Hi all,
We are having my son tested on the 9th (he's currently 6 and in a half-day K program). We live in NH and there is no gifted ed. The psych has already suggested that I think about the possibility of needing to home school, either next year or in the near future. I have been reading everything I can to try to prepare. My son is very self-motivated/driven when it comes to learning so I'm trying to envision what homeschooling might look like for us. Unschooling sounds rather appealing, with regard to the "follow the child" vision. According to the NH DOE site, I will need to have a portfolio of student work and have it reviewed by a teacher, and it's also recommended that we record what the child has read. How do people unschool and follow these guidelines? Thanks for reading!

Well, after he reads a book he places it in a box or bag (to return to library or to your bookshelf) and you then record that on an ongoing list (books read the week of....). If he reads digital books have him update you once a week on what he has read.

I had a system....projects (or writing) were posted on refrigerator or bulletin board for a week or two then placed in a box. About 4 times a year we went through and kept favorite art, science, and history projects and writing samples for the portfolio. I made sure I had a beginning of the year writing sample to compare to the end of the year. The history program I used (story of the world) actually had you keep a notebook with everything so I had every history paper we did and was able to pick out a paragraph or worksheet from there.

If you are more unschooling you could have him write at the end of the week a paragraph or two summary of what he learned....like what topics did he explore on his own or with your help. When my son was young he dictated to me and I wrote it down. I would say today you learned about the Vikings...tell me what you learned...and he would tell me the big ideas and some details and I wrote it for him...later he took over typing that on the computer or writing it.

Oh. Also...use photography and keep pictures of things (we mummified a chicken during the study of Egypt). Store your pictures on a cd as a back up. Our portfolio also included pictures from scouts, homeschool PE group, home school field trips to plays and museums.

Our portfolio was a really cool academic scrapbook of our time homeschooling.

We live south of you in MA. This is my second year un/homeschooling. With our 2e/pg ds8, I was told by an expert a couple of years ago that I would have to un/homeschool too. We were in similar shoes to you with our son when he was in kindy.

I keep a log of reading, math, science, history, etc. developments for myself on a wiki, which I do not give to local school districts. That's for my own personal sanity and reduce my anxiety. In MA, I don't have to provide a reading log or any of this detailed information to local officials. I've found it very helpful, in particular, to keep a log of reading material because you can spot the acceleration jumps and points where the interest changes. I can also see if there's any big gaping holes.

My advice is to stick what you are legally obligated to report and not give them an inch more. For the purposes of reporting to local officials, give them information that's grade level or slightly above - not more, imo. This is not the time or place to be an overachiever or overenthusiastic with reporting, imo. You can make a rod for your own back if you do - or that's what other mothers here in MA have found out.

In NH, it's my understanding that you need to submit a reading log - http://nhhomeschooling.org/law. The reading log only has to be a page or two long. Well, there's a lot of gray then with what books you report and disclose. NH (and MA) are really only interested in making sure that the child is progressing in their education. Again, though, there's a lot of gray with what they consider 'progress' or what you reveal to a local officials.

In MA, the annual progress report can be quite minimal in comparison - http://www.ahem.info/ProgressReportA.html.

I want to add that we gathered a lot of samples of work but we didn't share everything...but our portfolio was a careful sampling of artifacts...I tried to have a sample from the beginning, middle and end of the year in different areas to show progress.

We have to show a certified educator the portfolio and review it with them...so I wanted enough stuff to show and talk about so they could sign the evaluation letter I had to turn in. Couldn't use my husband or myself (both teachers).

Also my son was very advanced in reading at the time (1st through 4th grade) but was pretty much on grade level for everything else as long as I did extended activities and deep discussions when he was curious.

This is such wonderful information. Thank you all.

I have also heard that you should not show "too much" in your portfolio. Does anyone keep one portfolio for themselves and then pull pieces from that to show the school officials? I certainly don't want to set myself up for anything but I also would like to save a lot for my own sanity, especially the first year, so that I feel like I'm doing it correctly. If that makes any sense at all!

