The Saga Continues

Early Monday morning I left a message for the Director of Pupil Services. She never returned my call (and this is now Thursday night). Later on Monday her secretary called, not knowing I had already contacted their office. She was just calling to say the wrong date was on the letter, but new letters were coming out. So I asked her what the problem is with the portfolios. She said the evaluator needed to "write more things about the child." More "things"? What things? I told her anything more goes beyond what the law requires. She admitted she doesn't know about the homeschool law. I told her if I need to pay my evaluator to do more work, I need to know exactly what the district wants. She did not know.

Later in the day the secretary called again. She said, "Don't do anything right now. We're trying to contact our portfolio evaluator. She's not in the district." Who is this portfolio evaluator? The superintendent of our local school district is the only one who is supposed to review our child's portfolio. I think the person non-compliant with the law is right there in their office. When the letter asked me to reflect where my portfolios were deficient, it was not because they were trying to make me guess what went wrong, but that they didn't know what was wrong! Some elusive person with all the power is calling the shots, and the rest of us, including that clueless secretary, are jumping through hoops.

Yesterday I received a new, revised letter with the correct date on it. I called my evaluator to ask for a longer narrative report on our school work to make the district happy. I wanted to put this all behind me and move on. She was going to re-charge me the entire fee that I paid in June! It was not cheap. She said I should use that money instead to join HSLDA, our legal advocate group. So I did. An attorney already contacted me. We'll see how this goes.

With the political climate in this country right now, I think we all need to stand up for our rights when it comes to our families. If we don't, we might be surprised to find we have none.

Challenged

Over the weekend I got a letter from the Director of Pupil Services of our school district. It stated, "questions or concerns have arisen as a result of our review. The issues raised are non-compliance with the Home Schooling Act...I would ask that you reflect upon your submission to the school district and provide an explanation where you may have had deficiencies."

Say WHAT? In June every year I turn in a huge portfolio chock full of my girls' work over the course of the year. This includes our daily schedule, every book they read or I read to them (an extensive list), textbooks used, pictures of special field trips or experiments, a subject by subject summary of what we did, standardized test scores, and a report from our evaluator who reports that an appropriate education is taking place. I am a stickler for detail. NOTHING is deficient. The letter hinted that my evaluator's report was brief. I know the law. It does not specify anything about the length of that report, only what it must include. And it included everything.

Each year we must meet with an evaluator, previously approved by the district, who goes over this huge portfolio, reviews the work, and interviews the child. She then writes a report for the district. Our evaluator has been doing this service for many years and for many districts in several counties. Even more amazing, I have used her reports in previous years with our district, without any word from anybody. The law has not changed, so what has?

I couldn't call anyone since it was a Saturday. But I surely let my anger distract me over our beautiful fall weekend. I don't need to "reflect on" anything. I know exactly what is in the girls' portfolios. I already know I prepare above and beyond what is required. If any school official actually bothered to look over the work, they would know my daughters are receiving a great education. And isn't that the whole purpose of all this paperwork and evaluation and reviews?

Finally, I remembered the study of Nehemiah I did over the summer. Wasn't I warned that the enemy would try to defeat and discourage and destroy God's good work? "And they plotted together to come and fight against us and to cause confusion..." Yes, confusion. I am confused. I don't know what is going on.

When the enemy tried to get Nehemiah to stop building, he said, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?" I have spent way too much mental energy on this. I let it fill my thoughts as I prepared the girls' lessons this weekend. I will call the district on Monday morning and let it be. I also realized that just maybe when I put together the portfolios at the end of the year that I am being boastful, showing off what my daughters have done. Am I on some level trying to perform for the school personnel so they will respect my work as a teacher? God forbid! What a repugnant thought!

Those who review the portfolios are trying to find fault, not applaud my effort. I will never have their respect. I need to put this matter to rest and get on with teaching my daughters.

Tearful Monday

Liana had another sleepless night. But it was the first in two weeks. She woke up ready to do battle with the world (and with me). We started math and she sighed and complained. I reminded her we can always go back to book work. Right now she is doing Teaching Textbooks on the computer and generally much prefers this math program to her old one. When she insisted on doing a triple digit addition problem in her head instead of on scrap paper, she moaned, "Why is everything so confusing?" Later, "This is NOT a good day."

Liana has an excellent memory, so she is a good speller. For the beginning of the year, I am assigning her spelling words from a list that all 4th graders should know and spell correctly every time no matter what they are writing. She does quite well with this list. We were using Spelling City, a great website initially, for providing games to use spelling words. But the two girls' lists were becoming transposed and Liana got frustrated when Arielle's words got mixed up with hers. Since Liana likes to create, I have been having her write sentences each day with some of her words. That brought on the tears this day.

Her spelling word was "whether". She wrote a perfect sentence for the word "weather", spelling it correctly and using it correctly. I calmly corrected her, explaining "whether" was a word easily confused. She burst into tears, saying she can't do this, it is too hard. She just couldn't think up a sentence for "whether" and on and on. When the morning disintegrates to this, learning stops. I really don't know what is best at this point.

The next day was better. In the afternoon her best friend was coming to play, so Liana was motivated to finish her work. Once Julia got here, I tried to engage the two of them in Arielle's science project of making molecules from gummy bears and marshmallows. Julia and Liana were too busy making sculptures to learn anything. Arielle learned about the bonds of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, but she was frustrated with the younger girls' antics. We are using a new science book that seems to be perfect for the middle school age. From now on, Arielle and I will work on it alone.

After Liana and Julia ate most of their creations, they got busy playing. Not once did I see them just hanging around wondering what to do. Not once did they watch TV or ask to use the computer. Julia was here for about 6 or 7 hours and here is what they did: got dressed in Liana's fanciest dresses and put on make-up, set up a Polly Pocket town with the old-fashioned Polly Pockets, played a game of 300 Wishes with Arielle, drew pictures of black-haired women in colorful evening gowns, played with their identical Build-A-Bear dogs, and wrote and rehearsed a play. I got them to stop for a hasty spaghetti dinner. Then they went back to their rehearsing. By the time Julia's dad came, they had the play memorized. A couple of days ago I typed up the beginning of this play, titled "Best Friends Forever". It was three typed pages and then they wrote more on it this night.

After Julia went home, I found Liana still downstairs working on the play. In this picture she looks like a studious student working on her homework. No, she is working on the props and scenery for her play. She tells me how I am to videotape it, making sure I zoom in at the proper times. Three digit addition is not part of her world. Neither is the difference in whether and weather. Those things are unimportant to her. How do I encourage her to do what she does best, yet learn what is necessary to live in this world? It is a challenge.

Flexibility

I am very rigid with school. I like schedules and order. I've been gently chided by my homeschooling friends to lighten up. And God is teaching me more and more about the importance of being flexible.

We had a great first week of school with everything and everyone right on time. We started at 9am, took a break at 10:30am, and had a 45 minute lunch at noon. We ended pretty much the same time every day and even bedtime was right on schedule.

Then Sunday night Liana couldn't get to sleep. She went to bed at 9 but was very restless. I checked on her an hour and a half later when I was going to bed, and she was crying silent tears. She occasionally has this problem because her overactive mind just won't shut down. I knew she would be out of sorts all the next day without enough sleep.

I asked myself, why do I homeschool anyway? Isn't it to provide an individual education to each of my daughters, teaching each one according to her individual talents and abilities and learning styles? I told Liana I would not be waking her up in the morning and to sleep as long as she needed. She immediately relaxed. I told her to play quietly with a toy until she was sleepy, which she did.

The next morning Liana woke up about a half hour later than usual. While the girls ate breakfast I read aloud the next chapter in a biography on Amy Carmichael. Then while Liana got ready for school, I did math with Arielle. We shuffled around our schedule that day and each day this week and nothing has been lost. Much was gained though--a more cooperative child.

Some would say that would never work for a child living in the "real world" of public school. And it wouldn't. Am I being indulgent, or am I extending grace and accommodating my child's needs?

For a long time my insistence on having school my way has clashed with Liana's way of learning and her need for more time to accomplish her work, more time to transition to new activities, more time for projects rather than worksheets. She just plain needs more time. Arielle and I are efficient types. Give us a task and we'll quickly do it and be done. Liana needs time to think things over and to apply her creative talents. I need to let go and let her be who she is. She has years to go before being thrust into the "real world" of adult schedules.

The girls had their school physicals today. Liana wanted to talk to the doctor about her sleep issues. After we explained about her getting to bed late but being able to start school later, our doctor said, "She's in the right family then, isn't she?" Yes, she is.