Report Card for the teacher: Sophomore Year

We are in the final days of my daughter's sophomore year (hereto known as Girlie). You would think that after 13 years of homeschooling, I would have all the answers. Most years, I can proudly give myself top scores on my taecher report card. I'm more than a little type "A", combined with a love for my kids and a passion for teaching...every part of homeschooling is natural for me.

But this year has proven that yet again, over-confidence is almost like a challenge to the cosmos. It should have been a smooth year. I was homeschooling only one, and the "agreeable" one at that. The co-op was beginning it's third year, and we had a great system and a real community of enthusiastic teachers and parents. We had carefully selected curriculum and classes, and all would be smooth sailing.

HA!

Instead of my picture perfect vision of Girlie's sophomore year, life put a monkey wrench in our plans. And then another. And another. I found a line from the movie "DodgeBall" kept echoing in my brain: "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball." And suddenly there I was, standing dumbfounded as an angry drunk in a wheelchair pelted me with metal objects.

But we made it through the year. And as I step back, figuratively nursing bruises, I know that I am not the first, nor will be the last to have life hijack our homeschool year. No one can change what life throws their way, but we can learn from the way we handled crises.

My report card, then, would look something like this:

Curriculum Design: A
We were spot on here. The course work and classes were , sans one , very well suited to Girlie's learning style and educational needs. Self-designed coursework was thorough and full of diversity. There was a nice balance between academic and arts, which suited us just fine.

Implementation: B-
We struggled a bit here with adaptability. With all the drama, I was not as available to help with work, and Girlie needed more help than she had in the past for the same reasons. There were more times than I would like to admit that we simply decided one task or another was just "too much", and didn't follow through self-designed projects to perfection. For the first time, "done" was often good enough.

Educational Support: C+
Again, I was so distracted by other issues in the home that I was not consistently supportive of the educational needs of my student. Geez, sometimes I was downright unaware. I allowed so many other things to take precidence at times it's disheartening. When I pulled myself back and regained focus, we were able to enjoy homeschooling again and each other.

Homeland Defense: A-
I was able to strongly put up the necessary barriers to outside obligations. We limited access to negative people, while still giving instruction on how to handle such situations at arm's length and with tact. We reconnected with old rituals that helped us find out focus.

Final Grade: B

Extra Credit: Girlie and I are closer than ever, and she has become active in planning her curriulum for next year with enthusiasm. Guess I get to keep my day job!