Summer has flown by, any other summer hasn't had near as much significance for our family as this one. We've been out of town for family emergencies, we've had our ear infections, we've gone through the essentials of summer chaos and more importantly, this year was our very first summer off from homeschooling. I feel like a kid again, the anticipation of the school break! No long days of arguing, no days of working on school stuff at 9 at night (because we spent the day running necessary errands), no early mornings fussing over school plans...just good old fashioned summer vacation. With that said, obviously we made it through our first year of home education.We had our very first home school evaluation, our first portfolio and our first approved review. Some days it seemed to really go by slowly and painfully, other days seemed to pass before I knew it. Riley truly is thriving best at home and he's a million times happier, he's a totally different kid.
Unfortunately, I've come to realize that most of the difficulties of homeschooling involve the paperwork. That seems to be life, dealing with the government is always the worst of it. It's not really a huge deal but it is stressful for me to have these expectations and it can be a pain to document things so thoroughly. Its the paperwork that intimidated me the most in the beginning and its the red tape that continues to frustrate me today. The only benefit of this mess is that we're SUPPOSED to have textbooks and curriculum provided free of charge. Although I would gladly give it up if they'd give me back my tax dollars, I'm currently dealing with the school district about what they are choosing to lend. Legislation says they owe it to me, they're saying this district does not actually use text books for social studies, science, history etc. Its baffling that law dictates "appropriate education" with an extensive subject list, but they don't have books? I guess we'll see. With that said I did compose Riley's portfolio for the year, it was emailed to the school district as a PDF file, (easy peasy!) and we received our approved review from the superintendents office. Score! The bulk of the portfolio follows, hopefully it is useful for someone who may be wondering about what they need to do for a "state approved" portfolio.
