What non-traditional activities do you count as 'school'?

[JessReplanted]

My kids participated in week long camp last summer where they memorized songs and then performed them to a large audience at the end of the week. Is it too much of a stretch to count that as school? :D

 

For others out there who have to record 'school days',

(we need 180 here in PA) are there non-traditional things that you include?

[Faithr]

Absolutely include it! I would include any fieldtrips, any rabbit trails they've followed, books they've read, interesting discussions you've had with them about life, the universe and everything(!), any hobbies they've pursued, any new skills they've acquired (cooking, carpentry, oragami, gardening, etc). It's all learning! And that is what education is supposed to be about. It may or may not include formal time spend working on worksheets or set assignments.

[suppleasthewind]

Isn't that music class? I include: trips to maple syrup farm (tour is included), trip to Alpaca Farm (demos of spinning, weaving, felting), plays, going to see Nutcracker (music), any trips to any museum, gardening (science), nature walks (phys ed. and science).

[Mommyfaithe]

Absolutely include it! I would include any fieldtrips, any rabbit trails they've followed, books they've read, interesting discussions you've had with them about life, the universe and everything(!), any hobbies they've pursued, any new skills they've acquired (cooking, carpentry, oragami, gardening, etc). It's all learning! And that is what education is supposed to be about. It may or may not include formal time spend working on worksheets or set assignments.

 

:iagree:

 

We count everything. "life skills" is a required course for 7th & 8th grade in NY....lol:tongue_smilie: I think it should be in all 12 grades. Meal planning, nutrition, gardening, carpentry, laundry, household chores, etc. are life learning.

 

We count extra classes, plays, music lessons and practice......all those things are of " educational value".

[Blueridge]

We're in the church choir, so the weekly practices and performances all count toward a fine arts credit.

[Lolly]

My kids participated in week long camp last summer where they memorized songs and then performed them to a large audience at the end of the week. Is it too much of a stretch to count that as school? :D

 

For others out there who have to record 'school days',

(we need 180 here in PA) are there non-traditional things that you include?

 

We are REQUIRED to count that type of thing as a credit for high school here. Every student must have a performing art credit. not sure that is what they call it, but it has to include public artistic performance of some type.

 

I am counting my son's piloting lessons and ground school. Swim team is p.e. Educational field trips. Dollywood trips. (Hey, every school here does:D Not sure how they count the trip to the bowling alley...:tongue_smilie:) Cooking dinner, scrubbing the toilet. I can make it all fit!:lol::lol::lol:

[Dmmetler]

I have report card grades for PE (gymnastics), Fine arts (dance), Music (Piano) and Religious Education (Church activities), so yes, I count summer camp and VBS days as school days. But since we school year-round, we end up well over the 180 required by the state-we were at 215 when I last put them in the computer, with more than a month to go before my April 30 close of year.

[Karen in CO]

I always count each day of ski school as a full day of school.

[NanceXToo]

I'm in PA and I don't literally "count" our days. As far as I'm concerned my kids are learning and/or engaging in educational activities every single day. So I include an "attendance statement" with my portfolio that says something along the lines of life and learning being inextricable and attesting that as such we have more than completed 180 days of school and blah blah blah and then I don't even give it another thought.

 

Every single field trip, camp, class, activity, extra-curricular, tour, etc we participate in "counts" as far as I'm concerned, as does every book, project and so on. I would never dream of literally counting them up, deducting them or whatever.

Edited April 2, 2012 by NanceXToo

[Ellie]

I'm in PA and I don't literally "count" our days. As far as I'm concerned my kids are learning and/or engaging in educational activities every single day. So I include an "attendance statement" with my portfolio that says something along the lines of life and learning being inextricable and attesting that as such we have more than completed 180 days of school and blah blah blah and then I don't even give it another thought.

 

Every single field trip, camp, class, activity, extra-curricular, tour, etc we participate in "counts" as far as I'm concerned, as does every book, project and so on. I would never dream of literally counting them up, deducting them or whatever.

:thumbup:

[abbeyej]

I hesitate about counting things as school that many schooled children do as an extracurricular enrichment. Sometimes it's a gray area. Sometimes I think home schoolers are just trying to "pad" their school years.

 

Something like that I would be unlikely to count, though I would record it in our planner for the year as an enrichment activity.

[JessReplanted]

I'm in PA and I don't literally "count" our days. As far as I'm concerned my kids are learning and/or engaging in educational activities every single day. So I include an "attendance statement" with my portfolio that says something along the lines of life and learning being inextricable and attesting that as such we have more than completed 180 days of school and blah blah blah and then I don't even give it another thought.

