Choosing (or Not) to Play the Game

This year, as some of you know, my older daughter is in a distance-learning program. It's been a struggle in many ways. But the biggest difficulty has been my girl's impatience with a system that sometimes "doesn't get it."

By this she means, the balance of inside and out has sometimes not been well-understood or successfully addressed. Being home-educated her whole life, this is a shocking experience. The rhythm of our lives has always been to cultivate what's inside the girls with appropriate outside helps. The balance has been (mostly) simple to achieve.

There are days when I almost despair over how simple it *has not been* in this new situation, though the distance-school has tried to (mostly) be accommodating.

The other night I told my girl that this is how it is in life. She'll encounter people and systems who "get it" and those who don't. And she will have to choose whether to play their game or assert her own game. I told her stories of times I've played the game and times I determined I could not. I want her to know she has a choice.

Portfolio on Demand

So it's official. My girl will still be home for high school, but she'll be "attending" the Laurel Springs Gifted and Talented Academy.

On Monday, the Academy asked me for a description of Sara's 8th-grade year (scope, sequence, assessment explanations, quarterly reports, complete with samples for every quarter for every subject, standardized test scores).

Um. :)

Because I'm an unschooler more than a classical schooler, and because I live in a State that doesn't require portfolios as part of the reporting structure, I was overwhelmed by the request.

I spent more than seventeen hours gathering materials, writing descriptions, trying to find my old teacher certificates in the attic. I took a day and a half off from work to make it happen (including a 5 am rising because my mind was racing over the question of where to find all the "proof" I needed).

When it was all said and done, I actually felt a great sense of accomplishment. But it sure was intensive.

Watching this process, my sweet second daughter decided that she's going to keep a portfolio, so we don't face this kind of thing in two years when perhaps she'll do a similar kind of program. I appreciate that. :)

Since I spent so much time on the whole thing, I wanted to share with you just one section of the Art portfolio I created: an excerpt of Sara's Princess and the Pea graphic novel.

Let's just say, I identified with the Princess's sleepless night (check her out below)...



























Phew. :)


Graphic Novel by Sara Barkat, at age 13.