Musings at the End of Our Homeschool Year: A Journal Entry from May 24, 2015

The children and I had a lovely day full of ordinary things yesterday - like so many days before - passed in a happy, busy, good-natured way of being together. I enjoy my children more than can be expressed. They are authentic people who are kind, smart, possess a sense of humor, and are generally charming. I am sure I must be partial in my assessment, but in all honesty, they are excellent human beings and friends.

This is really why I homeschool. We enjoy each others company and we all work towards the mutual building up of each other's strengths, the pursuit of dreams and desired skills, the chipping away at our faults, and the shared dream of a better, kinder, more peaceful world.

I can think of no way I would rather spend my time, vitality, and resources - than in providing for the mutual acceptance, improvement, and inspiration of my family and my community. 

In this way, it matters not whether we, as a family, change the world - or, perhaps I should say, come to see and touch the change we have wrought upon it. We have changed ourselves, and in doing so, have made ripples on that great cosmic pond.

It is more than enough.

Keeping Homeschool Records in Reverse

Our homeschool is really a social and educational experiment. I use it as my test kitchen for all sorts of ideas and to test out theories.

So, I feel like we are a mixed bag of homeschooling. We unschool sometimes, school with structure in some things, have a Waldorf flavor to most things, and certainly trust the children to tell us what they want to learn and try to provide ways to make it all happen. 

We started "back to school" at the end of July. My son was ready to start "counting days" again and I like to start early enough on the 180 day countdown that I can take breaks when I want to. 

We decided that the Midlands Homeschool Convention seemed like a good first day kick off. There were interesting workshops to attend, things to see, and educational opportunities abounded. Also, my son was leaving at the end of the weekend to spend some time with relatives in two different North Carolina cities the following week. Both of the households he was visiting are full of homeschooling cousins. So, I knew the visits would include museums, iPad camp, lots of nature stuff with my sister, and some serious phys. ed. with my brother. Also, what better way to start school than to let the teacher have three days back followed by five days off again. 

This year I am trying to complete my record keeping at the end of each month. I have tried everything from day to day, week to week, and just throwing everything in a box and panicking at the end of the year. I do detailed lesson plans for his Orton Gillingham reading instruction and he has a computer program for his math. His other subjects are usually done in a block schedule style. But, for the end of July, I decided to rely completely on unschooling.

His aunts and uncles posted photos to facebook during his visit. I used those for my photo documenting as well as photos I had taken here during the convention. I feel it is a good practice to snap a pic of homeschooling activities. It is an excellent record keeping device, jogs your own memory about what you did, gives you lots to choose from if you make yearbooks on Mixbook or Shutterfly at the end of the year (as I do), and also gives you good memories to stay up late and cry over when the get older. (Okay- tell me I am not the only one to ever do this!??)

When my son returned home, we had a debriefing. He told me all the cool stuff he had done and I converted it into a table of required subjects that were covered. It is a very simple table in Word. Here is the result:

July 2014 Homeschool Journal

Days of School Completed in July: 8

Dates: 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31

Topics explored and activities:

Math	Science	Social Studies	Reading/Literature	Writing	Physical Education
Apple iPod camp for three days	Nature Study at Raleigh Park with creek	Explored Art Museum in Raleigh	Battle of the Books practice *See list of books read for July	Made an iBook	Nature Walk
Using iBooks program on iPod	Natural History Museum in Raleigh to watch medical work being done on Poisonous Dart Frogs	Explored the town of Raleigh with particular notice of wildlife – saw a deer in the wild	Percy Jackson Book Day – Had a party for homeschooling friends to culminate finishing the Rick Riordan books.	Used a storyboard to plan a creative writing assignment	Dueling with balloons and nerf swords game with friends
Multiplication review	Butterfly exhibit, Sloth exhibit, milkweed snake study, turtle exhibit, spider exhibit	Volunteering: Dog Walking in Huntersville, NC	Participated in activities to increase comprehension. Made bead necklaces to symbolize different Greek gods	Helped to make a flyer for a non-profit event – instructed in use of graphic design	Lap Swimming Four Days Basketball time
Computer Skills lesson	Used powerful microscope to study animal biology slides at the nature lab center	Compared and contrasted civic green spaces in NC and SC - Discussion	Compared Greek and Roman gods (names, etc.), made laurel crowns, played Medusa game	Keyboarding Practice	Diving Lessons
Math apps on iPad	Examined real animal skins to compare and contrast vole, rabbit, mole, mouse, a wolf, fox, coyote, black bear, and raccoon	Explored Huntersville, NC – Took notice of neighborhood layout – mental map	Completed Reading: Sarah, Plain and Tall Ralph S. Mouse Hank the Cowdog The Million Dollar Shot Best School Year Ever Dealing With Dragons Tuck Everlasting Big Nate Flips Out Big Nate on a Roll Big Nate in the Zone	Brainstorming for story ideas	Triathlon appropriate for age from chart – Biking, running, and swimming
Sold bracelets made on loom for a profit – worked on business plan for future sales	Attended 2 auto care workshops and completed quiz work on the topics covered – got hands on lab work with a real car	Explored convention exhibits and discussed different religions and viewpoints that were present	Talked to a comic book expert at a convention and looked at vintage comics	Small motor practice with handiwork – made bracelets on loom	Skateboarding session in park

I like this format, as it covers all required subjects for our state and is simple and quick to type out. I will have lesson plans for other weeks that are put together prior to the week, but for our homeschool kick-off, records in reverse worked great.