annual evaluation
Randi
hi everyone,
we recently moved from new york to florida just to homeschool. my girls are 10, 8, and 5. the two older ones were pulled out from public school. the youngest one did went to nursery. yes. dramatic changes for all of us in every way. to make the long story short, our hs journey needed to head back to deschooling point again, after few months of charlotte mason.
first of all, i thought, the summer months can consider deschooling and will do the trick - but it didn't! and secondly, altho my girls enjoy charlotte mason way, i find them not learning like they should be....so we headed back to deschooling period few weeks ago. and this time around, i see that we will be doing deschooling aleast up to our annual evaluation date.
so i need help with how should we put together the portfolio to show? which kind of evaluator will be more suitable to do evaluation for us? where can i look up for one? how much earlier i should schedule with the evaluator?
truly appreciate any help, here. i'm already above and beyond myself with deschooling crossed over unschooling. yes. i understand deschooling IS NOT unschooling. the only reason i linked them together is because my two younger ones looks more like doing unschooling while me and my oldest one are definitely needed to do deschooling. so as for me - learning and dealing with both all at the same time. =N
thanks so very much in advance,
randi
we recently moved from new york to florida just to homeschool. my girls are 10, 8, and 5. the two older ones were pulled out from public school. the youngest one did went to nursery. yes. dramatic changes for all of us in every way. to make the long story short, our hs journey needed to head back to deschooling point again, after few months of charlotte mason.
first of all, i thought, the summer months can consider deschooling and will do the trick - but it didn't! and secondly, altho my girls enjoy charlotte mason way, i find them not learning like they should be....so we headed back to deschooling period few weeks ago. and this time around, i see that we will be doing deschooling aleast up to our annual evaluation date.
so i need help with how should we put together the portfolio to show? which kind of evaluator will be more suitable to do evaluation for us? where can i look up for one? how much earlier i should schedule with the evaluator?
truly appreciate any help, here. i'm already above and beyond myself with deschooling crossed over unschooling. yes. i understand deschooling IS NOT unschooling. the only reason i linked them together is because my two younger ones looks more like doing unschooling while me and my oldest one are definitely needed to do deschooling. so as for me - learning and dealing with both all at the same time. =N
thanks so very much in advance,
randi
Schuyler
Your message suggests that you are quite confused about what unschooling is. Charlotte Mason isn't unschooling. Deschooling and then going into Charlotte Mason isn't unschooling. Deschooling and then unschooling may join together so seamlessly that if you aren't watching carefully you may miss the transition. Deschooling is letting go of all that is school and all that is about pressing someone to learn in a scholastic fashion so that they can heal, so that they can stop seeing learning as a special kind of activity and grow to understand that learning is like breathing. Unschooling may never look like academic learning, but it is no longer avoiding things that may make someone healing from a school experience seize up a little inside. Like going to a museum or watching Shakespeare (my husband still, years on from school, struggle to see a Shakespeare play) or enjoying a Vi Hart youtube video, although maybe Vi Hart's videos are always
delightful...probably not.
As for an evaluator in Florida, http://sandradodd.com/world#us%c2%a0lists 3 unschooling lists in Florida. I would recommend that you check a more local list to see what they can offer you in the way of advice.
________________________________
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
delightful...probably not.
>>first of all, i thought, the summer months can consider deschooling and will do the trick - but it didn't! and secondly, altho my girls enjoy charlotte mason way, i find them not learning like they should be....so we headed back to deschooling period few weeks ago. and this time around, i see that we will be doing deschooling aleast up to our annual evaluation date. <<Learning the way they should be is a statement that sends up giant red flags for me. I think you may need to be more actively deschooling yourself instead of hoping that by giving them a bit of a break from school they will come back to it ready to embrace the tyranny of someone else defining their relationship with learning.
As for an evaluator in Florida, http://sandradodd.com/world#us%c2%a0lists 3 unschooling lists in Florida. I would recommend that you check a more local list to see what they can offer you in the way of advice.
________________________________
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Bobbie Hood
I am a member of Florida Unschoolers Umbrella School if you join them you do not have a yearly evaluation. http://www.freewebs.com/floridaunschoolers/
--- In [email protected], "Randi" <randily41@...> wrote:
>
> hi everyone,
>
>
> we recently moved from new york to florida just to homeschool. my girls are 10, 8, and 5. the two older ones were pulled out from public school. the youngest one did went to nursery. yes. dramatic changes for all of us in every way. to make the long story short, our hs journey needed to head back to deschooling point again, after few months of charlotte mason.
