Home schooling in Australia

Recently, I started researching homeschooling options, just to know what's available and what our options are, particularly for Beth.

The Australian Christian Home Schooling site looks promising.

Beth has been having a challenging year: new school, new friends, new teachers, and an academic curriculum that's less stimulating than what she was getting at HCC.

Her academic achievement is not the only concerning aspect.

Her recent AMEB piano exam was her last as far as the "traditional" method of receiving musical instruction is concerned. She squandered the better part of the year struggling through Fascinating Rhythm, Batman's Theme and Waltz of the Flowers - nine months to learn three set pieces.

By the time she sat for her exam, she was still not exam-ready.

I feel for her teacher, who has been with her since Prep in Yamaha group classes and saw enough potential in Beth to encourage her to apply for a Yamaha scholarship (this was way back in Grade One).

No wonder she's letting Beth go next year. If I were the music teacher, I would rather have a motivated student over a bo-chap one any time.

When the teacher texted to say Beth had got a 'C' (the first 'C' ever in her life), I said that sounded about right. Any better and I would have felt she hadn't deserved the grade.

Hubby gave her a verbal shelling for her poor attitude, lack of discipline and failure to appreciate the opportunity she has been given.

She and I have had many words during the course of the year about her lack of progress.

Her standard answer: "I'm doing piano because you made me, not because I want to."

In my day, a reply like that would have earned me a tight slap from my mother.

In today's culture, and with the benefit of hindsight, my challenge is how to respond firmly and intelligently so that I preserve what little is left of my child's love of music and not kill it by insisting that she stick to the traditional path of AMEB, classical pieces and exams.

As an ex-teacher friend of mine says, you want to pick your battles wisely.

Starting next year, Beth and I will work on different music genres, based on music she actually likes (she's working on Katy Perry's Firework).

Not Bach. Not Tchaikovsky.

And definitely not exams.

Given that I'm classically trained and can play just a little pop piano, I don't know how far we'll go with our new musical direction, but it's worth a try since she's agreed to it.

The other thing that's changing in the new year...no more Kumon Math.

She's had two whole years of it and her supervisor tells me she has reached a level that's nearly two years ahead of her grade level.

No wonder she's bored in class.

She tells me her peers at HCC are doing algebra for Extension Math.

I wish we hadn't had to move her, but the financial sustainability of staying made up our minds for us, which is very unfortunate as HCC is much more suited to academically-inclined kids.

In place of Kumon, hubby will tutor her in the summer holidays and teach her more advanced concepts, with less of the drills and repetition that killed her desire to persist with Kumon.