keeping track of home ed stuff

[pinkkoala]

hi

how do all you home edders keep a note of the things that you are teaching your children, its just in case the LEA want to see evidence of what i am teaching my dd, in case they think it isn't enough.

I've posted on here loads of times with different queries as we are thinking of doing home schooling but i am so scared of telling the LA especially with all the things on the radio and in the paper at the mo, especially the radio comment about home schooling and child abuse, that scared the daylights out of me.

I think it is disgusting that you have to watch everything you do with your own child, just in case it is taken the wrong way by outsiders.

Well our chidlren are autonomous learners in our house so I don't have much to record really However, I do go through phases where I blog a few days in a row, but mostly because I find it fascinating to look back on a day and see how much has gone on even when it feels like nothing much has happened!

The LA don't know about my DD1, but we've had letters about DD2 - she's only just turned 4 so is not compulsory education age yet. I'm not going to volunteer the information to the LA that we're HEing a) because we don't have to and b) because it would probably mean more work for me. Even though our children are autonomous learners, we are lucky that the way they like to learn and the things they like to do make it very clear that they're learning and learning a lot - I'd have no trouble with an LA inspector I think.

Hi, I think it really depends whether you are doing things which can be put in a folder with a date on so they can see the progress - in which case, just do that! Or if you are going about things in a way which doesn't produce much written "evidence". If that's the case, then it's worth keeping track occasionally of the kinds of things you are doing, and how you think they are helping your DC to progress. As lindenlass says, you can just do that for a few days now and then - if you did that every couple of months say, they'd be able to look over the time and see how things have changed. You can include all kinds of activities - eg cooking, nature walks, trips out to do things. Think through your reasons for doing things - eg "today we cooked cakes and doubled all the values in the recipe to introduce the idea of multiplication", "we looked at different kinds of trees and thought about why the leaves might be different shapes" etc. As your DC get older you might want to list what books they've been looking at, or subjects they've been investigating.

I have bought a diary and scribble stuff in it about any so called learnign objectives he has acheived.

I am qualified as a teacher so I think it probably helps me with record keeping.

I would suggest a diary would be a good place to start - I just bought an A4 week to a page diary and this I think is more than adequate.

I also make a note of when he spends time with other children - their ages etc to prove he is getting adequate socialisation.

TBH my LEA is so interfering already and telling me what I can and can;t do I don't think we'll be HEing for long. He may as well be in school for all the freedom he is allowed

i have bought a big plastic tub to put arty/crafty things when she has done them and am using an A4 diary at mo to keep track of more educational work.

nomore-you mentioned you were a teacher do any other home edders out there have any teaching qualifications, as i don't and wondered if this will prevent me teaching my dd

nomore what do you mean when you say "TBH my LEA is so interfering already and telling me what I can and can;t do I don't think we'll be HEing for long. He may as well be in school for all the freedom he is allowed"? Why are the lea stepping so far out of their boundaries? have you asked for advice as to how to deal with it from soome of the HE lists?

pinkkoala I think the majority of HEors are not teachers. Have you read any of the recommended books about HE? Specifically the ones about how children learn? Children really don't need trained teachers unless they're learning in an school environment.

pinkkoala - if anything my teaching qualification makes HE harder as I am constantly worrying about bloody outcomes! My DS desperately needs a more autonomous and relaxed approach to his learning and I want to give it to him but my teacher head keeps getting in the way! DO NOT concern yourself that you don't have QTS - you will do a fantastic job of teaching your child with out it - probably better actually!

lindenlass - currently its all by letter - their guidance notes are a scream to read IMHO - they read like guidance notes to schools not HE. They insist on early inspections "to foster an early relationship" and then 6 monthly ones thereafter. To me it may as well be school. But perhaps I am expecting too much to be left alone to get on with it - especially in the current climate of review after review etc

Im a nursery nurse (NNEB) I have 3 ds and have home educated all of them at some point ds3 however has been to school for just 2 hours.

Whilst much of his learning is around what interests him I do have set activities each day so thats record I half heartedly keep a diary but despite 4 lea visits (last year i declined the home visit) all they do is chat to the child ask to see some of their work etc etc and ive always written like a mini report on what weve done and outcomes and where we can go from there ......the last visit i had was quite intimidating i appreciate that that wasnt how it was intended but i had 2 lea inspectors here for quite some time (3 hours) they were very keen to look at the work and even had ds3 read to them they asked me v formal questions like 'how do you evaluate success and failiure of an activity' 'how do you gauge their progress?' all of which i answered but i did feel quite overwhelmed.
It transpired later that they were very impressed with the different approach we had and were keen to note the enthusiasm our children displayed and wanted to know as much as they could about our 'style' because it seemed so succesful(ds2 had gone from what school had said were sen to above average in a matter of months and is still doing well in mid-top stream t secondary).

This year I dont particularly welcome a home visit but will ask ds3-what he thinks.

You're not expecting too much to expect them to abide by the current guidelines. If the guidelines change later, then you will have to adapt to the new ones, but don't let them bulldoze you into anything "just in case" they might change the rules later.

nomore for the inspections, if you don't want them at this point, you just point them at the 2007 Guidance and say "thanks but no thanks, we'd prefer to give you evidence of our educational style by method X. Oh, and by the way, what can you do to help us in our exciting Home Ed journey?" And see if they have anything positive to offer. I'm thinking more and more that we should all be reminding these bods that they are supposed to be working for us

I liked to A4 week-to-page diary idea so much, I've just gone to buy one. Hmm...what will I be writing for today:

DD2 sick in night
DD1, DD2 and Dd3 watched cbeebies progs on iplayer for 3 hours (IT?)
DD1 played with cuisenaire rods for ten minutes (numeracy)
DD1 and DD2 did some writing and drawing (literacy & art)
All three watched Shrek, Shrek2, Toy Story 2
Now they've done jigsaw puzzles

Hope we do something that looks more substantial tomorrow or I certainly won't be showing it to any LA inspectors