My Unschool Unplanning Strewing Notebook

How can we unschool and, at the same time, be registered homeschoolers? What if our kids have to follow the school syllabus in order to fulfil the registration requirements? And what if we have to present a plan of how we’re going to be teaching our kids that material? Can all this be done without compromising our unschooling way of life? I think it can!

We’ve been unschoolers and registered homeschoolers for a long time. I’ve never had a problem registering my children. In fact, our Authorised Person (AP) has always been very impressed by what my girls have been doing. Perhaps this isn’t surprising because like all unschoolers they love learning. They have diverse interests. And we are good at noticing ‘educational’ things in our everyday lives. (We are curious people!) So it isn’t difficult to find lots of things to record in our homeschool records books at the end of each day: I make notes about my kids’ interests and I add more based on the things that are happening around us as part of our lives. Our AP always has hundreds of notes on many different topics to scroll through when she’s examining our records book.

But what about the school syllabus? Even if our children’s interests match up to some of the things in the syllabus, there is no way a child is going to cover everything that’s required in a natural way. So what do we do? Well, I keep an unplanning notebook.

My unplanning notebook is an Evernote notebook. It’s a strewing notebook. It’s full of ideas and resources that might attract the attention of my children. I am continually clipping resources into the notebook: videos, books, websites, links of all kinds, and even photos of things that we own. My girls have access to that notebook. They browse it whenever they are looking for something to learn about. I browse it too because there are times when I’m also looking for a good book to read or a video to watch or perhaps I want to learn a new skill. My unplanning notebook is bursting with notes that might lead us on some fabulous learning adventures.

My unplanning notebook also doubles as a planning notebook when registration time rolls around. When the AP says, “Have you made a plan for the next two years? How will you cover the school syllabus? What resources will you use?” I open my unplanning notebook and I say, “We’ll be using these resources. They cover the syllabus.”

At regular intervals, I have a look at the school syllabus to see what my kids are supposed to be learning about. My girls will cover some of these topics naturally while pursuing their interests. But there will be gaps that I have to fill. So I go looking for interesting resources to cover these gaps. I might find books or movies or games or something similar. (Usually not textbooks!) I then clip links to all these into the unplanning notebook. I label each note with the appropriate school subject. And then the notes wait for my children to discover them. I might point the way to a few.

So I offer my children lots of opportunities to learn what’s in the school syllabus. They are free to use the resources or ignore them. Usually, my girls are very interested in what I find. As I said, they are curious people and are interested in most things. Their eyes light up even when I present them with topics that are connected to the school syllabus. Including a topic in the syllabus doesn’t automatically make it boring. The syllabus is actually stuffed full of things that are very interesting indeed. It just depends on how you learn about them. What resources you use. And if you are free to approach them how and when you like.

But what if my girls aren’t interested in any of the things I’ve found? What if they don’t want to learn about the things in the syllabus? Do I force them? Do I say, “You have to learn about this… and that… and the other because it’s required”? No. We can offer children learning opportunities, but we can’t force them to actually learn. Learning requires cooperation on the part of the learner. We can’t force knowledge into a child’s head, though a lot of people spend a lot of time trying.

So what do I do about the homeschool registration requirements? Surely if my kids don’t cover all the topics, we haven’t fulfilled them? It doesn’t work like that. If I have offered my kids opportunities to learn everything in the syllabus, I have fulfilled the requirements. There is no more I have to do.

The last time we had a registration visit, our AP stopped on our doorstep as she was leaving and waved her arm towards the houses further down the street and said, “No one knows about the amazing things that are happening behind your door!” She’d been very impressed by what she’d seen in our Evernote notebooks.

We said goodbye to our AP and returned inside with huge grins on our faces. We’d done it again. We’d got through another registration visit, fulfilling all the requirements without compromising our unschooling way of life. Of course, I’d had to do some clever ‘planning’ in my unplanning notebook. But I’d been happy to do this. All the effort involved was worth it. Not only did it help us get through the registration visit, but it also produced a notebook packed full of wonderful resources that my girls and I are continually dipping into.

A Video About Unschool Unplanning Strewing Notebooks

This afternoon, I was browsing my Youtube channel looking for a video to share with you. And I found one about unplanning and strewing notebooks. I couldn’t at first remember making it so I watched it to find out what I’d said. And I was surprised. I’d packed a lot of ideas into 12 minutes. (And though I don’t like seeing myself in videos, I wasn’t too embarrassed by my presentation!)

In the video, I talk about some of the same things I have written about today, but there are other things I didn’t write about. So if you’re wondering how to fulfil homeschool registration requirements while unschooling, you might find the video helpful. At least I hope you do!

So I’m wondering…

Do you have to fulfil homeschool registration requirements? Do you keep an Evernote notebook? Or do you have another method that works for you?

I’m also wondering if anyone new to my blog will stop by and say hello!