Hello, again.

Well, well, well...  Where were we?

Sarabelle has just finished her first year at college.  Proof that an eclectic education doesn't completely screw you up.  She's happily pursuing a degree in communications and working on the local radio station.  Next year she will have a regular show of her own and will be the station's music director.  She established the first strings ensemble at the college and has been invited to join the city's community orchestra.  This month she is New York City interning at a major record label and basically living her dream.

Grice has finished all her dual enrollment college classes for this year and just has a few more weeks of her last high school class:  Algebra 2.  She was inducted into the college's honor society and is on track to graduate high school next year with her full Associates degree.  We're trying to pin down a university for her to follow her interest in zoology.  More proof that this works.

And I'm still homeschooling Elle.  For our spine, covering American history, we're reading Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States.  We're using Saxon Math 5/4 and plan to jump ahead to the 8/7 book when we finish because, according to the great State of Florida, she should be in sixth grade this year.  Though, if you have been following the news of the horrendous state of our educational system, Florida is apparently no expert on that subject.  Easy Grammar Plus, which is suitable for high school students, was a good follow-up to the First Language Lessons series.  Elle wanted to work on her spelling, so I picked up an appropriate level of Spelling Workout, and since she likes workbooks, Building Thinking Skills was an easy way to start working logic in.  We were nearly through Latina Christiana I when I came upon William Linney's Getting Started With Latin and his continuing education website:  http://www.linneyslatinclass.com/ and changed course.  Again.  I was comfortable with the religiosity in the Latina Christiana/Henle progression, that was how I learned Latin, but now prefer to skip that and move on to purely secular studies.  And especially ones that can be done without purchasing another series of books.  The lessons are very short -- Charlotte Mason's 15 minute suggestion is in play for my little Miss Short Attention Span --  and so far it is all repetition, but Elle likes it and is feeling pretty confident in her abilities.

In other homeschool news:

I've had to drag out my copy of Queen Bees and Wannabes for another reading.  Elle has been taking ice skating lessons this year.  The group of three girls her age were welcoming at first but have turned into a bunch of mean girls.  Since the group is predominantly Christian, her lessons have become less about skating and more about hypocrisy.

Thanks to the current political atmosphere, I have discovered I am a feminist.  And an angry one at that.  Elle has had the benefit of overhearing the podcasts and news reports I listen to and has a grasp of current events that probably rivals most of the adults she knows. We've been to a few local Occupy events, protesting Citizens United, etc., and Elle really likes these as I count her participation as a full school day.

With my ability to work remotely, I am beginning to plan a summer trip up to Boston.  It may be evolving into another Colonial America/Revolutionary War road trip.  Elle was too young to get much out of our last trip other than correctly identifying George Washington in the Capitol's Rotunda.

Our little town recently announced plans to build a marine research and tourist attraction just three blocks from our house.  It will be a great boost to our local economy and just imagine the opportunities for a high school aged homeschooler...

Update

Time for a post methinks. I surprised myself by remembering the email address and password for this account after apparently cleaning out my cookies. On the first try too! So here I am, ready or not...

School for Elle (and here, finally, I'll plug my little online umbrella school, Schola Classical Academy*) has been extraordinarily lax. Yes, even more than my usual disorganized blasé approach. (How's that for an endorsement? Come to our lazy-ass school!) In fact for the past three days she's been on the east coast doing what I like to refer to as an 'apprenticeship' with her father: Processing permits, managing a crew, playing with Post-It Notes. Tomorrow we have a big day of learning planned: Swimming at a friend's. And then dance class. I have been seriously thinking that with her high social requirements she might be better off in school, but this business with my brother beckons and being flexible enough to travel wins. For now.

Sarabelle is still up in the air about college. Currently she is considering a degree in audio engineering and putting her fine arts as a secondary pursuit to her music. She is shopping around for an upright double bass and aims to play with the local symphony. If she is still undecided about her major come July, she will be enrolled at the local state college to work on her Associates. We've got another campus tour coming up on a Sunday in May -- the day after a big wedding that I am performing.

I've never used my notary stamp once in the 10 years or so that I've had it, ever since Jorge's aunt signed me up in order to legalize her papers and then promptly changed her mind, so at an Easter picnic, when the hostess, a dear friend, asked if anyone knew a notary, I admitted I was one thinking she needed a document processed. She then announced to the crowd that she had found her officiant; I would be marrying her nephew and his fiance. I, who when forced to do a Bible reading at my grandmother's funeral, took one big breath and never stopped reading until I nearly keeled over from asphixia, I will be the one standing up in front of a whole crowd of strangers on this momentous occasion performing the ceremony. On a pier. Under a burning hot sun. You might see me on YouTube.

Grice continues to breeze through her honors classes and is nearly finished with her freshman year of high school. Wow. That was fast. I have been drafted as secretary for next year's PTO (Reason #42,620 why you should homeschool.)

Still waiting for the finishing touches on the renovation. It looks like we might be in sometime before Christmas...



* Disclaimer: The entire premise is pompous and conceited and probably offensive to anyone with a hint of religion, but it's for those of us, the loosely-structured, classical, secular homeschool devotees, who want a serious-looking, non-parochial name on a transcript without authoritarian interference. The end.

