Had homeschool review yesterday...grrrrrrrr...ugh
Yes, I am discouraged, angry, frustrated, ticked, and other explatives I have been trying very hard to relieve from their duty roster in my vocabulary lineup.
This was only our second review by our county as a homeschooling family since we only pulled them both from public last fall. Our state law(Maryland)requires that you only bring "examples" of their work in each subject. I therefore took anywhere from 3-5 examples of everything except art which was only 1-2 based on the size of the project. Anyway, daughter dears' review was fine however sons' review...not so much. I was told for both of them that I didn't bring in enough examples. And for ds, who is 10 and finished 5th grade this season, math is a HUGE struggle. Therefore when we pulled him from public, we dropped him back a grade or two for math so we could re-master or just master skills he was not given time to master before being force fed the next skill. The board of education rep that reviewed us yesterday feels that I have gone back too far by allowing him to do 2 and 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction and add. and sub. with decimals. He should be far beyond that and mastered his multiplication tables by now is their opinion at the board. It was suggested to me to use the summer to basically force feed multiplication to him. I spoke to her about the TJed method and the whole conveyor belt idea and asked her opinion of allowing the child to learn at THEIR own pace, suggesting to her that some children simply won't master something like multiplication until they are say 12, 13, or even 15. She disagreed and said that he can and should learn it now and that I MUST alter my teaching style so he learns it now in a fashion that is conducive to his learning style. I must say, I was suprised because she, as well as many of the reviewers for our county are infact homeschool parents themselves.
All this makes me want to join an umbrella group for our reviews which I am hoping may be a little more tolerant of such a thing.
Oh and get this, I had to provide a reading log of the books they both read. Well ds normally reads Percy Jackson, anything mythology, and fantasy like LOTR. Many of his books are hundreds of pages. Well the very last book on his list was Frog and Toad. In my opinion, a classic for any age. She focused on that immediately and told me how worried she was that he was reading such a book at his age and asked if he was behind in reading skills. I checked her quite quickly by pointing out the classics, both old and modern day, that filled his list from the top all the way down to the second from the last entry. GRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You know what, I can read the Bible and I will read LOTR, but once in a while, I like to pick up a Seuss and just have fun reading. I wonder if she will focus on that and suggest I can't read at a proper level?
Thanks for being a sounding board and a vent.
Do you
I feel for you. Hopefully your blood pressure has gone back down by now. My reaction is to make sure I'm doing things exactly--according to the law.
Do you belong to a legal association for homeschoolers? Home School Legal Defense Association is the most well-known; there are a couple others.
It may make a big difference whom you choose to review portfolios next year. When we had to do year-end portfolio reviews in Ohio, we chose a certified teacher to review. The state could not tell us which teacher to go to, as long as the one we chose had a current certificate. Of course we looked for someone we knew and liked, whose philosophy of learning we could agree with, and who could tell us clearly what he was looking for.
Did she threaten sanctions? Did you take notes? Does she have any authority under Maryland law to advise or require action on her recommendations? How often are your evaluations? Did you think to tape record the conversation (letting her know that she will be recorded)?
It will probably help you to have some legal information, just in case. HSLDA has been extremely helpful to us; we had two brushes with the school district and social services here in Wisconsin. HSLDA's legal staff advised us in what to do and helped us receive inexpensive test materials. We used the Brigance test, rented from HSLDA, to check our children's progress (and to cover our rears in case the school decided to object). So far, just knowing our rights and responsibilities, being careful, and having a lawyer back us up, has been enough to deter interference. It is important to keep abreast of the homeschool law in your state; it does change. HSLDA has a quarterly newsletter they mail out, and they send out alerts by email when they consider something important enough for us to lobby our congressmen. We also belong to a couple of Wisconsin-only groups, to inform us of state issues.
We have had good experiences with HSLDA, but not everyone likes them. They are unabashedly Christian; their employees are all Christians. They will defend homeschoolers who join their organization regardless of religious affiliation. They do not defend persons who are found to be intentionally homeschooling illegally. They do not defend in non-homeschooling-related cases except where a bad precedent might be set. This means that they will not help in most custody cases, but will defend parents' rights to determine their own children's education.
HSLDA is associated with Patrick Henry College in Virginia. They focus on training people to support parental rights and the Constitution through the courts and legislative systems. HSLDA encourages people to donate to help other homeschoolers with educational expenses through the Home School Foundation. HSLDA encourages homeschooling in other countries besides the United States of America. They are trying to gain support for homeschooling everywhere; they consider the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child a dangerous treaty and a threat to parental sovereignty worldwide.
I don't necessarily agree with everything HSLDA wants me to lobby my congressmen about; I find it very useful to read their point of view and then research further before taking action. Most of the time, however, I end up agreeing with HSLDA's point of view.
