Somebody burst my bubble.

“We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.” Goethe

I worry about me. Organisation is not my strong suite. It's one reason we use an umbrella school ~ that & to keep the government off our case because the school does that bit. And I had that bit together; I really did. Three examples of Ditz's work in each subject each term. Even I could manage that & I did. At about this point in the term I start rounding up Ditz's work to send in so I was a little bit puzzled by today's phone call. I don't think our supervisor has a grip on paperwork organization either.

We had a most interesting conversation about Ditz's math ~ which has gone missing. Between us we've lost about 3 term's worth. Now I know I'm a klutz so I keep all Ditz's work to be returned in one folder & I've always been particular about sending it in. What I don't do is keep the returned work. I have no storage space & no use for it so out it goes. An entire book of Math~U~see has not been recorded. No way did I not send that in. I don't order new math until we are doing the last lot of tests. I tear the tests out the day I bundle them up & send them in to be recorded. So here I was wandering round with the phone glued to my ear looking for returned work. I found 2 lots ~ with little stickers on. I don't do stickers so I know it's been in to the school & been returned to us.

Now every time Marilyn visits with us she does a math session with Ditz. Sometimes it's more needed than others. I know she knows exactly where Ditz is with her maths ~ we just don't have the paperwork to prove it. Marilyn was madly apologetic. These things happen. *shrug* The bit I mind is having to tell Ditz she's got to redo at least one test. You have no idea!

Now all this is bad enough but the school has obviously had some trouble tracking work so these little bar coded stickers have been sent out, one to be attached to each work sample. Sound simple? How I wish. Firstly, even with my glasses on these are almost impossible to read. Reading them is necessary because they tell you which work samples they want. I have just discovered this. Now math & science are not an issue. They are very straightforward. Where we come unstuck is with our history & English. As they are our strong academic area I am sooo not impressed! Firstly we do a lot of dictation & grammar work. Ditz does a lot of creative writing but she doesn't like to share so getting samples is like pulling hen's teeth. Our analytical writing is done in history. I try to get one essay a term out of Ditz. So I don't have one piece of analytical writing for English, or one piece of creative writing & I don't have reading comprehension examples because we don't do them. Ditz has read the first dozen books of this year's curriculum & by the time we're done with the Sonlight stuff she's got a pretty good idea of what the book's talking about. Now for History we scrapbook. Map work, notes, craft stuff goes into a scrapbook because Ditz really, really doesn't like to write. Not school stuff at any rate.

So I am sitting here scratching my head wondering what I'm going to send in. We did our poetry analysis. Does that count as reading comprehension? That's one; three to go. I can see me sneaking stuff out of Ditz's novels to cover us & she'll shoot me. Ditz finished her essay on Hitler. History we are always on top off & her scrapbooking pages always look good. I have all bar one of the math tests ~ the one that has disappeared between here & the school. Science we are working towards.

Just in case you think Ditz does no actual school work I must dissuade you though we sometimes veer so far towards unschooling I scare myself. Ditz is her mother's daughter & tends to get obsessed about a topic. Hitler was her last one. At present it is pirates. Gypsies is the next one. For these Ditz does all her own research & reading & notetaking. That she can actually do this is one of our success stories. Unfortunately her methodology is not strictly academic. More like research notes for an acting part or background research for a novel. Not strictly useful for anything. *sigh*

And the thing is I am so not interested just now because the curriculum I've been waiting on for 5 months arrived today! Finally! This is our bible stuff & it looks terrific ~ & music history. I'm keen to start & give Ditz something a little different but instead we will be pottering round redoing math & looking for Ditz's science. I might just do a Ditz & have a meltdown. Do you think it would help? Nah, me either but it would sure feel good!