Sometimes life is quiet. We can stay at home and relax. There’s plenty of time to say such things as “Would you like to watch a Shakespeare play with me?” We read books and drink hot chocolate. We write and chat and work on our individual projects. And as we do all this, I add links and notes to our homeschool records book.
But sometimes life races along at an incredible pace. We take trips away from home. I drive a daughter to work. The girls attend music lessons. We shop. We take recycling to the resource centre. We choose paint for the interior of our house. We’re invited to music recitals. We take a new puppy to the vet. We go on outings to scout for new music video locations and then film a video. One thing after another.
Then at the end of the day, we flop onto the sofa to watch a movie or a TV show together (nothing ‘educational’). And I look at my homeschool records book and I wonder how I’m going to turn all these events into notes. How do I turn life into homeschool records?
Our kids learn so much from life. When lots of things are happening around them, there isn’t any need to strew. There’s no need to go looking for learning experiences. But, if we are required to keep homeschool records, we do have to know how to translate everything into the right educational language.
What is the education department looking for? In our state, we have to provide evidence that our kids are covering the Key Learning Areas: maths, English, science, history and geography, creative arts, and personal development, health and physical education (PDHPE).
So I title each of my homeschool notes with one or more key learning areas. Then when our notes are examined by our Authorised Person, she can see at a glance that my kids are covering the required subjects of the school syllabus.
Life and school are very different. It might not be immediately obvious that what our kids are doing can be labelled as science or maths or English or whatever. We need not even see the learning that our kids are experiencing. They’re just living life. Yes, we know that life teaches our kids all kinds of things. We normally don’t think about it. We don’t have to. Unless we are required to keep homeschooling records.
So we have to look at life very carefully. We need to make as many notes as we can. And we need to label them correctly.
So perhaps I can tell you how I recorded (in our Evernote notebooks) a few of things that happened during a busy week or two of our unschool life.
Music recital
The Learning
One Sunday afternoon, my daughter Imogen gave a classical music recital in preparation for a singing performance exam. Her younger sisters wanted to support her by going along and hearing her sing. Imogen sang the Benjamin Britten song For I Will Consider My Cat Jeffry.
On the way home from the concert, we talked about Benjamin Britten and Imogen told us the song’s lyrics were written by the poet Christopher Smart.
The Homeschool Records
- I scanned the recital program and described the recital. I made some notes about the conversation we’d had on our way home. (Creative Arts – music)
- I clipped a copy of the poem For I Will Consider My Cat Jeffry into our notebook. (English)
- I clipped some biographical info about Britten and Smart. (Creative Arts – Music / English – biography)
- Sometimes we film Imogen when she’s performing in concerts and then add the video link to our notes. This time, no one made a recording of Imogen singing the Britten song. Instead, we clipped a version from Youtube. (Creative Arts – Music)
- We could have added some photos of everyone at the recital, but we forgot to take some! ( Creative Arts)
Road trip to collect our puppy
The Learning
We took a trip north to see our son Callum and pick up a puppy he’d found for us. On the way, we saw some open cut coal mines. We talked about renewable and non-renewable energy sources, land uses, how a mining company has to clean up the environment once a mine closes.
Callum gave us a tour of his hometown. We noted all the main attractions and sites of historical significance.
We also took a trip to a nearby manmade dam and had a walk.
The Homeschool Records
- I clipped some Google maps of the area we travelled to. (Geography)
- I recorded some info about our journey: How far we travelled, how long the journey took, what route we took. (Maths)
- I noted down our conversations about the mines and the dam. (Science / Geography)
- I found articles online about open cut mines, renewable energy sources, manmade dams and other things we’d seen and discussed, and clipped them into our notebook. (Geography / Science)
- I mentioned we’d taken a walk around the dam. (PDHPE)
- Gemma-Rose took lots of photos and I uploaded some of them. (Creative Arts)
- I uploaded lots of my photos of everything we’d seen.
