Girl's adventures at the new school

Our daughter began attending a new (to us) private Christian school on August 1, 2014.  She did not like it all at first, for it is very structured and tailored toward audio sequential learners who are organized and studious like her mama. Her last school was tailored toward creative visual spatial learners, so she really thrived there where structure was optional even to the point that kids could take tests while standing on their heads if they so choose.

She ended up with the toughest teacher in the school.  That teacher was most picky about handwriting, and it seemed no matter how hard our daughter tried, she would still fail penmanship.  The school's goal is to teach students to pursue excellence and attention to detail in all things because that is what sets apart the mediocre from the truly successful, so the grading, particularly in the early grades, is tough.  As a straight A student who was so far ahead at her last school that they skipped her a grade (and recommended 2 grades) and as student repeating material she had years ago (we held her back this year so she could go through school with kids her own age instead of skipping a grade), however, she became quickly exasperated.

As an example, here are two recent samples of her handwriting.  She received a grade of 73 on one paper for penmanship, and an 88, her highest grade thus far, on the other one.  Can you tell which one got which grade?

I couldn't, but my handwriting is horrid since I usually use a keypad, so I had several conferences with her teacher to try to figure out how I could help her. With every conference, however, I left without any hope of her grades improving.  The Bible exhorts,  "Fathers do not exasperate your children", but we could not control the school, and I was tempted to pull her out.   I'm not usually a helicopter parent by any means, but I could not understand why this teacher kept beating my daughter down over something so petty. The public schools do not even teach cursive anymore!  Our daughter hasn't really learned much new knowledge this past year except in Latin 2, but her ability to sit still, slow down, really give her best with each assignment, control her impulses, pay attention to detail, carefully check her work for careless errors, and write legibly have all improved considerably!  I find it interesting that while she was repeating a grade in all subjects except Latin, her best subject was Latin 2, and she had not even had Latin 1 yet except for some brief prep work we did together during July in the midst of moving and home building.  However, Latin was taught by a different teacher than her regular subject for most of the other academic subjects, so the difference in grading must be somewhat dependent upon the teacher.

  

She has begged to be homeschooled repeatedly and complained all year long about the school rules and harsh grading, yet pictures taken by parents while volunteering at the school tell a different story. She has made lots of wonderful new friends.  She has grown in her faith and her character as she has been severely humbled academically, and she has made some really great memories.  I made the scrapbook pages below so she'll remember her happier experiences at school.

Art is one of her favorite subjects.

Art with Mrs. Booth, Latin with Mrs. Manchester, and reading in homeroom while a boy pretends to sleep

My girl is a competitive little tomboy who continues to surprise me with her athleticism.  She played hard during every recess period (and I love how this school provides several recess periods a day), and sought to beat all the boys, not just the girls, in P.E.  That girl...I'm not sure where she gets that competitive drive (sarcasm is dripping).  Thankfully, she is growing, slowly but surely, in her ability to play on a team and encourage her teammates, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a girl who likes to win quite as much as she does.

She enjoyed science, too!  She wants to be a veterinarian, so I guess it's no surprise that the process of collecting, mounting, and identifying insects did not gross her out like it would me.  While I hated this project because it consumed all my Tupperware and occupied much of my freezer and counter space for months, I love the way this school does not allow parents to help with papers or projects.  All work must be done by the student alone.

Chorus with Mrs. Cook is probably her favorite subject of all.  Mrs. Cook, the headmaster's wife, is super sweet, and our girl has always enjoyed singing.  I love to watch her dramatic expressions as she sings with all her heart.

I really like way this school builds relationships across grades instead of isolating each of the grades.  Homeschooling taught me how important it is to avoid socializing with only people your own age because that does not provide a real world experience at all.  School is the only place where people are grouped together in a room with people all their same age, and who really wants his or her child to be primarily socialized by a bunch of rowdy, immature kids?  Homeschooled children tend to be more mature than school children for that reason.  Her last school incorporated multi-age classrooms while having older students help out in younger students class to build that family style unity across grades.  There was no superiority complex among the upperclassmen in the way they treated the younger students, for they were like family and readily acknowledged that all are equally valuable in God's sight.  

One way they build bridges between grades at this school is through mentoring.  Older students are paired with younger students.  And younger students serve as mentors to kindergarteners through the Kinderbuddies reading program. Our daughter would expressively read books to her kinderbuddy, Lily, who shared a similar creative, imaginative bent.  They exchanged gifts and became fast friends.

She enjoyed bringing in traditional Cherokee bean cornbread for Nations Day, and a trip to the planetarium is always a fun time.

I was really impressed with our daughter's initiative this year with the school outreach project for Stop Hunger Now.  Step one was raising funds to buy the meals the kids would be packing later in the month. She knocked on every door in the neighborhood to ask for support and kept coming back to each house until someone was at home and answered the door.  She raised over $250 for Stop Hunger Now.  She had a blast packing the meals with her class.  The entire school purchased and packed over 100,000 meals for the hungry.

She did really well in history this year as they learned about one battle after another.

It does seem like history this past year was nothing but a series of wars.  The kids certainly enjoyed all the reenactments.  My husband thinks it's all good, though, because it is teaching them the true cost of liberty.  May we preserve and protect it, for it was bought at a price. As the progressives in our country continue to despise, disrespect, and dismantle our hard won freedoms, we must continue the fight of our founding fathers.  I pray my children will stand bravely for liberty and all else that is good and right.