Mark and Rheta Wallingford

Is it a good idea to keep a journal of what you and your children do
every day - or does it cause a problem for people who are new to the
concept of unschooling and are trying to stop their brains from
compartmentalizing each little thing under an educational label?

Rheta Wallingford
Looking for a reputable contractor? Call First Contractor Referral
Service of NH, LLC at 335-5210. It's free!
Be sure to visit our website at <http://www.fcrsofnh.com>
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24hrmom

<<Is it a good idea to keep a journal of what you and your children do every day - or does it cause a problem for people who are new to the concept of unschooling and are trying to stop their brains from compartmentalizing each little thing under an educational label? >>

I think that's only a problem if you structure your journal that way ... English, Math, Science etc. Then you're only looking for these subjects to write about and that will make it difficult for you see the learning that occurs everywhere.

I enjoy journaling but the only "structure" I give it is by kid. And I don't just write in what seems "educational", I write anything - whatever they've been doing, interesting tidbits of our conversations etc. And not: "today he did nothing but play video games". I write what game he was playing, what he likes about it (likely gleaned from our conversations), what he finds challenging about it (ditto), anything I find interesting about it etc.

I have tried daily and monthly entries and I think I prefer the monthly view. I will make quickie entries during the month about things that went on so I don't forget them, but then at the end of the month I pull it all together. Looking over a month I get a better sense of which activities they delved deeper into, what they led to, which conversation likely led to something a week later, and it even becomes more obvious how seemingly disparate activities tied together for them. You can make the connections. For example, how the interest in the book he's reading this week was likely sparked by the video game he played last week.

And if I get the knawing feeling that they don't seem to be doing much, or seem to be stuck in a rut doing the same thing constantly, a monthly overview always shows me that I'm wrong. It shows me that subtly over the month the focus of the activity has progressed in some direction. The learning just seems to jump out at me!

My husband reads then to help him get a sense of what is going on with the kids on a deeper level; it's hard for him to see the flow of connections when he only sees them evenings and weekends. I also send them to my Mom and she says she really enjoys reading them. I think it helps her see that learning does not need to look schoolish to happen. How topics you never imagined can show up just by living joyfully. And I think it gives her a sense of connection to them and a better understanding of who they are as human beings, not students.

Pam L



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Marti

At 11:04 PM 03/12/2004, you wrote:
>Is it a good idea to keep a journal of what you and your children do
>every day - or does it cause a problem for people who are new to the
>concept of unschooling and are trying to stop their brains from
>compartmentalizing each little thing under an educational label?

I keep a daily journal... jotting down what we did, where we went, who we
did it with. Not compartmentalized, although if there's something I want to
make sure not to miss later, I'll write in red or circle it. I don't do a
lot of commentary (that's in my private blog), just keep a record of where
the days go.

As for record keeping... In Maryland, we are required to present a
portfolio showing proof of instruction in seven subjects, with samples of
the semester's beginning and end work. I have a folder for each girl, into
which I toss anything keepable... stuff they've written, drawings, etc.

When it's time to prepare their portfolio, I can peruse the calendar and
turn our daily activities into "learning" by the various subjects. This is
sort of like http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum.html except ours
isn't a plan for the future, but a report of the past, so it's more
specific to what we've actually done and used. Each girl gets a one sheet
summary. I put together whatever samples I may have... when I get home from
the review, we pack away the permanent keepers, and toss the rest.

I have an unschooling-friendly reviewer, and she's cool about my method...
she has my summary paper to file away for the Board of Ed records, so she's
covered. Her one other experience with unschooling left a sour taste in her
mouth, so she's been pleasantly surprised to see how my daughters are
growing and learning and exploring the world, without me hand-feeding them
anything.

Marti
Smithsburg MD

Lisa H

I keep a brief list of things the girls do onsly so that I can then use this as reference for our quarterly reports due to the state.

Beyond that - I send emails to my dh at work called "notes from home" to update him on the delights of what's going on here so that he can feel a part of us throughout the day. Also - by the end of the day he's too tierd to hear me tell him the details of our day (those that i remember by then) or the kids don't let us have these conversations because they'd rather us be with them not talk about them.

Lisa.


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Elizabeth Roberts

I try to keep a journal anyway just because I think the kids would like to read it when they are older.

Elizabeth

Mark and Rheta Wallingford <wallingford@...> wrote:
Is it a good idea to keep a journal of what you and your children do
every day - or does it cause a problem for people who are new to the
concept of unschooling and are trying to stop their brains from
compartmentalizing each little thing under an educational label?

Rheta Wallingford
Looking for a reputable contractor? Call First Contractor Referral
Service of NH, LLC at 335-5210. It's free!
Be sure to visit our website at <http://www.fcrsofnh.com>
www.fcrsofnh.com



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Danielle Conger

OP:<<Is it a good idea to keep a journal of what you and your children do every day - or does it cause a problem for people who are new to the concept of unschooling and are trying to stop their brains from compartmentalizing each little thing under an educational label? >>

Pam wrote:I think that's only a problem if you structure your journal that way ... English, Math, Science etc. Then you're only looking for these subjects to write about and that will make it difficult for you see the learning that occurs everywhere.
========================================================

I agree it can be difficult if you separate your life into subject categories on a daily basis--this is one of my beefs about reviewing with my county here in MD. Knowing that the review is looming around the corner, I feel those subject headings clogging my brain. To go from unschooling to reporting is a major translation process, translating everything we do just *living* into neat subjects, definable categories and measurable learning. I hate doing that, but I've been *inside* education for so long that it comes relatively easily once I sit down to do it.

