The legal regulations and requirements for homeschoolers may initially appear intimidating, especially to relaxed homeschooling and unschooling families that may not follow a formal curriculum plan. However, with a basic understanding of local home education laws and some creativity, most homeschoolers have no trouble satisfying requirements.
Recordkeeping Helps Unschoolers Meet Legal Requirements
Good record keeping will significantly help you to meet legal requirements, as well as to provide keepsake, portfolio, and admissions/application materials for use in the future. Your "record" is your history or story. Some parents enjoy keeping records, some don't, and some do it only to meet legal requirements. Your reasons will influence your recordkeeping strategy. Record keeping can take various forms, for example
- journaling (narrative)
- scrapbooking (crafty visual)
- portfolio assembly (showcase presentation)
- chart or list making (diagrams and lists)
- filling-in prepared forms (prompted)
While conventional styles of homeschooling may lend themselves more easily to conventional recordkeeping, unschoolers can creatively fit their learning activities into subject categories, if it makes sense to do so. You may even have fun making the translation.
Some parents purchase record keeping systems while others create their own. Karen Gibson describes her unschooling record keeping system, with printable pages you can use. I use a Recordkeeping for Unschoolers spiral-bound journal with prompts and space for jotting down notes and lists.
Recordkeeping Can Help Unschoolers Meet Testing Requirements
Homeschooling parents typically take an active interest in their children's activities, so we don't necessarily need records of grades or tests to show us which skills our children have demonstrated. Nonetheless, records can serve to demonstrate to others that your children have had exposure and access to various subjects and skills.
Testing. Some areas require periodic testing of homeschoolers. Unschoolers and other relaxed homeschoolers may have the option of filling out their own assessment to be reviewed by a certified teacher. In this case, you simply reference your records and fill out the form. You children may not even have to be directly involved in the process.
Some areas accept portfolio assessments or other alternatives to standardized tests. Ask other relaxed homeschoolers in your area which testing services they recommend. My area has an unschooling-friendly testing service. Yours might, too.
Perhaps the simplest way to record an informal homeschooler's learning activities involves periodically listing what the child has spent time doing, i.e, reading, making, watching or listening to, talking about, planning, etc.
Know Your Laws from a Homeschooler's Point of View
Educational requirements for homeschoolers are typically different than those for school kids. Find out the specifics for your area. I recommend contacting a local homeschool organization to find out not only what the laws are in plain language, but how they are enforced.
School administrators are not in the business of knowing homeschooling laws, so they may misunderstand the requirements and pass on incorrect information.
The homeschool requirements in my state don't apply until a child turns eight years old. This is good information to have. I could have completely ignored homeschool requirements until my daughter's third grade year. However, I used that time to gain a working understanding of the requirements from the state homeschooling organization. When the time came, I knew what to expect and had no worries.
You might also enjoy: The Unschooling Collection
Source: McGrath, Sara. Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning. CreateSpace, 2010.
Sara McGrath - Sara is a veteran homeschool mom of three, Usborne consultant, and the author of Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning.
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