I've had a social worker come to my back door and express concern that my son "was not reading up to his potential". It scared me, which is part of why social workers are trained not to announce their coming. I don't want you to have to put up with that. Hopefully there will be no negative consequences to her review. The best defense is a good offense--not to be offensive, but to be prepared. If they will be peaceful, you be peaceful too. If they want to fight, be ready.
"Conveyor Belt runs very deep in my family"
The caterpillar in the Veggietales movie: "... runs very deep in my family." Yeah, the conveyor belt is what I was raised on, but with a strong set of Core principles. My in-laws have a different set of Core principles, which causes conflict sometimes. Plus I'm teaching my 5yodd, diagnosed as PDD-NOS, without benefit of a college degree, while my sil has a Master's degree in special education. My sil was livid when she discovered it was legal for me to homeschool my children without having the credentials she worked so hard to obtain. Fortunately she and I get along better now, 11 years later. But the conveyor belt mindset is ingrained in our society, to the point that my dh talks about college professors who award unearned grades to students who simply show up every day... it's what they're used to.
Just because the reviewer you met is homeschooling her children is no guarantee that she'll have any sympathy for your point of view. (shakes head sadly) Many homeschoolers are trying to duplicate the public school experience (even Homecoming and the Prom!), but trying to leave out whatever things they objected to (sex, drugs, swearing...). I have an acquaintance, a former homeschooler, now an evaluator for the local publicly funded charter school, who still chooses classes for her 23yo son in college.
So! Know that it's hard, very hard, to let go of dearly held beliefs, including the absolute necessity of knowing multiplication by a certain age. Or what? the sun will explode? LOL. Your children are ultimately in your care, not in hers. Oh, and they're in God's care. Never forget that God is in charge. It will be okay, in the long run. He knows what He's doing.
HFWM- As always, I love
HFWM-
As always, I love reading your encouraging words and amazing advice.
The reviewer we have is a very nice woman and only doing her job. We are required in our county in MD to review twice yearly if we go with the Board of Ed. However if we decide to go with an umbrella group then we only have to review once annually. That confuses me because if MD law requries once annually then why in the world does the county do it twice????? Something I will be looking into.
Yes, didn't you know the sun will explode if my 10 year old son doesn't know his multiplication facts?!?!?! And if he doesn't know how to divide with full confidence by the end of age 11...watch out, the moon might fall from the sky.
I could fairly easily continue to review with our county if I was willing to conform to THEIR rules. I could for the sake of the reviews twice yearly, but do i truly want to rest on my laurels and risk my children's education for it? Nah! All I want is a review process that understands that every child is different and learns at a different pace. Heck, I hate to admit it, but I have pretty much forgotten multiplication facts beyond the 6's.
And do I really need a reviewer telling me she is worried a ten year old still enjoys reading Frog and Toad? I was dumbfounded that she focused on that book on his reading log and not 99% of the other books on the list that are classics and modern day classics like Eragon, The Lightening Thief, LOTR, etc....grrrrrrrrrrr.
No, I didn't tape record any of the review. I was told though that I must adjust my teaching style to his learning style in order to get him taught the multiplication facts. BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! Wait, is this same Board of Education telling the teachers teaching 30 kids in one classroom that same thing. Tisk Tisk Mrs. Jones, you had better adjust your teaching style for each one of these kids. Ummmmm, no, they are telling Mrs. Jones and all the other teachers to just push them on through; it's a numbers game for the sake of getting more funding and tax benefits in the district. We live in a highly military populated area, there is a large naval base 20 minutes away but in another county, however many of the families live here in our county because it is very nice and just commute a few extra minutes. So, anyway, in public school here in our county every year, the kids are sent home with a form to have mom/dad fill out. The form ask simple questions about your living arrangements like is anyone in the household military, if so how many, their ages, any children being raised by a single parent in the household, etc....After filling the form in the first year, I refused to fill it in the second. The school wound up calling repeatedly and claiming they wouldn't get needed funding unless every family filled out the form every year even if their answers never change year to year. After refusing the third year they claimed the gov't. could fine me and also put me in jail for not complying. HAHA said I! I told the secretary to fill it out for me and just pull the info. from the previous years form because nothing changed. Those types of bullying tactics just boil my britches.
Anyway, again, thanks for all your insight and wisdom as we learn this home schooling journey. I will not fail God by failing my children.
Timez attack
My kids didn't like learning multiplication either until I told them they will get a reward for doing a really fun timez attack computer game- it's free to download here:
http://www.educational-freeware.com/freeware/timez-attack.aspx
I had to laugh
We were reading _Frog and Toad Together_ right before I read your post. LOL! I like them, too. I hope your future evaluations go better.
Frog and Toad
We were at the library yesterday and found an old Frog and Toad DVD we took out where they did a live action version of the books. Do you remember seeing them? Obviously actors were dressed up in human sized F&T outfits acting out the book scenes. Loved it!