September 20, 2026
World-Schooling (pauses in between Gelato in Italy) … the School Part!
(While in Italy)
A few notes on the ins-and-outs of school while traveling in Italy. I am not sure any form of school would be ideal while on the go in a foreign country, so I suppose there is a grain of salt element here. The school we found is called Laurel Springs. While it has been in business for 30 years, they do not quite have the personal education they promise. It is asynchronous and online and the teachers do not create the content themselves, and at times, do not seem familiar with the material. They use companies like MacGraw Hill to create course content and then hand it over for the student to navigate on their own. We have asked google and other sources to tell us what grade level the material is for Emerson’s 6th grade Civics course.
All of the online models agree the 6th grade questions are like an AP High School level course.
She is getting really smart … and we are all in Civics together! The only option for help is to book a 15 minute appointment with a teacher, or to use a website tutoring program. It’s not the most conducive thing when you are traveling. We do send emails as needed to ask for more assistance and we have received a few helpful accommodations, but overall it is a “best of luck” situation for all three of them.
We did learn today that you can request to move on from an assignment or test if you have retaken it and still have below 70% on it. Sometimes, the hours are more important to just move on to the next topic. Their method is “mastery,” which means they want every graded assignment at 70% or higher. You cannot take the semester exam without this percentage on all gradable assignments during the semester – unless you request the excuse.
It will be a first to have our 6th grader have finals – a little crazy – finals are to scare the “bejesus” out of high schoolers …
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