Recording learning when you 'unschool'

[anaa1]

Hi, we home ed our son. At present, we rely on my lovely, generous mum to look after him 3 days a week while I work. My mum is absolutely fantastic and is our son's best friend so he is such a lucky boy and he knows it, however the dynamics seem complex at the moment. My son is a born unschooler, he loves to follow his passions so we have over the last year de schooled ourselves and left the workbooks behind, etc. I know he is learning a huge amount and is having lots of visits out and experiential learning. The thing is that when with my mum, she wants him to record his learning even if just in simple poster form, as she thinks a) it is 'proof' of what education he is having and she worries about future govt policies needing more proof etc, and b) she thinks it re inforces and extends what he has learnt.
The problem being at present that my son appears to be losing interest in their projects which is disheartening for mum and he is upset when asked to record on paper or laptop. He is dyslexic and hypermobile, which I know is behind some of his reluctance.
I just wondered if an outside view might help me see solutions. Thanks in advance.

Completing year 2? Wow more than, that's gone quickly!

Bet it's changed a lot though, from where you started?
Some people just need to do things on smaller steps.
Sandra Dodd says of coming to unschooling, something like:
"Read a little, try a little, wait a little, watch"

Ah - sometimes our children's personalities demand that we treat them in particular ways :)

I met a woman in the park last year (we've met since, it was just the first meeting) at a HE meet up, and the conversation always gets round to "why do you HE?" and she said "I'd never thought of doing it. But my son, aged 6, made it absolutely clear that he was not going to school any more. And in the end I had to listen".

OP - i would keep it simple and say to your mum, "if YOU feel the need to record what ds is doing then YOU record it, that's fine but please don't turn your need to do that into his task or problem. let him do what he is doing and just observe and you record it in as much or as little detail as you like in order to reassure yourself he is learning - but this is your need and your issue, not his."

for a little while after we started i used to write things down every week - i quickly saw how farcical it was. learning isn't 'recordable', i have no idea what he is learning really, HE is the recording. but it did reassure that oh yes learning is going on and then i realised i didn't need to obsess about that and pick it apart and it would be better to just back off and see where we were after another few months of letting him be.

lol schools would love it wouldn't they if you could just 'weigh' learning somehow - put a child on a knowledge scale and get an accurate numerical figure representing how much value has been added

Arf at HoneyBadger

Yes, 2 years has gone quickly and certainly moving more towards an autonomous approach, but can't seem to stop telling her to get a maths or English book out.
Have just agreed as long as it works out, to do y6, 7, and 8 before she goes to her dream school for yr9 and above.
I must be mad, stupid or both.

Ommmward I am totally in awe of you and your approach and love reading your very wise and knowledgeable posts.

Thankyou all for your thoughtful posts. Quick update - we are all much happier. I think it was a bit of a 'crunch time' where we could clearly see that focussing on recording was not helping ds. We have all relaxed! We are feeling newly inspired to follow his interests. Mum and he have had some lovely days together this week, he really is a lucky boy to have her!! Thanks again all x

It really sounds as though she is an awesome grand mother!

Yes she really is. We are so lucky.

I thought from your title that you were asking for yourself and was going to say that I blogged for years - a chance to reflect and keep track and think about the future, and now lovely to look back on. But maybe your mum would be interested in doing that if she feels a record would be useful?

Does he enjoy stories being read to him? Could he retell some of them? With encouragement and an appreciative family audience could he relate a made up story? If he could can someone write it down for the two of you to share? Sorry if I don't understand, just airing a few thoughts.