Documenting the Process

by Laureen

Today, October 1, the day I'm writing this post, a month before you see it, is the day I filed my PSA here in the Great State of California. We are now officially the Excellent Adventure Academy, where the World is our Classroom, and Rowan is our first official student. We are, according to the government, one more family contributing to the roughly 200,000 homeschoolers in the state.

Which now means that I have to keep records. The very thought makes me break out in a sweat. I am not a paperwork-oriented girl; I like the big picture just fine, but panic when someone asks me for an official title for the head of our school (we settled on "headmaster" because it sounds like "headwind" which is what you get on boats sometimes). But even scarier than the thought that I might dot the wrong "i" or cross the wrong "t" is the thought that I now have to not only keep attendance, but that I have to document a course of study including english, science, social sciences, health and physical education, visual and performing arts, and mathematics. And I stare at the blank screen before me, and I ask myself, how am I to begin separating the thread of these topics from the tapestry of his life?

For example, in the EAA, we definitely have "school" on Saturdays, at the Farmers' Market. We live in one giant science experiment, since a sailboat is a neverending opportunity to see physics, oceanography, biology, meteorology, geography, and astronomy at work. When they've had enough outside entertainment (it's not swabbing the deck, it's physical education!), they come inside for visual and performing arts (watching videos) and more english (reading stories and working on more items for the Word Collection). Then there's naptime, which is more physical education (because listening to your body telling you it's tired is important) or maybe social sciences (because many nations of the world have siesta, which is such a sensible way to structure your day).

I could babble on. But the fact is, Rowan is steeped in learning, day in and day out, in a thousand different ways, all the time. Even when all we're doing is hanging out on the couch watching videos, which by our culture's standards is "nothing", there's something "educational" we can take from that. I'm not quite sure when learning, and therefore by the standards of the State, "schooling" ever really stops. Is it still considered "attendance" if we can knock out a whole school year in no time, because we're learning 24/7?

On the one hand, it's all school. On the other hand, it flows so much better if it's just life, and not merely a string of teachable moments. We play word games because they're fun, not because I'm trying to teach him English. We bake bread because it's yummy, not because it's science. We  revel in the world around us, and follow our interests. I'm not sure what the best way is, for documenting the process of a young mind expanding, but I'm absolutely thrilled that we are taking the opportunities as they present themselves. Let's see what happens next.

And if you've got a great idea for how mere documentation can keep up, let me know in the comments.

Laureen is a writer, a professional editor, a scuba instructor, a beginning  sailor, a traveler, and an obsessive researcher who's chiefly focused  on, and delighted with, her husband Jason, her sons Rowan and  Kestrel, and her daughter Aurora. She's a lifelong Californian, which lends a very distinctive  spin to both her ideas and her politics, and she's discovered, in her  peregrinations, that the world is far smaller yet far more fascinating  than anyone gives it credit for being. She holds forth her opinions on  that in her blog, The ElementalMom.

Comments

[JoVE]

I so agree and I think it emphasizes that the documents are not for him but for the state. I like Melissa Wiley's idea of using a day planner to record the various things you did in a day. I suppose then you would sit down periodically and use that raw data to construct a list of what had been accomplished under the required headings. So it is only at the point of writing up records (for the authorities) that baking bread becomes science. For Rowan, it is always baking bread.

[Jena]

What a wonderful post! I love this line: "how am I to begin separating the thread of these topics from the tapestry of his life?" That is a beautiful way to describe the problem of making a transcript out of life.

I agree with JoVE, the previous commenter. Keeping a journal in a day book is a great idea. That's how I've done it off and on over the years. From there you can see school subjects emerging. The problem will be having too many school subjects to report!

Oh, and watching videos--I used to be embarrassed by using videos as school activities, but my youngest is trying public school right now, and they do it all the time. Fifty minutes is one class period, so a 2 hour video could be 3 class periods (considering the wasted time getting kids to settle down, review, and start the video, stop the video, etc).

[Crimson Wife]

This is our first year establishing our private school in CA as well. I was under the impression that all I had to do was make up a list of subjects on our official school letterhead that includes the subjects required by the Ed Code. So mine looks something like:

(1) Language Arts, including reading, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, composition, penmanship, and oral communication.
(2) Mathematics
(3) Social Studies, including history, geography, and civics.
(4) Science
(5) Art
(6) Music
(7) Physical Education and Health
(8) Religion [obviously not required but it *is* a subject that our family covers in our homeschool]

We do cover all these things over the course of the school year, even if it's in a manner that's a lot more relaxed and interdisciplinary than what would be found in a traditional school.

I keep a portfolio that includes work samples and a weekly summary of what my child has done, but it's my understanding that should NOT be part of the "official" school records.

[V]

When we used to keep more detailed records, I had a schedule and a log. The schedule was just a list of what we intended to hit in a given day. The log was what we actually did. It was pretty easy. If we had science on Tuesday/Thursday, but actually did something we could count as science on another day, I'd just write it in on a Tuesday or Thursday--who cares what day it happens on or what it is exactly...

The law was new then and the school district unsure of its role and responsibility, and I was also insecure about the magnitude of responsibility I felt. But the district mellowed out and so did I. All it involved was a sheet of paper listing the schedule and a sprial notebook to serve as the log. love, V