This is a long one...

A few of my friends have blogs that they keep more as an everyday journal. I like looking at their posts, even on the days when it is only one line long. While I have the desire to do this, I do not think I want to start a whole other blog, so, I am taking this one over for my random thoughts, whether they relate to homeschool or not.

In the state of Washington we are required to have children age eight and over either tested or assessed by a certified teacher. Seri was assessed last year, but this year I feel she is mature enough to participate in testing. I don't want to give the impression that I agree with testing in this manner, but I am a law-abiding citizen.
Michael however will be assessed. I did not like the person we used for Seri's assessment and so I was on the hunt for another certified teacher who would perform it. At church there are a few certified teachers and I saw one in the hall so I asked if I could speak with her and politely explained that we were looking for someone to assess Michael and did she do assessments or know of someone who did.
Her response was "You must call the school district and see when the testing day is. In our school district they have chosen to deal with this by having all homeschooled children come in for testing. And you had better do it soon because the date is coming up soon". Shocked I told her this was the first I had heard of it and that I knew for a fact there were other methods of satisfying this law without bringing my children to a "mandatory" test day at the school.
She then told me that I had better get my curriculum evaluated soon also. Now, I am really in shock and reply that it is not stated in the law that my curriculum needs to be evaluated. Luckily there was another mother who had homeschooled her children who had the same response. Regardless, the "certified teacher" rudely told me that once again this was how our school district had choosen to deal with this since they were still responsible for my children even though I homeschool them. EXCUSE ME??? Who is responsible for my children? Their father and I are!!!! Guesse that is the major beef I have with the PS system is this disagreement over whose responsible for the children my husband and I concieved and I gave birth to.
Man, I was so ticked off!!! If you disagree with my homeschooling then just politely tell me you would not be comfortable with assessing my child and walk away, I promise not to be offended. But, please do not go spouting off inacurate information!! It only makes you look stupid. Trust me, as any home school mother will tell you, we are well versed on the state law. We have to be, to protect ourselves from self-righteous people like you who have a problem with those of "our kind".
Now, I am supposed to go to church and not harbor ill feelings towards this person.... I will be good, I will be good.......
On a brighter note I finally did find someone to assess Michael.
On a less-than-bright note, she charges $75.00. Add that to the $55.00 for Seri's tesing and I am once again irked.
We have to register our Declaration of intent with the school district who then gets the funding for my children to fund a school they will never attend. Meanwhile my husband works and pays taxes to help fund this school my children wont attend and then pays again to fulfill the requirements given us. We get no funds whatsoever. All curriculum and educational realted fees we pay out of pocket. Then when my husband gets a $1,800 bonus, we only see $1,300 of it because of taxes!!!! Man, this seems just so wrong!!!

On the other hand maybe I can't complain too much, a friend once told me that she budgets between $500 and $700 a year per child for school costs. Supplies, Clothes, PE uniforms, fundraisers, field trips, yearbooks, school pictures, lunches, etc....... Now, that's nuts.

Seri's youth group signed up to volunteer at a local Elementary school's end of year carnival. Wow, was that crazy. Walking through the school I couldn't help but to notice how institutionalized it was. Not inviting at all despite the colorful banners and posters on the walls and the little dog foot prints on the hall floors. The walls were of white brick and it was not enclosed, just had an open roof over the top which means (at least here in Seattle) that the hallway is always wet and cold.
They sold tickets for 25 cents or an all you can play bracelet for $15.00. Then the chidren all ran around playing stupid games for stupid prizes that would be thrown away or trashed before they probably even got home, while parents followed behind dispensing cash and looking as if this was the last place on earth they wanted to be.
There was nothing about the situation that made me want to rush out and enroll my kids for next fall. In fact, I felt the opposite emotion of "Thank God that's not us". But I did wonder if Seri saw it all in a different light. When we got in the van I asked her if being there made her wish she was in school at all. Her response was "Are you kidding me? Did you see how most of those kids behaved?". I would like to think that is entirely her own opinion but I do wonder if she does not pick up those attitudes from me.
For the most part I do not fight the battle of my children wanting to go back to school. In fact, I think Seri is very happy to not be in school. They have a highschool in Seattle called Aviation High that is strictly geared towards eniginering (sp) and aeronautics which is right up her ally. I tried to talk to her about maybe going there for Highschool and she responded by saying "But, that's a public school. I am not all that interested".
Michael has said recently that he wants to go to school. When I asked him why he responded because he would then see his friends everyday and get to ride a bus. I told him that in my opinion that was not a good enough reason for me to enroll him in school and that we would ride the local bus next week to get it out of his system. He was satisfied with that answer and finished his math.
As far as Isaac goes, I don't think he knows any better yet.