>
> first of all, i thought, the summer months can consider deschooling and will do the trick - but it didn't! and secondly, altho my girls enjoy charlotte mason way, i find them not learning like they should be....so we headed back to deschooling period few weeks ago. and this time around, i see that we will be doing deschooling aleast up to our annual evaluation date.
>
> so i need help with how should we put together the portfolio to show? which kind of evaluator will be more suitable to do evaluation for us? where can i look up for one? how much earlier i should schedule with the evaluator?
>
> truly appreciate any help, here. i'm already above and beyond myself with deschooling crossed over unschooling. yes. i understand deschooling IS NOT unschooling. the only reason i linked them together is because my two younger ones looks more like doing unschooling while me and my oldest one are definitely needed to do deschooling. so as for me - learning and dealing with both all at the same time. =N
>
> thanks so very much in advance,
> randi
>
Randi Lee
thank you everyone for replying. =)
sorry, if my wordings seem confusing.
yes. i do know charlotte mason is not unschooling and i didn't mean to word it that way. i was trying to shorten my information which i think it made it unclear....
what i was trying to say is
- first i assumed summer months(july/aug. '11) will be significant time for all of us to deschool. we did it and it didn't work.
- then (mid aug. '11) we started to hs in charlotte mason way for few months. we did good BUT i felt that something was missing or not right (this part is what i mean, they're not learning like the way they should be...). what i mean by it is, i see them doing "school" with no "spark". this is one of the "don't want" thing in our hs journey. so we took off few days from doing "school". during those off days, i saw them needing true deschooling time. so for these past weeks, we all are deschooling. no doubt, i have the biggest struggle with it and the one needed the most.
yes. i do see deschooling can be seamlessly become unschooling. that is how i see it with my two younger ones but not for my older one. so we're deschooling now and aim to unschool in the future - this will consider "the plan".
but for now - the question i have is how to do put together a portfolio to show for the annual evaluation? thank you for mentioning of joining umbrella school. i'm reserving it as my last resource. beside i felt that too many revised intent letters will raise a red flag. so for those of you who require to have an annual evaluation, how's your portfolio look like? are we the first family in this kind of situation? i'm sure...not.
please - it will be less un-nerving for me during our deschooling time, if i know how to handle an annual evaluation matter.
greatly appreciate,
randi
sorry, if my wordings seem confusing.
yes. i do know charlotte mason is not unschooling and i didn't mean to word it that way. i was trying to shorten my information which i think it made it unclear....
what i was trying to say is
- first i assumed summer months(july/aug. '11) will be significant time for all of us to deschool. we did it and it didn't work.
- then (mid aug. '11) we started to hs in charlotte mason way for few months. we did good BUT i felt that something was missing or not right (this part is what i mean, they're not learning like the way they should be...). what i mean by it is, i see them doing "school" with no "spark". this is one of the "don't want" thing in our hs journey. so we took off few days from doing "school". during those off days, i saw them needing true deschooling time. so for these past weeks, we all are deschooling. no doubt, i have the biggest struggle with it and the one needed the most.
yes. i do see deschooling can be seamlessly become unschooling. that is how i see it with my two younger ones but not for my older one. so we're deschooling now and aim to unschool in the future - this will consider "the plan".
but for now - the question i have is how to do put together a portfolio to show for the annual evaluation? thank you for mentioning of joining umbrella school. i'm reserving it as my last resource. beside i felt that too many revised intent letters will raise a red flag. so for those of you who require to have an annual evaluation, how's your portfolio look like? are we the first family in this kind of situation? i'm sure...not.
please - it will be less un-nerving for me during our deschooling time, if i know how to handle an annual evaluation matter.
greatly appreciate,
randi
Randi Lee
thank you bobbie.
--- On Fri, 1/27/12, Bobbie Hood <homeschool4katie@...> wrote:
I am a member of Florida Unschoolers Umbrella School if you join them you do not have a yearly evaluation. http://www.freewebs.com/floridaunschoolers/
Bobbie Hood
oh and its free (best part LOL)
I myself at first was so scared I wasnt going to have everything for a review that I was forgetting why my daughter was home in the first place. She is an amazing 9 year old that is herself and not afraid to show it now that we can be free of public school guide lines :)
I myself at first was so scared I wasnt going to have everything for a review that I was forgetting why my daughter was home in the first place. She is an amazing 9 year old that is herself and not afraid to show it now that we can be free of public school guide lines :)
--- In [email protected], Randi Lee <randily41@...> wrote:
>
> thank you bobbie.
