Homeschooling in a public school world

February 7, 2011

It’s been almost two months since we started with MAVA, the new virtual public school in Massachusetts. The lack of new posts on this blog should be an indication that it is, indeed, kicking my butt.


But, I’m kind of enjoying the butt-kicking, in some weird way. It feels good to have a plan, to check off items as we do them, to track our progress more concretely than we were before.

But, there are definitely growing pains in this new school, both at our home and throughout the program. My girls would rather play than do school (shocking, I know). They complain about how long it takes, forgetting that things move so much quicker if they don’t w-h-i-n-e at every step.

And, my poor son. I’m still struggling to keep him busy and learning and engaged while wrapped up with my other two.

Outside of our home, the only other family I knew in real life who was enrolled in MAVA recently quit. The public school’s beating drum that says “move forward, move forward” thrown on top of K12’s vigorous curriculum (which is, ironically, all about “mastering tasks at your own pace”) got to be too much for them.

Aye, there’s the rub, as Shakespeare would say.

It’s hard to marry the homeschooling lifestyle with the public school mentality. The public school wants us to finish at least 80% of all of our subjects by the end of June, never mind that we joined more than 20% into the school year. Never mind that I was already doing school with the kids in September, October and November, not lying on the couch wondering how they’d get educated.

The public school wants 80% complete, but K12 says “mastery, mastery”. So how does one move forward if a child is stuck? How can I spend an extra week on long division when the clock is ticking?

Report cards were just issued that were based solely on what percentage of the program is complete in each subject. I’d say we did fair. Each girl got one “W”, or Warning grade. Belly got hers in Art, which is funny given that the girl takes three hours of art classes each week, but alas, her progress in the program lags a bit behind.

Jilly got her “W” in History, a subject we have always kicked ass in up until now. I like the K12 History program, it just gets shuffled aside a little bit in an attempt to get to math-reading-spelling-grammar-french-science-art. But, again, it feels funny to see a “W” in a subject that I’ve loved enough to do well into the summer each year.

I asked our “teacher” (more on this later), what will happen if we are at, say, 65% at the end of June. Will they kick us out? “No!” she replied quickly, but then admitted she isn’t sure what that means for us. I know they want the kids to stay on grade level, but I don’t really care if my 4th grader becomes a 5th grader in September, December or March of next year.

I care that my kids learn and understand the work.

I don’t want to outright quit in frustration though. I want to see where we end up in June and then take stock in our family life, our homeschooling life and our place in MAVA. Maybe there will be a place for us next September, maybe there won’t. But, it’s too early to stop now.
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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids, Homeschooling, MAVA 7 Comments

My little bird to the rescue

January 25, 2011
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My youngest, D, (a homeschooled kindergartner) goes to our public school every week for a private speech therapy session. Recently we added occupational therapy, after an evaluation determined he has some gross motor skills that need work. He really likes both therapists and the time he has with them one-on-one.


But he really, really likes his speech therapist’s new shiny iPad.

The first time she pulled it out, his mouth fell open. But when she let him use it to practice sounds, he was beyond thrilled (I wasn’t making it up in my review of Talking Tom).

So, now, at the end of each speech therapy session, she gives him a few minutes on the iPad, presumably to let him relax and have a little fun.

But, I know what she’s doing. She let it slip the last time I saw her.

As I entered the school to pick up my little guy, she came down the hall beaming. “How’d he do?”, I asked. “Great!”, she exclaimed and then she brought her voice down a notch and said, “He got me out of a level of Angry Birds! I had been stuck for ages! He told me this was easy and–poof!–done!”

That’s my boy.
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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids 8 Comments

Forced bulb

January 22, 2011
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It’s frozen, snowy and cold outside. And still, the ugly little bulb bursts and pushes a green stalk through the wet pebbles in the glass, until it blooms into something so simple and pretty. She isn’t much to sniff, this paperwhite, but her delicate petals stand defiantly against the stark backdrop.

I’m still here.

January has been a tough month. My oldest turned ten despite all my efforts to slow down time, heels digging into the ground like the anchor on a loosing tug-of-war game.

My weight is also creeping up beyond what I’d normally shrug off as “winter insulation”, and yet my desire to do any physical exercise is lost in chocolate candy wrappers that crinkle as I unwrap them.

I hang on to our daily school schedule like the structure, the deadlines, the check marks will begin to make sense, my voice tired from yelling, pleading, bargaining. I just. want. someone. to. listen. to. me.

The other day, my neighbor’s new puppy, a fluffy white bichon frise got loose and ran out into all the blinding white. A car drove slowly up and down the street that first night, calling her name, “Liesel! Liesel!” for the little girl who would never make it through the night in this cold. We looked for her too, around our house, in our neighborhood. Even now, a week later, I hope to hear a whimper when I step into the garage and triumphantly be able to deliver a warm puppy back to the heartbroken owner.

Alas, it is too late for her.

For me, though? I hold onto that image of the flower coming out of rocks. I’ve got enough warmth around me to get through this.
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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Me 9 Comments
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