This is the person who will take over Gloria's education where I leave off. . .
I'm still pretty weirded out over the whole thing. I had a few minutes to myself after we visited the school so I quickly typed some pros and cons into the notepad on my phone so I could try to sort through all the strange emotions I'm having over this transition. This is what I came up with:
Pros:
Shopping for school supplies
New Clothes
New Backpack
Rules
Schedules
Free Time (for me)
Structure
New Friends
New Ideas
Art
Music
New Experiences
Field Trips
PE
Change
Cons:
Rules
Schedules
Structure
Responsibility
Standardized Tests
Categories
Labels
Numbers (just another kid in a sea of kids)
Change
Square Peg in a Round Hole
MORNING
Mourning
I also said in my notes that "We (our immediate family) collectively walk to the beat of our own drummer and we are pausing the alien mother ship just long enough to shove Gloria out onto Planet Reality. . . "
Hmmmm . . . If I'm feeling this way now, I wonder what kind of a basket case I'll be on her first day of school????
3 comments:
Wow Tanya! It's really funny to think that we are switching places! You are putting one in the system and I am taking two out! I have all these great ideas on how I am going to do things and how fun (and challenging) it is going to be. I keep coming up with more pros than cons myself. This will be an interesting school year in the fall for the both of us!
I'm a teacher - and I know that 'standardized tests' are less than ideal but life is full of them...SATs for college, GREs for advanced degrees...they are nothing more than data and they don't mean she's learning (or not learning). The nice thing you have is the option for your daughter to always change her mind...most kids don't have that opportunity.
Christie- The funny thing is, I used to love taking standardized tests when I was growing up. There was something about having two sharp, new, #2 pencils and a booklet full of empty ovals just waiting to be filled in that gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling. In our limited experience with standardized tests as home educators, I have found that Zach has no problem with them and Gloria just freezes up and can't remember how to spell her own name. I know they are necessary, I just really don't want a label tacked on right at the start. You're right, though, we can change mid-stream if we need to but I sure hope this school thing works out. I'm realizing more and more that I just can't give her what she needs at home. Thanks for the encouragement!
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