Educational Woes

It's been a full year of anguish over HOW to educate our daughters.

This year- we chose an online "homeschool" (which in reality is an online-public-school, but we'll get to that later.)  This online course (k12) offered an excelled curriculum and a hair-pulling-agony-inducing amount of stress for the parent that is to teach said curriculum.  Log in. Use the webpages, and work books, and teacher book, and...... JUST FOR ONE SUBJECT we have to fill up our dining room table.  Can you imagine?  It'd be achievable with maybe one child in the home.  Maybe.  But?  With a 2 year old that grabs and tears and destroys anything with in her reach?  HAH!  No.  It doesn't work so well.

I chose to stick with it nonetheless.  Just for the sake of sticking it out.  We chose to modify the k12 technique.  My amazing 6 year old is a book worm.  So?  I gave her full access to whatever book she wanted to read through out our house (thankfully- our house is filled with children's books, classic tales, and Christian authored "life skill" books).  In a typical day, one would find our eldest hidden in a corner, laying in her bed, sitting on the potty, or snuggled up on the couch- book in hand- nose in book.   With all of this reading brings many questions.  Many.  Many.  Many questions.  And thanks to Google and various other online resources, she gets answers.  Many.  Many.  Many answers.  We found cool ways to use the rocket-science curriculum to suit us- with out having to go through the motions of using the k12 material in a way that would sink us into pure exhaustion.

We've opted to do away with as many worksheets as possible.  And save the always dreaded MATH- we are primarily learning through a very non traditional method; and it's working for us THIS YEAR as a means to an end.

However.  I got a reminder last week that we would need to participate in the CRCT testing.  I had heard about this testing- put not a lot of thought into it, assuming  it was an hour (or two) long test.  Uh.  Wrong.

These crazy k12 people think that I am going to bring my daughter to a "place" where many other k12 (homeschool-public-schooled) students will sit in a big room, with people they've never met, being instructed by a "teacher" they've never met, and take a 3 day long test.

Really?  REALLY!!??  How is it possible for these people to assume that anything about that is ok?  "Here ya go.  Here's my 6 year old for the ENTIRE day +2.   She won't be scared.  She won't get nervous.  She'll sit perfectly still for x number of hours and fill in bubbles.  And pass the test with flying colors to boot.

Puh-LEASE!

Home school'd kids need to take a test every few years- for the sake of the state- to ensure the kid is being properly educated.  Totally fine.  Kyla has until 3rd grade to take that test.  And guess who'll give it to her??  NOT A STRANGER.

So..... the CRCT blow was the last-crap dish that k12 served The Anderson Family.  4 weeks left to finish the school year----  Just. 4 weeks. Left. (P.S. taking the CRCT is totally acceptable for a standard class room setting- the problem in THIS situation is that my oldest has NOT been in familiar class room setting, with familiar faces, and a teacher she KNOWS)

I don't know what we're going to do next year.  

My daughters want to go to 'regular school'.  I don't know that we can do that.    But the rule that I made with our family is this: Whatever we decide for this coming up school year- that's what we're going to do.    No teeter-tottering.  No second guesses.

Lord help me, I am hoping for consistency.  Something constant.