I’m going to share some of my daughter Gemma-Rose’s recent learning experiences and how I’ve recorded them in our records book.
Gemma-Rose is fourteen so I am going to call this post Turning my Teenager’s Unschool Learning into Homeschool Records!
I use Evernote for our record keeping, but if you are using another method, I’m sure you can adapt my ideas.
How My Unschooler Learns
As you’ll see, most of Gemma-Rose’s learning is centred around her passions which include, at the moment, Shakespeare, classic novels, writing and running. But she’s a curious person so she’ll take a look at anything I strew. For example, if I suggest a video series, she’s usually willing to try it. Also, Gemma-Rose learns from whatever is happening around us. We had a big learning adventure when our supermarket stopped using single-use plastic bags.
Sometimes I make suggestions:
“How about we watch…?”
“I’ve found an interesting looking series we could take a look at.”
“I’ve added some things to the unplanning notebook.”
At other times, Gemma-Rose invites me to do something with her:
“Shall we watch… or read… or go to…?”
Gemma-Rose also does things on her own. Or with her sisters.
And learning happens at any time of the day. Gemma-Rose might do mental maths as she’s running along the bush tracks at 6.15 am. We could be watching a Shakespeare play together at midday. After dinner, Gemma-Rose might be sprawled on her bedroom floor watching The Count of Monte Cristo with big sister Charlotte.
How Record Notes Don’t Tell the Whole Story
A note before I share my records…
Homeschool records notes don’t effectively convey the richness of an unschooling life. They might make it look rather ordinary. Yes, something wonderful is lost when we try to organise unschooling into a structured record keeping system. Unschooling isn’t meant to be described using schooly type language. It can’t really be reduced to a list of outcomes. But I have to think about these things. I do my best to put our unstructured unschooling life into an organised framework because, unfortunately, record keeping is necessary.
So this is a post about the behind-the-scenes work I do so that my daughter can unschool. It’s not really a post showcasing an amazing unschooling life.
Onto my notes…
Here’s some of Gemma-Rose’s recent learning and how I recorded it in my Evernote homeschool records notebook. (I put the strewing notes in our unplanning strewing notebook.)
Shakespeare
Key Learning Areas
History / English / Creative Arts
The Learning
Gemma-Rose and I are watching the Shakespeare history plays in the series The Hollow Crown. So far, we’ve watched Richard II, Henry IV (Part I), Henry IV (Part II) and Henry V.
This is a beautifully filmed series which we’re enjoying very much. (It does have an MA rating but we’re both coping with the occasional violence or love scene!)
It’s taking us about a week to watch each play. Before viewing, I read the scene summaries from the Sparknote website so we have some idea of what will happen. Shakespeare’s language isn’t always easy to understand on the first hearing!
After we watched The Hollow Crown version of Richard II, we watched another production of the same play, the one starring David Tennant. We compared both versions. We plan to watch the Kenneth Branagh production of Henry V, one of my all-time favourite Shakespeare films!
We were curious: How accurate are Shakespeare’s plays? We did some googling to find out more about the real kings.
We watched an episode of David Starkey’s series Monarchy: Death of a Dynasty.
The Homeschool Records Notes
I copied and pasted a DVD cover image of The Hollow Crown.
I clipped
- some info from the BBC website about the plays
- the scene summaries from the Sparknote website
- the character lists for each play
- the cast for each play
- some of the important quotations
I made notes of our conversations
Strewing
I added a link to a video documentary, Derek Jacobi on Richard II
I added links to some behind-the-scenes videos and articles about the making of The Hollow Crown including one about the costumes.
Classic novels
The Key Learning Area
English / History
The Learning
Each evening, Gemma-Rose and older sister Charlotte have been watching some of our favourite movies and miniseries based on classic novels. So far, they’ve watched Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit and Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.
The girls discussed each series with each other. They compared different productions of the Jane Austen series. They also compared the series to the book versions. Gemma-Rose has read all the novels except The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Homeschool Records Notes
I copied and pasted DVD cover images for Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Little Dorrit, and The Count of Monte Cristo.
I added descriptions of each novel.
Strewing
I bought a Kindle copy of The Count of Monte Cristo and told Gemma-Rose about it.
I found another production of The Count of Monte Cristo.
I shall tell Gemma-Rose that a new adaptation of this novel is going to be made very soon!
Piano
The Key Learning Area
Creative Arts – Music
The Learning
Imogen gives Gemma-Rose a weekly piano lesson. Gemma-Rose practises every day.
