Turning Outings into Homeschool Records Notes

We all know that outings are packed full of learning experiences. While we’re enjoying a picnic or strolling through the bush or visiting a museum or an art gallery, we’re soaking up a lot of information without even realising it. We don’t really need to think about it. Unless, of course, if we have to keep homeschool records.

Yes, we can turn an enjoyable outing into a lot of homeschool records notes. This might seem rather sad. Why do it? Why spoil a good day out by thinking about record keeping?

This is the way I see it: I have to keep homeschool records. It’s a legal requirement. Our Authorised Person (AP) from the education department expects to see lots of notes when she comes to visit us. She wants evidence that my kids are learning the required Key Learning Areas of the school syllabus. So I provide that evidence by making notes about the things that are happening in our unschooling life, including outings. If I didn’t take every opportunity to turn unschooling into notes, I might end up with an empty records book. And if that happened, would I panic and be tempted to make my kids learn particular things just to ensure we have notes to show our AP? Anyway, I don’t think record keeping affects the pleasure of a day out. I don’t let it!

So how do we turn an outing into homeschool records notes? Well, for some outings it’s obvious. We don’t have any trouble making notes. But for others, we might get stuck once we’ve written, “We went to… and had a picnic.” What else do we write? And even if we do think of things to record, do we always make as many notes as we can? Do we always spot all the learning experiences that arrive in a natural way? Do we ask questions? Do we ponder? Do we want to find out more? Do we translate everything into the right educational language?

I want to talk about these questions while sharing one of our outings, and telling you how I recorded it in our Evernote records book.

What we experienced while on our outing

One day, a year or two ago, I suggested that my girls and I go on an adventure. Leave our usual projects at home. Forget about the housework. Just go somewhere together and soak up the joy of the moment.

Even though the object of our outing was pure enjoyment,  I knew I’d have plenty of notes to add to our records book at the end of the day. This might have made me feel better if I’d been worried about such things as having ‘a day off’ and not ‘getting behind’!

“We could go to the nature reserve,” I suggested. (We’d been meaning to go there for years.) “Shall we take a picnic?” Soon the girls were flying around the kitchen assembling sandwiches and filling thermos flasks with coffee. And not long after that, we were driving along the main road towards a local town.

Just before we reached the town, we saw a sign pointing to the nature reserve. For more than 20 years, we’d driven right past that sign, never accepting its invitation. But that day things were different.

We turned left onto a potholed road, drove a few hundred metres, bounced over a couple of cattle grids and found ourselves in the reserve. We parked the car in the empty carpark, got out, and then looked around. There were picnic tables under some shady gum trees and a track leading down to the river. There was also an information board which we gathered around.

“It’s a wetlands area,” I said.

“Apparently, it’s a good place for bird watching.”

“I wonder how many different species of bird live here.”

We didn’t head down the track right away. There was plenty of time. Time for coffee and finger buns. And good conversation.

When our hunger was satisfied, we set out along the trail that followed the river. We went around a bend and we came upon a magnificent and unexpected sight: The river was tumbling over a weir creating waterfalls that were sparkling in the sunshine. Some birds were hovering over the water. Some were circling the sky. Others were perched on rocks in the river. They were filling the air with a glorious song.

“Oh wow, look!” We all raised our cameras to our eyes and started clicking. We took photo after photo. Even Gemma-Rose. She’s not usually a photographer, but I’d offered her one of my cameras set on auto.

We continued to follow the course of the river.

“I can see a pelican!” It was sailing between the tree-studded islands that were floating in the river.

We took more photos. We captured everything: the birds, the river, the plants, each other and even the many information boards dotted around the reserve. Of course, we also read what was on the boards and so we learnt about the birds that live in this wetland areas and how they are adapted to this environment.

We read about the ecology of the reserve, how the rangers and volunteers are trying to eliminate all exotic species. We found a few signs saying “Do not eat the blackberries!” They’d been sprayed with poison. We also found a sign that told us that another species not native to Australia, the fox, was being baited.

There were also a few boards with info about the indigenous owners of the land and their cultural associations with the area.

After we had explored the nature reserve from one end to the other, it was time for our picnic lunch. More photos. More conversation. More soaking up the pleasure of being with each other on a beautiful summer’s day.

When we arrived home, I opened my Evernote homeschool records book on my computer. It was time to catch up with the record keeping while everything was fresh in my mind. I started writing and clipping and uploading photos. And it was amazing how many notes I made about our morning’s outing. I titled each note with a Key Learning Area. This makes it easy for our Authorised Person to see at a glance that my girls are learning the required school subjects.

What I recorded in our homeschool records book

Here are some of those things that I recorded in my notebook:

I added lots of photos…

… of my girls, the river, the birds, the plants, the information boards and the warning signs.

I also uploaded some of the girls’ photos after they’d edited them. (Creative Arts / Computer Technology.)

