15 March 2010

unschool monday :: proof


Next week we have our monitoring visit with a representative from the local home ed advisory council. They provide us with our registration. We have to discuss our program with them and show evidence that big owlet has learned something in the last 12 months. Time to gather everything together and make sure we have all areas covered... How do we do that with unschooling? Our evidence exists on restaurant napkins, letters to the faeries, emails to family, crosswords, dot to dots, activity books and artwork. Oh and about a million photos. There's lots of it. Evidence coming out of our ears. For the next week its my job to go through the archive and make sure it makes some sense and is ordered chronologically. Somewhat fortunately for us, big owlet doesn't mind the odd activity book or worksheet, so it gives her portfolio that schoolie edge. Problem is that she will sit down and complete the book in a morning, so what might take a term or two in school is completed before lunch. Food for thought there. Suffice to say we encourage the use of different coloured pens along the way... often she will not return to similar work for a while, but process it in other ways or come back to it when she's ready for a new concept. Its like that with numeracy mostly, but also her writing at the moment. She's just had a long break, then some worksheets, then a break and a flurry of writing happening independently, often as part of her drawings, as she gains confidence with forming words. Her artwork fascinates me as it shows the development of line and characterisation along with an improvement in her writing skills. The artwork the owlets are creating above is a seasonal picture that seems to have become a theme. Big owlet likes to mark a new season with a picture of a tree. In spring we had a huge pastel mural. The autumn painting above is a tree painted, with footprint leaves falling down. All her idea and little owlet and I were happy to play along. Nothing like the feeling of paint between your toes!! So the monitoring meeting will likely involve a quick look through the artwork and books, then a slideshow look through all our pictures.


Pictures fill the gaps and show some the bits of unschooling that are hard to record on paper. Like spending yesterday afternoon at the Greek festival, learning about a culture which is completely new to the owlets. As for the conversations we have, well you'd have to be a fly on the wall for that. I keep a notebook where I note big milestones and brainwaves, but its usually not looked at. Big owlet will most likely do all the talking at the meeting next week, so I'm sure some of those brilliant brainwaves will be noted. So much to fit into an hour long visit!!

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like the perfect education. My eldest started off at Montessori and it wasn't unlike your ideas in overall concept. No real timetable except for lunch! The children could learn what they wanted when they wanted with direction from the teachers - note: called directors/directresses! Some children revelled in numbers, others in words, others in science, but apart from the chillout time or storytime, as long as they got through their individual curriculum in the year, they could decide how they did it - and because they wanted to learn due to natural curiosity it was very successful. Oh, how we miss that school... a job move meant school move and they've been in the Quaker school system ever since - which isn't quite Montessori, but it's been pretty good.

    Wishing you luck for the monitoring visit x

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  2. Looking forward to hearing how it goes, we have to enter the system next year eep!

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  3. Hope it all goes well. I'm sure it will. Love hearing about your unschooling adventures- so inspirational xo m

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  4. Glad you got to Estia :) We drove past & B was really disappointed we couldn't go. It's definitely on the cards for next year. Can't wait to hear how the visit goes next week :)

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  5. Good luck for the visit. I'm so inspired by all your unschooling posts. My 6 year old is spending a lot of her school days at home with me at the moment and I have a meeting with the school this afternoon to explain it. I wonder if they;ll be as understanding. X

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  6. Just like so much emphasis is placed on the Naplan tests in schools, how can they possibly really see what you have been doing and how Owlet is learning in ONE HOUR? Another example of how the education department get it wrong.

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