Katie is enjoying school still. It is still a bit hard to get up so early (and to get to sleep knowing you want to wake up early), but she does that as well as make her own lunch (she wants to make it right before she leaves so it doesn't get soggy), gather what she needs, and get to where she needs to get to by an early time. Guess it is worth it to her. When you want to do something, you can usually find a way to do it.
Honors English is her favorite class and she is proud of herself for getting high marks in it. She likes her other classes too and has a nice time when she gets to eat with her friends or when she is in the same classes as them. She has found that some people are really nice and friendly, and others aren't as kind and are not worth her time. Overall though, her experience so far has been very positive.
Many days there are hours of homework, though she gets much of it done in school during "independent study" time. She wonders why it is called Independent Study because students Must do homework during that period and therefore thinks it should be called "Homework."
Last night, a call from the school was sent to all of the student's homes because bath salts (drugs) were found in the school. Jim and I are not happy about this as these kind of drugs are way more dangerous than something like marijuana. The school has decided to implement a program that incorporates dogs to sniff out drugs because of that and the many drug related offenses that have occurred so far this year. School is not a safe place in Jim's and my opinion, especially when kids who don't want to be there are there and bringing drugs to school. http://bangordailynews.com/2011/10/26/news/midcoast/bath-salts-discovered-in-rockport-high-school/
10/29/2011 - Today Katie got a new cell phone (her old one broke and she was without one for a few weeks). She was so excited because she said she could now text while she was in school so she wouldn't be bored. She went on to say that while she enjoyed most classes (all except health) and felt she was learning in some classes, in others she felt bored because she already knew what was being taught. This especially was true for algebra. Interesting that this was the one subject that she fretted about knowing and even though she picked up some algebra books at the beginning of last year because she wanted to learn it, she has never had any formal math (except for a very brief period when I was occasionally asking her to work on handwriting and some math problems back in 2004 or 2005). Also, she said her math teacher separated her and Zach because they talked too much. Katie said that this happenned even though their conversations were about math. Now she feels kind of lonely sitting alone in algebra.
Really interesting post. I am always curious how unschoolers hit the upper grades. It is so interesting to me what happens, like the algebra and english. Thank you for sharing how this experience is going for her.
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