- Photos of Gemma-Rose in the art gallery and a description of where we went and what we saw.
- A screenshot of a google map showing the gallery location.
- Scans of our tickets and the guide to the Masters of Modern Art exhibition.
- Information about the exhibition that I clipped from the gallery website. We listened to an audio presentation while we walked around the gallery and some of this info is on the website.
- Images of our favourite paintings from the exhibition that I copied and pasted from the Internet.
- Some information about each painting.
- Notes about the things we discussed while we were having our lunch such as why is a plain black square considered art?
- A cover image of a book about the exhibition that we bought in the art gallery shop. We looked at the book together on the train as we travelled home.
I was so excited when I saw this book in the shop because I wanted copies of all the wonderful paintings in the gallery so that we could enjoy them again and again. However, I was very disappointed with the book even though it was full of beautiful images. Looking at a reproduced picture isn’t the same as standing in front of a painting and seeing it with our own eyes. I didn’t appreciate Picasso’s art until I saw his paintings in the art gallery. The colours were amazing!
Our Strewing Notebook
As well as making lots of notes about our outing to the art gallery, I also added some related notes to our strewing notebook. If you haven’t heard about our unplanning strewing notebook, here’s what it’s all about:
It’s an Evernote notebook where I collect resources that might interest my daughter. Whenever I see an interesting article or video or book or website or something similar, I clip it into my notebook. I also add notes and photos of resources that we have in our home. When Gemma-Rose is looking for something new to do, she browses the notebook. (I browse it too!)
I also add strewing notes about current interests, things that might extend Gemma-Rose’s knowledge. Often she wants to know more. So do I. We’re curious people!
If Gemma-Rose follows up on something in the strewing notebook, I move the note into our current term’s Evernote records notebook.
I also use the notebook as a ‘planning‘ notebook for homeschool registration purposes. I add lots of resources that cover the school syllabus in a way that might interest Gemma-Rose. I tell the Authorised Person who comes to visit us that the notebook is my ‘plan’ for the next year or two of homeschooling. (I don’t promise we’ll use all the resources!)
Here’s what I added to our strewing notebook after we visited the gallery:
- Links to videos and articles about modern art and painters such as Matisse and Monet. (The Art Story website is a great source of information.)
- A cover image of the DVD, The Monuments Men, which we bought from the art gallery shop. This movie is about a group of men who set out to retrieve masterpieces stolen by Hitler.
- A link to the Netflix movie, Woman in Gold: Sixty years after fleeing Vienna, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), an elderly Jewish woman, attempts to reclaim family possessions that were seized by the Nazis. Among them is a famous portrait of Maria’s beloved Aunt Adele: Gustave Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.” A friend recommended this movie.
After Gemma-Rose and I had watched the movies and used some of the resources that I’d found, I moved the relevant notes from our strewing notebook to our current records notebook. Also, we revisited the artist Klimt after watching Woman in Gold. Some of our notes from previous terms’ notebooks were duplicated and added to our current notebook.
I find that one outing leads to lots and lots of learning experiences. After visiting the art gallery, we read and looked and researched until our curiosity was satisfied. And I made lots of notes in our homeschool records book. Even though Gemma-Rose didn’t fill in any worksheets or write an assignment about the art exhibition, we still have lots of evidence of what she learnt!
So that’s how I turned an outing to the art gallery into homeschool records notes!
Some Extra Things
A TV series
Gemma-Rose and I enjoy watching Fake or Fortune. This series is an entertaining way to learn more about artists and their paintings and sculptures. Each episode leads to lots of discussion and further research. We found episodes on Youtube and Netflix.
Blog posts
Some of these ideas could also be used to record an outing to a museum. You might like my story An Education at the Museum.
If you’d like to find out more about our unplanning strewing notebook, you could read My Unschool Unplanning Strewing Notebook. This blog post includes a video.
You might also like these record keeping posts
Podcast episode 58: Responding to Unschooling and Other Critics
Podcast episode 96: Turning Unschool Learning into Homeschool Records Notes
Podcast 79: Learning from Life, Record Keeping and Strewing
Blog post: How to Turn Movies into Homeschool Records Notes
Blog post: Are You a Curious Unschooler?
Blog post: Turning Outings into Homeschool Records Notes
Blog post: Turning My Teenager’s Unschool Learning into Homeschool Records
Blog post: Turning Our Unschool Weeks into Homeschool Records
Photos
Gemma-Rose isn’t smiling in these photos. That doesn’t mean she didn’t enjoy the art exhibition. I think she was just tired because she had to wait a long time for me to take my photos!
Unschoolgram
This post started life as an Instagram caption which you can also find on Unschoolgram. (Unschoolgram was Storygram until I discovered there’s an app known by that name!) Have I written any new Unschoolgram posts since you last visited my blog? Why not hop over to Unschoolgram and find out?!
So, I’m wondering if you like to visit art galleries. Do you have a favourite artist? And have you seen Fake or Fortune? How about Woman in Gold? If you have any favourite art movies or series, please let me know!
Sue, I’m always so impressed with how resourceful you are in categorizing and keeping records of your family’s learning. In the Canadian province we live in, we don’t really have to produce any specific records. I try to imagine the added energy of taking everything we do and learn and sorting it into educational records. We easily have all sorts of “evidence of learning” on hand should we ever be questioned but nobody ever really is. I realize we are quite blessed in that respect.
