Life at the Academy

I maybe should just change the name of my blog since I’m sure I will be focusing way too much on public school for now, but I’m not going to.  Today, I decided to write about getting Doodles signed up for school.  It really caused me a lot of stress, but ended up being no big deal.

This was a very stressful summer for me trying to make sure Doodles was thoroughly prepared so as not to embarrass me or add to the negative stereotype some people have of homeschoolers.  So, I had her review algebra to make sure she could pass the test that they would give her in order for her to get credit.  She didn’t work at it as hard as I would have liked, but eventually I told her it was enough and we went to meet with a man from the school district who would determine if she could go to 9th grade.   She had taken the Iowa Test back in January, so we were hoping that would be sufficient and they wouldn’t make her take another test.  The man from the school told me to bring that in along with the curriculum we had been using, especially her algebra book.  We packed up a rolling back pack with as much as we could fit in it and ventured to the district office.  I was prepared to present our philosophy and the materials we used to him.  I was prepared for a fight.  Not only were we homeschoolers, but Doodles is actually too young for 9th grade by one month, so I was unsure of how they would handle things.  We trudged nervously into the building, were led to his office, and I pulled out her Iowa Test results.  He took one look at them, made a phone call, barely flipped through her algebra book, and told me he didn’t really need to see the curriculum we used.  What?  He then started telling us all about the school, almost trying to sell us on it, and told us she would need to take the algebra test if we wanted to get credit for it instead of her taking it over.  That was it, in and out in 15 minutes.  She went the following week for the algebra test and he was not surprised at all that she passed it just fine.   He called the freshman counselor to let her know that Doodles would be coming in to sign up for classes.  We went to the school and filled out the many forms they require and after an hour wait, we were finally able to meet with the counselor.  Not once did anyone mention her birthday; I was very relieved.  She helped get Doodles signed up for the required classes, which included the 3 honors classes that are available to freshman, which left her with 2 electives to take.  Because we were so late in signing her up, the electives left were what amounts to a computer keyboarding class, home ec, and speech.  The computer class is required sometime during the 4 years so she went ahead and signed up for it.  I was pulling for speech while she was wanting to take the easy way out with home ec.  In the end, I coerced her into the speech.  So her first semester consists of world geography, honors English, speech, and p.e.  Her second semester will be honors geometry, honors physical science, computer keyboarding, and health/careers.   I must admit, getting her signed up was far easier than I imagined, and much easier than the school uniform shopping that came next.