 

Every single field trip, camp, class, activity, extra-curricular, tour, etc we participate in "counts" as far as I'm concerned, as does every book, project and so on. I would never dream of literally counting them up, deducting them or whatever.

 

 

Ooh.. I didn't know you could do this! I have been told that we had to have an attendance calendar showing 180 checked off days. ?

 

Also, at a seminar I went to I was told that we should include one month of scheduled school (showing what we did each day) as an example in the portfolio. Do you do this??

[Dmmetler]

I'm not in PA, but I have a spreadsheet breaking down what was done in each subject each day, including summer, on vacation, and so on. Should anyone ever actually review it, it's pretty obvious that DD is doing a lot of "School"-even if it's not necessarily every single subject every day all year long.

[*Lulu*]

I count field trips, swimming lessons, science camp, church camp/vbs, gardening, park trips, time in the car listening to audio books, cooking, and caring for our animals. I document the things listed for tax purposes more than for day counting. I keep a calander just for fun and for the kids to work on calander skills. We are required to provide 185 days, but we school 6 days a week year round; I don't think we've ever completed less than 240 days so I really do not worry too much about it.

[linders]

I count...

 

- Most summer camps (scouts, art, science), although I do draw the line at sports camps.

 

- At Disneyworld (an annual trip), I count Epcot and Animal Kingdom, but not Magic Kingdom or MGM (really, I have a full justification in my mind!)

 

- Showing visitors and take them to see the historic sights of our town and region.

 

- Some scout outings (e.g., an overnight on the Yorktown aircraft carrier).

[Mrs Mungo]

I hesitate about counting things as school that many schooled children do as an extracurricular enrichment. Sometimes it's a gray area. Sometimes I think home schoolers are just trying to "pad" their school years.

 

And many public schooled kids do these things as part of a classroom activity. I participated in assemblies in school, which included learning songs and such. We even had tons of activities in school that were completely unrelated to learning like pep rallies or having a band or hypnotist visit the school. That stuff would often take up half of a day, particularly since I was in band.

 

I don't hesitate to count field trips and such as school days. The public schools count such days?

[Momof3littles]

And many public schooled kids do these things as part of a classroom activity. I participated in assemblies in school, which included learning songs and such. We even had tons of activities in school that were completely unrelated to learning like pep rallies or having a band or hypnotist visit the school. That stuff would often take up half of a day, particularly since I was in band.

 

I don't hesitate to count field trips and such as school days. The public schools count such days?

:iagree: How about the assemblies where they show all of the "prizes" kids are going to win by selling wrapping paper and other ridiculous stuff as a fundraiser?

 

There were chorus practices and practices before big concerts, and that happened during school time.

 

Field trips were counted, even those to amusement parks.

 

Field day?

[ClassicalTwins]

Yes, and since I don't get to count the hours my boys don't spend in line or walking to other rooms of the school, I absolutely count, gymnastics, soccer, guitar and for one speech therapy, field trips, tours, field days and other interesting things they do throughout the year.

[Ellie]

I hesitate about counting things as school that many schooled children do as an extracurricular enrichment. Sometimes it's a gray area. Sometimes I think home schoolers are just trying to "pad" their school years.

 

Something like that I would be unlikely to count, though I would record it in our planner for the year as an enrichment activity.

I undestand what you mean, but here's the thing: School children might read something out of a textbook, then write a report, then do a very contrived hands-on activity. Homeschooled children would just go do the thing. Which one is actually more educational? Why shouldn't homeschoolers be able to count that as a school day?

 

Not to mention the fact that when schoolchildren's feet cross the threshhold of their schools, they are counted as present, and the school counts it as a school day, even if all they do is have an end-of-year party. So I have no qualms about counting every.single.thing as a school day (if I had to count school days, which I don't, praise God :lol: )

[2_girls_mommy]

:iagree: How about the assemblies where they show all of the "prizes" kids are going to win by selling wrapping paper and other ridiculous stuff as a fundraiser?

 

There were chorus practices and practices before big concerts, and that happened during school time.

Field trips were counted, even those to amusement parks.

 

Field day?

 

I agree with this too.

