Homeschool paperwork this year feels monumental and it's all my fault for moving.
Dealing with a new district is part of it. Both V and B are in the middle of a set of multiyear cumulative requirements, i.e., I have to teach two 6480-minute units of history and geography during seventh and eighth grade. Communicating what came before to the new school district is a beast. I don't want to tell them too much and make it harder for future homeschoolers to provide minimal info and keep their kids' business private, but I also want the district to feel they have enough info to give us that end-of-high-school letter of completion. State universities won't let homeschooled teens matriculate unless they jump through one of several choices of hoops, and waving that letter is the easiest of all the hoops.
Then there's the plain geographical part of moving. We have to refigure V's high school plans based on what's handy and local now and what isn't feasible for him to do weekly anymore. Bless him for transitioning to bicycle commuting so handily. I'm worried he won't feel that way in January, when it's snowing, and I am just as committed to not needing a car as I ever was, despite our country locale. There are also surprising new benefits, like the YMCA with its indoor heated pool and the public high school with its many community access classes being right at the edge of our neighborhood, and taking advantage of those means changing plans and rewriting the overarching four-year plan.
The new homestead itself puts radically different demands on my time. Here I am with my hands full of rabbits, gardens, and home improvement projects, deciding I'd rather just buy a set of lesson plans than write my own for the first time in five years.
It took me two hours today to figure out a succinct way to tell the new district what we still have to do to finish junior high and high school. Now it's onwards to figuring out what we'll do to meet those requirements, and I'm already exhausted. I'm seeing all the bloggers announce their plans for the next school year, and I'm excited to get to that post myself, in large part because it means I'll be done planning.
Dealing with a new district is part of it. Both V and B are in the middle of a set of multiyear cumulative requirements, i.e., I have to teach two 6480-minute units of history and geography during seventh and eighth grade. Communicating what came before to the new school district is a beast. I don't want to tell them too much and make it harder for future homeschoolers to provide minimal info and keep their kids' business private, but I also want the district to feel they have enough info to give us that end-of-high-school letter of completion. State universities won't let homeschooled teens matriculate unless they jump through one of several choices of hoops, and waving that letter is the easiest of all the hoops.
Then there's the plain geographical part of moving. We have to refigure V's high school plans based on what's handy and local now and what isn't feasible for him to do weekly anymore. Bless him for transitioning to bicycle commuting so handily. I'm worried he won't feel that way in January, when it's snowing, and I am just as committed to not needing a car as I ever was, despite our country locale. There are also surprising new benefits, like the YMCA with its indoor heated pool and the public high school with its many community access classes being right at the edge of our neighborhood, and taking advantage of those means changing plans and rewriting the overarching four-year plan.
The new homestead itself puts radically different demands on my time. Here I am with my hands full of rabbits, gardens, and home improvement projects, deciding I'd rather just buy a set of lesson plans than write my own for the first time in five years.
It took me two hours today to figure out a succinct way to tell the new district what we still have to do to finish junior high and high school. Now it's onwards to figuring out what we'll do to meet those requirements, and I'm already exhausted. I'm seeing all the bloggers announce their plans for the next school year, and I'm excited to get to that post myself, in large part because it means I'll be done planning.