>
>
>
> --- On Fri, 1/27/12, Bobbie Hood <homeschool4katie@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> I am a member of Florida Unschoolers Umbrella School if you join them you do not have a yearly evaluation. http://www.freewebs.com/floridaunschoolers/
>
Schuyler
please - it will be less un-nerving for me during our deschooling time, if i know how to handle an annual evaluation matter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is an international list. I live in the UK and have next to zero knowledge about what the requirements to home-educate in Florida are. Given the size of this list there and the fact that it is more U.S.based then elsewhere, there will probably be a few people reading from Florida, but there won't be nearly as many as you would find on a local to Florida list. I would recommend that you look at the link I sent in my earlier e-mail to http://sandradodd.com/world#us and use the resources there that will be more local to you.
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum.html has a couple of letters of intent that have been written with unschooling as the educational philosophy. It helps to understand unschooling if you look for the learning in all things. Pam Sorooshian has written about being nervous about what her children were learning and keeping a journal, in educationese, of what subjects they were covering. It took her less than a week to see how much a rich and engaging life offered her children. How much there was that they were exploring and seeing and discussing in their lives. Deconstructing the moments in their day helped her to see how much learning is a part of life. If you spend time each day and keep a journal of what your children have done, what they have explored, what they have talked about, it will go some way to helping you figure out how to write a letter about their education.
It will also help if you explore Sandra's site, maybe start here: http://sandradodd.com/help and Joyce's site http://www.joyfullyrejoycing.com/. Look at how to shift your perspective so that you can see how life isn't about subjects and learning isn't limited to a subject. And once you begin to grasp those ideas you can turn it around more easily so that you can fill in the paperwork that the state of Florida requires of you.
Schuyler
________________________________
From: Randi Lee <randily41@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, 27 January 2012, 17:24
Subject: Re: [unschoolingbasics] annual evaluation
thank you everyone for replying. =)
sorry, if my wordings seem confusing.
yes. i do know charlotte mason is not unschooling and i didn't mean to word it that way. i was trying to shorten my information which i think it made it unclear....
what i was trying to say is
- first i assumed summer months(july/aug. '11) will be significant time for all of us to deschool. we did it and it didn't work.
- then (mid aug. '11) we started to hs in charlotte mason way for few months. we did good BUT i felt that something was missing or not right (this part is what i mean, they're not learning like the way they should be...). what i mean by it is, i see them doing "school" with no "spark". this is one of the "don't want" thing in our hs journey. so we took off few days from doing "school". during those off days, i saw them needing true deschooling time. so for these past weeks, we all are deschooling. no doubt, i have the biggest struggle with it and the one needed the most.
yes. i do see deschooling can be seamlessly become unschooling. that is how i see it with my two younger ones but not for my older one. so we're deschooling now and aim to unschool in the future - this will consider "the plan".
but for now - the question i have is how to do put together a portfolio to show for the annual evaluation? thank you for mentioning of joining umbrella school. i'm reserving it as my last resource. beside i felt that too many revised intent letters will raise a red flag. so for those of you who require to have an annual evaluation, how's your portfolio look like? are we the first family in this kind of situation? i'm sure...not.
please - it will be less un-nerving for me during our deschooling time, if i know how to handle an annual evaluation matter.
greatly appreciate,
randi
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is an international list. I live in the UK and have next to zero knowledge about what the requirements to home-educate in Florida are. Given the size of this list there and the fact that it is more U.S.based then elsewhere, there will probably be a few people reading from Florida, but there won't be nearly as many as you would find on a local to Florida list. I would recommend that you look at the link I sent in my earlier e-mail to http://sandradodd.com/world#us and use the resources there that will be more local to you.
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum.html has a couple of letters of intent that have been written with unschooling as the educational philosophy. It helps to understand unschooling if you look for the learning in all things. Pam Sorooshian has written about being nervous about what her children were learning and keeping a journal, in educationese, of what subjects they were covering. It took her less than a week to see how much a rich and engaging life offered her children. How much there was that they were exploring and seeing and discussing in their lives. Deconstructing the moments in their day helped her to see how much learning is a part of life. If you spend time each day and keep a journal of what your children have done, what they have explored, what they have talked about, it will go some way to helping you figure out how to write a letter about their education.
It will also help if you explore Sandra's site, maybe start here: http://sandradodd.com/help and Joyce's site http://www.joyfullyrejoycing.com/. Look at how to shift your perspective so that you can see how life isn't about subjects and learning isn't limited to a subject. And once you begin to grasp those ideas you can turn it around more easily so that you can fill in the paperwork that the state of Florida requires of you.