The Homeschool Records Notes
I upload a photo of each piano lesson.
I make a note of each practice session.
I could scan the music.
I could occasionally record an audio file or video of Gemma-Rose playing the piano.
Running
The Key Learning Areas
PDHPE / Maths / Geography
The Learning
Most mornings Gemma-Rose and I run before breakfast. As we run, we do lots of mental maths calculations. Later, we also look at maps and data captured by our exercise trackers.
We’ve been talking about training programs because soon Gemma-Rose will compete in a 10 K race.
The Records Notes
I have uploaded a photo of Gemma-Rose running.
I note the distance she runs each day.
I could take screenshots of the mathematical and geographical data.
Strewing
I put an interval training program in the unplanning notebook
Reducing Waste
The Key Learning Areas
Science / Geography
The Learning
We’ve been watching a video series, War on Waste.
We’ve read articles about banning plastic bags, straws and disposable coffee cups. We’ve discussed the alternatives to plastic bags. Are they really environmentally friendly?
The Records Notes
I added links to each episode and copied and pasted the episode descriptions.
I made notes of our conversations.
I clipped articles about:
- how our supermarkets have stopped giving away free single-use plastic bags
- the more environmentally friendly bags
- disposable coffee cups
- plastic straws and the campaigns to ban them
Strewing
I added links to the extra War on Waste related videos and articles.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
The Key Learning Areas
Science / Creative Arts
The Learning
Our family watched this movie together. We then compared it to the earlier Jurassic movies. We discussed the casting, the storyline, the setting, what we liked, what we didn’t, what worked and what didn’t work etc
We discussed such things as cloning, genetics, threatened and extinct species, the ethics of reintroducing an extinct species, the ethics of cloning etc
We could have watched related videos on such topics as ‘Could dinosaurs ever be brought back from extinction’, but we’d already done this when watching the earlier Jurassic movies.
The Records Notes
I copied and pasted a DVD cover image
I added a movie description
I made a note of the things we talked about
Strewing
I could look for some related articles such as this one to read and discuss.
I found a behind-the-scenes video about the making of Fallen Kingdom.
Wuthering Heights
The Key Learning Areas
English
The Learning
I’ve been reading Wuthering Heights out loud. Gemma-Rose and I have been discussing it.
The Homeschool Records Notes
I copied and pasted a book cover image.
I added the book blurb
I clipped
- a list of the characters
- the plot overview
I made notes of what we’d discussed.
Strewing
I’m going to find some links to
- movie and mini-series versions of this novel
- behind-the-scenes videos
An Outing to the Science and Technology Centre
The Key Learning Areas
Science / Geography
My husband Andy took Gemma-Rose to Questacon, the national science and technology centre in Canberra.
We talked about some of the exhibits after returning from the outing.
The Homeschool Records Notes
I clipped information about each of the galleries and its exhibits from the Questacon website
I uploaded some photos of the outing
There’s lots of information on this website linking the exhibits to the school syllabus.
Maths
The Key Learning Area
Maths
The Learning
Gemma-Rose has been completing some of the maths exercises on the Kahn Academy website. If you are familiar with Gemma-Rose’s maths story, you will know that a few months ago, she decided to do some formal maths.
The Homeschool Records
Gemma-Rose has been taking screenshots of her completed work.
Strewing
I used to do a lot of maths strewing in an attempt to make maths relevant and interesting. I haven’t done this recently. Maybe I should find out what topic Gemma-Rose is working on and then go looking for some interesting related resources.
Novel Writing Preparation
Key Learning Area
English
The Learning
Gemma-Rose is planning her NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) novel which she plans to write during November. She is using the website 4thewords.
The Homeschool Records Notes
I never ask Gemma-Rose for samples of her writing because writing is very personal. Sometimes we want to share what we’re working on. Sometimes we don’t. So I just make a note describing Gemma-Rose’s writing in general terms.
I could ask Gemma-Rose to add some screenshots of her writing progress on 4thewords.
When NaNoWriMo begins, Gemma-Rose will add screenshots of her daily progress from the NaNo website. These will show graphs and other mathematical data so I will be able to label them maths as well as English!
There are other learning experiences I could have added to our homeschool records book: Gemma-Rose has read books, played computer games, cooked, taken the dogs for walks, watched Youtube videos on various topics, continued painting the interior of our home, practised her drawing…
Summing up…
I’m sure if I write another post like this one in a few weeks’ or months’ time, it will look totally different. If I go back a year, it would be the same. Learning happens all the time, but it can look different day to day, week to week, month to month.
