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.

A couple of weeks ago, Doodles had a science fair for her Classical Conversations group.  She had started working on her project back in December and I made sure she had it done before Christmas break was over so she wouldn’t be trying to cram it all in on the weekend before the fair.  She chose a rather simple project to do – how color affects the absorbtion of heat.   I figured she didn’t stand a chance with something so easy and it didn’t seem like she put that much effort into it.

Can you tell that she just got her braces on that morning?

Having done a science fair before and winning 1st in the homeschool group and 2nd in the regional science fair, she had some experience that most of the others didn’t have.  She knew to talk about the scientific method, where things could have (or did) go wrong, how the information gained in the experiment is useful in the real world, and where she could go next with the project.

Apparently this experience helped her in her presentation because she placed 1st again.  Unfortunately, this one wasn’t affiliated with the regional fair, so she can’t move onto it this time, but she is proud of the trophy she won.

I’m meeting much resistance from the kids.  In the past, we have taken off most of the month of December and just enjoyed the holidays.  It’s worked well that way.  Since we had an unplanned week off from school last month in addition to our trip to Disney, I’m trying really hard to make up some of that this month.  So, I made out their usual checklists for the week with high hopes that we could just keep chugging along.  Buster actually had a couple of great days staying focused and getting his work done.  Then it was Wednesday and it’s been downhill since.  Doodles thinks that since her Classical Conversations is done until January that she shouldn’t have to do any work besides her science fair project.  As I was typing this, she just asked me if this was our last week of school.  Sigh.  And here I am trying to get her to do some extra work.

My children informed me today that I make school really boring.  It’s okay, I already knew I was no fun.  I never have been.  It did remind me though that I do need to try to make school a little more interesting at times, if not exactly fun.  But then I pointed out to the kids that we might have more time to do fun things if they wouldn’t goof off so much when I was trying to get them to focus on their work.  I did try a bit harder today though – when doing Latin with Buster, I made him act out the meaning to the Latin words instead of just telling them to me.  It was a simple thing, but he actually had fun doing it.  Personally, I would have rather just said the word instead, but then again I’m just a no fun kind of person.  I am going to try to find some projects, play games like Equate, and try to just find more play time.   In return, they need to focus on their work when I ask them to.  So, who has some good ideas on how to make school a little less boring for a no fun mom?

First, let me say that I’m writing this on the iPhone which is very handy, but a bit harder to type on. I’m just happy that I can be somewhat productive while Doodles is student teaching at dance.

Back to what I was going to post about… Doodles is on her 3rd week of Classical Conversations. She came home the first week and said it was the best day of school EVER. I tried not to take it personally. I knew she would like being around the other teens. She also is exerting her independence with regards to her work. She wants no help from me for most of her CC work. I have to keep reminding her that I am still her teacher and I need to review her work. I really like what they have been working on and the interactions among the students and tutor. I am still holding out a little hope that she will love it enough that she will want to stick with it next year instead of going to high school. But if she should decide to go to school next year, I’m a bit more comfortable with the idea after seeing her take on more responsibility so far this year.

Well, sort of a plan. I signed Doodles up for Classical Conversations today.  There are a couple of girls we know from dance who go to this and they talked me into checking it out.  I like that it follows the classical model.  I like that once a week Doodles will be in a classroom with 11 other kids discussing the materials they’ve been studying.  I like that she will be involved in a mock trial with the other students.  I like that despite them going over materials and having a plan for the school year that I am still the teacher and can do what I want how I want the rest of the week.  I don’t necessarily like some of the resources that they use.  I don’t like how much it costs.  However, I might become a tutor with them which would not only give me a discounted tuition for her, but I could also make some money.

I think this might be what she needs this year as she was having a terrible time deciding about going to school.  I feel very good about it in that regard.  However, after signing her up, I felt so sad and immediately started questioning myself.  I guess the sadness is just for the things I had already started planning for us to do next year that I’ll have to either squeeze in or set aside.  I really can’t come up with any other reason for feeling this way.  I had no problems 2 years ago when I decided to use Calvert with her for a year.  I spent just as much money and strayed from the Well-Trained Mind more than this does.  Maybe it’s just me trying to accept the fact that she is growing up and her needs are changing in ways that I can’t always meet as well as I’d like.

The public school year is almost over which means Doodles only has a couple of more days to decided whether she is going to middle school next year or staying home.  I think the lack of decision is her way of deciding.  I had told myself that I wasn’t even going to mention it to her and if she didn’t tell me she wanted to go, then she would stay home.  However, we know I can’t just leave things alone.  I questioned her on it the other day.  She admitted that the worst thing about it would be getting up so early everyday as she would have to be on the bus before 7am.  Right now she sleeps until 9 many mornings.  I suggested she make out a list of pros and cons for both school and homeschooling.  I even gave her a few examples to start things off.  She didn’t much like it when I mentioned that Buster and I might do fun things on occasion that she would miss out on if she went to school.  This made her a little mad – she took it as we would always be doing fun stuff if she wasn’t home and said that we did absolutely no fun things this year.  Whatever.  I quite trying to help at that point and said she needed to make her lists and decide within the next few days.  I guess I’ll be a little surprised if she decides to go, but I’ll live regardless.