Our Puppy
The Learning
We brought Quinn, our Great Dane / Shar Pei puppy, home and then a wonderful learning adventure began. We wanted to know more about our dog so we researched Great Danes and Shar Peis.
We took Quinn to the vet for a health check. She was vaccinated and wormed and we talked about fleas.
Gemma-Rose watched lots of dog training videos on Youtube. We talked about the alpha dog method and the rewarding-positive-behaviour method and then tried out the various techniques.
We watched documentaries about dogs. We found out about the history of the dog and dog breeding.
The Homeschool Records
- I clipped all the dog breed articles we read. (Science)
- We did some reading about genetics. (Science)
- We did more research about vaccinations and worms and clipped lots of info. (Science)
- I clipped the links to the documentaries we watched. (Science / History)
- I clipped the links to Youtube videos. (Science / History / Geography)
- I uploaded some photos of our dog.
Watching Grand Designs
The Learning
As a family, we watched an episode or two of the lifestyle program Grand Designs. As we watched the different families build their dream homes in their dream locations, we talked about such things as eco-friendly homes, sustainability, and heritage listed homes.
And we pondered such questions as these: Do we need a perfect house in order to have a perfect life? What’s important in life? What makes us happy? Do we need a big house? We also discussed issues such as listening to each other, working together, compromising.
We talked about budgets and money management.
The Homeschool Records
- I made notes of the conversations we had. (Science / Geography / History / Maths)
- I found info online on the topics we talked about and clipped them. (Science / Geography / History / Maths)
- I clipped the video trailers for each episode.
- I copied and pasted an image for this series and added the episode descriptions.
A Walk Through a National Park
The Learning
One morning, I suggested to Gemma-Rose that we go exploring after we’d dropped big sister Sophie off at work: “We could pack a morning tea picnic and keep driving until we find somewhere interesting to visit.”
We found ourselves in a national park. As we walked, we took short video clips of ourselves and what we could see: the waterfalls, the birds, the bush, the flora… We talked about everything, swapping info and pondering questions such as “I wonder what that bird is called. And what species of wattle do you think that is?”
As well as the video, we took lots of photos of everything including some information boards that told us about the indigenous owners of the land and their cultural associations with it.
The Homeschool Records
- I made notes of our conversations about the waterfalls, birds and flora. (Geography / Science)
- We googled the questions we’d been pondering and clipped information. (Geography / Science)
- We edited our video clips and uploaded the completed video. (Geography / Science / Creative Arts / English)
- I added a few Google maps of the national park and surrounding area. (Geography)
- I visited the national park website where I found a lot of interesting information which we read. I clipped some of it. (Science / Geography)
- We found out more about the indigenous owners of the park and their cultural associations with the land (Geography / HIstory)
The Batman Lego Movie
The Learning
We enjoyed this movie together as a family. Later, Gemma-Rose and I watched some behind-the-scenes videos of the making of the movie.
The Homeschool Records
- I clipped links to the Youtube videos we’d watched about the making of the movie. We talked about the animation techniques and the voice actors. (Creative Arts)
- We also critiqued the movie: What did we like or dislike? What worked and what didn’t? (Creative Arts / English)
- We intended to look at the Rotten Tomato rating and find out more about the profits of the movie. (Maths)
- I copied and pasted a DVD cover image and added the movie description
Scouting for a new music video location
The Learning
Imogen wanted to look for a new music video location, so one morning, she and Gemma-Rose and I went exploring. In a local village, we found a path that led through the bush to the river. The path was called Stone Quarry Walk which made us wonder: Did the area used to be a quarry? We noticed the beautiful sandstone and how it had been cut.
We took lots of photos and some sample video.
The Homeschool Records
- I uploaded our photos.