That is exactly what I was trying to convey! The state never saw my portfolio, just my hand picked evaluator looked at it. But they could have asked for it up to so many years after. So I did want to be able to prove that yes he did make progress yearly while we homeschooled. But once he was back in school and passing each grade easily I worried less and less about what I had kept as records.

This principle applies to many things... portfolios... college essays... resumes... even documentation of problems at school. A person keeps quite a bit, then can "filter" to choose the most applicable items to share for the given situation. For a portfolio, a parent may wish to talk through the selection process with the child, as the child will eventually manage their collected works... it may be good for a child to begin learning this application of decision-making skills early as it may help to build the student's internal locus of control.

Thanks sweetie and indigo. This is starting to feel slightly less daunting.

We pulled my son out of first grade and are mostly unschooling him. It is a big relief to be out of the school system. I agree that boxed curriculum would be a waste of time and money for many kids who learn fast. We use the library and sign up for classes and clubs as we see fit. We don't have to document anything here in Wisconsin though.
It's fun and we can see him enjoyig life and learning again!

Thanks LRS. Can I ask everyone how they "schedule" their homeschooling? He is 6... how many hours per day do we spend on academics at this age? As I said, he's pretty independent in his learning so I am sure eventually I will be able to give him assignments, etc, but how does it work at this age?

When my DD was being homeschooled, "how many hours" wasn't a question that was asked. DW decided what subjects she wanted to cover on which days, and then provided materials and discussion to DD based on that. However long DD took to understand and practice, that was how long it took. Once DD demonstrated she was ready to move on, they moved on. More time might be used if DD asked for more.

The homeschool day typically lasted 3 hours. Because it was all at the appropriate pace and level of DD, those 3 hours were far more productive than the 7 hours she spends at a B&M school.

Thank you, Dude. I was thinking three hours might be reasonable. I guess I'm just struggling to wrap my brain around homeschooling. He's learning all day, and he certainly learns more at home than he does in his half-day K program. It will be a new "normal" for us and I'm just trying to picture it in my mind

Yeah. I don't really count how many hours we are homeschooling. If you have to provide documentation, there are alot of ways to do that. Luckily we don't have to.

There is so much to learn! My son is interested in alot of things. The limiting factors are my energy, time and resources, which are in much larger supply than what they offered him in school! Some days are amazing, and others feel quite unproductive. That's ok. On whole I believe that he is learning far more with us.

When he shows an interest in something or I feel he should learn something in particular, we bring resources from library, look for stuff online, watch documentaries etc. Wediscuss things alot! He is also learning HOW to find information and learn, notjust being presented it in a prescribed textbook -workbook combo.

Oh, and we just do these things when we have time and as they come up. I often work early mornings but whenI don't we like to start as soon as we get up. My son strts reading as soon as he gets to the kitchen and sits on the couch where we set out books from the library. He can't help himself! OR he starts in on the questions... he knows that I need my cup of coffee first though. He won't realize that he is hungry til later!

Thank you, LRS! I do see a huge discrepancy between his passion for learning at home and his public school experience. He often tries to fake sick to get out of school. He loves the extras (spanish, gym, music, art, library), but loathes the academics. He only gets pulled out 2x/week for about 45 minutes for reading, and even with that he's about 2 years ahead of the kids in his reading group.

I can't answer for the regulatory questions, but I can tell you on time spent on academics... We unschool here in South Africa.

My kids set quarterly interests and goals for learning and then we break that down into weekly and then daily goals. We write a daily list for them to monitor and tick off. ANYTHING can go on the list - I am quite confident that when they choose to do it, they will learn something and I can spin it into a subject if I ever need to do so.

So things like "LEGO", "rollerblading", "climb big tree", "make a cake" will be on the list as well as things like "do 3 pages/20 minutes of "x" maths book", "work on 3D model", "set up science experiment", "practice violin", "German language lesson" etc.

When they choose to do a course or class, then I explain that this comes with certain obligations like attending the classes, completing assignments etc. Music indicates daily practice per instrument. So does a particular maths program they are all currently involved in. So those are givens in their day.

