[email protected]

Hi all!

I used to post here about 1 1/2 to 2 years ago briefly. My name is Jenny, I live in MA with my 3 children, wonderful husband, 4 cats and 1 wiener dog. I've always wanted to homeschool, ever since I was in college and attempted to become a teacher. At the same time MA decided to formulate MCAS testing and new teacher certs. I dropped out. I wanted NO part in that malarcky. Before we needed to "legally" report to the school district, we dabbled in a few different "curriculum" ideas, but I just couldn't see "disciplining" myself to force my children to sit at the table and DO busy work. I so enjoyed watching them play, doing things, watching that "light bulb" moment when they mastered something. So, I found unschooling, and MY light bulb went off. :-)

Now, we aren't radical unschoolers, although I'd love to be. We just aren't there quite yet, but working on it day by day. But we have been doing "nothing", as the school would view it. Of course, we are doing TONS. I'm currently listening to my older two in the kitchen, the Risk board all spread out, making up their own worldly adventure. My youngest is drawing behind me, making a "book".

Now, here's my "panic" moment. In the past two years of having to report our intent to the school district, they've left us alone. Send in my letter stating I'm homeschooling, and that's all. Done. Well, this year, there's been a lot of changes within the (messed up) school department, and I have received a letter from them, requesting "coppies or your assessments for the end of the school year". It goes on to say, "As you may recall end of year assessments to document academic growth are required as part of the home school agreement."

ACK!!!!!!!

I have to have this in by July 1, according to them.

So, HOW do I write up a simple "assessment" of the past year? I have to do two, one for my son, one for my daughter. UGH. I hate going to the "academic" frame of mind. My son is FINE in that thinking. He's 8 and has been reading for about 2 years, maybe more. He, I can't even really put into words what he knows that he "should", nor do I really know what THEY think he should know. And I know they'd chew up my daughter and spit her out, she's JUST barely beginning to read, BUT, she's in speech therapy and I truly believe that is the focus with her. She's had such a rough time mastering language the way SHE wants. And I don't think the school needs to know about that. We deal with her needs via her therapist and her pediatrician. I'm just stressed about how I'm going to come up with something written that is simple, and will satisfy them to leave us alone.

