Sunday, August 19, 2007

School days??

One week until school begins and I still have no idea what we are doing for school. I won't be moved into my new house by then. We are hoping to close by the end of the month and then have some repairs to do before moving in. So we could start in Prosser then move to Grandview schools. Or try and figure a way to get them started in Grandview. Then there's online school. Achieve Online offers free tuition to WA residences. It's actually a nice way to "homeschool". You choose a mentor, which is a certified teacher. This mentor then gives you your assignments - both online and offline course work. The mentor corrects the assignments and modifies your plan to fit your needs. You must pass by 80% to continue - which is a much better standard than public school, because then you know that you have mastered the material and are not getting lost by just being moved forward because the rest of the class is moving forward. Your mentor is also available by phone or email to answer any questions or give words of encouragement to the students. It sounds like there would be some good accountability and a good standard for learning objectives. Which were my chief concerns previously with homeschool - would I actually do school or just get lazy and how do i know that they are learning what they need to. Both of those concerns would be addressed by having a mentor. However my dilemma is, I chose not to return to work this year because I was feeling like I never had time to focus on ministry and my own studies, without skipping out on my kids. Having the kids at school would give me plenty of time to focus on those things. Then when they came home I wouldn't have to be working. Homeschooling compounds that. I sort of mapped out a daily plan - it could work. School for a few hours and then I would do my own work - but what would they be doing during that time?? Would I actually have enough peace and quiet to get my work done? Aaaaaaagh. So many things to consider. I know that you can start and stop the online school anytime - but quitting would feel like a failure. Hmmm. Any insights?

1 comment:

abelara said...

well i haven't talked to deb about this but maybe if you both homeschooled in the morning and then took turns with the kids in the afternoon on different days you could both get breaks from all the kids.

maybe??