- We googled the area and found out that it had indeed been a sandstone quarry. Now it is a recreational area and nature reserve. We discussed how the uses of land can change. (Geography / History)
- We discussed the nature of sandstone and how stones from the quarry had been used to construct local buildings. (Science / History / Creative Arts – architecture)
- I clipped some Google maps of the area. (Geography)
- I make notes of our conversations. (Science / Geography / History / Creative Arts)
Filming a Music Video
The Learning
A couple of days after we’d discovered our music video shoot location, we got up early to film Imogen singing the song Something Just Like This. Gemma-Rose was in charge of Imogen’s music track. She also was involved with the behind-the-scenes video shoot. Imogen also made a vlog while we were at the river and all the girls contributed to it. As well as filming the video, we all took lots of photos.
The Homeschool Records
- I described what we did at the video shoot: helping with the music, taking photos, filming the music video, the behind-the-scenes video, the vlog (Creative Arts, English – interviewing and being interviewed)
- Once the music video was edited and uploaded to Youtube, I clipped the link. (Creative Arts)
- I also clipped the links to the behind-the-scenes video and vlog (Creative Arts / English)
- I could have clipped a copy of the sheet music as we discussed it and everyone sang along. (Creative Arts)
- I uploaded lots of photos. (Creative Arts)
Decluttering Our House
The Learning
We sorted out a lot of recycling and took it to our local recycling and resource centre. And afterwards, we talked about recycling, did some googling and discovered a TV show about reducing waste which we watched together: War on Waste.
The Homeschool Records
- I made notes of our conversations about recycling and environmental issues. (Science / Geography)
- I clipped the links to the War on Waste series. I added descriptions of each episode. I made a few notes about the things we talked about as we watched. (Geography / Science)
Redecorating Our House
The Learning
Once we’d done some decluttering, we decided to redecorate the interior of our home. We visited the hardware store to get some colour charts. We talked about light, colours, palettes and colour codes.
The Homeschool Records
- I made notes of our conversations. (Creative Arts / Science)
- I clipped some information corresponding to the things we talked about. (Creative Arts / Science)
I could tell you about the other things that happened, but maybe I have shared enough examples so that you can see how I turn our unschooling life into homeschool records notes.
Summing up
For each learning experience, I might…
- make notes of conversations we have about the things we’re doing, things we have seen, questions we are pondering
- clip online info corresponding to our conversations
- research the places we visit
- google and then clip info from websites associated with the places we visit
- add google maps
- add links to videos, websites, books etc
- add images of DVD and book covers
- scan any paperwork such as music recital programs
- upload lots of photos and links to any videos we make
- title the notes with the appropriate key learning area
- add the key learning areas as tags as well
- add other tags such as ‘genetics’, ‘photography’
Of course, all the events that happen in our lives can be used as starting points for further learning. We could find additional resources to extend the learning adventure: “I’ve put some extra info in the unplanning strewing notebook if you’d like to find out more.”
But what if our kids aren’t interested in the things we strew? That’s quite okay. We can always use the resources ourselves!
This is a blog post version of episode 104 of my podcast: How Do I Turn Life into Homeschooling Records Notes. You might notice that both posts have the same opening paragraphs!
You might also like:
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
Images: I took these photos after the girls had filmed the music video, Something Just Like This.
Gemma-Rose was 13 when I recorded these notes of her unschool life. That was just over a year ago.
I still plan to write a homeschooling record posts for a younger unschooler. Please watch out for it!
Sue what do you do with the clipped info? Add to the notes page for that event or add somewhere else for strewing/exploring? I save bookmarks of things in my web browser but they always disappear so I might try the Evernote approach for strewing 🙂
Kate,
If the clipped information corresponds to things we have discussed in our conversations, I put it directly into the current records notebook. If my kids accept my invitation to look at something I’ve found, it also goes into that notebook. If the info is something my kids might like to look at, usually it goes into the strewing notebook. If they’re interested, it can easily be moved into the other notebook.
Sometimes I’ll strew directly into the current notebook. This focuses attention on particular things. Then at the end of the week, if my girls haven’t followed up on any of these notes, I move them into the strewing notebook where they might be discovered another day.
