When we enrolled with the local homeschooling program, one of the things the teachers talked to us about was how to record our children's learning activities to meet the state requirements. California requires 30 hours of instruction per week for primary students. There are six required subjects: Language Arts, Science, Mathematics, Health and Physical Education, Social Studies and Art and Music.
Language Arts cover such disparate things as verbal discussion, read-aloud time, writing, practicing letters, dramatic play. Science can be found in water play, playing with balls or marbles, exploring the fascinating bugs in the backyard, cooking, looking at the stars, talking about why or how things work. Math is everywhere, from stacking blocks to grocery shopping, cooking to carpentry. Softball practice or shooting baskets or discussions of why green beans are good for you falls under Health and Physical Education. Morganne's social studies include doing things with other people, reading about historical times, playing Great Women rummy, drawing maps, looking at old newspapers and National Geographics and learning Spanish (which also falls under Language Arts). Art and Music include plunking on the ukulele, singing, drawing, painting, sculpting, dancing and so forth.
We easily meet the state requirements for the week by Wednesday evening (this leaves Thursday - Sunday). The trick is often deciding which category to put a cooking project in (math for measuring, language arts for reading instructions, science for the chemistry aspects, social studies for the history of the dish and the people who made it, health for nutritional aspect and art for visual presentation).
So, we observe (and often participate in) Morganne's learning activities and record them. She does a lot of learning during the day. We'll ask her to tell us what she did and she'll often tell us of science projects or art projects that we weren't aware of.
Copyright © 1996 by
Heather Madrone. All rights reserved.