I love the flexibility of homeschooling

I love the flexibility of homeschooling.

Sparkle has her first recital tomorrow. (Oops, I'm not supposed to call it a recital. Let's call it a ballet performance.) Tonight was her dress rehearsal, which started before our normal supper time, and continued past her normal bedtime. We also had our monthly homeschool group meeting in the morning, after which the group usually re-convenes at a park for the kids to play. Perfect. The girls ran around the park and Sparkle got tired enough to nap, and then she was refreshed for the rehearsal. In a normal school environment, Sparkle wouldn't have been able to exercise in the park so much. She wouldn't have been able to take a mid day nap. She would have been exhausted from school even before being rushed through supper and then wouldn't have had been rested at the rehearsal.

Meanwhile, a lot of schools in the area are closing due to scares about Swine Flu. In fact, the church where our homeschool group meets just announced that it was closing the building we had used only this morning, due to fears about Swine Flu. The Chinese school that I attend also sent out an email asking students whose regular schools are affected by Swine Flu closings don't come to Chinese school. When you couple these school closings with the school closings at the beginning of the school year due to Ike, some of these unfortunate kids are loosing a month or more of school, and their parents have to scramble to figure out what to do with them.

Thanks to homeschooling, we don't have to miss any school. Heck, even today with park play, nap, and rehearsal, Sparkle did more reading, writing, and math than in a typical kindergarten class. Reading - after coming home from the park, she read a book to settle herself before the nap, then when she was waking up I read a book to her. Writing - she correctly wrote five sentences from dictation. (It would have been three, but we had some attitude problems.) Math - we did a lot of number and calendar work as well as word problems by following her lead talking about her ballet rehearsals and the upcoming performances (number of rehearsals, when they were, number of times she would wear her costume vs. number of times she'd be in front of an audience, etc.)

Oh, and Sparkle was both excited and anxious about the ballet. She both wanted and dreaded getting makeup and being on a real stage. She'd alternate between asking why she had to have makeup and begging me to put it on right away.

When it was finally their turn, Sparkle and the other girls in her group were the typical uber cute, clueless five year old dancers on stage. They must have had someone back stage with them coaching them on when to get out on the stage at the right time, but the rest was adorable chaos. Their instructor, who watched all the dancers and frequently shook her head and gave strict corrections to the older girls, watched Sparkle and the others with a broad helpless grin. Unable to watch the rest of their performance, she turned around and laughed "I just love them. Don't you just love them?" It's the only sensible thing to do.