Well I have finally started to think about what I’m going to be doing in about six months time.  My head is no longer buried in any sand of denial.  I have to give some serious thought to what I am going to tell the Ministry of Education.  They will want to know that I plan to teach my kids as well as and regularly as a school.

Somehow I don’t think they’ll take a vague answer and waffly ideas as enough proof of my competence to teach my own kid.  So I have to take a trip on my time machine and transport my brain back to the days where writing clearly understandable submissions, usually in the form of essays, was a regular part of life.

Thankfully a lovely lady I have met through the homeschool group here in Wellington offered to share one of her exemption letters with me.  So I have finally seen a document that the Ministry of Education thought a suitable explanation of what their family was going to be doing.  What a relief.

Now having read their document does not mean that my exemption letter will take a similar road, but it does give me some ideas of what could be acceptable.   So for me it is now a case of sitting down and nutting out each of the required sections.  What is enough to say, but not be hamstrung by?  How to explain that we will be following her needs rather than a set timetable?  How to deal with the dreaded “as regularly”?

Oh, and I believe there is going to be changes to the forms shortly.  That could add to the fun of working out just what to say, and how much to say.  I doubt that the MoE officer will want a 1500 word essay on the topic of my daughter’s education, but neither will a paltry 150 word statement of intent do.   Ah, so that’s how I should approach this – like an assignment for university – give them enough information and supporting argument and she’ll be right.

More on this topic as I work out what really matters, and where we are headed.