I just read through all of these pages because I'm one of those New Homeschooling Moms (is NHSM on the acronym list?). My 6yo DS is currently attending a wonderful-for-us ACCS school that's a half-day model for K-8, 5 days per week. It's a school. The teachers are teachers, he does all of his basic subjects there, and the half-day model allows us (the parents) to provide enrichement or not, and to really help at home if there's some subject he's struggling with. Although in some ways I don't consider myself a NHSM because I read WTM years ago and feel like I've been preparing to HS before my kids were even born. Anyway, all that to say we won't have the school option next year because we're moving. As a NHSM, initially I thought I would need to do something for accountability and community that we previously got for our son in school. And I thought CC was going to be that something. It seemed natural to go to a classical co-op, given my personal philosophies on education. Based only on reading the website (which is actually pretty confusing to me) I thought CC would provide a spine to our curriculum. I thought there would be science classes and art offered, we'd fill in with math and some LA at home, but that CC would be, basically, a history course that we could branch out from and they would provide the science and art too. I thought it would take some classes off my plate. However, after going to an information meeting, I found out that was not the case. I realized it was an extra. It was something to go on top of everything else. After looking at what I wanted to teach next year at home and then trying to add in a whole day of the week that we would be out of the house doing other stuff, I decided it would be too much. I wanted that extra day for catch up, or field trips, or the library or just relaxing and reading. So, I just want to say that as a NHSM who was sure she would put her kids in CC and now decided not to, I want to say that I didn't feel preyed upon or pressured at all and I did feel like I figured out what CC was before we ever got into it and that it wouldn't be a good fit for us. I do feel like most of the people (other moms, not the director per se) I met at the information meeting were very...high pressure or Type A...if that makes sense. Like, I brought a tiny little notebook just in case I needed someone's contact info, and everyone else was taking scads of notes on 8.5x11 paper in binders, and one woman even looked at my little book and said, "Do you want a bigger piece of paper?" as if I was unprepared. I could never figure out what they were all writing down so furiously, because I mainly just circled a few page numbers in the catalog and totalled up tuition costs. But the focus was really on, "Look at what your kids will be doing by the time they are in high school," and, "Small Christian colleges see CC Challenge on an application and look at it really favorably." So, we did talk about Foundations and Essentials, but as a means to get to Challenge and college. And my guy has a fall birthday, and I was really turned off by the strict age requirement for whatever level it was down the line where they cut him off and make him do another year of Foundations(?). If he's ready for the material then, why wouldn't you allow him to continue? If not, then say so, but arbitrary age requirements really bug me. The director said, "They just found that kids were going to be graduating from high school at 16 and that's just too early." Um, why? Could you please let my husband and scads of other homeschoolers know that they graduated high school too early?
I think CC could be great fun, but if I'm going to homeschool, I just don't see how I could fit it in without sacrificing in other areas that I find important.
I know about developmental levels, but I also know that not every kid hits the same developmental levels at the same age. The difference in these things can not be measured by September 30th (or whatever arbitrary day the school decides). I don't know or even assume my September 23rd kid will be ready for a grade in school by a certain year, which is why I would prefer that the student is evaluated for maturity/ability/knowledge instead of looked at as an age.