So on Monday I had my third homeschool review (at least from this stint of homeschooling). As I noted earlier, I was wondering if they had forgotten. But they hadn’t, which gave me a few days to pull together the necessary materials. My husband–bless his naive heart–said I should save everyone’s time and just call and tell them that C. was going back into the school system, and a highly competitive program to boot. I told him, uh, it didn’t work that way.
Even though I should have been confident, I couldn’t help being nervous. All weekend I nagged C. to get me something on science. I was non-plussed to see that her agenda book had several empty swaths. I pulled papers together. For some subjects I felt we were more than good. In others…not so much. *Really* not so much. As in, well, nothing in terms of “documentation.” In the end I took a three inch accordion folder with about a half an inch of paper, the agenda book, her Geometry notebook, her college course binder. And at the last minute I stuffed in a sweater she had knit.
I was the first appointment of the day, with the same reviewer I had had in the fall. I definitely feel like I have lucked out in the reviewer department. She has a grandmotherly, Mrs. Claus-ness about her, which is reassuring…I can just imagine her up to her elbows in baking flour. She remembered me–and C.-right away when I walked in, asking how things were going. So that was good. (Just to be clear, C. did NOT come with me.).
Even though it was only a few days ago, it’s already feeling like a blur. I told her right away that C. would be be going to high school, hoping that would help set the tone (If she’s good enough to get in, what we’ve been doing must be okay.) I think we started with the UMBC course, then jumped to English, then math…with me rooting around for papers (it does take up time), passing them to her for perusal and jabbering madly all the while. Eventually I laid a few things out in piles–like a registrations for sports, C.’s evaluation by her Shakespeare teacher, math achievement certificates–and she picked them up while I jabbered some more. She murmured approvingly about how C. was doing so much, and asked questions about the UMBC course. Was it a full-on undergraduate course? Yes, I told her.
Somewhere amidst the jabbering, between that and EPGY, I noted ruefully that C.’s not much of a science girl. Then I pulled out the sweater and a speech C. had written for her coming of age project, which involved a knitting project for charity. Well, the reviewer *loved* the speech, shared that she herself is a quilter, and oohed over the sweater. We talked about how wonderful handicrafts are, and by then then time was almost up. She gave us a pass on music, as C. was clearly doing so much on the art side–clearly doing so much, period. As for science and health, I have to say I got off easy playing up all the reading C. does of the NYTimes and things she’s found online. No requests to copy anything this time.
Whew! We were in compliance. Walking out of there I definitely felt lighter. There’s just something about the review process that taps directly into my insecure, perfectionist vein.
