Homeschooling High School...trying to stay organized

I tend to be a procrastinator. So when I found out that December 1st was the first day to file applications for the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program, I decided I'd better do it before I forget and risk it not getting done at all. Homeschooling high school requires a lot more discipline on my part and our kids' part.  I need to be organized and disciplined in doing things like making sure that I keep good records for their transcript, staying up to date with the ever changing regulations for dual enrolled students, keeping track of the high school requirements for college, keeping track of their high school and college grades and credits, and more. The kids have to be sure to serve the community by volunteering at a place of their choice, practice good time management, save money, study and be diligent, and so much more.  It's their responsibility to be sure to get their volunteer forms signed for the hours they've volunteered. These are essential forms that we need to keep for the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program, which is why I also have to be careful they're filed away properly.

By filing away properly I mean to keep the important papers and their school work organized and filed separately. I keep their SAT test scores, results from homeschool standardized tests, evaluations, and forms sent to the school board in a separate folder that I keep filed on a shelf for easy access.  Their school work I keep in a separate folder (pictured below). These folders are kept on a high shelf in their closet.  At the end of each school year, I take my kids' school work and I save samples from each subject for each month of the year in a big folder, whether it's art work or samples from their workbooks or textbooks. I don't save everything because we just don't have the space for that. So this is what each folder would look like for each child and each year.

I do like to save every one of their essays.  Each child has a large notebook where the essays are kept.  So we can easily see the progress in their writing throughout the years.  The beginning of the notebook has their journal entries.  When they were 7 years old, they started writing journals.  They were too young to write essays.  So this was their writing practice. My kids will say they don't enjoy writing.  However, I can say that because they've done so much of it throughout the years, it's not an area they struggle in. It's important that they can organize their thoughts and then express them well in writing.  In an SAT, it's important that they're able to do this in a short amount of time. If I'm not mistaken, the SAT only allows 25 minutes to complete an essay.

My daughter has taken the SAT three times, and this year took the ACT.  My son has taken the PSAT, but this year he will take the SAT for the first time.  This year he hasn't done much creative writing, so we're going to sign him up for a course where he can get some SAT essay writing help.  Most of the writing he's done is for his Literature class, which is mostly writing about the book he's just read.

Honestly, the high school years still make me nervous.  I'm so thankful for the internet.  All the information I need is right at my fingertips.  When we first started homeschooling, the library was my best friend. Now the internet is my best friend.