So, you know all the trouble we have had with the school system here. This morning Katie was doing online math worksheets and I was washing dishes when the phone rang. Katie was closer and answered it. No one has every called excpet my parents and Kevin's mom. Well, guess what, it was the enrollment office calling to see if Katie was in school. She answered their questions and gave me the phone as soon as she could. They said they were calling to see if she was in school and obviously she wasn't since she answered the phone. I explained that we were quite disgusted with the whole NYC schools and were home schooling her and I was in the process of submitting all of the paper work required by the Board of Education. I went on to explain what a pain in the butt the enrollment office has been and all that we have been through, since before leaving Illinois, in trying to get our girls enrolled in school. Well the lady acted ignorant of the struggles we have had and said that Columbia Secondary School could not refuse to admit students. I confirmed that is exactly what they had done and she said that she was going to call them and get that in writing, because they were not allowed to refuse students. Okay. Kevin is in school so I called Nana and asked what I should do if they now say, "Of course we will accept Katie." She said to hold firm with what we have planned. Well the enrollment lady called back and said exactly what I had explained to her in the last call. "Oh, this school only takes the top 10% of students and Katie was at a 50% in math. They are having to turn away students with excellent math scores so they certainly couldn't accept someone who was only in the 50 percentile." I said, "Yeah, that is what I just told you." And she said, "Oh but they liked her they wanted to take her. They even remembered her and talked about how nice she was and how Kevin was affiliated with the University." The enrollment lady even said that when she met Katie she seemed so bright that she had no reason to think her scores were that low. That is why she would only refer her to that school. (Since when can you judge someones grades based on the way they act when they meet you?!) She acted like she knew us and said she had signed the referal. Well, Kevin went to the office with Katie so she certainly did not know me and when he was there Kevin spoke to a man, so it was not this same person. She said, "Just come back in and we will sit down and find another school for Katie." I said, "Absolutely not we were done with the enrollment office." She said, "Oh but we can find just the right school for her." So, I said I would discuss it with Kevin when he got home tonight. The last time Kevin went to the enrollment office he said he is never going back. They treated him so rudely and seemed to be making it nearly impossible to get our children enrolled in school.
Abby had a good day at her school. She has LOTS of homework! Something in almost every subject. She took her lunch today. This school only serves chocolate and strawberry milk. I was really disgusted to hear that. I have heard that flavored milk has as much sugar as a can of soda. My kids only like white milk so she went thirsty. She said they have vending machines in the cafeteria and she could buy water for $1!! So, today we sent a bottle of white milk. Why with all the problems with obesity are we not only encouraging, but almost forcing, them to drink sugary drinks at school. That is ridiculous. If parents and schools serve healthy food and milk then kids will eat/drink healthy foods and milk. The people who first started that bit about "well at least they are drinking the milk" (when we add a bunch of sugar to it) were crazy. Okay, I will come down from my soap box and shut up and send my child's lunch and beverages each day.
On to Katie: We are focusing our lessons around history. This year is US History according to the NYBoE. We started with the Native Americans who lived in the US before the explorers arrived. We have a marvelous Social Studies series from the library. Katie learned how the Indians first came to the United States and how the nations were different based on where they lived. She read about the history and uses of pottery and made a clay bowl in art. In math she finished the work on place values on Friday and today began comparing whole numbers and decimals (greater than/ less than). We are still figuring out a good system and did not get to all subjects today. I hope by the end of this week to get a good schedule figured out.
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