reconsidering the records

Its nice to know at 30 years old, when you might think you have a grasp on what you're doing, you wake up once again and realize you're just punting and what you thought you were doing right was just a step in the process of getting to wherever it is you're going to end up.

A little while back, I posted about trying to figure out the legalities of unschooling and recordkeeping. I had found some information and a seemingly simple way to document our learning that would satisfy the state. Its now been a month of that system, and my verdict is in.

Positive: Dang it, it is amazing to look through all that note-taking and remember the bazillions of things we have done in 30 days. Especially amazing because most days, by the time lunch rolls around, I can't remember what I had for breakfast. Or if I even had breakfast. So trying to remember what tidbits the kids might have picked up a week after an amazing revelation took place is practically impossible.

Negative: Seriously? Come on. I am dissecting every single day of our life. Although I was convinced of the fact that learning happens all the time, I went overboard on trying to figure out what exactly that learning was, where it could be categorized, what it fulfilled, etc. You know, trying to prove it to the state. Talk about a headache.

(And yes, I realize that for another year we will still be flying under the radar. So I don't technically even need to be worrying about this at all. But I still feel the need to be prepared in certain areas of life, and making sure I know how to be legal with something that no one else in the family tree is even remotely attempting, is one of those things. Especially since half the family tree works in law enforcement. So I guess I'm supposed to know.)

Neither the strong coffee nor the glass of red wine was doing anything to remedy the headache, so I figured it was time to reassess the whole recordkeeping thing. Figuring I probably needed to be redirected, I found myself a life long MN unschooler(with high school/college aged kids) and asked my questions.

Stop worrying about it, she said.

I should have guessed.

According to Ms. Ultra Experienced MN Unschooler:

1. Its very rare that someone steps in to check on records.
2. There are a great many people unschooling in MN who don't keep any records at all.
3. She did very little recordkeeping when her kids were younger, and when they got to be high school aged, her record keeping was for the sake of creating transcripts to be used for college - not to satisfy the powers that be.
4. If she had ever been called upon by the powers that be, she'd have made an appointment for a couple weeks out, and spent that time on compiling an amazing list of resources they've recently used...and completely overwhelm the aforementioned powers.
5. She suggested a once a month simple journaling of places visited, topics touched on, library books checked out, etc. Nothing tough. Nothing stressful. Because it shouldn't be stressful.
6. If they call on you and want to check your records, she said, call me. I'll help you.

Well, then. There you have it.

So for June's summary I have a list of books/DVDs we've checked out, a few websites we've played around with, the more memorable things we've done the past month, some places we've visited, etc. Way less stressful. And, as i tuck it into the file, its amazing to me, even though I know there are so many things I didn't even mention in the "records", there is still a rich and varied learning thing that's now been documented.

I'm feeling much better. I even did a little thinking on the whole need to prove learning...but that post is for another day.

Unschooling...and record keeping?

When people ask me what I use for curriculum, I shrug and say “Whatever presents itself during the day.”

When people ask when we will be finishing up our school/learning for the year, I jokingly ask them when they plan on being done breathing for the day.

Unschooling makes me giddy. Excited. And never ceases to amaze
me. I’m finding that the most beautiful things happen when I toss a bunch of opportunities out there…and just watch. The boys find something delicious to lose themselves in and want to soak up everything they can possibly know about that thing. I’m ecstatic to be join them in the adventure. Its good to be free!

Then again…

There’s that pesky issue of record keeping (and norm referenced standardized testing) that comes with living in certain states. Mine included. So as awesome as it is to have come to a completely different definition of what learning is, and to know that every second my kids are learning millions of things….as far as the state is concerned, if I don’t document that learning, it never happened.

I remember being at the Minnesota Homeschoolers’ Alliance conference last year and hearing the keynote speaker talk about the lovliness of unschooling…and yet she was from out of state - a state that didn’t require record keeping or annual testing. So while the whole premise of unschooling was absolutely enthralling to me, I didn’t really see how it could work in a state that was regulated or monitored like ours.

So…how does one unschool…and keep the state happy?

My first idea:
What I first came up with was since there are only five required areas of teaching in our state (per the MHA handbook and several other sources), I figured I would just record the things we did in our daily life that fit into those areas: Communications, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Health/Phy Ed. (All other areas of education are optional, or so it says.) So I made up something on Publisher that was basically a chart of those five things which I intended to keep notes for the week on various things we did…and plug them in where they fit. Great, right?

Amazingly enough, there was an issue. And it wasn’t necessarily a bad issue to have.

There wasn’t enough room.

After one day of using this system, really looking at what the boys were doing in a day, and how it could be written down to appease the state…the chart that was intended to hold a weeks worth of learning “stuff”, couldn’t even handle what we’d done in a day.

So, back to the computer. I did a little research about other unschoolers who need to keep records and was brought to Leaping From The Box. Her method of recordkeeping is a great idea, and is something we have put into practice here (with a few tweaks for our own usage). Its been working well. The front of our page has Communications, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Health/Phy Ed. The back has Art/Music, Foreign Language, Religion/Philosophy, Independent Living Skills, Out and About, and Misc.

We've been using this system for the past week now and it seems to be a good fit for us. It should work fine for the state, and other inquiring minds (relatives)who want to know what we could possibly be learning. Its also a nice reminder for me, should I (when I) fall into a funk of thinking somehow we just aren't doing it right/doing enough/etc. It amazes me to see how much learning you can pull out of one day of just "being". Its a completely different way of seeing the world.