcript that any college will accept. *GASP*

Or wait . . . maybe I don’t! I’ve had an opportunity to test out the Applecore record keeping system, and – dare I say it? – this system makes record keeping easy.

Applecore is an online membership-based program that allows homeschooling families to keep track of all of their students’ classes, assignments, and grades in one convenient place that’s accessible from any computer. Applecore allows an unlimited number of students per account, so whether you have one child or ten, you can enter all of their information.

It was very easy for me to input the information for my three boys – probably took me less than five minutes. The site’s interface is pretty intuitive and user-friendly, but Applecore offers loads of tutorials and video helps to guide users through all the features and capabilities of the tracking system.

Why might you want to use the Applecore Record Keeping System?

After entering basic info about my kids (name & birth date), I was able to start adding more specific info about their schooling. I set up years for each student – fourth grade in 2010/11, for example – and then started adding individual subjects/courses for each year. It’s very easy to add the subjects my boys are currently studying, but the system also lets me go back and add the subjects they studied in previous grades.

The Applecore system allows you to categorize each course in several ways:

• • Credit Courses (High School) or Non Credit
• • Category/Subject – such as Social Studies, Math, Computer, or Electives
• • Course Type – Under Language Arts, some of the choices include Grammar, Handwriting, Phonics, and Spelling.
• • Special Courses: Honors, AP Course, Dual Enrollment, Credit by Exam

Obviously, some of these choices are used only for high school level courses, but that’s the stage where record keeping becomes so important.

Grading & Report Cards

For each course, I can assign grades for the Spring, Summer, or Fall Semesters and/or for the entire School Year. Applecore stores all of the information and will generate a report card for any year with the click of a button. If I want, I can modify the report card to include additional information such as our school name and address and my child’s birth date. The report can show grades from individual semesters or from the entire school year.

It’s easy to preview the report card, make sure I like how it looks, and then export it to PDF for printing.

Maybe you’re not interested in report cards . . . that’s okay, Applecore still has plenty to offer!

Scheduling, Attendance & Portfolios

There are areas for both a schedule and an attendance record. In the schedule, the system shows a simple daily, weekly, or monthly calendar, and you can input anything you want. Co-ops, outside classes, lessons in various subjects, dental & doctor appointments – you name it, you can put it on the calendar. Each student gets his own calendar.

If your state requires you to keep an attendance record (or if you just want to), Applecore makes is super easy. In the attendance section of the site, you simply click “Add Attendance,” and a small calendar pops up. Select the month/year that you want and just click on the days your child had school – they’ll highlight in green, and you can click save. Voila! Your attendance record is done. It’s easily printable too.

Okay, one last thing I want to tell you about . . . the Portfolio section. Here, you can keep records on all the various activities, projects, etc. that your child does through the year. It’s easy to type in the activity, title, description, and the start and end dates. Just like the other sections, Applecore saves the information and makes it simple to export to PDF for printing.

I have tried so many record-keeping systems over the years – notebooks, lesson planners, computer software – but I must say that Applecore has the simplest and most efficient set-up that I’ve ever used. This is one that I can see myself continuing to use for many years.

Oh . . . and when those high school years do arrive, Applecore will take all of the course information and grades I’ve been entering and create a concise, sleek transcript. I can’t wait. 🙂

Through January 15, Applecore is offering Hip Homeschool Moms readers a 50% discount on any membership! To take advantage of this amazing offer, use Coupon Code: hipmom.

Visit Applecore’s website for more information and find them on Facebook & Twitter.

Applecore Giveaway

We’re very excited to be able to give away a one-year Applecore Gold Membership to two lucky Hip Homeschool families! Just enter below . . .

a Rafflecopter giveaway