Sophie put some of her photos on Instagram with captions describing what we’d discovered. I mentioned this but could have added a screenshot or two if I’d thought of it! (English / Digital Media)

I added some Google maps…

… of the area, including both satellite and street views. (Geography)

I mentioned the information boards…

… that told us about the birds and how they are adapted to the environment. (Science)

I wrote down the main points of our conversations…

… including how the fox and blackberries are damaging the environment and upsetting the balance of the river and the surrounding ecosystem. (Science / Geography)

I clipped articles…

… with information similar to that in our conversations

We had some questions so we did some googling

I found some additional information about blackberries and foxes and other introduced species. Why are they considered pests? What exactly are they doing to the environment? And how can we control them? I clipped a few relevant articles into our notebook. “Hey girls, you know how we were talking about introduced and exotic species this morning? Well, I’ve added some info about that to the notebook if you’re interested.” (Science / Geography)

One of the information boards mentioned a historic home that could be seen from the reserve. I did some googling to find out more. “Hey, girls that house we could see is called… “ (History)

We wondered: The reserve was named after a person. Who was he? How old is the reserve? Who donated the land? What was it used for before? (History)

We found out more about the traditional owners of the land that the reserve is part of. (History / Geography)

We’d talked about the weir. Why do people put weirs across rivers? How do weirs affect the natural environment? We discovered the weir slows down the water flow in the river. It caused the wetlands and the lagoon to be formed. (Geography / Science)

We went on a few rabbit trails

I found a document online about the management of the nature reserve. We discovered that some time ago, during a drought, there was a proposal to remove the weir so that the water could flow down to a local cement factory, but a lot of people protested. (Geography / Science)

“Hey, girls, this is interesting! Kangaroos used to live in the reserve. A macropod fence kept them away from the river environment so that they wouldn’t disturb it.” My daughters’ ears pricked up, so I went on to tell them how the kangaroos used to be a local attraction. They’d been brought from different areas and placed together in the reserve. They, therefore, had a different genetic makeup from the local kangaroo population. The kangaroos increased in number and became a pest. So it’s not only non-native introduced species that can cause a problem. Sometimes native species upset the balance of nature as well.

One year, there was a lot of rain. The river level rose and threatened to flood the nature reserve. The rangers decided to relocate the kangaroos to keep them safe. They had to be moved to another confined area. These kangaroos can never be released back into the wild.(Science / Geography / History)

Other things

Of course, we’d got some exercise while exploring the reserve. (PDHPE)

Both Sophie and Gemma-Rose wrote about our outing in emails and letters to friends. (English)

Summing Up

So we had a picnic at a nature reserve. We took a walk and observed and talked and took photos. Mostly, we just slowed down and enjoyed the beautiful day and each other’s company. I didn’t lecture. I didn’t ask questions that my kids had to answer. We just chatted and pondered in a natural way.

And then later…

• I uploaded our photos that we’d edited
• I made notes of everything we talked about while at the reserve
• I clipped articles that I found online that corresponded with our discussions
• I googled the nature reserve and found out more about it. I clipped some of that information
• I added a few Google maps of the area where we had our picnic
• We googled the questions we were pondering and added the answers to our notebook
• Being curious people, we ended up finding out more by following rabbit trails
• I verbally strewed a few of the facts that I’d discovered by saying such things as: “Hey, listen to this!” “This is so interesting!” “Did you know?” “I’ve put some articles into this week’s notebook if you’d like to know more.”
• I titled each note with the relevant Key Learning Area
• I added a few tags such as ‘genetics’, ‘geographical tools’ and ‘ecosystems’ to relevant notes
• I also had a quick look at the school syllabus to see if I could match up our outing to some of the outcomes, the ones we’re supposed to fulfil.

Why our outing wasn’t a school excursion

I’ve already said that the focus of our outing was enjoyment. I knew we’d all learn a lot along the way. We always do. However, I didn’t think of our picnic at the reserve as a homeschooling version of a school excursion. I didn’t propose the outing so that we’d collect some notes for our records book.

In the same way, the extra information we googled when we returned wasn’t equivalent to writing a report about our day out. It would be so easy to spoil a day by coming back and demanding our kids write a report, fill a worksheet of questions, do a presentation… just like the kids do in school.

So why was our research different? My kids chose to do some googling, and they were free to listen to what I’d found out or not. Usually, when I have something to share, they are indeed interested. Maybe because I am. Curiosity is contagious. Anyway, finding out more extends the adventure!

So when are you going to set out on an adventure?

You might not have a nature reserve like ours near you. You might not stumble across a weir. What are the chances that you’ll visit an area that used to be inhabited by a mob of introduced kangaroos? Yes, the particular learning experiences that I’ve shared in this post are probably not relevant to you. But I’m sure you do visit other places. And each of them is packed full of learning experiences. Things to see and hear and do. Questions to ponder.  Perhaps there’s a particular place you’ve been meaning to explore for a long time. If there is, pack up a picnic. And then set out on an adventure. Enjoy. Soak up the joy.

And don’t worry about the homeschool records book. You’ll have plenty of notes to add to it once you get home!

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You might also like:

Podcast episode 58: Responding to Unschooling and Other Critics (I talked about this outing in this episode.)

Podcast episode 96: Turning Unschool Learning into Homeschool Records Notes

Podcast episode 104: How Do I Turn Life into Homeschool Records?

Blog post: How to Turn Movies into Homeschool Records Notes

Blog post: Are You a Curious Unschooler?

 

I might write another post on this topic with more examples of translating unschool learning into the right educational language. If you’re interested, watch out for it!