The "More" Child

Well thanks for asking!  Just fine, thanks.

After we made the decision to homeschool, and filed the simple Intention to Homeschool paper, we had to wait 15 days to be “official.”  That’s the law in Maryland. Which made March 4 the first “official day.”  However we could barely wait to be rid of school.  I told M. she could miss the last Monday and Tuesday…only she thought the previous Wednesday was her last day–and told absolutely everyone.  When I pointed out her mistake, she was beside herself.  She simply couldn’t go to school after saying she was leaving.  A group of friends was planning a farewell lunch at school.  (Typical reaction among kids at school, according to a mom:  “I can’t believe M. is leaving!  She has so many friends!”)

Well as luck would have it, events conspired in her favor.  On that “last” Wednesday I got called at work by the school nurse to come and take her home.  M. was running a fever.  The next day was a snow day.  Friday she was sick again.  The following Monday and Tuesday…”sick.”  And that was that.  I have to say, turning all her books in, settling her $2 agenda balance and walking out of there felt very good.

Homeschooling M. is going to be a different experience from homeschooling C. , as it should be.  That’s the beauty of it.  C. from the get-go was highly independent, with a restless intellect.  M. is much more of a social learner.  She likes to have a companion along the way, feedback.  She doesn’t want structure….but also wants structure and someone (that would be me) giving her specific assignments and checking in on her progress.  It’s as if she’s not used to learning on her own, tuning into her intelligence.  It’s going to be a challenge for me. Intellectually I totally embrace the idea of following your educational bliss.  But the Type A part of me wants “a plan” and worries about documenting, and assessing and “doing enough.”  Compounding that bent is the fact that I’m working.  We just don’t have the ability to be as “blissful” and I don’t have as much time to be able to plan and oversee everything.

So what are we doing?

For math, we immediately set up an Aleks.com account.  Given that the school wanted to place M. in Algebra next year, and that if she wants to go into an IB program for high school she has to have completed Geometry, we set her up on pre-Algebra.  Her initial assessment put her at around 29% of the objectives completed.  The plan is for Husband Dear to coach her along in math. I think she is going to “get it” so much better than she would ever have in school–and it’s going to be real math.  Husband Dear is the math person in the family, and he is very positive about Aleks, which we also used with C.

For science, M. is joining the forensic science co-op class my neighborhood friend is teaching for her son and two other middle school boys.  My friend is an awesome teacher.  Last week the class was all about art fraud.  This week–get this–they dissected a fetal pig and a sheep’s heart!  C. was so excited both before and after the class.  Not my cup of tea, but…   That and science videos–we’re good.

For French, we’re doing PowerSpeak French.  Very cool. It’s like a video game where you create an avatar and earn virtual goodies along the way.  In the space of two days M. did something like 8 lessons (and got her hair cut to resemble her avatar!).  She said she was actually learning French, as opposed to school where “Madame either assumed you knew it already because it was so basic, or spent all her time yelling at the bad kids.” She’ll also be watching the occasional film in French or with subtitles, and both me and her sister can break out the French in everyday conversation.

For English, well, we’re still working that out.  M. had no interest in my suggestion to read To Kill a Mockingbird, but has picked up two other books, one fiction, one non-fiction.  I bought a 7th grade Wordlywise vocab book.  Rejected as way too easy.  So after looking around, I’ve settled on Michael Clay Thompson‘s middle school curriculum.  I worry that it might be too dry, but my online people rave about it.  Also supposed to be good for kids with spelling “challenges” because it drills into word roots.  I really want to get her writing solid.  My intention is to have M. take the SAT next fall, and in the second half of 7th grade and in 8th grade take EPGY English courses. There’s also a co-op Shakespeare class that we have to give another look at, and I’m having her start a blog.

Social studies…also working on it.  In signed her up for a 7th grade world history course on K12.com, because again, it’s gotten strong reviews from my online GT connections.  But M. has other plans.  She wants to do something out-of-the box in this area–but she’s not quite sure what.  It’s as if she’s never had the chance to actually stretch and think about what she wants to learn in this area.  Not doing anything while this has been coming together has made her feel a little “lazy” and thus anxious.  I told her that a certain period of “de-schooling” was quite all right.  This morning she spent a considerable amount of time creating a web of what she wants to do.  I need to go over it tomorrow. If she can have the feeling of passionately following an intellectual interest, that alone will be worth the homeschooling.  But it’s going to be frustrating to me.  This is my favorite subject and not to be able to really delve in as much as I want is going to be hard. Another option to consider for next year:  William and Mary.  Yes, the very same coveted “good stuff” that MCPS does in the magnets.   I’m liking the 1930s unit and you can buy it all here.  (Note:  Have you checked out the selection of documentaries on demand on Netflix lately? Un-be-lieve-able.)

As for the rest…we’ll get it done. PE is covered with pick-up soccer on the weekends and her fencing lessons.  Art we’ll do intensively when we’re in Santa Fe over spring break.  Music…lot’s of rock documentaries and I’ll ask the mom she’s mother’s helper-ing (a voice teacher) for advice.  Health…well I jokingly tell her “Don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t have sex until you’re ready.  There, health is done.”  We’ll look into first aid course or something.  She also reads NYTimes online every day (nothing like setting kids’ homepages to the NYT) and there are often health-related stories there.

And that’s what it’s looking like right now.  She’s home with dad one day, comes with me to work the others.  She really enjoys riding the Metro, having lunch together, the office environment.  We have a feeling this is going to be so much healthier, so much more authentic for her.  Middle school is no place for a 12-to-14 year old.