 

*** To the original poster:

 

I don't usually count stuff that happens in the summer though. We school year round starting at the beginning of August. I keep track in my planner (kept for my records of what was done each school day.) of things in the year starting at that day. I don't count Sat. or Sun. as school days. But I will note learning, field trips, academics things they did on those days. It lets the records show their full rounded education. But to me it is just rounding out the 5 days of schoolwork from the week. Kids have homework from P.S. on the weekend. The schools don't count that as attendance in their records. If we don't finish everything on Thurs because dad was home from work and we broke early to run errands, I count it as a school day. We will probably finish anything we need to on Sat. or Sun. Then I won't count that day. In the end they do their full week's worth over the week.

 

If a camp or field trip or whatever happens during the school year, I count it as a school day. I count co-op days, even though it is mostly enrichment for my youngest. It is enrichment she didn't get during the week while we were slaving over her phonics books.

 

I usually reach 180 days easily.

 

If I don't finish our math or history and I want to keep working in them (and we usually have to do. We do things like a science fair. We do plenty of math in that month related to our science project, but our actual curriculum might get skipped for a week.) so we just continue working on it to make MY goals. The state's goals of 180 days are taken care of. After that I quit recording as we wrap up whatever I want to.

 

So I don't count swimming lessons from the summer, dance camp or church camp or VBS or family trips to historic sites that we do in the summer. I want a break from recording as much as they want a break some schoolwork :) My kids do participate in some summer reading programs and have to keep logs for those. So we do have those logs of summer learning.

 

If we were taking swimming lessons during the school year, I would count it as their P.E. We often do outside activities for P.E. Yes some kids are doing them as their extracurriculars. But for us, that is a core part of their physical education instruction at the time. Why wouldn't I count it?

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I'm in PA and I don't literally "count" our days. As far as I'm concerned my kids are learning and/or engaging in educational activities every single day. So I include an "attendance statement" with my portfolio that says something along the lines of life and learning being inextricable and attesting that as such we have more than completed 180 days of school and blah blah blah and then I don't even give it another thought.

 

Every single field trip, camp, class, activity, extra-curricular, tour, etc we participate in "counts" as far as I'm concerned, as does every book, project and so on. I would never dream of literally counting them up, deducting them or whatever.

 

Would you be willing dig up and pm your statement? Id love to use it for ds's portfolio! Do you have a link on the law that allows this because my district is a pain.

[KatieJ]

One spring and summer when my boys were in Junior High my DH put in a new bathroom downstairs,completely redid the gardens in the backyard and put up a storage shed. The boys were very involved in the entire process of those 3 projects and it all counted towards school days.

Somewhere in those JH years they dragged a non working riding lawn mower home from the neighbors and got that working. We counted that along with predriving lessons on car maintenance. (Oil changes and flat tire changes.)

[JessReplanted]

One spring and summer when my boys were in Junior High my DH put in a new bathroom downstairs,completely redid the gardens in the backyard and put up a storage shed. The boys were very involved in the entire process of those 3 projects and it all counted towards school days.

Somewhere in those JH years they dragged a non working riding lawn mower home from the neighbors and got that working. We counted that along with predriving lessons on car maintenance. (Oil changes and flat tire changes.)

 

My husband will often take our son to do construction type of work with him, and I also count those as school days. In our opinion, he is learning practical skills which he will be able to use for the rest of his life. It's also teaching him the value of hard work, and developing his character. ;)

[shanvan]

I hesitate about counting things as school that many schooled children do as an extracurricular enrichment. Sometimes it's a gray area. Sometimes I think home schoolers are just trying to "pad" their school years.

 

Something like that I would be unlikely to count, though I would record it in our planner for the year as an enrichment activity.

 

I somewhat agree, as I have seen some very minimal efforts used to pad transcripts. Though there are times when homeschoolers can particpate to a much higher level than schooled children just because, as homeschoolers they have the time. I always take time off school when 4H public presentations are approaching. We do an intensive study of public speaking/research/writing/visual display skills. It's intense. My kids' presentations are at a much higher level than the kids who attend school and do not have the time to put in to such an intensive preparation. OTOH I have a friend who wouldn't dream of putting bookwork aside to prepare for presentations. She absolutely has to check every box. It shows in her kids presentations--which resemble the presentations of kids who attend school.

[NanceXToo]

Ooh.. I didn't know you could do this! I have been told that we had to have an attendance calendar showing 180 checked off days. ?

 

Also, at a seminar I went to I was told that we should include one month of scheduled school (showing what we did each day) as an example in the portfolio. Do you do this??