Schuyler
________________________________
From: Randi Lee <randily41@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, 27 January 2012, 17:24
Subject: Re: [unschoolingbasics] annual evaluation
thank you everyone for replying. =)
sorry, if my wordings seem confusing.
yes. i do know charlotte mason is not unschooling and i didn't mean to word it that way. i was trying to shorten my information which i think it made it unclear....
what i was trying to say is
- first i assumed summer months(july/aug. '11) will be significant time for all of us to deschool. we did it and it didn't work.
- then (mid aug. '11) we started to hs in charlotte mason way for few months. we did good BUT i felt that something was missing or not right (this part is what i mean, they're not learning like the way they should be...). what i mean by it is, i see them doing "school" with no "spark". this is one of the "don't want" thing in our hs journey. so we took off few days from doing "school". during those off days, i saw them needing true deschooling time. so for these past weeks, we all are deschooling. no doubt, i have the biggest struggle with it and the one needed the most.
yes. i do see deschooling can be seamlessly become unschooling. that is how i see it with my two younger ones but not for my older one. so we're deschooling now and aim to unschool in the future - this will consider "the plan".
but for now - the question i have is how to do put together a portfolio to show for the annual evaluation? thank you for mentioning of joining umbrella school. i'm reserving it as my last resource. beside i felt that too many revised intent letters will raise a red flag. so for those of you who require to have an annual evaluation, how's your portfolio look like? are we the first family in this kind of situation? i'm sure...not.
please - it will be less un-nerving for me during our deschooling time, if i know how to handle an annual evaluation matter.
greatly appreciate,
randi
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Meredith
"Randi" <randily41@...> wrote:
Charlotte Mason is more of a "school at home" approach than eclectic homeschooling or unschooling... and this is a "radical" or "whole life" unschooling list, so it may not be what you're looking for in terms of advice or assistance.
That being said, I'm going to reply from an unschooling perspective.
Nope, summer vacation is just summer vacation. Kids don't really trust that you're not going to change your mind and put them back in school, or do some kind of formalized homeschooling until after summer holidays are well and truly past. That's true even for people who pull their kids out of school in the spring - if you're looking at that old adage of "one month deschooling for each year of school" then summer doesn't "count". Start from zero at the end of the summer holidays.
But even so, not all kids follow the typical formula, and in terms of whole life unschooling, especially, it's normal to find some things take longer to "deschool" than others - especially things like food or housework, things that don't really relate directly to school, but tie in to kids learning about the world in a big way.
And! Parents need to deschool more than kids do. We have our own educations to recover from - and some of us years of being parents of school kids. It generally takes parents longer than kids to adjust to living without school.
If you've been homeschooling, it can take longer to deschool. Kids get all tied up worried that you'll turn every darned thing into a "learning opportunity". And/or parents can get hung up on thinking certain things need to be happening for "learning" to take place. It can help to spend some time, while you and your kids are deschooling, to learn about learning - real learning. It might help to read here:
http://sandradodd.com/connections/
I'm afraid none of these questions are appropriate for an international list. Please ask about local laws and recommendations on a local list.
In general, for unschooling to work well, you want your reporting to be as un-intrusive as possible, so keep that in mind as you review your options. In the US, umbrella schools usually offer the best fit in that capacity, it's just a matter of find one that's "unschooling friendly" - again, ask on your local list for recommendations. Other times and places it's actually better to take whatever the standard tests are - some places require testing but not that you report results, for instance, so it doesn't matter if the kids fill in the forms at random!
Here's a link with examples from unschoolers who needed more complex descriptions to send to the Powers That Be:
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum.html
---Meredith
>our hs journey needed to head back to deschooling point again, after few months of charlotte mason.************
Charlotte Mason is more of a "school at home" approach than eclectic homeschooling or unschooling... and this is a "radical" or "whole life" unschooling list, so it may not be what you're looking for in terms of advice or assistance.
That being said, I'm going to reply from an unschooling perspective.
> first of all, i thought, the summer months can consider deschooling and will do the trick***************
Nope, summer vacation is just summer vacation. Kids don't really trust that you're not going to change your mind and put them back in school, or do some kind of formalized homeschooling until after summer holidays are well and truly past. That's true even for people who pull their kids out of school in the spring - if you're looking at that old adage of "one month deschooling for each year of school" then summer doesn't "count". Start from zero at the end of the summer holidays.
But even so, not all kids follow the typical formula, and in terms of whole life unschooling, especially, it's normal to find some things take longer to "deschool" than others - especially things like food or housework, things that don't really relate directly to school, but tie in to kids learning about the world in a big way.
And! Parents need to deschool more than kids do. We have our own educations to recover from - and some of us years of being parents of school kids. It generally takes parents longer than kids to adjust to living without school.
