Writing and Recording Learning Plans

© Beverley Paine

Writing a learning program and recording throughout the first year isn't as daunting as it first looks. I think the problem we all face is this overriding fear that the regulating body we apply to home educate through will reject our application or review reports, but this rarely happens. And if they say 'no', we say 'why not' and they tell us and we say 'okay, we can fix that, how about now?' and they say 'okay' (usually - eventually). It isn't always this easy, neither does it always get this hard: each family has a different experience. However, most of us end up finding the process a lot less intimidating than we thought it would be.

Many families, especially those with children younger than the compulsory school age of 6, simply start educating their children in whatever way they want - usually using a school-at-home approach with a few work books in spelling, grammar and maths with a lot of hands-on art, craft and science activities, plus continuing learning activities as usual about growing bodies, hygiene, cooperative behaviours, getting out and about in the community... learning about other people, places and things (culture!)

The following approach to writing a learning plan is called 'retrospective planning' and is great if you have time to prepare your application, say, for example, over the summer holidays or before your child reaches compulsory school age. But even if you are planning on removing your child from school, say next term, you can start to do this well in advance, and get into the habit of thinking like a home educating parent!

Record what you do in a diary such as my Natural Learning Diary, which includes play and hobby activities as well as structured learning. Just write down what the children do in the boxes, or create your own diary, and then underline or highlight the activities/learning in the different 'subject' areas - maths, science, health, language, etc.

To write a learning plan, simply rewrite what you did under the subject headings... Louise Wilton's two homeschooling planning and recording booklets set this out beautifully as an example of the type of homeschooling learning program that mostly just happens, without a huge amount of worry or planning.

If you do this before your child turns six you will already have a 'report' or 'review' to show the education department officer who comes to interview you during the application process. All you need to do then is to project what you'd like your child to learn or cover in the next 6-12 months. You will have specific goals - eg: learn to write simple sentences, count to 100, build a frog pond (with help), answer the phone appropriately, etc, which may or may not eventuate, but seem sensible and suitable goals for your child over the year ahead. Write these down under the subject headings, if you wish, or just write a long list! This is your learning plan... and most of us find it grows naturally from our diaries and different methods of recording.