How To Report Unschooling to School Officials

There’s an old story about two men on a train. One of them, seeing some naked-looking sheep in a field, said, “Those sheep have been sheared.” The other looked a moment longer, and then said, “They seem to be—on this side.” It is in such a cautious spirit that we should say whatever we have to say about the working of the mind.
—John Holt, How Children Learn

Writing a report about doing school at home is easier in many ways than writing one about unschooling, since you will have many of the conventional products of schooling to share with school officials, such as tests, worksheets, and commonly used textbooks. Unschooling often doesn’t produce such products, so if your state requires you to submit a periodic evaluation (and not all states require this, so check your local homeschooling laws or regulations) you might need to explain your children’s growth and development in more depth to readers who do not understand unschooling. This book will help you do this . . .

"If you are an unschooling family, or a family thinking about unschooling, and are concerned about how to report to school officials, I recommend Pat Farenga's new booklet on that topic."—Dr. Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn