R.I.P., Awkward Academy
Awkward Academy has officially closed its doors. Today, I walked Nolah to the bus stop for her first day of sixth grade, and drove Aylish to her first day of Junior High.
For those who don't know - Paula and I made the decision to homeschool our two daughters last year after our oldest failed Math and we weren't satisfied with the idea of sending her to summer school to retake a class in the same place where she had just failed it. Since our younger daughter was having Math problems in the opposite direction, we figured it would be good for her as well, as she would be able to learn Math at whatever level truly challenged her, and get the help she needed in other areas.
It was a big decision, and not one we considered lightly. In fact, I'll probably always wonder if we did the right thing, no matter how much evidence we see to the positive. There were a lot of challenges, and there were a few times when I wanted to give it up - but on the other side of the scale, I spent a lot of quality time with my girls, and shared some of my passion for learning with them.
Not all of the challenges were internal. While we had been told to expect some opposition from the "ourside world," where most people find homeschooling offensive to their traditions, I have to admit that we didn't experience much of that at all. I was able to take the girls to the YMCA for swimming, and to libraries and museums with hardly any issues. Most people who asked seemed to be very impressed at what we were doing, and some even asked about how to get involved themselves.
Most of our challenges were external. We joined an umbrella school, which is an organization that, for a membership fee, provides services for homeschooling parents. They submit your information to the state for you, set you up with a counselor, notify you of different events, projects and trips, and provide a library where you can take out books for the entire year.
When we began planning our curriculum for the year, we noticed that it was difficult to find real science materials for the girls. The books that the library offered were all based on creation or intelligent design. We did find some books that covered actual science - on the table of books for sale, ourside of the library. It seemed that all of the real science books - probably acquired through donations - were kept off of the shelves and sold off. (The positive side of this was that we were able to get science books for the girls very cheaply, and I scored an awesome hardcover book on fossils for myself for a quarter.)
We had some challenges in other areas as well. I won't get started about homeschool skating, other than to say I really won't miss it.
Instead, I'll focus on the things I WILL miss. I'll miss our Loud Lunches (where we made as much noise as possible while preparing and eating lunch, to compensate for the many silent lunches that the girls had to endure in traditional school). I'll miss our trips to the art museum, where the employees recognize us (and some even know us by name). I'll miss going ti play practice and counting it as a Drama credit. I'll miss getting to go somewhere on a whim, because I've had some crazy idea of how we can learn something there.
We'll still get to do things like that, for certain, but it won't quite be the same.
When we registered the girls for public school a couple of weeks ago, I had fully expected a problem. Aylish had never officially completed summer school for the year that she failed, at least as far as the school district was concerned (I taught her that summer, and took her throigh seventh grade right after). When we got there, we discovered that the principal of the Junior High was Aylish's former vice principal in elementary school - and she didn't even bother to scrutinize our records. She simply let her in.
This afternoon, at around half past three, I'll get to hear from both of them about how their day was - who's in their homeroom, who their teachers are, and what they'll be learning this year.
And I fully expect to hear about how much more they liked last year's teacher.
For those who don't know - Paula and I made the decision to homeschool our two daughters last year after our oldest failed Math and we weren't satisfied with the idea of sending her to summer school to retake a class in the same place where she had just failed it. Since our younger daughter was having Math problems in the opposite direction, we figured it would be good for her as well, as she would be able to learn Math at whatever level truly challenged her, and get the help she needed in other areas.
It was a big decision, and not one we considered lightly. In fact, I'll probably always wonder if we did the right thing, no matter how much evidence we see to the positive. There were a lot of challenges, and there were a few times when I wanted to give it up - but on the other side of the scale, I spent a lot of quality time with my girls, and shared some of my passion for learning with them.
Not all of the challenges were internal. While we had been told to expect some opposition from the "ourside world," where most people find homeschooling offensive to their traditions, I have to admit that we didn't experience much of that at all. I was able to take the girls to the YMCA for swimming, and to libraries and museums with hardly any issues. Most people who asked seemed to be very impressed at what we were doing, and some even asked about how to get involved themselves.
Most of our challenges were external. We joined an umbrella school, which is an organization that, for a membership fee, provides services for homeschooling parents. They submit your information to the state for you, set you up with a counselor, notify you of different events, projects and trips, and provide a library where you can take out books for the entire year.
When we began planning our curriculum for the year, we noticed that it was difficult to find real science materials for the girls. The books that the library offered were all based on creation or intelligent design. We did find some books that covered actual science - on the table of books for sale, ourside of the library. It seemed that all of the real science books - probably acquired through donations - were kept off of the shelves and sold off. (The positive side of this was that we were able to get science books for the girls very cheaply, and I scored an awesome hardcover book on fossils for myself for a quarter.)
We had some challenges in other areas as well. I won't get started about homeschool skating, other than to say I really won't miss it.
Instead, I'll focus on the things I WILL miss. I'll miss our Loud Lunches (where we made as much noise as possible while preparing and eating lunch, to compensate for the many silent lunches that the girls had to endure in traditional school). I'll miss our trips to the art museum, where the employees recognize us (and some even know us by name). I'll miss going ti play practice and counting it as a Drama credit. I'll miss getting to go somewhere on a whim, because I've had some crazy idea of how we can learn something there.
We'll still get to do things like that, for certain, but it won't quite be the same.
When we registered the girls for public school a couple of weeks ago, I had fully expected a problem. Aylish had never officially completed summer school for the year that she failed, at least as far as the school district was concerned (I taught her that summer, and took her throigh seventh grade right after). When we got there, we discovered that the principal of the Junior High was Aylish's former vice principal in elementary school - and she didn't even bother to scrutinize our records. She simply let her in.
This afternoon, at around half past three, I'll get to hear from both of them about how their day was - who's in their homeroom, who their teachers are, and what they'll be learning this year.
And I fully expect to hear about how much more they liked last year's teacher.