A week with a Home Schooler

I have been wanting to write this post but haven't really had the time.  My intent is both to inform about our family's commitment, and to dispel myths commonly associated with homeschooling.

Our decision to pursue this educational alternative was prompted by Chloe's underachievement in Math, at a private school.  We thought we were doing the best for our daughter, namely by throwing money towards what we believed was a good education.  We saw great progress in all subjects but Math.  When your child comes home saying that she "sucks" at it and just isn't smart enough to understand it, then it's time to intervene.  It became apparent that regardless of a school's reputation or a teacher's most genuine effort, no teacher has the time to sit one on one with each student to address individual obstacles.  It was equally apparent that as involved as we already were, we weren't involved enough.  

The homeschooling that we do is actually a state sanctioned and accredited virtual charter school.  The state provides us with customized lesson plans in core subjects as well as lessons in Art History and Music Theory or Foreign Language (our choice).  As parents we implement those lessons via books and the world wide web.  Chloe is thriving and we love the challenging curriculum.  Ryan mentioned that when people ask me about how it's going my tendency is to give unnecessary and very specific lesson examples we've done and it makes me sound insecure.  Leave it to Ryan, right?  Having heard what he has said I will be standardizing my answer to: Chloe is happy, we love the curriculum, and we feel we have a  responsibility to, as well as, fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be so involved in our daughter's education.  If anyone wants specifics they can read this and subsequent posts, and/ or join us for a day.

Contrary to a popular argument made against homeschooling, we could not, even if we wanted to, finish a year's worth of curriculum in a week.  Although this and other comments have never been made directly to us, they have been made about us.  I've personally heard this particular comment and have witnessed the roll of the eyes when our choice in schooling is discussed.  These passive aggressive jabs have been made by persons that are teachers, and therefore have a vested interest in perpetuating the status quo.  Perhaps they don't deal much with the rabble and are fortunate enough to teach the gifted AP kids (which by the way I am lucky enough to do).  Perhaps they just don't realized the general public's disgust and embarrassment of the current educational system.  When the system they defend produces High School graduates that are illiterate and/or incapable of writing in complete sentences, then what exactly are they proud of?

Enough of the ranting and back to the purpose of this post.  I will be blogging daily about our schooling for a week, beginning November 16, 2009 and ending November 20, 2009.  Our subjects include Math, Literature, Science, Language Skills, World History, State History, French, Spelling, Art History, and a supplemental course called Study Island, which helps her prep for the state exams.  I thought I would highlight 2 to 3 subjects a day with pictures, my observations, and examples of Chloe's work.  I will also be including a literal time line of our day so you get an idea of what my life really is like at Casa Clark.  Hope you'll join us.