What a mature and polished piece, Nattie.
Your description of Dicken's humiliation and pain as a child, the attention to detail of the unsafe working conditions is balanced by the final paragraph - your own wise "voice." It shows an understanding and compassion grounded in reality far beyond the scope of many "adults."
Your friends, the ones who seem lucky because they get away with anything at home are wishing their own dads cared enough to help them be their best. (^:
She'll do you proud, dad. The Chronicles of Narnia, now Dickens....tough and good. Have you considered tutoring other fathers....or daughters, sons? (^:
Actually, NattieShea would make an excellent tutor, especially in mathematics. She will be taking on trigonometry and analytic geometry this year. I decided to defer the calculus to spend more time on proofs as she seems to have a talent for that. She absolutely blew through her geometry class last year. This year we will focus upon theory and application to consolidate her skills.
This summer's project was to design and build a barn owl box. We need the owls for gopher control. The problem is that the installed cost of the boxes is over $150 and one usually needs five or more. The intent of this project is to eventually produce a low-cost, possibly waxed cardboard product for less than $20. That will help people find out if they can establish viable pairs before they invest in more permanent boxes. The assignment will be to design and build the box, monitor its habitation, and write up a technical research paper. If the project succeeds we'll move on to contacting a container manufacturer with which to develop the prototype. If that succeeds we will patent the product and license it to existing owl box distributors in return for a royalty.
That is how we homeschool. Rigorous theory followed up with real world learning. Right now, she is reading Don Quixote, just for fun.
FReegards,
CO