She’s 14. Disturbingly beautiful. Breathtakingly uncooperative. She laments a lack of fall weather in Florida, so I schedule a short trip to see family in northern Virginia during “peak leaf week.” Our usual homeschool days start with caffeine and math, one of the two subjects into which I invest an hour beside her each day. Then, we work separately for a few hours and converge again for history and debate, during which I guide her through annotating American Documents and researching debate issues. We stride through the Orlando airport, our conservatively-packed personal items slung over shoulders. We’re not rushed. We follow signs calmly with our covid masks in place. I often feel that I annoy my daughter, but she’s not annoyed now. She sees me navigate easily through the airport. We find our gate an hour before departure, so we have time to grab a coffee and a donut. We visit the gift shop to buy keepsakes for her cousins. I chose her academic curriculum this year, and
(2020 update: My daughter got a perfect score on the SAT last year. The concepts in this post from 2010 really worked for us!) It's that time of year again. The weather is warming; the trees are alive with fragrant blossoms! Now is the time to take nature walks with the kids; now is the time for - - standardized testing ? Like it or not, as the school year ends, a new burden threatens the joy of spring elation, but is it really necessary? And if so, does it have to be a burden? Test-taking is a vital component to college entrance and also can be a homeschool parent's friend. As parents and educators, we need to put tests in their place. We should consider them tools, not masters. Our children will follow suit, and perhaps they will be saved from the anxiety that commonly accompanies this part of our education process. Is testing really necessary? Many public educators and homeschoolers don't "believe" in standardized testing . After all, isn't one of the