unschooling in SC?

[me-n-3boys]

HI! I've been lurking here for a while, but decided to join so I can ask a few questions and join in the conversations.

I am legally starting homeschool this year as my son missed the 5K cutoff by 5 days so last year I didn't join an association but still homeschooled him. The more I am focusing on teaching my kids the more I think that a relaxed unschool approach works for us (right now). Down the road might be a different story. So doing this approach in SC, how would you list your subjects or keep track of things? And grading? what pull out a paper on say, math, and do this? We do a hands on math approach using things in nature, etc. HOw can I keep a record of this? take a picture of the sticks my son lined up from big to small and mark it in the book as our math lesson? LOL I'm thinking it will be a challenge. Anyone have any experience in this?

Now with other subjects hes done writing books and art, etc. So that much I can keep track of better and did last year just for my practice. I know that someone is probably going to say something that will make me say AH-HAH! :idea:


TIA! I will post more later as I think of it :biggrin2:

Sarah

[Dianna]

HI! I've been lurking here for a while, but decided to join so I can ask a few questions and join in the conversations.

I am legally starting homeschool this year as my son missed the 5K cutoff by 5 days so last year I didn't join an association but still homeschooled him. The more I am focusing on teaching my kids the more I think that a relaxed unschool approach works for us (right now). Down the road might be a different story. So doing this approach in SC, how would you list your subjects or keep track of things? And grading? what pull out a paper on say, math, and do this? We do a hands on math approach using things in nature, etc. HOw can I keep a record of this? take a picture of the sticks my son lined up from big to small and mark it in the book as our math lesson? LOL I'm thinking it will be a challenge. Anyone have any experience in this?

Now with other subjects hes done writing books and art, etc. So that much I can keep track of better and did last year just for my practice. I know that someone is probably going to say something that will make me say AH-HAH! :idea:


TIA! I will post more later as I think of it :biggrin2:

Sarah

Sarah, welcome to the forums! :smile2: I have experience with unschooling and documenting. You can do it - you'll just have to be a little more creative (as you've already discovered).

As far as listing resources for subjects, many associations are comfortable with unschooling - just explain what you're doing and ask them how they'd prefer you document. For reading, science, and social studies, I don't list texts and such. I just list something like this:

Reading - resources include quality children's literature, books, and magazines encompassing a variety of genres and authors. Materials integrated with Social Studies and Science topics.

[For my portfolio, the only thing in this section is usally a list of books and magazines my children have read, and maybe the titles of documentaries/videos my children have watched about specific authors. It's difficult to provide samples for this subject.]

Science - a variety of resources to include books, magazines, educational TV, documentaries, videos, experiment & project kits, field trips, etc.

Social Studies - a variety of resources to include books, magazines, educational TV, documentaries, videos, project kits, field trips, etc.

[For their portfolio in both Sci and SS, I include a list of books and magazines they've read, and videos/documentaries they've watched that would fall under these topics. I also include brochures from field trips we've taken, pictures of projects or experiements, and pictures from field trips or group activities. If they did experiments or projects kits that included a written component, I add that.]

I'm more structured in math and writing/language arts, so I list specific resources for those, and include any papers that result from their studies. If you unschool those, you just need to include copies of things your son writes (letters to grandma, any poems or stories, samples of handwriting practice, etc). For math, pictures of hands-on math activities are fine. Also consider asking your son to occassionally do a homemade "worksheet" to include a sample.

I'll try to post more ideas later, need to go for now. Feel free to ask more questions in the meantime, though, and I'll answer them tonight.

Warmly,
Dianna