Bumble Bee is set to start Kindergarten next year... but despite doing well on the classical selective enrollment test, she has been waitlisted or not accepted to 12 magnet and gifted schools in Chicago. Too many parents are no longer moving out to the suburbs when their children reach school age! The competition is fierce for the classical/gifted schools, and the magnet schools are based on random lotteries.
Our neighborhood school is a level 3 school, which means it's a failing school, at the bottom of the heap. I'm not thrilled about the idea of sending her there. Chicago has one public "virtual charter school" (homeschooling with the help of CPS). I thought I would do that, but even there she's number 48 on a waitlist. So, I'm thinking about doing homeschool with her. Illinois is amazingly lax about requirements, and she's not even legally required to be in school until she's 7!
I was reading up and found a program based on Charlotte Mason's ideas of teaching. I rather like what I was reading about this program's curriculum. I also saw, however, that there is an Orthodox online school, St. Raphael's I think it was. It seems like it would need to be supplemented.
Anyway, I know that lots of you out there homeschool, and I would love to hear about what has worked and not worked for you. Over the years I have picked up activities here and there from your blogs to use in our down time. Now, I'd like a little more guidance on putting it all together and having a unified curriculum.
Please comment....
