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RamFam
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| Posted: Oct 14 2008 at 9:58pm | IP Logged
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For those who unschool in states like Virginia which require documentation of your curriculum at the beginning of the year, what do you send in?
And, do you set out at the beginning requiring certain things at certain times? Meaning... Do you require, say, Algebra completed before high school graduation or cursive by fourth grade or the Revolutionary war this year? Or do you truly leave it to the child that they will learn all that is necessary or wanted? Hmmm... I just can't fathom not having some sort of basic checklist of things that need to be learned this year and the next and before graduation, etc. Especially, if I have to be held accountable to the state. I'm missing the point, aren't I?
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Leah
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Tom ^i^, Kyle (my Marine), Adeline '00, Wyatt '05, Isaac '07 Philip '08,Michael '10, and John Xavier Feb '13
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LLMom
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| Posted: Oct 15 2008 at 3:47pm | IP Logged
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Could you use a record keeping for like this? And then you need to learn to speak "educationese".  Basically that means labeling reading the morning paper as civics and language arts, doubling a recipe as math, etc. Go through the categories on the record form and write math, English, social studies, science, or whatever next to each thing your dc did.
As to what to require, all unschooling families (and others as well) have to decide that for themselves. Radical unschoolers would say you are not unschooling if you impose anything on your dc.
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Lisa
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: Oct 15 2008 at 4:15pm | IP Logged
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For the first part of your post:
I'm not in Virginia, and I'm not required to document in IL. However, I do document "just in case". I don't know how it would work in VA since I do it after the fact.
I basically make notes throughout the month in a word document of special activities, any big things we studied, big books read, workbooks completed (my oldest likes workbooks), and any big developments for each child (physical, mental, emotional, educational). Then at the end of each month I write it all out in paragraph form. Some months are longer than others.
We mostly unschool. At this point we just do math and reading lessons. I have possibilities planned out for the next 10 years, but at this point I am tempted just to stick with formalized math and let most other things take care of themselves. That being said, I do tend to have three or four goals for each semester (we live by college semesters) like finish KMath 2B, practice phone etiquette, etc.
I think if I lived in VA I would make very general goals, plot out upcoming activities and their educational value, and list any resource books we keep around the house.
As for the second part of your post:
I can see us getting slightly more formalized around eighth grade in preparation for college. College is a priority. So they obviously need an emphasis on writing skills, critical thinking, and math through basic algebra and geometry. I think the first two can easily come naturally through day to day living (at least so far for my oldest daughter). I could totally see using an ACT/SAT prep book as a spine for high school, though. Because really, when you get to college, professors treat everyone like a blank slate in most subjects.
I like the idea as demonstrated by Cafi Cohen, though. You see what subjects your child gravitates towards naturally (even if they are using unorthodox ways to learn about it) and then you fill in the blanks with more guidance where necessary. Of course what one parent thinks is necessary and what another does may differ. And what is necessary for one child might not be necessary for the next. (Not everyone needs to learn Calculus for instance.) IL has pretty broad guidelines of what they think is necessary.
The way I see it (and anyone can feel to disagree) is that there is no way to teach your child EVERYTHING in the world. It's not important to know every battle of the Revolutionary War, as long as you understand the gist (why, who, when). And that can very easily be covered just by celebrating Independence Day or George Washington's birthday.
I mean most scope and sequence is completely arbitrary, even from school to school. One school may study American History in 5th grade, while the next one does it in 6th grade. Does it matter when a person learns the basics as longs as they learn what they need to learn by when
they need to be able to use it? If they want to learn it just for fun more power to them. I think this at the heart of unschooling.
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Barbara
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SallyT
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| Posted: Oct 15 2008 at 7:55pm | IP Logged
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Well, for high school -- as we're discovering -- you do have a roster of requirements you have to fulfill, whether it's for a state or umbrella-school diploma, for college admissions, or whatever. HOW you acquire the knowledge necessary to fulfill the requirements is more or less up for grabs, as long as you can provide evidence/documentation for having covered those subjects. Our daughter doesn't just do what she wants -- if she did, there would be no math. She recognizes, grudgingly, that there are hoops she has to jump through/crosses she has to bear and learn from, in order not to be the world's oldest 10th grader at 110.