I've been setting up my website so that those categories are in place and I can just add stuff once in a while instead of looking at life in those terms everyday. My blog is just a daily log of our life--not really necessary, but something I wanted to do to play with the technology and keep up with all the stuff available online. Plus, I think it's a really useful tool to demonstrate what unschooling really looks and feels like in a way that my website doesn't do. There's a definite tension between living (what's presented in my blog) and translation (what's presented at my website)--making my life seem kinda schizophrenic. But I've tried to create something that's useful to me in multiple ways--I have records for my reviews, I have a place to point skeptical family members, and maybe I have a place that will help reassure those with young kids who are just beginning their unschooling journey. Maybe if I show how things translate, it will help others relax a bit and not feel that they have to worry about that everyday. I think it's useful to show unschooling with young kids since so many stories tend to be about older kids, and I think it will be neat to see how things evolve as the kids get older.

I do want to emphasize that I'm not trying to set myself up as some kind of expert or definitive model, just creating a web-based artifact of *our* unschooling journey. I really believe that unschooling looks different for different families.This is what it looks like for us right now, which I'm sure will change dramatically as life goes on. The web just offers an interesting and useful set of tools to document our journey. What I do see as really interesting are the ways in which my kids engage in all kinds of learning, some of which looks academic because they've never been turned off to it. They come to it all on their own because they are living rich and inquisitive lives in which they are free to pursue whatever they choose. They learn stuff in so many different ways instead of being limited to just one or two or put off from questions that are too advanced. That's what always amazes me--the richness and breadth of their experience without some academic puppeteer controlling and ordering the bits and pieces of information available to them.

BTW--my new website is up and working. The link below is to the new site.

Danielle
http://www.danielleconger.com/Homeschool/Welcomehome.html

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pam sorooshian

> think that's only a problem if you structure your journal that way
> ... English, Math, Science etc. Then you're only looking for these
> subjects to write about and that will make it difficult for you see
> the learning that occurs everywhere.

I'm remembering when we first started homeschooling and I had big plans
for keeping track of every little educational thing we did. I "got it"
that everything was educational <G> but I still thought there was some
value in keeping track of all of it in school subject categories.

Being me, I used a computer program that was actually designed to keep
track of spending money. I counted 25 cents as a quarter of an hour of
time spent in an educational endeavor. EVERY day I tried to keep track,
down to the 15 minutes level, of what the kids were doing and then I
typed it into my accounting program that night. The "budget" categories
were things like: history, reading, writing, science, pe, and so on -
just regular school subjects.

That lasted about a week --- that's how long it took me to realize that
"learning all the time" meant learning ALL the time.

After that I tried keeping just some notes about things I happened to
notice they were doing, throughout the day, that seemed to fit
especially well into school subject categories. That was useful for
handing to my husband one time when he complained they weren't doing
anything. That lasted a month or so.

After that I figured we had two sources of recordkeeping - one was our
very active homeschooling group's newsletter and the second was just
our family calendar.

Now our homeschool group doesn't do a newsletter and it is really an
unschooling group (not all members are unschoolers, by any means, but
the group is based around the principle of "protect children's free
time).

So - we have a family calendar and that's it for recordkeeping. I
haven't regretted not keeping more records over the years - never
needed them and I'm glad I didn't waste the time and I'm glad I didn't
let it keep me thinking in terms of school subjects.

-pam
National Home Education Network
<www.NHEN.org>
Serving the entire homeschooling community since 1999
through information, networking and public relations.

pam sorooshian

Last night in an economics class I teach at a community college, I
asked my students to brainstorm ways they'd finish this sentence:

We can tell that a community is healthy and/or successful because.....

They came up with lots of ideas such as "the streets are clean," "there
is good mass transit," "everybody has health care," "lack of bars on
windows," "lack of graffiti," etc. One thing they came up with was:
kids are not out of school during school hours.

-pam

[email protected]

In a message dated 3/16/04 3:51:13 PM, pamsoroosh@... writes:

<< One thing they came up with was:
kids are not out of school during school hours. >>

Wow.
And they're in Southern California where schools have worked on shifts and
weird schedules for years, right? And you have a big international airport, and
lots of famous tourist attractions, and people go there for medical
treatment? And kids who work in movies are tutored instead of in school?

It seems you would have had so many kids out of school during school hours
for SO long nobody would even think of it.

Very, very strange.

Sandra

Robyn Coburn

<<It seems you would have had so many kids out of school during school hours

for SO long nobody would even think of it.

Very, very strange.>>



You know I hear about all these odd hours of school, but other than a couple
of kids I know of whose school day starts at 7.30am (yikes) I don�t see much
evidence of it, at least in Playa Del Rey/Westchester. Our local group meets
once a week on a rotating park schedule, and usually the parks are empty
except for us until about 2.30 � 3.00 pm. By policy we avoid parks with a
heavy nanny presence.

I suspect that the folks in Pam�s class had an image of unsupervised teens
and a little younger �roaming the streets� in packs, loitering on corners
watching cars go by with scowling faces, or lurking suspiciously at the
mall, rather than the families at Disneyland or Universal. The myth is that
latchkey kids will take every opportunity to ditch school, then run about
looking for chances to commit vandalism or get into trouble with drugs. I
don�t know how representative that image is of what really happens. I do
know that one of the big issues that politicians are on about is
�after-school programs� to keep children from being alone while their
parents are working between the end of school and the end of work.

BTW � the kids who are acting are not in the public view during working
hours, unless the whole shoot is in a public place like a park or beach.
Believe me, they are never left alone for a moment (well maybe in the
bathroom), and the studio teacher is with them even outside of school hours
or days.

Robyn L. Coburn





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