As our kids have been in an online Academy that is state sponsored, we have some advantages, like reimbursements available for school supplies and some activities. Money to use to teach our kids is a very positive thing! But that comes at a cost to us. One is reporting to the Academy what our kids have been learning each week and keeping up with Learning Goals, which also has to be demonstrated in that reporting. Another is testing. Our kids are required to do state testing, which during Covid was done online and from our home. But before, and now after, we have to go to a location to do that testing in front of a proctor. That’s all fine and well, and I don’t really mind it, as long as the kids are good with it.
We had testing for our youngest yesterday and have another session today. The location of her testing is the problematic piece for us. We have to drive to a town thirty miles away for it. There are a couple of ways to get there. The easiest is the thirty-mile route through the mountains between us and that town. It’s a short, pleasant drive along a two lane that winds through beautiful scenery. The other routes are much longer, double or more. One goes north, around the end of the range, and then back south again. The other route goes over the mountains at the southern end of the valley we live in, then north again.
The short route has a gate on it at the next town nearest us and can be closed during the winter due to lack of maintenance. But the weather was great yesterday, and the gate was open!
Today snow has fallen in a spring storm, and we are meant to get more. There are a few inches on the ground so far, and we are meant to get up to eight inches. That’s here, in the valley. Not up those mountains. We are due to be there by eleven o’clock in the morning, and there is a session scheduled for 1:00 PM, so I think that if we show up late, it is no big deal. We’ll try the short route, but if it is closed, we will go up and around the north end. That is the easiest plan B available. South is much longer. To do this, we have to leave in 45 minutes! If we are never seen or heard from again, someone who finds our house empty one day will be able to look into this blog and figure out where to look for us.
Okay, so not so dramatic. But it ought to be an interesting drive! Perhaps I’ll get the GoPro going on this one! At any rate, is it homeschool related, and a part of our story, so I thought I’d share it.