I wonder if it’s a bit of double edged sword though… when we’ve needed to connect with the school board for a letter or when the older kids just needed a prerequisite course to apply to college, it was more than a bit challenging to communicate with them or, for the most part, to even hear back. It’s kind of like home education isn’t really on their radar, even though there are many, many home educated kids in the region. The kids worked hard and effectively to put pieces together to show the “evidence of learning” that was asked for and then it was quite a process to find anyone available to look at them, LOL – the opposite of what I expected!! Oh well, my younger two don’t seem as interested in following the same route so maybe there won’t be as much need to feel as if I’m begging the school board to call me back – funny words to hear myself say;).
Erin,
Keeping homeschooling records could be time consuming, but with a good system like Evernote it’s fairly easy. Adding notes regularly is probably the key. And enjoying the process instead of looking at it as an unavoidable nuisance!
Sometimes I wish homeschooling wasn’t on our education department’s radar. But yes, it would be frustrating if we ever needed help from them. I’m sorry to hear your school board isn’t giving you the help you need.
It’s interesting how different children in the same family choose different pathways, isn’t it? My younger two girls aren’t keen to do what their older siblings did. They’ve got their own ideas which is good. I guess that’s what unschooling is all about!
Okay, I have the most basic of stupid questions. I tried Evernote, intending to use it for 2017-2018 and just gave up. I find it completely overwhelming. I’ve looked at multiple posts and videos that you have, but the Evernote I open doesn’t even LOOK like the one you are using. I’ve tried switching versions, I’ve had paid and free, etc. I’ve had it on Evernote Web and then back to the other version. Currently I’m signed into my free account because I don’t want to waste another year of paying for it if I can’t figure it out.
So what am I missing that I can’t even get to a starting point where my version looks like yours so I can follow the tutorials that you have? For example, color coding the different subjects so each note has the colored bars to show which subjects it’s tied into. I tried right clicking (I think that’s what your post said – I’ve now lost where I read it) and there wasn’t even a settings option.
For example, in this post
https://www.storiesofanunschoolingfamily.com/my-unschool-unplanning-strewing-notebook/
you have New Note, All Notes, Sync, Screenshot, a star, and Video across the top left. I can’t even figure out where those are.
I must be missing something really obvious, but I just don’t GET Evernote. I want to get it because Caroline and David are doing more learning things independent of me and I want them to record them in Evernote for our records. But I must be missing some thing really basic and obvious because the entire thing makes no sense to me when I open it up (and honestly makes me want to throw things – lol!).
Sallie
Sallie,
I’m sorry to hear that you’re feeling overwhelmed by Evernote. It takes time to work out how to use it. But also, maybe you’re having trouble because you’re using a different version of Evernote to the one that I wrote about. Evernote looks different depending on whether you’re using the web version, using it on an iPad, iPhone, Android mobile, Windows Desktop or Mac Desktop. Then there are the updates which can affect the look of each version. It gets complicated!
I was using the Windows Desktop version of Evernote when I did the workshop posts. Now I have a Macbook and my Evernote is set out a little bit differently. The New Notes, All Notes, Sync… function are listed vertically on the left side of the screen instead of being on a horizon bar across the top.
If you let me know which version of Evernote you’re using, I’ll try and help. One quick thing: my tags aren’t colour coded in my Mac desktop Evernote notes. I wonder why. I shall do some googling!
Thank you for responding! Right now I have the free version for Windows. There is an old version and apparently a new version of Evernote web. They look quite different. One looks more like yours with the black sidebar on the left. The other one is cleaner looking. The black sidebar one is apparently the new version.
Maybe I need to go on YouTube and look for videos that are specifically 2019. I know how much things change with different versions and updates. But nothing has made me feel as stupid as Evernote. LOL! I don’t know why I have such a mental block with it. It just isn’t intuitive enough for me, I guess. I see how it can be so helpful with the posts you’ve written and ideas you’ve shared, but maybe it isn’t the right tool for the way my brain works.
Sallie,
I’m sure that when you get familiar with Evernote, you will love it. Perhaps you just need the right instructions. Yesterday, I was trying to learn how to fold a fitted sheet. Oh my, I watched multiple videos before I was successful. Everyone’s instructions are slightly different and I had to find an approach that suited me.
So maybe the right video will help you. You could try watching this one which uses the 2019 web version of Evernote:
https://youtu.be/kSz9uavfLpI
I didn’t watch the entire video, but I liked what I saw. The video reminded me that it’s possible to switch from the new version of Evernote back to the previous one.
Once you’ve mastered the web version of Evernote, you should be able to work out the desktop one.
I hope you find the help you need. I’m happy to try and answer any specific questions.
Thank you for the video suggestion. I actually found a website called Seesaw that I think we are going to try for now. Another homeschooler recommended it and it looks very user friendly since it was made to use with kids in a classroom setting. I may shoot for Evernote in the future for high school, but the most important thing right now is to find something we will USE so I capture all the learning that happens that doesn’t get recorded.
I do love the look of your notebooks, Sue. It’s amazing what you do with them and the record of your family life you have with them.
Sallie
Sallie,
I’m glad you’ve found a system that you like and is easy to use. My husband Andy uses Seesaw at school!