Going Our Own Way
Dateline: 09/4/97
By Ann Zeise
I took the leap. I made the decision to homeschool. Scott
had been put in the back of his classroom, near a heating system
with a loud fan, behind a box, so he wouldn't be "distracted."
He had been labeled a "bad boy" and was finding school
a torment. I had the feeling I was "springing" him
from prison. His esteem was rock bottom. My bubbly, bright, outgoing
preschooler had turned sullen. Something was dreadfully wrong.
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The temptation was great to duplicate school at home. Some
do go so far as to turn a room in their home into a miniature
school house, complete with chalk board. I didn't go quite that
far, but I did make a spreadsheet with
times and subjects down the left column and dates along the top
row, with exactly what we were going to study each moment of
the day. I thought I had to. Anything to get our son out of his
depression. Routine, I was told, was best for attention
deficit disorder children.
Not sure where to turn to when Scott just wasn't thriving
in 4th grade, I phoned the
local school district. Mistake #1. The woman handling the
district homeschooling program welcomed me with open arms. The
district would not only provide me with free books, but also
pencils, paper, art and science supplies. What a deal! All I
would have to do would be to give them a plan of what I was going
to teach for the coming month and then a report of what we actually
had done, with any material work Scott had actually performed.
Seemed a simple trade at the time.
They wanted their "ADA" or "Average Daily Attendance"
money. If a local child leaves the system, the district loses
this money. If they stay, even in some kind of independent study
program, the district gets about $3,000 from the state per year.
So I brought two boxes full of books
and supplies home.
Now Scott had been pretty miserable at school. I had been
laid off work when my group had been relocated to Maine. I had
started a business at home, creating marketing materials, much
as I had been doing before. My husband had gotten this great
software contract, but in Nevada, up at Tahoe. Lovely area. Would
be fun to drive up there for long weekends. Homeschooling we
could do that. It just all seemed to come together.
Scott had agreed to work on his own while I had to work. He
went off for the first few days and read the whole reader we
had been given for the year. Course, at that speed he didn't
slow down for questions at the end of the chapter or any of the
"language arts" materials that were supposed to go
along with each lesson. I went back to the district and asked
for the 5th grade reader. No, I could not have an advanced text.
What would I do with him next year? Besides, they were only allocated
so many books. So, Scott started just reading what we've come
to call "real books."
No watered down versions of classics, as are so often found in
readers. We'd get them from the library
or buy them at bookstores.
Now Scott loves math. Hard
to spoil it for him. The district couldn't afford to give me
a workbook. (Where was this ADA money going? was going through
my mind.) I made dittos of all the math sheets, and according
to schedule, Scott did one or two a day. Well, maybe we got 15
lessons done a month. We were finding so
many interesting places to go!
California history was all around us, especially as we were
driving through Sacramento
and the Gold Rush area as we drove back and forth to Tahoe. It
was easy to stop off at Sutter's
Fort, the Railroad Museum,
or take in old Hangtown and the Gold
Bug Mine in Placerville.
At the museum in South Lake Tahoe there was an Indian hand drill.
Scott made a sketch and we came home and made one. It really
worked. Needed to be drilled in the first place as part of the
process. "How did they ever make the first one, Mom?"
The history
book gathered dust as we visited Ohlone shell mounds, Spanish
presidios and missions, even unheralded local adobes left from
the days of the great Ranchos.
Our Indian Hand Drill has lost its nail on the
bottom, but this will give you a general idea of how it was built.
After being told that even in the schools they weren't using
the science text books, just trying to give the kids as much
"hands on" science
as they could, we, too, abandoned the outdated book. Did glance
at the concepts so we thought would know what to cover, and then
just started "experimenting." Pretty soon it became
obvious that while there was no squelching our son's enthusiasm
for experimenting, it was also pretty ridiculous to try to study
just one branch of science at any one time. How could we not
drop biology if there was a comet in the sky? Only problem with
science was the cost of good instruments. We figured out how
to make some and others we bought. Lots of concepts can be taught
using household materials, even toys!
P.E. was the only other state required course we needed to
document. Scott joined the local swim team, as he just loves
to swim. It was a workout, and he wasn't used to that. But he
did notice he was starting to beat me in the pool, so this really
lifted his self-esteem. He looked tan and fit.
There were days, yes, there were days when we were both ready
to throw in the towel. Usually they were the days I was trying
to jam some knowledge down Scott's throat. I noticed it was around
the time those dang reports were due, and we didn't seem to have
any documented learning.
I started to learn "educationalese"
about that time. I'd make a "normal" household routine
sound like a major curriculum study! It was great fun. For example,
Scott would help test the pool water: he studied "the chemical
balance of standing water and compensate with either a base or
acid to neutralize it." He'd spend all day playing SimCity:
he was "studying city planning."
We tolerated this system for two years, when I ran into a
California woman online. She mentioned that since she had a CA
teaching credential, she did not have to fill out any of those
dang reports. No paper work at all! No supervision by anyone!
Hey! Wait a minute! I have an old Life CA teaching credential
in some file drawer here! Hadn't taught for years, but this was
issued for life, and I'm not dead yet! You mean they really let
you do that?
Checked with the Homeschool supervisor. Yes, since I was a
certified teacher I could homeschool under the
"Tutoring" option, with me as the tutor. I said
what amounted to "Nice knowing you," and we've been
going our own way ever since.
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