HELP!!!! :-)

~~~~~~~~~~
Jenny
Mom to Danny (8), Kelsey (6) and Evelyn (4)

Wendy McDonald

Hi, Jenny,

I'm in MA, too. I was just about to suggest that you post this
question on the MA groups, since the hsers there are usually pretty
well-acquainted with the case law -- but I popped over to get the urls
and saw that you already have! ;)

You'll get it done -- just recall all the Eduspeak that you learned in
the certificate program, and use that to translate your kids' progress
into the terms that the school system needs. I would set aside an
evening or two to pound out the draft, then run it by your dh, make a
few tweaks, and just send it in.

Why July 1st, though? That doesn't seem like something they can argue
based on case law, iirc. How much notice did they give you in their
"request"? What type of assessment did you specify in your LOI?

Wendy in Chelmsford



--- In [email protected], mommyof3unschoolers@... wrote:
>
> Hi all!
>
> I used to post here about 1 1/2 to 2 years ago briefly. My name is
Jenny, I live in MA with my 3 children, wonderful husband, 4 cats and
1 wiener dog. I've always wanted to homeschool, ever since I was in
college and attempted to become a teacher. At the same time MA decided
to formulate MCAS testing and new teacher certs. I dropped out. I
wanted NO part in that malarcky. Before we needed to "legally" report
to the school district, we dabbled in a few different "curriculum"
ideas, but I just couldn't see "disciplining" myself to force my
children to sit at the table and DO busy work. I so enjoyed watching
them play, doing things, watching that "light bulb" moment when they
mastered something. So, I found unschooling, and MY light bulb went
off. :-)
>
> Now, we aren't radical unschoolers, although I'd love to be. We just
aren't there quite yet, but working on it day by day. But we have been
doing "nothing", as the school would view it. Of course, we are doing
TONS. I'm currently listening to my older two in the kitchen, the Risk
board all spread out, making up their own worldly adventure. My
youngest is drawing behind me, making a "book".
>
> Now, here's my "panic" moment. In the past two years of having to
report our intent to the school district, they've left us alone. Send
in my letter stating I'm homeschooling, and that's all. Done. Well,
this year, there's been a lot of changes within the (messed up) school
department, and I have received a letter from them, requesting
"coppies or your assessments for the end of the school year". It goes
on to say, "As you may recall end of year assessments to document
academic growth are required as part of the home school agreement."
>
> ACK!!!!!!!
>
> I have to have this in by July 1, according to them.
>
> So, HOW do I write up a simple "assessment" of the past year? I have
to do two, one for my son, one for my daughter. UGH. I hate going to
the "academic" frame of mind. My son is FINE in that thinking. He's 8
and has been reading for about 2 years, maybe more. He, I can't even
really put into words what he knows that he "should", nor do I really
know what THEY think he should know. And I know they'd chew up my
daughter and spit her out, she's JUST barely beginning to read, BUT,
she's in speech therapy and I truly believe that is the focus with
her. She's had such a rough time mastering language the way SHE wants.
And I don't think the school needs to know about that. We deal with
her needs via her therapist and her pediatrician. I'm just stressed
about how I'm going to come up with something written that is simple,
and will satisfy them to leave us alone.
>
> HELP!!!! :-)
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~
> Jenny
> Mom to Danny (8), Kelsey (6) and Evelyn (4)
>

Joyce Fetteroll

On Jun 22, 2008, at 4:23 PM, mommyof3unschoolers@... wrote:

> So, HOW do I write up a simple "assessment" of the past year?

Try here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewEnglandUnschooling/

Lots of MA unschoolers there. While you wait for someone to respond
you can search back through the archives. Obviously its a question
that comes up often.

> Of course, we are doing TONS. I'm currently listening to my older
> two in the kitchen, the Risk board all spread out, making up their
> own worldly adventure. My youngest is drawing behind me, making a
> "book".

That's "Learning geography and political science through games."
Books are Story telling and Language arts. ... All depends on how you
word it.

My report is always as short as possible. In MA it's up to the town
to *prove* that your plan is inadequate, not just state so. Here's
one from when my daughter was 11:

> Here is the progress report for Kathryn Fetteroll for the 2002-2003
> school year.
>
> Reading: Reading an adult level book slowly. Comprehends well and
> reads complex instructions for meaning.
>
> Writing, spelling, grammar: Nintendo Writing Class and Dungeons and
> Dragons Writing Class. Also continues to write prolifically, both
> comic books and beginning to dabble in fiction writing. Spelling is
> decent. She seems to have more problems with common words (such as
> spelling never as neaver) that she’s been spelling wrong long
> enough that the wrong spelling look familiar than new and more
> complex words. But even the misspelling of familiar words are
> becoming fewer with time. She loves the spell checker on the
> computer which is probably responsible for improvement of her
> spelling of common words.
>
> Science: Pony care camp, gardening. Fascinated by anthropology and
> delving into that.
>
> Math: Programming games which involves algebra. Origami for
> geometry. Working her way through a computer Algebra program and a
> beginning Algebra book with her father.
>
> History/Social studies: Beginning Century Kids series that will
> follow an American family decade by decade from 1900 to 2000. World
> mythology. Dabbling in both American and history of Western
> Civilization. Did a lot of traveling: LA, Albequerque, South
> Carolina, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Las Vegas.
>
> Health: Becoming personally aware and concerned about nutrition
> and exercise. Working on increasing her endurance by jogging around
> the track.
>
> Art and music: Drawing nearly every day. Listening to a variety of
> music, getting into parodies which sparks a curiosity about the
> originals.
>

Also try:

http://www.mhla.org/
http://www.ahem.info/

They have a lot of information at their websites about plans and
reporting as well as the laws.

Joyce

[email protected]

> I'm in MA, too. I was just about to suggest that you post this
> question on the MA groups, since the hsers there are usually pretty
> well-acquainted with the case law -- but I popped over to get the urls
> and saw that you already have! ;)

~~~~~~
Yeah, I'm good like that! That was my support system for the legalities when it came time to deal with them!
~~~~~~


> You'll get it done -- just recall all the Eduspeak that you learned in
> the certificate program, and use that to translate your kids' progress
> into the terms that the school system needs. I would set aside an
> evening or two to pound out the draft, then run it by your dh, make a
> few tweaks, and just send it in.

