homeschooling stuff

I sent out an application today to join a public charter independent study program.

Let me explain, public means that it gets public funds and has to adhere to certain state/federal regulations. Charter means that it doesn't have all the same rules as a regular public school but can be quite different from and in our cause much more flexible than a regular public school. And independent study program or ISP for short, means that I teach Z myself with some oversight from the school.

I found the most flexible ISP that I could. They just seem to require that your child is making progress in the basic subjects. An E.S. (educational specialist) comes for a visit every twenty days and looks at samples of the child's work in the various subjects.

Since Z is 3 - 5 (6?) years ahead of her official grade level I don't see that there is going to be any problem.

It will mean that I will have to be more "routine" with our homeschooling... er, routine. Which can be a good thing.

Also they do not require you to be sitting at a workbook to be "learning". I asked them about our trip to France, which is during the school year and this is what they said:

During the trip, they would need to do schoolwork, but since the community (in this case the world) is our classroom, that shouldn't be difficult. I am sure they will be visiting many interesting places, historical sites, museums, cathedrals, etc. They will be observing cultural and climactic differences. They will be traveling probably via airplane and perhaps by train, cab, etc. which could lead to a study (conversation, maybe some reading, perhaps a report) of modes of transportation. There's always money conversion and budgeting for a trip, purchasing souvenirs, tracking how much do they spend on food, etc. They could do a report when they return to summarize/capture some of the learning - perhaps a scrapbook or photo album which would contain tickets, pamphlets, writings and drawings as well as photos. A travel journal is always a good tool, too. There are many options of what to do. They could even take some of their texts or workbooks and do a bit of more traditional school on the trip. Some of this depends on the age of the student, but much can be done during a trip that can count as schoolwork.

See, doesn't that sound good?

Also they give us money to spend on educational resources. I am thinking about using it to get Z EPGY classes - EPGY math that is. It is supposed to be the very very bestest math for gifted kids.

And I am kind of looking forward to having someone else to look at what I am doing with Z and give me some feedback. That might be nice, though I guess it depends on who the E.S. is and how we get along.

Anyway I am excited about it, this will be with first time I am working with someone to homeschool Z. :)

The reason I am doing this instead of just homeschooling on my own and doing my own thing is because I need a school official who is not me to sign her entertainment work permit. Anyway I am going to try it work awhile.