Morgan Academy

For anyone choosing to take their child out of mainstream education , it isn’t to be taken lightly. The onus is now on the parents and suddenly those teachers are superheroes for teaching our children for 12 years (they always have been in our opinion).

In our experience, children are bored and hungry 18 hours per day. 3 meals and 15 snacks per day will be expected, with much whining and grumbling when actually expected to complete schoolwork and it isn’t on a laptop or iPad. We have homeschooled for 5th grade before but that was only for one child, this is 3!

Structure will be our main focus and we will probably get our written work done in 3 hours per day , or less. Field trips will be to the beach for exploration, science and physical activity. History lessons will be about Thai royalty and traditions and hopefully Yai can teach us a few Thai phrases to get by. There are temples to visit and monks to feed in the early hours of the morning. All of this showing the children that life is different and they need to learn to accept change.

The school district have been amazing with us, officially we aren’t supposed to receive any assistance as we are unable to meet the requirements of traditional home school (meeting the teacher once per month and attending state testing in the Spring) but these admins rock. They have provided us with all of the resources necessary, workbooks and personal email addresses to assist us in our ‘Morgan Academy’. We had to buy a few (very heavy) textbooks but that’s on us for being different.

In California a simple signed affidavit agreeing to educate your child from the state’s website is all that is required and you can take them out of school. We asked if we have to provide proof of completion of work and the school said no, we will just fit them in age appropriate , where they should be. We cannot in our hearts have the kids fall behind and have to catch up and so we will follow the syllabus, albeit loosely. We will also keep samples weekly of the work completed to show if the district policy changes.

Overall the children will be receiving an education rich in culture, social awareness, life skills, more physical activity than they probably get here due to a lack of internet and cable TV there , family time, and volunteering hopefully within the community.

We have no qualms or concerns that our children will be enriched and educated during our year away from traditional school. Now whether we, the parents, will be frazzled and whining is another matter!