Forest for the Trees

In my last post, I mentioned the quantity of materials that arrived for the children.  I realized that I have any unique opportunities now.  The children have  their own assigned teachers so I have two children to 'supervise'.   I do not have to go over dozens of papers each night.  I should be able to check them as we go, or maybe have a few papers to look over in the evening.  Something that I saw instantly as something I would like to change is paper usage.
One of the most difficult things to overcome with children is paper usage. We go through so much paper teaching one child. There are countless textbooks, worksheets, and notebooks for them to "show their work", never mind the countless art projects.

We are going to embark on a new journey. My children will be part of this online education system. Now, it may be a 'virtual school' and they will not go to a typical brick and mortar school building, but they will not spend all of their time in front of a computer. One of my initial fears was that my children would become the drones from a bad futuristic movie. Quite the contrary. There are classes and research and tests completed online, however, there are plenty of worksheets, workbooks and even notebooks.

I am determined to reduce the amount of forest destruction that my family is responsible for, so I came up with an idea.    I can ask them to 'show their work' without needing to save the work. Yes, for now, there is no way to get around using notebooks at times, but I created dry erase boards to use as often as possible. This both gave me a momentary creative outlet and hopefully will give me more peace of mind as I continue to try to find more ways to reduce our waste.

I plan to shop for brighter ribbon to personalize them for each child tomorrow, but here is an example:

Yes, there is a balance. Children simply do need to have hands-on projects for art. They also need to be comfortable using a computer. There are some fantastic art projects that we can do together that will be of benefit, rather than ending up in an attic or a landfill. (Yes, I do throw away some lovely macaroni art, paintings and general crayon projects.  I cannot store everything they produce.  That is exactly my point, how many toilet paper tube angels do I need?  How many times do I want to see a crayon drawing of our dogs?) Life is an ever changing opportunity so we will learn to alter clothing, create a display for their medals and many other projects. I have made a list on my laptop of things that we can create, learn from and use. I am so grateful that my children are now old enough to do these types of projects more.  One more paper with glued cotton balls and bits of noodles and I would lose my mind.  Those projects have a place in childhood development, and it has passed.  I have saved a few that were particularly memorable and now we will move on to the next stage. 

     One of my children is taking an art class as her elective.  She will have assigned art projects and gratefully, I saw no noodles! I have always 'added' to my children's education, so I have my own agenda for extras this year.

    

And So It Begins.... A New Journey....

     We began this journey in October of 2010.  Things had changed at our previous school. There was not going to be a seventh grade so my daughter would 'age out' of her school and go where? Public school? That would be great if we had not already had such a bad experience with the school in our district.  I don't mean just a bad experience, I mean, from the day we enrolled her, to the school nurse, the school counsellor, the school board and the two teachers she had. Neither wanted to be there. One was on her way out and the teacher who replaced her took the job while she was waiting to be offered a job as a professor of a local university. It was the worst.
    We decided that we would not drive 45 minutes per day to take children to separate schools, so that severely narrowed our search. We only found one fully accredited school within a reasonable distance that we both liked. The problem? It was almost double the price we had been paying for tuition in years past. 
    I researched homeschooling as a last resort.  I did not like the labels that came with homeschooling and I definitely did not like that there was simply no oversight.  I could simply keep my children home and never teach them a thing. I would never get into trouble. ~ Not a great plan.  But, I tried to keep an open mind and went on a mission to find curriculum and materials. 
     I wish I could get those two weeks of my life back. That was a nightmare that simply would not end. I spoke to other homeschool moms and was told, "Yes, there are things you purchase that you never use." or "We purchased 'X' curriculum one year and it was too frustrating. It was wasted and we purchased a different one the following year."
    I reviewed several math and science textbooks before I realized that I was indeed seeing a theme. Marketing. Once I got past the 'promise' of a solid Christian curriculum, I often found that the texts were far too watered down.  (Think of how you would explain murder to a four year old.)  It was so fluffy and gentle so as not to offend any particular group that most lacked any real substance.  Some of the textbooks were absolutely insulting.  I had to double check the grade level several times as many seemed to be written on a second or third grade reading and comprehension level.
    So... after speaking to a few degree toting teachers, I realized homeschooling was not going to be our best fit. I had heard of virtual education before, and have taken many classes online in the past, but I was skeptical that this could be effective for younger children.
    After I had resolved myself to paying more than I could easily afford to the private school, I ordered information from a virtual school.  I checked the reviews from parents who had been using the virtual program and read as many articles as I could find on the subject. I read the most angry and disappointed parental reviews and researched testing scores. 
   I spoke to the K12 staff a few times and I really started to consider this as a possibility.  I researched the curriculum K12 used and felt it was bold and specific. It seemed to be just what I was looking for.  I still had concerns.
     What about PE? How I have counted on allowing my kids to burn off energy in the gym during the harsh winter days. What about the great taboo? Socialization?  Will this change my outgoing, confident children into the shy, withdrawn children who save their smiles only for their safe home? Will they be able to accomodate my youngest child? She races through curriculum and completed two grade levels worth of work last year. 
     K12 said call any time if I had questions.  I have spent hours on the phone with their staff requesting more and more information.  I will say, they are very ready to answer even my most bizarre concerns. It seems they have really "heard it all before."  
    You may be interested in hearing the answers about my youngest child.  I have reservations about labeling her as a 5th grade student, or moving her up again to 6th grade.  She is smaller than other children her age and is "younger".  After discussing my concerns and asking if she would get too bored, I was told that she can advance a grade level in individual subjects, OR we can evaluate with her teacher and myself if it is time to move her up an entire grade level, OR if we feel that is not the right decision, she can add an elective class.
     That one answer may have actually 'sealed the deal'.  Her cognitive and emotional development are not on the same page. I needed to know that she could be herself and still feed her incredible intellectual needs.  I needed to know that there were choices and she would not simply be "stuck".
      As far as then enrollment process...it is not for the weak.  There are a lot of documents to send in.  Also,if your district really does not like to lose students (federal funding), you will need to know the 'open transfer' date and take it very seriously.  Our district does not let go of students willingly after this date.  Ask about it, know it, get your documents in.  Also, just because this is the 21st century, realize that human beings will review each of your documents and then they will be entered into the computer.  This took about a week to complete.