Interests come and go and then return again. We discover new movies or videos or books. The weather changes and this affects what we do. We hear about an art exhibition or a fun run. Something happens in our family or community or country or the world which sparks off some learning.
Yes, learning is always changing. And this is exciting. We never know quite what we will discover or where we’ll end up!
But regardless of what Gemma-Rose is learning about, my record keeping method remains the same. I…
- upload lots of photos
- copy and paste book and DVD cover images
- add book blurbs and movie and video descriptions
- make notes about everything we talk about
- clip related articles
- bookmark links to videos and websites
- add screenshots of maps and such things as writing and maths data
- title all my notes with the relevant key learning areas
- add relevant tags to my notes such as ‘writing’ or ‘drawing’ or ‘chemistry’
- look at the school syllabus to see if I can match up what Gemma-Rose is doing to the outcomes
I also look out for things that I can strew to extend the learning adventure.
And sometimes I strew new things and we change direction completely:
“Hey, Gemma-Rose, did you know that there’s a new art exhibition showing at the gallery in Sydney? It’s called Masters of Modern Art from the Hermitage. Would you like to see it?”
I bet I know what Gemma-Rose will say: “Yes, please!”
It looks like we’ll be learning more about Monet, Gauguin, Picasso, Cezanne and other modern artists very soon!
Photo: Gemma-Rose has learnt something very important. It’s something all my girls know how to do. They can make an excellent cup of coffee!
I hope this post is helpful. If anyone is interested, I could put together a similar one for a younger unschooler. I could scroll back through my homeschool records and see what Gemma-Rose was learning a few years ago. Let me know what you think!
Hi Sue,
How do you connect the Outcomes with KLAs on Evernote? I need to set up Evernote but would like to have 1 notebook per term and then highlight the KLAs. Do you colour code the KLAs? And how do you then connect the Outcomes – or is that a separate list you print and tick off? Can you do ticks on Evernote I wonder ….
Kate,
Even though I have used weekly notebooks, I swapped over to a one-notebook-per-term system which is working well.
I title each note with the KLA. I also add tags corresponding to the KLAs and yes, I colour code these.
I found a document called ‘Stage Statements and Outcomes Programming Tool K–10’:
http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/eccc2072-6a61-4d10-b788-e807eca769d4/stage-statements-and-outcomes-programming-tool-K-10.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=.
I saved this PDF in Evernote. But I also converted it to a Word document. I then copied and pasted the stage statements and outcomes for each KLA into Evernote, one subject per note. I put all these notes in a progress notebook.
I’ve been highlighting all the outcomes when I think they’ve been achieved. (Highlight the code number and then click on the highlight option.) It’s all rather simple. It’s just like ticking off boxes. The notes that I’m making covering all Gemma-Rose’s interests and other learning are the interesting bit!
The homeschooling guidelines for homeschooling in NSW were updated earlier this year. There are a few statements in that document that are very encouraging for unschoolers:
parents may:
select content that is relevant to the child’s learning needs and interests;
adjust the learning activities in response to the child’s progress; and
build on the learning opportunities that arise naturally in the home and local environment
on a day-to-day basis by including family activities, local events and/or resources
Some parents prefer a structured approach with set times for formal instruction whilst others
prefer a less formal approach that is based on the child’s interests and needs. Many parents
change their approach over time in response to the child’s development and what works best.
I hope this helps!
I love the idea of an unplanning notebook!
The kids here got to learn about economics yesterday. I was going to say it was in a non-standard way, but the realized it wasn’t. They learned by actually participating. Marriott employees here in San Francisco have been striking for three and a half weeks, marching outside all the hotels in town 24/7 and making noise. The 7, 5, and 3 year-old gang here and I have talked about it a lot since we hear, or walk by/through the strikes almost daily. Yesterday, they went and picketed. They had fun, the strikers appreciated having more people in the line, and the gang now knows first hand what a strike is and how one works. The workers and the hotel chain are going into negotiations next week.
Hamilton,
The best learning comes from real life experiences, doesn’t it? Things that are happening around us. Things that affect us. Researching and discussing and yes, actually participating!
We haven’t got involved with any strikes, but we’re always noticing things around us that spark off lots of discussion and research.
I hadn’t heard about the strike, but your comment made me curious so I did some googling. Now I’ve learnt something!
It’s lovely to chat with you. I’m glad you stopped by!
It really does help, thankyou Sue.
