Ds has stopped writing. However, with the transition between first semester and second, things were kind of topsy-turvy around here. Then we all got sick with a nasty cold. It's been 2 weeks. I think I'm finally getting over it. My 2yo niece is nearing the end of her third week. My kids are still coughing, Bob's still somewhat congested and his sister, on top of finally starting the cold after the rest of us, added strep throat to it. It's been an interesting Feb./beginning of March!
Now that I'm feeling a bit back to myself, I've got a desire to move ahead! Bob's work is coming along fairly well, despite being sick. My kids are slowly getting back into work. Been doing more math with dd this week and it's getting better and better as she does things she sees she can do, and can do easily. I couldn't help but laugh yesterday when she approached me with a question. Her workbook asked her to do 3 parallelograms, each with a height of 2 units and a base of 3 and then calculate the area of each. "Why do I have to do 3? They're all going to be the same." Ha! Gotta love it. I told her it was for kids who hadn't yet grasped the idea and needed more practice and that she didn't have to calculate each one. She seemed satisfied with that. The drawback to this kind of thing is that when she encounters something she doesn't "get" so easily, she gets down on herself. I need to remember these moments so I can remind her, "Remember when...? That came easily. Some things don't come as easily."
I'm also looking at high school prep with dd. We talked over science a bit yesterday and high school options. She's only grade 7, and high school officially starts in grade 10 here, but we have leeway in when to actually start and how. I also keep thinking of how high school starts in the US in grade 9. Most of our discussion yesterday was on the high school diploma. Although the message that comes across here from schools and the government is that you need a high school diploma, you don't, especially if you are going to do some post-secondary. You only need certain grade 12 subjects, or SAT scores, for university, and some colleges allow you admission based on portfolios. Dd kept asking what the point of the diploma was. We basically came to a consensus that it was if you weren't going to be doing any post-secondary, it was a good piece of paper to have to say that you had at least done high school. Of course, thinking of it now, we could have quickly looked up people who don't have high school diplomas nor post-secondary and the work they're doing. (Just a note to my non-Canadian readers, high school diplomas are awarded through the government here; parent-issued diplomas, as is often done by homeschooling families in the US, are not seen as valid!)
So, we're toying with starting chemistry already and focusing on getting her math mastered, especially some of the things we didn't cover in elementary and should have, and some more focus on French--spelling, grammar, writing, etc. That's one of my big issues--how to get her French recognized. She may need to do an online French Language Arts course at some point to get that recognition. I'll have to see what other sort of tests and the like exist out there. Right now, it looks as though she'll at least go for the grade 12 credits for university entrance. But, they don't offer French, so everything will be in English (even if we do the work in French) and, at the moment, the only way to actually get credit for French as a homeschooled student is to do an online course.
Of course, I suppose I should take care of her jr. high French before worrying too much on the high school French. ;) And above all, keep in mind that I don't just want transmission of knowledge!
“If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.”
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