But she has a lot of say in designing her program, and where her interests and strengths and things she does naturally fulfill academic requirements, I don't make her do more formal work. So she does a combinations of interest-led things (her involvement in theatre at one point took in a lot of English skills like writing and revision), life learning (we give home-ec credit for cooking dinner, budgeting her babysitting money, etc), and some formal academic work including, right now, a Latin 2 class at the college where my husband teaches -- so we've got a college professor who can vouch for her ability to do college-level work, which will come in useful when we're putting applications together.
For my younger kids, I keep a log of what we do from day to day. If I had to -- and I don't in NC -- I could fairly easily arrange our daily activities (reading aloud, art, nature study, Mass and prayers for my youngest two) into subjects covered, and I'd report it that way. Reading aloud covers a multitude of bases. All three of my youngers have been reading Rascal, by Sterling North -- my 10yo as an independent read, my youngest 2 as a somewhat abridged read-aloud -- and I've been pondering how the story covers not only nature/science (boy meets raccoon and has many wilderness experiences), but also history (small-town American life during WWI; mentions Spanish influenza epidemic and other happenings of that period), geography, etc. So I'd report that we'd covered all those things -- maybe I'd say we'd done a unit study based on Rascal, to make it sound official and not off-the-cuff as it actually was.
Just some thoughts . . . we're not radical unschoolers, but definitely tend in an unschooly direction.
Sally
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RamFam
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| Posted: Oct 16 2008 at 12:23pm | IP Logged
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The documenting I'm asking about is what they want at the beginning of the year, not the end. I have to show what I plan on doing this year, on top of showing what we did last year. Would I list the materials I plan on "strewing?"
Barbara C wrote:
| I think if I lived in VA I would make very general goals, plot out upcoming activities and their educational value, and list any resource books we keep around the house. |
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I guess that's what you said, isn't it? Is there anyone who has to provide this? Or do you find other ways, such as religious exemption, or other states?
Thanks everyone for your insights. I'm currently following the Well Trained Mind and drowning under the weight of it while seeing my daughter learning all kinds of things through other means. In fact I asked her yesterday what she could tell me about the Greeks (what we're currently covering in second grade history) and she "can't remember". But she could debate Obama on economics, if he'd oblige her.
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Leah
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Tom ^i^, Kyle (my Marine), Adeline '00, Wyatt '05, Isaac '07 Philip '08,Michael '10, and John Xavier Feb '13
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Leonie
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| Posted: Oct 16 2008 at 3:38pm | IP Logged
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I write up a plan for our state - Board of Studies visit every two years - and I use this ( below) as a guide.
I include reading lists as suggested books we MIGHT read. And I include a copy of our state's outcome statements for the curriculum areas.
ACME Curriculum Elementary
ACME Curriculum Secondary
I now document using a blog - this can be saved onto a disk and sent in - and I sometimes show how our activities can be linked to the outcome statements (here) or curriculum areas (here).
Doing this online means I just cut and past the outlines, very easy! 
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Leonie in Sydney
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Leonie
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| Posted: Oct 16 2008 at 3:39pm | IP Logged
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RamFam wrote:
| . In fact I asked her yesterday what she could tell me about the Greeks (what we're currently covering in second grade history) and she "can't remember". But she could debate Obama on economics, if he'd oblige her. |
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I love it - and this passion is exactly why we unschool. Sometimes pure unschool and sometimes unschooling with some Maths/Latin thrown in.... 
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Leonie in Sydney
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SallyT
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| Posted: Oct 17 2008 at 4:05pm | IP Logged
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Yes, me, too, Leonie. :)
We have had to submit an "educational plan" for our former umbrella school in TN, and I did more or less what Leonie just described -- I'd sketch out rough goals/ideals for each content area, then list what resources and activities we were going to use to work towards those goals. In educationese, you might talk about "experience-based learning," "active learning," hands-on learning," etc for things that aren't sit-down formal schoolwork. Or you can talk in terms of "teaching" to given learning styles, or whatever.
Trying to think of an educationese term for "strewing" -- call it "learning centers," and you're golden.
Sally
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Helen
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| Posted: Oct 20 2008 at 8:07am | IP Logged
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This is a great thread! Thanks
I just came over to this forum to post a similar quewstion.
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Ave Maria!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Documenting Unschooling
