christopher_rea

I am just beginning this homeschool journey, and the idea of
unschooling fits with how children learn. But I am curious what it
looks like practically during the week? We are required by our state
laws to document 4 hours of learning a day for 172 days a year. Can
someone help me get from the philosophy of unschooling to the practical
application and how you meet the state requirements?

Nichole

My daughter learns every hour she's awake. I can easily fit what she does into traditional schooly categories, but I'm so glad I don't have to do that. Be creative and it's really simple.

Nichole
----- Original Message -----
From: christopher_rea
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 5:13 PM
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] What does your week look like?




I am just beginning this homeschool journey, and the idea of
unschooling fits with how children learn. But I am curious what it
looks like practically during the week? We are required by our state
laws to document 4 hours of learning a day for 172 days a year. Can
someone help me get from the philosophy of unschooling to the practical
application and how you meet the state requirements?








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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/22/2005 11:53:24 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
ms_fausey@... writes:

I am just beginning this homeschool journey, and the idea of
unschooling fits with how children learn. But I am curious what it
looks like practically during the week? We are required by our state
laws to document 4 hours of learning a day for 172 days a year. Can
someone help me get from the philosophy of unschooling to the practical
application and how you meet the state requirements?





My state requires me to keep records. I have found it easiest to get a
Week-At-A-Glance Teacher's Planner. I have to "teach" five subjects and I fill
in something we did that day in that subject. For example under "Science" I
might write "observed baby birds in bird house, observed opossum, looked up
opossum on internet, water play, planned to check on baby birds after storm,
visited weather website." Today under "Math" I wrote "played Yahtzee, dice
play: prediction and chance, discussion of time, calendar". Going to the home
and garden store could be social studies (jobs people do), science
(gardening, building, machinery) and math (money, estimating materials needed,
measuring).

Some days are easier than other to come up with education-ese. I really
look at a week rather than a day. If one day is more science-heavy, I spread it
out over the week. I also keep a running list of excursions (including
doctor's visits, interesting errands, day trips), books read, movies watched,
websites visited, tv shows, magazines, activities, etc.
You could add a note about time spent until it adds up to four hours.

On the files section of this yahoo list is a neat form to fill out....things
like "thinking", "doing", "planning" that is a good way to classify an
unschooling day without assigning school subjects if that isn't required by your
state.

Just curious, since I move around alot, what state are you in?

Leslie in SC




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Danielle Conger

christopher_rea wrote:

>I am just beginning this homeschool journey, and the idea of
>unschooling fits with how children learn. But I am curious what it
>looks like practically during the week? We are required by our state
>laws to document 4 hours of learning a day for 172 days a year. Can
>someone help me get from the philosophy of unschooling to the practical
>application and how you meet the state requirements?
>
>
How old are your children? Mine are young, but you're welcome to check
out my webpage, below, and my blog, which is linked off there. You'll
see in great detail what our learning looks like and how I document it.
I keep it relatively up to date, though we're in the middle of a
potential move, having realtors in and out of the house and my mind and
time otherwise occupied, so it's been a little while since I've updated.

--
~~Danielle
Emily (7), Julia (6), Sam (4.5)
http://www.danielleconger.com/Homeschool/Welcomehome.html

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"With our thoughts, we make the world." ~~Buddha

TreeGoddess

On Apr 22, 2005, at 6:13 PM, christopher_rea wrote:

-=-I am just beginning this homeschool journey, and the idea of
unschooling fits with how children learn. But I am curious what it
looks like practically during the week?-=-

Everyone will have a different answer. :) Here's a link to a
collection of unschoolers' "typical days" that you might like to check
out. http://www.sandradodd.com/typical

-=-We are required by our state
laws to document 4 hours of learning a day for 172 days a year. Can
someone help me get from the philosophy of unschooling to the practical
application and how you meet the state requirements?-=-

You might find the info here helpful, too. It's how a parent
summarized their unschooling lives into California's state educational
standards' language. You can glean some of the ideas to fit your
state's requirements. I'll give you the links to both elementary and
secondary since I don't know the age of your child(ren).

Course of Study - Elementary Students
http://sandradodd.com/acme1

Course of Study - Secondary Students
http://sandradodd.com/acme2

Oh, and this too might be helpful to you:
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum

-Tracy-

"Every moment spent in unhappiness is a moment of
happiness lost." -- Leo Buscaglia

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Nichole

Please be careful how you quote things. I did not write what you quoted me writing. That was csrea@... who wrote the question about documentation.
----- Original Message -----
From: Leslie530@...
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 11:46 PM
Subject: Re: [unschoolingbasics] What does your week look like?



In a message dated 4/22/2005 11:53:24 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
ms_fausey@... writes:

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pam Sorooshian

On Apr 23, 2005, at 10:01 AM, Nichole wrote:

> Please be careful how you quote things. I did not write what you
> quoted me writing. That was csrea@... who wrote the question
> about documentation.
>

It is just the email program - sometimes people quote Person A's
writing but take it from Person B's post. They can easily forget to
change the name that is automatically put in by their email program. I
think most people realize that and don't take it too seriously.

-pam