 

Jess, no. Here's a link to exactly what I included in my last accepted portfolio, with some pics. I go for a more minimalist portfolio:

 

http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/226816.html

 

That will tell you and show you exactly how I put it together and what I included in it. :)

[JessReplanted]

Thanks Nance!

[NanceXToo]

Would you be willing dig up and pm your statement? Id love to use it for ds's portfolio! Do you have a link on the law that allows this because my district is a pain.

 

Hi, here's what I wrote about it on my portfolio page, which I just linked Jess to in the post above:

 

Next, I had a section labeled "Attendance Statement." Some people use calendars to demonstrate that they met the time requirements (180 days OR 900 hours of instruction at the elementary level). I use a brief, typed page headed "Attendance Statement" which then goes on to say: "Our homeschooling lifestyle ensures life and learning are inextricable and as such I state that we have completed more than the minimum of 180 days of learning this year (as further attested to in my Supervisor's affidavit, submitted at the beginning of the school year)." I think this could be enough, but if you use a packaged curriculum, you could also throw in something like "and as further evidenced by the fact that we completed a 36 week curriculum in addition to educational and life pursuits outside of curriculum materials."

 

 

It's not that the law specifically allows or disallows this. The law does not specify that you have to provide a calendar. The law just says the portfolio shall demonstrate that an appropriate education is occurring, and that appropriate education includes instruction for the required amount of time. So you have to demonstrate in SOME way that you met the required days or hours, but they do NOT tell you how you have to do that. Again, there is NO SPECIFIC REQUIREMENT written into the law for HOW you demonstrate your time requirements!

 

So some people show some sort of calendar, some people do some sort of statement, some people feel they have to show it in the "log" (I'm not a fan of that, to me it's overcomplying).

 

Here is a discussion on Pauline's website regarding the days/hours requirements and different ways in which you can demonstrate it in your portfolio, with printable sample forms you can use if you'd like to:

 

http://home.comcast.net/~askpauline/hs/homeschooldayshours.html

 

Hope this helps! :)

 

ETA: So far I've used my "attendance statement" for the past three years in a row and my evaluator and school district both accepted it without question. You know how districts are around here...some are easy going, some aren't, some will nitpick about one thing, but not another, some have their own interpretation of the law, some make it up as they go along lol...but the attendance statement has been working for me! Attendance for a homeschooler indeed. How silly anyway. :)

Edited April 3, 2012 by NanceXToo

[Gretchen in NJ]

We are REQUIRED to count that type of thing as a credit for high school here. Every student must have a performing art credit. not sure that is what they call it, but it has to include public artistic performance of some type.

 

I am counting my son's piloting lessons and ground school. Swim team is p.e. Educational field trips. Dollywood trips. (Hey, every school here does:D Not sure how they count the trip to the bowling alley...:tongue_smilie:) Cooking dinner, scrubbing the toilet. I can make it all fit!:lol::lol::lol:

:iagree:I count all of those except my girls are not taking flying lessons. ;) I counted my girls ballet classes for years, and now I am counting their ice skating lessons. Their coach describes the science of ice skating to them. I don't count it as such, but she would. I also count any trips to the ice rink to practice as school. Plus, I count our daily exercise walks on our nature trails as school. Watching and discussing the news and any educational channel is school as well.

[Gretchen in NJ]

:iagree:I count all of those except my girls are not taking flying lessons. ;) I counted my girls ballet classes for years, and now I am counting their ice skating lessons. Their coach describes the science of ice skating to them. I don't count it as such, but she would. I also count any trips to the ice rink to practice as school. Plus, I count our daily exercise walks on our nature trails as school. Watching and discussing the news and any educational channel is school as well.

Oh. I also count their Religious Education classes and their time serving on our church's Teen, Girl and Children's choirs as music class.

[MrsBear]

Where we live, I have to record hours (1000 a school year), so I do count things like swim team, science camp over the summer, and field trips to places like the science center as school.

[Farrar]

I hesitate about counting things as school that many schooled children do as an extracurricular enrichment. Sometimes it's a gray area. Sometimes I think home schoolers are just trying to "pad" their school years.

 

Something like that I would be unlikely to count, though I would record it in our planner for the year as an enrichment activity.

 

Like others said though, school kids have opportunities like that as part of the school day sometimes. The only way we can give it to kids is by doing camps and classes. I also know that being homeschoolers lets us not have to choose so much. We do Destination Imagination, Soccer, art class, nature class, ballet, etc. etc. If we were in school, there's no way we could fit all that in. Yes, it's all stuff school kids may do as enrichment, but we wouldn't be doing nearly as much of it.

