Tracy

With all of the back-to-school campaigns lately on tv and talk around
the town, I found myself in panic mode and created a very basic outline
of "school" stuff to do this year.

My youngest daughter, Kenzie, who just turned 7 had also been asking
to "do school" - though she's never been to public school. Kayla is 10
and has only been to Kindergarten. Kendall is 14 and went through 4th
grade.

They did a couple of math workbook pages, wrote spelling lists, and I
read quite a few books with them. But then I thought, "What the heck am
I doing??"

Obviously, I still need to deschool myself. I want to unschool, but I
admit to having trouble trusting the process. How to do I break this
school-ish mentality and fully embrace Radical Unschooling?

I want to keep track of all they are learning through their play and
activities - but how do I translate that into "education-ese" so that
if needed, I could show what they are learning without school?

The girls play alot of games online, watch various tv shows, play dolls
with Barbies and Bratz, read both fiction and non-fiction books
(usually animal books), help bake cookies, listen to a variety of music
(their current favorite is Duran Duran!), draw, paint with fingerpaints
and watercolors, and probably more that I'm forgetting.

My son has a part-time job working for a place that does custom paint &
body work on cars, he plays guitar and is self-teaching, changes his
MySpace page frequently, and talks to friends on IM all of the time.

I would appreciate any advice you can give. Please don't flame me too
terribly! :)

~ Tracy

Meredith

You're welcome to check out the blog I keep "for reporting purposes"
for Rayan to get some ideas:

http://rayanschool.blogspot.com/

---Meredith (Mo 6, Ray 13)

Manisha Kher

--- Tracy <rosehavencottage@...> wrote:

>
> I want to keep track of all they are learning
> through their play and
> activities - but how do I translate that into
> "education-ese" so that
> if needed, I could show what they are learning
> without school?

I think it's easier to keep a log of simply what
they're doing. Don't try to look for learning. Most
learning is invisible. The education-ese is easier to
pull out over a longer period and depending on where
you live, you may never need to do it. ( I'm in MA and
we do have to submit an annual report)

Manisha




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Debra Rossing

Keeping a journal for yourself (whether you type it up in notepad or
write it in a book or whatever - some folks keep private blogs to jot
stuff in for themselves) of what you see and hear - that's transparent
to the kids. A calendar that you can refer to as a memory jogger - "Oh
yeah, last Friday we were at the zoo all day with the X family..." and
so on. Then you can go from there.

reading fiction and non-fiction is reading, obviously, to start with.
animal books adds science/biology, possibly geography as well.
cooking/baking requires reading (recipes), numbers (measuring,
calculating - if the 1/2 C measure is messy from measuring the oil, how
do you measure the 1/2 C flour? use 2 1/4 cups - that adds fractions and
multiplying), nutrition, possibly a bit of science (how come the cookies
stay mostly flat but the muffins poof up).
music includes not only music but also possibly culture (Duran Duran is
"oldies" nowadays yikes! what was the style back then), language (how
words are used, rhymes, etc)
painting is art as well as possibly science (seeing colors, mixing
colors, etc)
playing with dolls is creative "writing" - that is, they are developing
scenarios and "dialogue" and such

various TV shows can be a whole lot of stuff - which shows? Spongebob
has lots of sea creatures, that'd be marine biology, for example.
There's also stuff on friendship, citizenship, etc. Dora includes
Spanish, Blue's Clues includes ASL sometimes, etc. Games online - which
ones? computer skills for sure, possibly number and language skills as
well.

Your son has an 'internship' in a vocation (like he'd do at a vo-tech
school), music (learning guitar), computer/web skills, typing (gotta
keep sharp to keep up with IMing), and so on.

And, if the kids pick the workbooks and choose when to use them and how
to use them, great. And when they decide they'd rather do something else
or maybe decide to use the worksheets as coloring pages instead of
actually counting or adding or whatever, that's great too. It's not so
much the "what" as the "why".


Deb

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

Tracy

Hi Deb,

My girls got started on Duran Duran after I had seen one of their
videos on VH1 and showed it them, along with several others. So on
Kenzie's birthday a couple weeks ago, she received their greatest
hits CD as a gift and was thrilled. They listen to a wide variety of
music because they've been exposed to an eclectic mix. :)

Online games - they talk to other girls on Barbie.com and play
fashion games where they dress up characters. They play regular
online games and also on NeoPets.com, Cartoon Network, Disney, and
more.

We also have a PS2 and they love DDR, Guitar Hero, and various other
games.

TV Shows - They love Hannah Montana, Justice League, Foster's Home
for Imaginary Friends, Scooby Doo, Family Guy, Cow & Chicken for
starters. Kayla also loves Animal Planet.

We bought a couple packages of beads and the girls have been having a
blast creating bracelets and necklaces. Next week, they want to try a
paint-by-number kit. This afternoon we're going to the park after it
cools off a bit.

I really appreciate your reply. It's been a huge help! Thank you!

~ Tracy

--- In [email protected], "Debra Rossing"
<debra.rossing@...> wrote:
> music includes not only music but also possibly culture (Duran
Duran is
> "oldies" nowadays yikes! what was the style back then), language
(how
> words are used, rhymes, etc)
>
> various TV shows can be a whole lot of stuff - which shows?

> Games online - which ones? computer skills for sure, possibly
>number and language skills as well.
>