Strange Juxtipostion - Sexy Minister?

Ok,  this post is going to seem a little odd if it is read immediately following my previous post.  Stick with it though,  isn't this a prime example of what it means to be a woman?  We are a bit of everything.

This has been a very exciting week.  I received word that I have been accepted into a masters of divinity program.  Yes,  I will be working toward becoming a minister.  This was a very big step, and I still have several more steps to get everything in order, but I'm trying to get it all done to begin the program this September.

I questioned whether it was too late to take a step like this.  I really worried whether I was putting myself before the kids who are only minutes away from college themselves.  I fretted over maintaining our family balance.  Then I prayed, and I followed through.  I figure if I am listening correctly and this is where He is aiming me then it will work out and I have to be ready to try.

If you ask Me where to go, don’t be afraid to follow when I lay the path.

Where is your path leading?

Are you brave enough to follow?

Homeschooling through high school

You would think by 10th grade all the homeschooling decisions had been made.  Obviously, we are homeschooling and we did decide to continue throughout high school, so what else is there to do. . .Ah, college testing.  This very morning DD is taking her PSAT's.

I don't know about you but choosing homeschooling over public schooling for day to day education became a clear cut decision, but I have always been nervous about how this choice would affect the ability of my children to get into college.  Certainly colleges are much more open to homeschoolers than previously, but as a parent we don't want to do anything that will inhibit our children from reaching their dreams.  It seems as we reach the high school age, I am faced with these decisions quite frequently:

Does she take the standardized testing?
Do we enroll in college early?
Should she get her GED?
How carefully do I keep her transcript?
Do we adhere to the traditional standards of four years of English, two years of a foreign language, etc?

Eeeek!  Each of these answers may make or break choices that she wants to make in the future.  I have scoured many homeschooling books, talked to homeschoolers, read blogs, and even talked to college admissions officers, but it seems everyone has a slightly different opinion of how you "have to do it".  So we are left back where we were just trying to make the best decisions that we can.  And so as I said, today she is taking her PSAT's.

I must tell you that as we were studying for this test, I remembered all the reasons that I object to traditional schooling.  This test isn't testing your knowledge; it is testing your test taking ability.  There are 500 page books to teach you all the hints and tricks they use on these tests.  And we won't even get into the idea of timing a test.  But we decided to go this route, because one, it gives her an opportunity for the National Merit Scholarship and two, I think for some schools the SAT's are still very important, especially for a homeschooler who cannot show traditional grades. Now we may get farther along this path and start taking college classes at the community college which will allow her to transfer to a state school and therefore invalidate the whole SAT process, but then I figure, what is the harm. 

Homeschooling through high school should probably be renamed to homeschooling into college.  On the positive side, DD's own accomplishments during high school will hopefully speak louder than any official transcript.  The trick will be to find an admissions officer who is willing to listen (and a pocketbook to pay the bill ; ) ).

CMT prep

At work today, one of the instructors gave out an article called, “CMT Preparations: What’s your School Doing?” The article was written by Laurel Kilough on February 25, 2010 for the Ct Education Association Blog. And while the ideas seemed interesting, fun, and inventive, I was left be thankful that I homeschool my children. (As many of you know we homeschool our two biological children and our foster son attends public school due to legal requirements) For those of you who do not know what CMT’s are, they are the CT Mastery Tests. While the CMT’s are specific to CT, many other states have similar type tests. The article talks about rigorous academic preparation, involving parents, pep rallies, and ideas to enliven the actual days of the test. As I said the article does put out some interesting ideas like poetry contests to encourage students on the CMT’s, sprinkling fairy dust in the form of reading strategies, or giving encouraging notes, but the whole idea left me with a queasy feeling. Why do we have to focus on rigorous academic preparation? Shouldn’t that be the standard? Why do we need to “send a letter home to parents asking them to limit absences and make sure their children get a good night’s sleep and proper nutrition”? Shouldn’t that be a consistent expectation? I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around holding a pep rally to “get ready” for the test. Isn’t the focus a bit array? Shouldn’t we be excited about learning itself and not about proving our knowledge on a test? As for “fairy godmothers”, Captain Writing, raffles, and incentives, I just ask why? Is the way we are teaching so horrible that we must bribe our students to perform?

The last sentence in the article says “What has your school been doing to prepare for the CMT or CAPT?” Fortunately, we are exempt as homeschoolers so I don’t have to answer this seriously, but my answer is learning. We are learning every day. We are learning for the sake of learning and not so that we can spew out our knowledge on a contrived test to be compared to others, but so that we can be engaged citizens, active community members, and generally better individuals. What are we doing to prepare? We are learning, acting, making changes, reviewing, discussing, interacting, discovering, creating and we don’t even need pep rallies, “fairy dust”, or Smarties to make it fun.