Friday, June 15, 2012

Still Homeschooling


Alison may have graduated, but she's still homeschooling. :)  This week's learning projects: the skirt she is wearing in the photo (made without a pattern!) and some kind of sugar-free cocoa/peanut-butter/raisin dessert concoction, plus listening to Israeli talk radio. 

And the rest of them, well... the two younger girls were at the one room schoolhouse each morning this week, experiencing what they wish our homeschooling experience would look like -- fun!  Amy helped the neighbor kids put on a play while we moms had lunch together.  Oh how I wish I had a photo of THAT!  It was hilarious and delightful. 

So yes, we are still homeschooling.  I think we are getting the "home" part down nicely.  Now if I can just wrap my mind around the "school" part.  Maybe we need to redefine what that is, especially in light of what follows --

Next week we'll do the required standardized tests for the first time.  Public school teachers are required to teach to the test, so I thought I'd look ahead and see what we might need to review.  Get a load of this question on Amy's test.  (It's okay if I tell you. No one knows the answer except perhaps a linguist.)

The participle inflectional morpheme ending is used only with
a. conjunctions
b. adjectives
c. adverbs
d. nouns
e. verbs

Really?? Someone thinks our kids should know this?? What would that prove?  If Amy knows the answer to this question it will prove only one thing, and that is that she has nothing better to do all day than to cram her head full of grammarian tradesman's vocabulary. I'd much rather she know how to clean a bathroom, play a song on the piano, write a letter, defend a Bible doctrine, treat her sisters to Culvers, or cook supper for her family.  And not because those things are easier, but because they are WORTH KNOWING.  

Homeschooling requires constant re-focusing on worthy goals and sifting out humanistic philosophies.  It requires me to keep checking my compass, the Bible, to be sure we are on the narrow but blessed path that the Lord laid out for my family.  And it's a huge blessing that we can eliminate some of the busy work that other kids are forced to do just to keep them off the streets for several hours per day.

Thankfully I don't report our test results to anyone.  In Minnesota we have to do them annually, presumably to help homeschooling moms see where we might have holes in our kids' education.

Participle inflectional morpheme endings are a hole that we are not going to bother to fill in. The same goes for  possessive inflectional morpheme endings!

There is knowledge, and then there is knowledge...



For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 2:6 




5 comments:

  1. Well said my friend!

    And the sad thing is, you will never know if she did get it right or wrong, because when the scores come back, they just give a bottom-line score and don't tell you which ones she got wrong. The whole thing is sooooo pointless!

    I will be so glad when Anna takes her last test next year. Anna says she likes taking the tests, "they're kinda fun". What a goofy girl.

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  2. You hit the nail on the head. If you ever did need to know such an answer, there is always google in this day and age. I googled it and the answer is verb. What a pointless bit of knowledge to have. The public schools need to be teaching kids to be kind, caring, respectful and hard workers.
    Blessings, Dawn

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  3. I personally could not answer that question! And I love the skirt Allison made. School is just a sate of mind. We're always learning.

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  4. Love Ali's skirt! Tell her well done! It looks so feminine and cool for summer temps. I really want to get busy making myself some clothes... Maybe in a few months when things begin to level out again.

    We are still homeschooling, too. Our graduate has requested that we purchase the next level of French so he can keep learning it after college hours in the fall. Love these homeschool kids... :)

    Seriously? That's a question that people should know? In what reality? :P

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  5. That is a crazy test question! English is my favorite subject, and I'll admit I've never even heard of that!

    That is a beautiful skirt. You have trained her well...to be a lifelong learner (of the important things.) ;-)

    I hope you have a wonderful summer!

    Michelle

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