I Still Don't Know What I Want to Be When I Grow Up

Sarabelle takes her second round of SATs Saturday. It's not to improve her admission applications, it's to try and boost her 75% Florida Bright Futures Scholarship to the full 100%.

Ready for a big confession? We've been downsizing further education plans. We've gone from the nearby private "Yale of Art Schools," to the not too far away State University With a Good Arts Program, to the neighborhood state college. We're thinking of a two-year Associates and a transfer to whatever art program she favors later on.

And the guilt! Oh, the guilt.

Jiminy Cricket is sitting on my shoulder chirping, "Cheapskate!" in my ear, but it's not about the money. Not entirely, anyway. It is going to be a bit of a stretch as Jorge's work is now beginning to slow down and he has clients who can't afford to pay him for work he's completed and we have real estate investments meant for such expenses that are unfortunately currently unmarketable, but we do have relatives willing to underwrite the venture and I have a fund to tap (only as a last ditch effort unless I want to go straight to Hell the head of the Black Sheep line. Again.) Part of it is my belief that a college education is hardly worth more than the parchment proof it's printed on. Is there even a parchment commodities exchange these days? I don't know. It's expensive, but is it valuable? I'm hearing stories from people, like the girl I used to babysit, who at 35 has nearly finished up her Masters to teach art history in connection with a museum. The debt? Is it worth it the financial and psychological stress? And the cost in terms of years lost? Let me reiterate: She's 35 and just now looking to get on with her life after graduation, finally in a position to be competitive in her job market. Life's too short, I think. I might have recommended volunteering as a docent after learning a lucrative trade. Had she asked.

Mostly, Sarabelle just isn't sure. About what she wants to do, about where she wants to go, about what she wants to study... And Jorge and I wrestle with the fact that we felt very undecided in the same situation and had no one offering us any real guidance. Do we push? Do we stand back and let her twist in the wind?

Then there are the ghosts of our ancestors, my Yale Gramper and Sarah Lawrence Grammy, and Jorge's Columbia professor Grandmother and University of Miami Law School Judge Pop, haunting me along with a whole slew of living, breathing attorney and teacher relatives and their Ivy league and almost-Ivy League prodigies, persuading me that this is the only ticket to a successful life. And let's not forget the husband who agrees with them.

Did I mention guilt?

I know everyone has their own place. I'd rather have the girls follow their passions. I'd prefer not wasting money. But there's that whole second-guessing thing going on. Am I a realist? Am I a slacker? And the clock, with its incessant infernal ticking, I hear it.

In the meantime, I'm calling her graduated after the SATs -- I might even hum a little "Pomp and Circumstance" to make it official -- and for her graduation present she is flying to New York to see the Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA before it closes, have a quick visit with her cousins, and hang with Cool NYC Animator Uncle at his place of business.

For all you torturing yourself with similar decisions, check out the posts over at Mental Multivitamin: About College; Paying for College: A Rant of Modest Proportions; Paying for College, Revisited; and Community College.

And good luck.

Square Pegs

If we were still homeschooling, as defined by our county school board, Sarabelle's high school transcript would be a breeze; whatever studies and credits I assigned would be honored. As we are now under the domain of a private school, though it is only an umbrella school, our own at that, and we continue to essentially homeschool, things are a bit more complicated.

For Sarabelle to be eligible for the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship, and this also applies to regular homeschoolers, we have to shoehorn the classes and studies she's completed into the official courses recognized by the state's department of education. It's not as easy as finding a description that basically fits, no, you have to be sure the course gives the proper credit amount in the proper category for the proper award and is currently valid. For example, I decided to describe her latest English course, the Teaching Company's Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition as a Great Books course, the closest description available, assigning her one full credit for the two semesters' worth of study, however, the Great Books course was only considered a valid credit up until 2007, so the next best match was a World Lit Honors class which is weighted with an extra half point for grading purposes. I never intended to inflate her grades, but don't have much choice: if we designate one of her classes with course #9999999, a number used for studies which don't match offerings in the official list of designated courses, she receives no credit. The Great Authors study is probably legitimately more challenging and involved than a high school English Lit course, but I still worry about the appearance of impropriety.

Complicating the matter was the fact that while Sarabelle had valid high school credits and above average grades for grades 8, 9, and 10 in Australia, her year 11 semester grades, the ones earned on her most recent solo trip, were atrocious. In her defense, she did not get the classes she wanted and was pushed into more difficult courses. Aside from that she was there (in her eyes) primarily to socialize. I was happy to discover after several discreet inquiries, that Queensland schools do not use transcripts for university admissions, relying solely on exit exam scores and copies of report cards, and that there is no clearinghouse of student data available to college admissions officers. Fortunately for us, the school she is currently applying to will except international report cards if necessary or the grades earned there if they have been accepted and incorporated into a transcript from her current school, so we need not report the awful grade 11 marks from Australia and can use our own private school year 11 grades.

In Florida high schoolers need 24 credits to graduate. Anyone who homeschools can imagine what a joke this is. We ended up with 37 credits and to keep it from looking absolutely ridiculous I pared the number down to 33.75, downgrading several rightfully earned credits into extracurricular activities.

She needs to take her SATs one more time having scored high enough to qualify for the 75% award but a few points shy of the 100% award. Her grade point average is good and she has way more volunteer hours than necessary for the scholarship requirements. Deadline for this particular school's applications is March 1, and so far we are right on schedule.