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Homeschool, unschool, no school, it's all cool

Since we're ditching the curriculum for homeschooling and using life learning instead, I need to find an easy way to document it for our state's required yearly assessment. I'm pretty sure I'll just do a weekly summary of subjects the kids have covered, but I'm completely sure I'll miss much of what they learn! We'll keep guiding them and encouraging them to explore their interests. We'll have plenty of opportunities on the road, but even here at home, they love to learn. They don't love tests, but the learning is fun, so we're letting it be fun. I've heard people say "well life isn't fun, so school shouldn't be fun", and well, frankly their life must stink! Oops, that's a tangent, so I'll save that for another day. (Oops again, I used math in real life!)
So last week I had a big work project and Allen had a lot of home maintenance, and we were pretty consumed with that and didn't really put effort into any guiding/learning. One night at dinner I said tell me what all you learned today. We were all quite surprised at the list they came up with! And some of it was pretty in-depth. All of it was learned in ways that matter to them, so they'll remember it.
I don't think I'll ask them to share all they learn about (of course they won't realize much of it!) so I'll just jot down what I notice as I can, just to please Ohio. More importantly, Allen and I will enjoy the process, just to please us! And to raise kids that will hopefully remember more than I do about what they learned!

Week of 5/30:
Reading, GPS coordinates, navigation, geography, geology, local history, war history, geometry, multiplication, career choices, debt, investing, lawsuits, money, saving money, banking, tire pressure and PSI, pride in your work, selfishness, weather, sibling rivalry (boy did they focus on that!), bike maintenance, strategy and planning, weapons, zoology? (collecting & sadly experimenting on lightning bugs!), volume, sharing, and whatever I missed.
And I should include the obvious life skills: how to fix a fence and a screen and chop, split, and burn wood. :)

Comments

I got into digi scrapping to document our learning. At the end of the year, I could easily pull together a portfolio just by looking at my pages. Not sure if that will help you or not though because I don't know your state requirements.
sssnoo said…
Life should be fun -- if it isn't that is a problem. Sure, bad stuff happens, but the more resilient and self-learning a person is the better equipped they are to handle obstacles. I love hearing about your real-life unschooling adventures.