>> i see them doing "school" with no "spark"Well, yes, that's one of the reasons many people decide to step away from anything like school - teaching doesn't automatically translate into learning and can get in the way of learning.
>> i do see deschooling can be seamlessly become unschooling. that is how i see it with my two younger ones but not for my older one.*************
If you've been homeschooling, it can take longer to deschool. Kids get all tied up worried that you'll turn every darned thing into a "learning opportunity". And/or parents can get hung up on thinking certain things need to be happening for "learning" to take place. It can help to spend some time, while you and your kids are deschooling, to learn about learning - real learning. It might help to read here:
http://sandradodd.com/connections/
>>> so i need help with how should we put together the portfolio to show? which kind of evaluator will be more suitable to do evaluation for us? where can i look up for one? how much earlier i should schedule with the evaluator?****************
I'm afraid none of these questions are appropriate for an international list. Please ask about local laws and recommendations on a local list.
In general, for unschooling to work well, you want your reporting to be as un-intrusive as possible, so keep that in mind as you review your options. In the US, umbrella schools usually offer the best fit in that capacity, it's just a matter of find one that's "unschooling friendly" - again, ask on your local list for recommendations. Other times and places it's actually better to take whatever the standard tests are - some places require testing but not that you report results, for instance, so it doesn't matter if the kids fill in the forms at random!
Here's a link with examples from unschoolers who needed more complex descriptions to send to the Powers That Be:
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum.html
---Meredith
[email protected]
I would suggest you contact people in a local hsing support group. Other hsers in your area should be able to suggest evaluators they are comfortable with.
Remember, in FL, you have a full year from the time you send in your Letter of Intent until your evaluation is due.
Look for an evaluator who gets what you are doing. You hire them. They work for you. Not the other way around. The idea is that your child should have made progress appropriate for him during the year. Whatever that looks like for your child. It is not a time to compare against what public school students or other hsers are doing.
And remember that deschooling takes a long time. Sometimes longest for the parents. :) As you get more and more comfortable living as unschoolers, you are deschooling, at the same time. It's not something that has a definite beginning and end date.
And, in FL, you have the option to use an umbrella school instead of being registered with your county. I run the one mentioned here already but there are many good ones in the state. If you want to shop around and find one that suits you and your family, there is a listing here -- http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/regional/FloridaUmbrella.htm
Feel free to email me off list if you have questions.
Nance
Remember, in FL, you have a full year from the time you send in your Letter of Intent until your evaluation is due.
Look for an evaluator who gets what you are doing. You hire them. They work for you. Not the other way around. The idea is that your child should have made progress appropriate for him during the year. Whatever that looks like for your child. It is not a time to compare against what public school students or other hsers are doing.
And remember that deschooling takes a long time. Sometimes longest for the parents. :) As you get more and more comfortable living as unschoolers, you are deschooling, at the same time. It's not something that has a definite beginning and end date.
And, in FL, you have the option to use an umbrella school instead of being registered with your county. I run the one mentioned here already but there are many good ones in the state. If you want to shop around and find one that suits you and your family, there is a listing here -- http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/regional/FloridaUmbrella.htm
Feel free to email me off list if you have questions.
Nance
--- In [email protected], "Randi" <randily41@...> wrote:
>
> hi everyone,
>
>
> we recently moved from new york to florida just to homeschool. my girls are 10, 8, and 5. the two older ones were pulled out from public school. the youngest one did went to nursery. yes. dramatic changes for all of us in every way. to make the long story short, our hs journey needed to head back to deschooling point again, after few months of charlotte mason.
>
> first of all, i thought, the summer months can consider deschooling and will do the trick - but it didn't! and secondly, altho my girls enjoy charlotte mason way, i find them not learning like they should be....so we headed back to deschooling period few weeks ago. and this time around, i see that we will be doing deschooling aleast up to our annual evaluation date.
>
> so i need help with how should we put together the portfolio to show? which kind of evaluator will be more suitable to do evaluation for us? where can i look up for one? how much earlier i should schedule with the evaluator?
>
> truly appreciate any help, here. i'm already above and beyond myself with deschooling crossed over unschooling. yes. i understand deschooling IS NOT unschooling. the only reason i linked them together is because my two younger ones looks more like doing unschooling while me and my oldest one are definitely needed to do deschooling. so as for me - learning and dealing with both all at the same time. =N
>
> thanks so very much in advance,
> randi
>
Randi Lee
thank you so very much everyone for your 2cents.it answered more than what i was asking - truly appreciate it.
nance, don't mind me, if i do end up emailing you off-list, thank you.
randi
nance, don't mind me, if i do end up emailing you off-list, thank you.
randi