I’ll have to go back and add the codes! We have a very unstructured approach here. I fully trust in my daughter’s growth and allowing her to tap into that inner guidance, just not sure that matches up to the specific outcomes required on paper! As long as progress and my support in the right areas is shown, I guess the finite details don’t matter so much 🙂
Kate,
I understand what you mean about not being sure whether our unstructured learning matches up to the outcomes. The outcomes sound so organised and schooly. And what do they mean? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. I feel that learning can’t really be represented by a list of outcomes. It’s sad that we have to make our rich unschooling lives look so conventional by organising our notes in such a structured way.
A visit or so ago, I didn’t have any progress notes and our AP asked me how I knew what stage Gemma-Rose was at and what areas she needed more work on etc. I replied that I just KNEW. I didn’t need to keep notes. I know my daughter and yes, like you, I trust fully in her growth. But my AP wants more so I’m ticking off outcomes. I guess it’s easier than writing a report!
One thing I’m not going to worry about though is covering all the content of the syllabus. It seems we can base our programs on the stage statements which are rather vague. (Not that I write a program!) If our AP questions the content of our notebooks, I’m going to quote these words: ‘select content that is relevant to the child’s learning needs and interests’. Not that I think she’s going to complain about our records. She has always been very supportive and impressed by what we have been doing.
It’s been good to chat!
I love this article. I have been thinking of unschooling for awhile. My problem always goes back to how to record. We have 4 kids ranging from 5-10 in ages. Currently I have a curriculum, but I know its so frustrating sometimes of staying on the curriculum and I find myself saying “ooh, thats a good question! Let’s look that up…but first let’s finish today’s work.” I feel like I hinder some extra learning.
I would love to know if you have or can give any assistance on the recording of 4 kids…all different ages. For example, we were at home yesterday doing our curriculum then left to go take care of some errands. Later went to a home we are working on to flip, kids are very involved with the work, then of course, take off and play. Their play was building a rather large teepee with all scraps left around in the yard while we were working. All 4 kids played hard, working together for 2 hours or more, no fights, building, searching, rearranging items, etc. While I know there was math used (measuring by sight, balancing, etc), there was so much more….but I have the issue of coming up with it for the note taking.
And where I could add to their learning. If I come home and say, let’s write about what you did…..that just messes it all up for them. Takes away the fun. is the writing of this necessary? or what’s the better way to bring in English/Language arts? I know I can pull up videos on building teepees, how it was done in the past, best ways to do it, etc.
Just looking for ideas. and also….separation of the ages and what is learned by each child.
Would love your thoughts and insight! Thank you!
Susan,
I’m so glad you like my post!
Oh yes, record keeping can seem like a huge problem when we want to unschool. How do we turn all those fabulous unschooling learning experiences into the required homeschool notes? Using a curriculum is easy as far as record-keeping goes. But yes, our kids get distracted. They have loads of questions about so many things that aren’t in the plan. It seems rather a pity not to address their curiosity.
Turning such things as play into the right educational language might seem difficult at first. But it gets easier, the more we do it. If we get stuck, we can always google an activity and see how other people are describing it in terms of skills and school subjects!
Yes, teepee building involves maths, but a lot more too. You could list such things as measurement-estimation, 3D shapes- did they construct a cone or a tripod? Then there’s creative thinking, experimentation- trial and error, problem-solving, teamwork, communication of ideas, perseverance, understanding the properties of the materials that were used. Did your kids talk about cultures that live in teepees? Did they engage in some imaginative play?
Once you’ve listed all the learning experiences, you could sort them into the traditional school subjects such as maths, science, personal development and English.
I think you’re right: making kids write about what they’ve learnt spoils the experience. But we can make notes in other ways by taking photos, noting down any conversations, adding links to any videos or movies that were watched, mentioning books read…Kids will enjoy writing more if they aren’t forced to do it. Drawing pictures and talking about experiences might lead to writing when a child is ready.
I love extending learning experiences by finding associated books, movies, Youtube videos, poems etc. These can be strewed. Children often want to know more and are open to listening when we offer some additional resources, as long as we don’t pressure them to use what we have found.
When you’re writing homeschool notes, you could label each of them with your children’s names. If all kids did an activity, add all their names. If only one child did something, there will be only one name label. This system works very well when using a digital system such as Evernote. Evernote is also good for recording learning experiences that don’t involve writing. Book cover images, Google maps, photos, videos, audio files, articles from the Internet, DVD cover images, lists of things that were talked about… lots of things can be added to a homeschool record book! I’ve written a lot of Evernote blog posts if you want some more ideas.
I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, please ask. I’m happy to help if I can!