Tuesday March 31, 2009

It's Tuesday and that is our Impact Homeschool Academy day. Even before leaving at 7:30am (for daily Mass and then school at Impact), Connor completed 6 math pages in unit 7. After Impact, we will again attend Chinese class, finally arriving home from school at 5:30pm. Today I mailed my quarterly report, and I ordered the PASS test to administer in May. This is a big downside to homeschooling. We have to pay for all the materials, including the state required standardized tests, yet we get no reduction on our school taxes. We pay over $8000.00 per year in school taxes, plus $10,000 a year for Austin's tuition to attend a private school, and now we have to pay for all of Connor's activities--including the state mandated tests!! I don't even believe that standardized tests are a true measure of knowledge, but pay for and administer them I must. If Connor was falling behind, the state would be required to drop mega dollars to try to get him up to state standards, but because he is a few grades ahead, he must fend for himself. If we want to teach our child at his academic grade level, we have to pay for all his classes and all the state mandated tests too! There's definitely something wrong with the system.