 

But I'm another who isn't "counting" at all. It's all just school/life to me.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Nance- thank you so much!

 

Op- everything my ds does i consider worthy of school time. He gets occupational therapy weekly and the ot is writing a letter about some of his progress. She may keep it vague and just say he is doing very well. He reads to a therapy once per week for the next 8 weeks so im including a picyure of that. Im also considering our cruise in december as school worthy. Ds did so much that week it was awesome.

[Truscifi]

I don't have to actually count anything, being in a state that doesn't have that sort of requirement, but I do include everything in ds' portfolio. Projects he helps on around the house like cleaning or home repair, cooking, taking care of the farm animals, gardening, etc. all get counted as either home ec or life skills. His drama class and the play he'll be in at the end of this month count as fine arts, and karate is his PE.

[starwarsmomma]

My oldest son (just turned 12) studied and passed his Ham radio technicians test-- the studying, reading and preparing for that test counted as part of school.

 

Now my middle son (10) wants to do it too.

 

Hmmmm... would that be Social studies (get it, social-- ham radio? LOL) or what? :D :D :D

[elegantlion]

We have to count hours. Some things I've counted in the past: Construction work with Dad, real manual labor.

 

Some visits with my parents count as social studies, depends on what they discuss. We spent the day with them about the time of Japanese earthquake. My dad had been stationed there many years ago in the military, so we had an interesting discussion that day. Another time he went to a military memorabilia auction with my dad. It was like going to a hands-on museum. My dad does amateur radio and I've counted shows that he has visited with my dad before as well. It's all living history to me.

[elegantlion]

My oldest son (just turned 12) studied and passed his Ham radio technicians test-- the studying, reading and preparing for that test counted as part of school.

 

Now my middle son (10) wants to do it too.

 

Hmmmm... would that be Social studies (get it, social-- ham radio? LOL) or what? :D :D :D

 

:cheers2: my dad has been a Ham since he was a teen. It's a major part of his identity. He's in his 70s now.

[Georgiana Daniels]

Just reading this thread makes me infinitely glad we don't have to keep track of hours here.

 

But one thing we do that I'd count in a heartbeat is chess club.

[myfunnybunch]

We don't have to count hours or days, but I do keep track informally.

 

We include:

Gardening

Hiking

Piano and guitar practice

Choir

Swim camp

Nature outings to the pond, bird watching

Art class

Karate

 

Cat

[Lucy the Valiant]

We're also not required to keep track, but I do keep a record of how we spend our days.

 

I count taking care of the animals and library trips as school time; I also count some chores (not all - some require applied math and planning skills, for example).

 

I thought the animal care was a bit of a stretch until I took a tour of our local high school's "advanced agricultural program;" we do exactly the same things.

[momma aimee]

bump

[justLisa]

I'm in PA and I don't literally "count" our days. As far as I'm concerned my kids are learning and/or engaging in educational activities every single day. So I include an "attendance statement" with my portfolio that says something along the lines of life and learning being inextricable and attesting that as such we have more than completed 180 days of school and blah blah blah and then I don't even give it another thought.

 

Every single field trip, camp, class, activity, extra-curricular, tour, etc we participate in "counts" as far as I'm concerned, as does every book, project and so on. I would never dream of literally counting them up, deducting them or whatever.

 

This. One day a week I COMMIT to NO book work on purpose. Seriously saved my freakin life. We have the most productive time, and it has really helped me lighten up about needing "proof."

[mommaduck]

Church, Greek School, Retreats, Camps, work-day at the monastery, tennis camp, barn duty (my daughter does barn work and horse care as part of and in exchange for her lessons), park days, performances.

[Remudamom]

Each of ours were required to start one of our horses. They were assigned a foal at it's birth, did the work, broke the horses, sold the horses, got the money.

[ThelmaLou]

Oldest ds is very interested in fitness, nutrition, and weightlifting (all natural). He spends loads of time online researching health and nutrition information, foods, vitamin content, supplements, good and bad fats, calories, protein, etc... I'm giving him 1/2 credit in health for all of this, and not a bit of it is scripted on my part. I think he's learned more from geniuine interest than he would ever have learned in a classroom setting for health. I'm still going to have him read through the textbook I have for him, but not do any quizzes, tests, or additional activities.

[KrissiK]

We took a vacation last week, went to an aquarium and definitely counted that as a school day. When we went camping once and completed the National Parks Jr. Ranger worksheet, that was definitely a school day.