Both systems work for us. It is so easy to move Evernote notes between notebooks!
What I like about Evernote is the amount of information that’s clipped. Even if I only clip a link, it’s imported with a description of the video, movie, website etc. When I clip whole articles into the strewing notebook. It’s easy to skim these and see if they sound interesting without visiting the various websites.
I hope the Evernote strewing system works for you!
This is very inspiring thank you!
Meggs,
Thank you for your feedback. I’m glad you found the info in my comment helpful!
Thank you for this post. I admit, I struggle a bit with the record keeping part. Well, with the part that is meant for others to read and see what we have learned.
I for myself keep a journal that is a mix of a diary and a scrapbook. It is beautiful to look at. I think it really covers our lives and what we have been doing. It is a bit of an adventure book and feels authentic and like, well, really us.
BUT. And it is a BUTin all capital letters. BUT I do not think that officials who might end up looking through it would really understand and see what we are doing in terms of the educational syllabus.
To keep a record book in what I call THEIR language is difficult for me. Their language seems dry and boring and methodical and it is not how I naturally think. The fact that learning is seperated into different subjects alone is something that is quite difficult for me. My kids do not learn this ways. There are no borders dividing a learnig experience into maths, literature, science, creative arts etc.
I have started using evernote thanks to your suggestions for the officials who might have a look at our records and I keep my beautiful notebook/diary/scrapbook for myself and the kids.
But how to word our conversations?
I have put links to videos and books we have read into the evernotes. But how do I record our discussions into evernote notes that will sound attractive or beneficial to the officials?
For example: My kids and I were making dinner from a recipe my great-grandma had passed on. She had been through both world wars. So I explained to my children how this recipe was from WWI, when her family did not have much food and definitely no money and they had to use what they could grow themselves or what they found growing in the meadows and woods around the house. We talked a bit about WWI, but I admit, at that point, we were not going into detail. The kids however did look at photographs from my great-great-grandpa in uniform. We are lucky. My family has always invested money into things that seeemed silly and useless to many back then. They have had pictures taken, they kept diaries and send letters and postcards. We have a treasure at home.
So we looked at the pictures and some notes and my kids noticed that they could not read the writing. I explained how they used a different script (is that the word in English? The way they formed the letters was different.) and how my great-grandma had not learned to form the letters the way we form them today until she was an adult. We talked about how I had to learn this kind of writig in elementary school and how I had forgotten pretty much all about it and how sad that was. It is something I am really interested in. So we made a note to look it up and to study later on.
Now there was of course A LOT of learning. But how do I write it down?
Talked about WWI and food rationing.
That sounds so boring an not really impressive. Right?
Another time we read a picture book about cultural diversity and we had a beautiful discussion about it. The kids made some beautiful points. It was amazing. But when I try to write it down, it sounds so boring and like, well, so little.
The kids talked about how boring it would be if we were all the same.
They compared it to just having one kind of flower in the world. How we would miss out on scents and colors and shapes. And how that would effect the insects, because they might not have their favorite source of foods. That would then of course affect the birds and mammals, because of the food web…..
Sounds so wrong.
I even put it into the biology notes.
We discussed the food web.
One short sentence. So boring. I put an image of a drawing of the food web underneath it and a link to an article that we had actually read. But still….It does somehow reduce what we are actually living and learning when we write it down like this. And I have no idea how to use the right words that make it sound official and like schooling.
I am sorry. I realize this is quite a long message and I really appreciate the time you take to read and respond.
I guess I kow how what we do relates to certain subjects and topics, but I still do not know how to record it, how to phrase it.
Thak you so much.
PS: I have a question about evernote too. But I have taken too much of your time already. I will rewatch your evernote videos and play a bit with it and maybe I can finally figure it out on my own.
Have a beautiful week, Sue.
