Turning My Teenager's Unschool Learning into Homeschool Records
How do we turn our unschoolers’ learning into homeschool records notes? What do we write? What educational language can we use? If we haven’t got any written assignments or worksheets, what do we add to our notebooks to show what our kids have been doing?
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 personso 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!