If I have to add it all up together, the official "working" time takes us no more than 45 - 60 minutes a day on official learning stuff. (Aiden is 7 and is currently working around grades 3 - 5 level and reads at about grade 5-7 levels, Nathan is 5 and currently works around grade 3 level and reads around grades 4 - 6). I don't count the things they then add to their list later; this is additional science (snap circuits, experiments, basic kitchen chemistry, online videos), baking, gardening, projects, outings etc.

Often we do a bit of something then take a break then do a bit of something else and then another break. This works well for the younger ones (I also have a 3 year old) and for me to do my work (I run my own business). I find that the shorter intense work sessions work well for helping them be self-directed and to teach them to work on their own or together.

We spend two full days per week with a group of unschooled kids and on those days they work and play hard as a group - their lists are a lot shorter and they go with the flow of the kids they choose to hang with for the day.

For us, unschooling works - suddenly a 1 month road trip becomes learning and has fueled interest and passion for so many new learning adventures! It means that if none of us feel like it, we can rather pack a picnic and go to a museum, a park, the zoo - and we all still feel it was a productive day.

I love this model, and I love that it means we can go as slow, as fast, as long, as late as we need to. It means that an astronomy class at 8pm is okay, as is sleeping in the next morning and then relaxing with a book under a tree before a swim.

I get the feeling that this is how childhood is supposed to be the longer we do this (2 years now, including 9 months of deschooling first)

As others have pointed out, what you do for compliance is different from what you SHOULD (and perhaps "must") do for documentation that will open doors for your child in the future. I recommend over-documenting-- and using a portfolio is a good start. The other thing that you should probably keep an eye on is thinking about forms of documentation that gatekeepers of out-of-level (meaning chronological level) will find acceptable proof that your child should be given access to them.

Consider this:

what will it take to get a college to want to talk to a 13yo unschooler who is ready and eager to tackle undergraduate level material?

In the more immediate future, this will apply to things like summer workshops, book clubs, classes, etc.

We have found that it is best if we have a mixture of documentation-- some things that would go into a portfolio, yes, but also things that there is simply no WAY for a parent to have done on the child's behalf-- videos of the child, juried experiences, contests, or the personal observations of someone other than family.

If you can get just ONE person (librarian, camp counselor, etc.) to offer the stamp of approval for this child to be accelerated, then you can access those things more readily.

Just know this-- people who work with kids have a sense that parents exaggerate (and that some will out and out lie about) their homeschooled kids' level of proficiency and accomplishments. I have no idea why they think that, but they do.

That just means that you should probably bear it in mind as you choose ways to document your child's learning activities. The ages between 6 and 12 were very difficult this way, as our DD needed opportunities which were often +2-5 years past her chronological age, and we often found ourselves bargaining for entry to activities that the age cut-off had her 1-3 years "too young" for. We often had to do two things in light of that: 1. graciously grant permission for the person in charge to eject our daughter if it "didn't go well" (if she were under some age cutoff-- never happened, btw), and 2. allow them to meet our DD before deciding.

Thank you Madoosa and Howler!

HK makes valid points and I am definitely taking them on board!


I am a dumbass for not thinking of this! well, perhaps just not thinking far enough ahead to get there... although my oldest is planning on doing a school leaving cert before university, this would definitely hold more sway than just a collection of brilliant A levels.

Howler, how do you organize all of the info? Portfolio only? Other recs?

How do I organize? Badly, and in my own idiosyncratic manner, I fear. Which is why we didn't go this route, quite honestly. I was just not good at doing it aggressively enough. People I've known IRL who have done it, though, keep capstone "projects" or documentation of them (multimedia, digital photos, etc) on a yearly basis, updating the master files every so often with new additional material. There is also often a "notebook" that documents day-to-day activities in a more cursory manner-- but basically shows what the student spent time doing.

Test scores, etc. are also a part of that notebook (digital photos may be formatted and included along with url info to a youtube video or other online source of the full presentation, as appropriate.

Thank you!

I really need to start doing this - although to be honest in SA I have heard of only two people within our basic homeschooling circle who have been "checked up on" (and this despite the fact that more than 95% of South African homeschoolers are not registered (long boring story).

And for activities etc there is such a huge focus on age here that I doubt anything I did or said or showed would prove much of a consideration.

I would do it more for future planning, when the boys want to start doing formalised courses.