Calla,
You are so right: learning and life aren’t really separated into subjects. We label everything as maths or English or science… because this is what the education department expects.
Could you record your conversations as bullet points for registration purposes? List everything that you talked about. This will make your records easy to skim. Yes, this type of record is rather boring. It doesn’t capture the wonderful discussion you and your children enjoyed. But it would probably satisfy anyone official looking at your records. If you’d like to remember any conversations in detail, you could expand them for your own enjoyment.
You could bring your conversation alive by adding scans of the recipe and the old photos and notes. Also, you could scan in samples of your writing and your children’s too to compare them to that of your great-grandmother. How about adding a photo of the food you cooked? If you research handwriting, you could clip in any articles from the Internet that you read. You could add a Google map of the area where your great-grandparents lived.
A few more ideas…
Did you talk about the dates of the war? That’s maths. Perhaps you talked about how diaries and photos are primary historical sources. Photography is science and creative arts as well as history. Photos also tell stories – English. Diaries and handwriting are also English. If the recipe included ingredients found in meadows and woods, you might have talked about different habitats. That’s science. Of course, cooking involves maths and science. Sometimes our conversations touch on lots of different topics as we go from one thought to another!
You could add words such as discussed, researched, experimented, made, questioned, examined, explained, identified, outlined, concluded… That would make your notes sound official!
I don’t mind answering an Evernote question. If you can’t solve your problem, maybe I can help.
btw, I love the sound of your diary/scrapbook journal!
I hope you’re having a happy week!
Thank you so much, Sue. This really helps to jazz up the notes.
I have not quite figured out my evernote challeges yet, but we have been busy today with aerial dance and reading, writing, looking at maps to plan our next hiking trip of the week…..So much to put into the notes again. Maybe tonight I will find some time to play with it.
Thank you for your help.
Hello Sue,
I am sorry, but I do have another question about evernote.
I started adding links to articles we have read, books we have read, videos etc…. BUT when I do add the link, all that shows up in my evernote is the actual link. So for example, I was putting in the link to a book we just read, Amal Unbound. And it shows the link just like this:
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36086513-amal-unbound
I was hoping it would look like when you put a link on facebook and it shows the actual pictures, videos, article or whatever you are linking to.
That is how it looks on your evernotes. So how do I get it to look like that? Am I doing something wrong?
Also, when I tried using it on my tablet, I was trying to add photos from my gallery on the tablet, but there was nothing to add anything. To tab. On the notebook, it shows me all these options on the note. Add this or that. But on the tablet, it was just a plank. What do I do to add the photos using my tablet? I guess it is not too important, since I can just move them over to my laptop and just do it from there.
I hope this makes sense.
And thank you.
Saskia
Saskia,
Have you downloaded the Evernote webclipper?
https://evernote.com/features/webclipper
You can use the clipper to import articles and webpages or bookmark sites or take screenshots. The bookmark option will give you a FB style photo and link. Screenshots are good for maps. The articles feature allows you to import articles and then read them without revisiting the websites. Have a play around with the clipper to see which options you like best!
For the Goodreads book, you could expand the description and then take a screenshot of just the book and its description. You could import the whole page with all the comments and extras. Or you could bookmark the page and have just a small picture of the book cover and a few words. All options include a link back to the original page.
You can add photos directly from your gallery on your tablet. I have an iPad so I’ll describe what I do. Android tablets are probably similar, I imagine. On the left side of the screen is a big green plus sign. Press this to get a new note. Then look at the bottom of the note for a camera icon. Pressing this will give you two options: take photo or import photo from your gallery. If you have any problems, check your tablet settings to ensure that Evernote has permission to access your photos.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any further questions!
Thank you. I will play with it some more tonight and try out your tips. I really appreciate it.
You’re welcome! I hope you were able to work out how to clip articles from the Internet and insert photos from your gallery. I’m sure you will enjoy using Evernote once you’ve learnt the basics. I hope you have a happy week!