Mulan at school

 Last Monday, Mulan attended school for the first time ever.

The whole family walked her there, signed her in at the office, and watched her get taken away by the Dean and two prefects.

I last wrote in May that we were considering school -- how did we get from there to here?

Throughout May and most of June we were all very undecided.  Mulan had no strong opinions, and we were all back-and-forthing about advantages and disadvantages.  School or homeschool?  Westlake Girls or Takapuna Grammar?

We'd talked with the enrolments people at both Westlake and Takapuna, and walked around the buildings.

After peering in the Westlake windows one weekend I opined that it reminded me of small-town China.  The Communist Party buildings are extravagantly grand, while the normal folks' buildings are old and tired.  Similarly, the Westlake admin buildings are new and corporate-fancy, while the classrooms look like nothing much has changed since my days at school 30ish years ago.  I grumpily wondered at the possible corruption, that the Westlake administrators had conveniently given themselves comfy new offices while leaving the student facilities pretty basic.

But grumpiness aside, we had to decide which option was best for Mulan.

In the end we opted for Westlake, putting in the enrolment application on the 20th of June.

(a) We decided that even though schools are often frustratingly inefficient and occasionally ridiculous, overall it would give Mulan new and valuable opportunities and experiences.  If she could get in with a good bunch of classmates and teachers, then it'd be both fun and rewarding.  And if it didn't work out, we could always return to homeschooling.

(b) We decided to go to the closest school.  It's hard to argue against a 5 minute walk, and Mulan doesn't have to leave home until about 8:40am.  Westlake people have also been consistently warm, welcoming and professional.

For a few weeks until the end of term 2, three days a week Mulan caught the bus to her cousins' place, doing deskwork studies alongside them.  The thought was to get her more used to regular school hours, as well as polish up on maths, science and music.

Mulan is now enrolled in Year 10, and has English, Maths, Science, Social Studies, PE and Health as her compulsory subjects.  She's chosen Music, Dance and Business Studies as her options.

We were worried that school would require a big after-school time commitment, but in the end decided to risk it and for term 3 Mulan has enrolled in her usual after-school activities, which total about 17 hours per week.  The only activity she dropped was homeschool rock climbing, which happens during school hours.  She's also continuing to deliver papers.

Before starting school we had to buy a lot of equipment -- laptop computer, smartphone, uniform and stationary.  Including the school fees, I guess it's close on $2000.

Mulan had never done Business Studies before, so during the school holiday Westlake emailed us a 50-page book of what they'd done in the Accounting topic they'd covered in term 2.  Mulan downloaded it onto her new smartphone and skimmed through it on the bus to ballet lessons.  She thought it looked fairly easy -- after the introductions it's mostly just a matter of putting in the hours to get familiar with double-entry bookkeeping, balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and so on.  So far, last week in class her teacher has been getting her to work on it on her own while her classmates are revising for the unit test this week.

So, what do we think of school so far after a week?

For one thing, Mama said she understands me much better now!  Occasionally in the past Mama would worry that our homeschooling was too relaxed and the girls weren't doing much.  She'd complain that I should be teaching the girls more.  I'd tell her not to worry, and that the girls are doing just as much or more than they'd be doing at school.  After hearing back from Mulan last week on what she did in class, Mama now agrees with me that schools do even less.

But from Mulan's perspective, for now that's ideal.  Last week was a nice, relaxed introduction to school life, and Mulan was able to keep up and also do her after-school stuff.  So far, she's not at all tired.

So far, the worst thing I've heard from Mulan is that she doesn't have time to bike to the public library to pick up two books that are waiting for her.  She wants me to make a special trip, so she can read before bed!  

For Maths, Mulan said they're covering stuff she did a couple of years ago.  We contacted Westlake about possibly moving Mulan to the extension class, or her teacher giving her alternative work.  They've given her a take-home test to do, so if she does well I guess we'll hear back from them about ways to extend Mulan appropriately.

Aside from Maths, in all Mulan's classes she's doing new stuff, in a non-stressful and easily manageable way.

For English, the class was partway through a unit on a Roald Dahl short story.  They'd read the story before the holiday, and on Monday were discussing themes.  They were supposed to submit an essay on Friday.

Mulan had never written an essay in her life.  (My opiniated view is that there's no need to teach essay writing early.  If kids are wide readers, then when they eventually need to write they'll already have a good sense of writing styles and will adapt quickly.)

At home on Wednesday, Mulan wrote about 400 words summarising the short story.  In my opinion it was a very clearly written summary.  Unfortunately it didn't answer the essay question the teacher had set.  Mulan saved it, and started afresh.

After school on Thursday Mulan had a one-hour window to do the essay before her swimming lesson.  When she walked in the door I gave her four 250-word sample essays to read, and suggested she write in that style.  She took it away and before she left for swimming she'd completed a very well-structured 350-word essay.  I gave her a couple of minor general suggestions to tighten it up, but otherwise it was all her own work.

Mulan submitted her essay Friday morning, only to find that the deadline is now extended to tomorrow.  The students are continuing to work on their essays in class, and Mulan's teacher has suggested that Mulan expand more on her argumentative points.

Mulan has made a few friends, hanging out with them in the corridor at lunchtime.  She's joined the knitting club with one friend, meeting on Wednesday lunchtimes.  And she plans to join the orchestra -- she'll take her cello at 8am on Wednesday.  Westlake is in talks with Mulan's recorder teacher, deciding if he can teach her at school during school hours.

So far, we're very happy with the way things are working out.  This half year it's about relaxedly finding Mulan's interests and levels, so that next year, for NCEA 1, Mulan can join the right classes at the right levels.