So... here we are.. we began the enrollement process on February 1st. Sometime in June, my children had their website profiles ready. Today, the books and materials arrived for the school year. There was over 100lbs stuffed into five large boxes, including a microscope. It is all very impressive and overwhelming right now. I looked at a few of the workbooks as I put things on the shelf, and I really am impressed with the depth. This is not fluff, this is very specific education. There was an entirely separate set of books for each semester.

The left is a photo of some of the science items that have arrived. Goggles, graduated cylinders, test tubes, petri

The right is a photo of about 60% of the books for ONE child. Notice the inflatable globe and map. That child also received white board as well as 10 bottles of 8oz paints, fabric, canvas, artists paper and brushes and even oil pastels. This all arrived at NO COST to me. Yes, I am impressed. Even the assigned reading for each child was taken care of. The books they were assigned to read arrived with the boxes. Shakespeare, Secret Garden, Pollyanna, and several others.

So.. how is this different than homeschooling? Well, first of all, I am the "coach", not the teacher. The children will be assigned a teacher and will have phone, email and interactive virtual access to their teacher from 7am to 7pm Monday through Friday. If they need help or have a question, they contact their teacher. I am basically the attendance monitor and the person in charge of organization. Talk about back up. I can "teach" the material, or if it is something that I am not familiar with, or just do not have the energy or patience, I can defer to a real teacher. This gives me peace of mind. Both of the children are taking History and Geography. I am great with Geography, but am not nearly as strong in US History, so I was worried.. Then I saw the curriculum. My children will be learning WORLD history and geography! I am thrilled!

So, to sum up. I am overwhelmed by the responsibility of scheduling time effectively for two very different children. Our counsellor has already advised that especially for the younger child, it may take her 4 hours or it may take her 7 hours to complete her work. It is completely dependent on the individual and their learning "style". I can only imagine what the first few weeks will be like. I am sure we will make a few adjustments, but this is the beauty of it all... We can cover all of the subjects in short bursts of time each day, or we can schedule Fridays as Science days if it works best for us. The counsellor strongly recommended that language arts be done daily. But Tuesdays could be Geography and History day... or maybe one child will do better with smaller blocks and the other would prefer the dedicated days. Either way, we will figure it out. My children may not be doctors before they drive, but they are intelligent and love to learn more and more.

I think this may be our greatest adventure yet. So far, the only limitation I see is me, so I will do my best not to fail.

School begins August 18th... So I will post again sometime after that date, just to be accountable. In the meantime, I would appreciate any and all words of encouragement as this is by far the most important challenge in my life now.