A Little School.

"Schooling confuses teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. ~ Wendy Priesnitz"

In all the years we've homeschooled I think this is the worst start we've ever had to a year. Ditz & I have been sick on & off all term. We are unmotivated ~ & hormonal. We've had things happen that have knocked us for 6 emotionally & recovery has been slow. My curriculum supplier has decided to suddenly be extremely unhelpful & Ditz only really likes her bed. It has just been a shocker of a year. If I was a quitter I'd've quit already.

Just as it looked like we might slowly grind into some sort of routine our supervisor rang. Short term. She was coming for her term visit. Term visits mean our supervisor expects to see the results of a term's work!!! Oh my! We were ~ & still are ~ reading. This means almost no written work. Ditz has issues. I don't mind because frankly I don't see the point of making a child whom we all know writes exceptionally well, write out pointless little comprehension exercises. Ditz would rather chat if she must engage at all so that is what we do. We read & chat & at some point I lean really, really hard on Ditz & we produce the three items of work required in each subject each term. Something our umbrella school finds acceptable. Something that drives both Ditz & I crazy. We are erratic. In Home Ec we read & cook. Oops! I photocopied the tests for Ditz to take.

Now personally I find our supervisor absolutely wonderful & as she polished off the vegetarian lunch Ditz put together she did remark we had very different sorts of learners. *sigh* Don't we know it. And she did ask rather pointedly what we were going to send her as our term's work. This is what dictation & grammar exercises are for. And tests. And the arty~time~line. Mini~ reports. A little concerted effort & we can produce the required 3 items BUT ~ this is not learning. This is meeting government requirements. Our supervisor knows it too. She also knows Ditz. She has met the immovable math mountain often enough to know I have a real problem in that area. She knows as well as I do that math tutors or math immersion days at the school would be a waste of our time & throwing good money down the gurgler because it is not for want of ability but lack of desire on Ditz's behalf. Ditz has been begging to ditch math for 2 years & our supervisor is a math teacher. The irony is pretty.

So Ditz & I spent a harried few days writing a book report; a science experiment, doing tests & otherwise meeting our enrolment conditions so the school can tell the government my child is actually learning something. I hoped it was enough. Then came the phone call...

I don't have a new learner & I'm not a beginner homeschooler. I'm pretty secure about how we go about things & I know how my Ditz learns best ~ however difficult & awkward that might be. The math is impossible simply because no~one writes the sort of curriculum that works for a Ditz. Honestly. If I had any idea about math myself I'd write it! So I girded my loins thinking I was going to have to battle the school on my Ditz's behalf & when you've had a child in PS who manages to score a big fat zero on his comprehension test in grade 11 you're pretty much over the whole *school knows best* thing. [True; my biggest dyslexic. I was still reading half his work to him & helping him pull together his essays]

Our supervisor really is the most wonderful, thoughtful & inspired teacher. She rang to say she could provide a math text that was on money management. Thank heaven. The text we're presently using has all these things we don't even know what they are though in between it works. Ditz happily promptly ditched her math book. Money we can manage. We're good with money. Money management matters. Even Ditz gets this one. She didn't even quibble.

Then there is science. We were using Apologia General Science. I chose it because it is *proper science* as compared to *sort of science* in far too many Christian texts. It began with an overview of the history of science & proper scientific procedure & it was very readable. Unfortunately it is also heavy on the technical language & it lost Ditz pretty early on. We struggled on with it because it really is an excellent curriculum & it gave a good grounding in all the science branches. We finished it last term & now I have a problem. I'm not blowing things up with Ditz. Perish the thought! So no chemistry. Ditz can't do the math for physics even if she was interested; she's not. Neither of us is going to cut things up for biology. It's just not going to happen. No, we're not the scientific sort but we do like science. We like Natural Science & botany. We really enjoy the history part of science & nature study, environmental study ~ that sort of thing but, you guessed it, there's no ready curriculum for any of it & Ditz being grade 10 rather than 10 years old, I have been hunting frantically on the net. This is when having a really different learner really sucks!

My lovely, thoughtful supervisor has actually grasped how Ditz learns best & has suggested a DVD series. Ditz will we rapt! She thinks watching DVDs isn't really school. Long may she think that! I will have to invent an assessment procedure but believe you me this is far easier & less stressful than wading through a curriculum Ditz absolutely hates.

At this point I am finishing up our Sonlight but what I want Ditz reading means I'm actually tweaking quite a lot now because I have To Kill A Mocking Bird & How Green Was my Valley lined up for the child. Our supervisor is more than happy with these choices. She also knows we're really strong in these areas ~well, we've got to be good at something! ~ & hasn't batted an eyelid that I don't actually have any curriculum lined up yet ~ & may not have.

I also have, lost somewhere in the bowels of the computer, something about careers & career choices & work experience. Ditz, who really can be a Ditz, thought if she just said she was going to be a checkout chick the whole thing would go away. It won't & it hasn't. I don't think our supervisor bought that idea for one minute but we had a chat about our Ditz. The musical, arty, creative Ditz who has a CV in the industry & knows people, you know, & when asked tells everyone she's a professional. Yeah. That Ditz. End result ~ some really good ideas to get Ditz through years 11 & 12 with some sort of qualification besides the ability to hit both the top & bottom F! Child care & computer graphics are both good choices for the girl & I will be so much happier being able to move Ditz away from straight academics into areas for which she herself can see a use & a purpose.

I'm not always absolutely thrilled being with an umbrella school but God really has blessed us with our supervisor. She has never been anything but kind & helpful, even when Ditz has taken a snoot & been her most charmingly difficulty self. Her understanding & help as we transition through these final school years is invaluable because by hook or by crook our Ditz will be educated!