Progress Report

Just up the road from the kids school is a little school with 20 odd pupils. From what we have learned so far the follow a very child lead/centred Summerhill/Sudbury valley style of education.

Mira's and I went and had a look at the school from the road during the holidays and along with Les we've had a few conversations about the school and homeschool and looked at the pro's and con's of both. Merenia's first choice at this stage is to go to the little school.

We have made a request to their BOT to consider Merenia as a possible student for the school next year. This week we found out that the Board is interested in speaking to us and next week I'm going to go and meet with the principal and will get to check out the school in liviong colour.

One of the challenges of taking this option will be helping Merenia adjust to self-directed learning. Although we'll have the same challenge with home school- the duifference is that she'll be in an environment with a bunch of other kids and could potentially be a bit disruptive. The suggestion is that it takes a month for every year of formal schooling for students to settle into homeschool- so four months around about for Mira's if we homeschool and maybe a little less if she goes to the little school as she will have the example of her peers around her.

At the moment I think she can see herself gardening at the little school and heading down the road from the school to sketch the horses in the paddocks nearby and hoping for some like minded girls and boys to act in the plays she has been writing recently.
***