~~~~~~
That's the problem, I have been OUT of that environment for 10 years now, I don't think I know where to start with the Eduspeak. My focus back then was secondary education, so the requirements were different than elementary. More focus was put into your "specialty" than the actual education. My roommate was elementary ed, and the ed classes she had to take and requirements were so much more than mine. Hers was a major, mine was a minor.

I just feel perplexed in trying to summarize what we know as "daily life" into something suitable and minimal to please a bunch of people that don't KNOW us for them to nod and smile that we can continue on our merry way. I know the letter sent was just a form letter that they send to everyone. It was so non-descript, didn't mention my childrens' names that they even want this for, nor did it even specify that they want two reports. I just assume, since they sent with it two of these crappy applications (that I refuse to fill out, they will get my letter I have sent in).
~~~~~~

> Why July 1st, though? That doesn't seem like something they can argue
> based on case law, iirc. How much notice did they give you in their
> "request"? What type of assessment did you specify in your LOI?

~~~~~~
I don't know why July 1st. I always sent my LOI in by the last week of August, before school started. But, I can tell you, they WON'T be getting it by then. I just received this letter YESTERDAY, June 21, and the letter itself is dated June 10. Seriously, it doesn't take mail 10 days to go across town. I've sent a letter across the COUNTRY in less time. And I send all my mail to them certified, return receipt. It gets there, if not the next day, the day after. The postmark on the envelope is June 19th, so they've had this sitting in their office almost 10 days.

My LOI does specify a progress report, but since they haven't bugged me in the past three years, I've never bothered with one. I specifically have it in my LOI that I will submit one ON written request. They never requested, I never put one together. Now I have to, and am clueless as to what I should include lol. I'd really like to deal with them as little as possible, and give them JUST enough to satisfy them and not too much to make them qant/demand more. I do just enough to stay in the legal bounds with them, and that is that.
~~~~~~

> Wendy in Chelmsford

~~~~~~
*waves*
Hi Wendy! We're over on the other side of the state in Greenfield!

~~~~~~~~~~
Jenny
Mom to Danny (8), Kelsey (6) and Evelyn (4)




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

Ahh, thank you, Joyce! I will definitely check out the links when I have a moment!
~~~~~~

> > Of course, we are doing TONS. I'm currently listening to my older
> > two in the kitchen, the Risk board all spread out, making up their
> > own worldly adventure. My youngest is drawing behind me, making a
> > "book".
>
> That's "Learning geography and political science through games."
> Books are Story telling and Language arts. ... All depends on how you
> word it.

~~~~~~
I guess that's my issue mostly. I don't "think" Eduspeak on a daily basis, so for me to put what we do into their words is tough. I guess it's kind of like someone trying to get into unschooling mode and forget the Eduspeak. I'm just having to go backwards :-)
~~~~~~

> My report is always as short as possible. In MA it's up to the town
> to *prove* that your plan is inadequate, not just state so. Here's
> one from when my daughter was 11:

~~~~~~
Thanks for the example! I guess I'll just have to really try at this. I've worked ten years to get out of the "what is education" mode and 8 years of "is it educational", now finding that I need to briefly hit that mode again to satisfy the "authorities" about my children. UGH. :-)

~~~~~~~~~~
Jenny
Mom to Danny (8), Kelsey (6) and Evelyn (4)

[email protected]

In a message dated 6/22/2008 6:14:14 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
mommyof3unschoolers@... writes:

~~~~~~
That's the problem, I have been OUT of that environment for 10 years now, I
don't think I know where to start with the Eduspeak

____

Check out _http://sandradodd.unschoolingcurriculum_
(http://sandradodd.unschoolingcurriculum) I've used parts of Carol Narigon's ideas to organize
and write up portfolio reviews for my unschooled son who is 15. I found it to
be a wonderful starting point a to organize things in a way that is familiar
to most evaluators while still staying true to our unschooling lives.

Gail






**************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for
fuel-efficient used cars. (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 6/22/2008 7:50:13 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
gailbrocop@... writes:

I've used parts of Carol Narigon's ideas to organize
and write up portfolio reviews for my unschooled son who is 15. I found it
to
be a wonderful starting point a to organize things in a way that is familiar
to most evaluators while still staying true to our unschooling lives.

____

Trying this link again - http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum.html




Gail

http://gail-hummingbirdhaven.blogspot.com/



**************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for
fuel-efficient used cars. (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]