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what counts

Trial Run

Carolina Homeschooler

I’m often asked how to do a “trial run” before fully committing to homeschooling, especially during the summer. My advice is not to bring out the textbooks and workbooks.

Instead, do this:

  • Go to museums and zoos, and participate in any extra educational programs they offer.
  • Visit state parks and historic sites and participate in their park programs and junior ranger programs.
  • Watch and discuss educational television, documentaries, and/or streaming that interests you.
  • Go to the library and check out laundry-basket-loads of books, both fiction and non-fiction, and read/discuss them together.
  • Do any projects or experiments that interest you.

Document the details and dates of these activities, and list the titles of books, documentaries, movies, etc., in a planner or journal (learn how to document here).

At the end of the summer, you’ll have a truly meaningful and fun learning experience that you and your children will remember longer than anything learned through a textbook or workbook. And all of it counts.

If you decide to continue homeschooling, choose an Option 3 homeschool association to register with, and count these summer days as attendance. Then keep doing what you’ve been doing.

If you want to add more structured learning for math and writing when the “traditional” school year begins in August, choose different resources then. But for now – keep learning outside of the classroom!

Does This Count?

It Counts!

Does music, summer camp, a visit to the zoo, etc., count? This is probably one of my most frequently asked questions (well, that and “What about socialization?”). My answer is almost always, “Yes… it counts.”

It’s important to get out of the mindset that learning only happens when it’s planned, scheduled, directed, or approved by someone else. Children learn the most and retain it longer if they’re the ones who initiate it, take ownership of it, and have input into what they’re learning. I don’t know of any research that doesn’t support this fact.

Traditional schools don’t allow student-led learning because teachers don’t have time to mentor or facilitate a class full of students if they are learning different things. And even if they did, it would be too expensive for them to provide the resources for each individual student. (And all the materials would first have to be passed through committees to make sure they’re “suitable” – however they define it.)

As homeschoolers, we don’t have any of these constraints. So just remember that children (and adults!) learn 365 days a year. If you’re a SC homeschooler, it’ll be your job to document 180 of those days.

More questions? Read through my FAQs here.

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