*Series Intro*
*For the past 6 months or so I have been
exploring the ins and outs of Relaxed Homeschooling (RHS) and Unschooling
(UnS). In that time I have come to see that my daughter NEEDS this type
of learning and education if she is to be who she is meant to be.
Anything else will not support her full development. My reason for
coming up with any kind of plan at all is twofold. This school year we will be
moving to a state in which we will be joining an umbrella school. So, my
task here is to come up with a relaxed plan that will meet the requirements of
the umbrella school. Secondly, a dear friend of mine in state that only
requires an attendance record for homeschool statute compliance was accused of
educational neglect. Having never tested her children, and not done much
record keeping, it was difficult for her to prove that her children were in
deed growing and learning, as they should. So now I am a bit paranoid about the
remote possibility of this happening to us. If it ever does, by some fluke
chance, I will have this plan to back up our efforts.
I've decided to put our plan into a series of
posts. Both as a reference for me in the future and with the hope that it might
be of help to other homeschool moms! ;)
Relaxed
record Keeping Plan – Part Three
I have really
been looking forward to sharing this post in this series about our Relaxed
Homeschool Plan. I am a list maker! I
love to check boxes. I think that is one
reason why I have fluctuated from schoolish to unschoolish ideas, back and
forth over the years. Gentle schoolish
ideas speak to my mind, unschoolish ideas speak to my heart. My daughter is the exact opposite! Just this morning, I asked her what her plan
is for today. She laughed and said,
“Plan, don’t you know me at all?” Still laughing. Maybe you can relate?
Below is my plan
for record keeping that satisfies my need to check boxes, her need for freedom,
and the requirements of our umbrella school.
Our Umbrella School Requires
1. Report of number of school days twice a
year. We must have a total of 180 days each school year (July to June), but we
are not required keep an attendance record. Since everyday is a learning day,
that’s no problem.
2. Provide an educational plan that includes
one resource per subject. This is
easy. We have books on every subject in
our house.
3. Report grades for each subject twice per
year. For now, I can use Pass/Fail if I
want, or letter grades. Letter grades
are easier than you think. I will give
all A’s. Here’s why.
Schools
use grades to rank students and to rate how much of the required material is
mastered. I have no one to rank my
daughter against. We do not have
required material. She is pursuing her
own interests in her own way. There is
no way to grade that. So I don’t feel
guilty giving her A’s. It is a hoop that
the umbrella school is required to jump through, so we must as well.
Other Record Keeping
In addition to
the above, there are a few things that I would like to do for record
keeping. I have many reasons for wanting
to do more than is required. I want back
up if we are ever challenged with educational neglect charges. I want to be
able to look back on our year and see what we have accomplished. I want to be
able to assess where we are going in this journey and next steps we might take.
This will be in a form of a portfolio
binder. Below is a list and explanation
of what goes into this binder.
* The Curriculum Plan/Course Descriptions I talked about in Post#2
* Resource Lists by Subject
o
I
make these lists on Easybib.com. I have
a list for each subject. As we use a
resource I add it to this list. I put everything on these lists! It’s not just
for books. You add in the info for magazines,
TV shows, websites and even fieldtrips.
There is an entry form for just about every resource type and it puts
them in bibliography form automatically.
I will print these out at the end of the school year. Oh, and it’s free!
* Monthly narrative summaries
o
I
have a weekly planning form where I jot down our read-alouds, appointments,
strewing and sharing plans, and notes about what we did each day.
o
At
the end of the month I sit down and write up, in narrative form, what we did
over the past month. I print this
out. Then in the margins I go through
and label school subjects our activities fall into.
* Then I have a section of work samples and
pictures.
* Test Report
o
I
have decided to do a standardized test each year from now on. This is not because I want the results. If you ask me, testing is all about ranking
how well kids take tests, not evaluation what they know. I am doing a test to help my daughter gain
test taking skills. No matter what she
does in life, taking tests will be part of it.
We are a test happy society. She
needs to learn and practice test-taking skills as well as get used to the
process.
* Year End Evaluation
o
This
will be a narrative evaluation drawing from the monthly summaries. Basically my goal here is to keep in touch
with my daughters strengths, areas for growth and develop ideas for strewing
and sharing for the next school year. Oh, and our “school year” is year round,
July-June, because our learning is not confined to school activities or
hours.
So
that’s our plan. If you have read this and you homeschool, I hope it has been
helpful to you. Feel free to use and
modify any forms in these posts. Thanks
for reading. ;)
