Okay, so much for keeping this blog going regularly. I guess I will work on this more for the next school year.
For now, we have two weeks left of school. One child has already closed out two subjects and is close to closing a third. My older child is still working at a more even pace. She will get there at the end, probably all the same day. That's just her nature though. She is even tempered and works at an even pace.
It's just another perk as far as I am concerned. They can do this the way that they want to do it. It is recommended that the path is more even and gradual, but there is flexibility.
We have had a very rocky few months. One aunt had a heart attack just before New Years'. An uncle was diagnosed with colon cancer and passed away the second week of February. Another aunt had been battling brain cancer and lost her battle on St. Patrick's day and then, to top it all off, my husband had a heart attack the last week of April. The children have had to be VERY flexible with their lessons.
We spent a lot of time with my aunt the five weeks before she died. I am so grateful that we were able to shuffle the lessons as needed so that I could concentrate on what was really needed at that time.
Somehow, when their dad was in ICU, they didn't get very far behind. I would say they both lost a total of two days worth of work time. They already knew what would need to be done to catch up again, so they started to work immediately once we were all home again.
My one tiny piece of advice still rings true. It is much easier to become more flexible than it is to get more scheduled once the habits are in place. It really is best to start with the recommended plan and adjust it to your needs after a couple of weeks.
I am very fortunate that both of my children enjoyed staying ahead in classes. That has really made it easier to recover from each of these scheduling nightmares as they have come up. They already had great habits.
We are really looking forward to summer break this year. These last few months have been absolutely exhausting and stressful beyond words. I know that I am so grateful that we could just send a K-mail explaining after the fact. This last nightmare, I did not K-mail the teachers immediately. I really just didn't think of it until the second full day in ICU.
My youngest child has one goal left to complete on her Individual Learning Plan. She wanted to complete her science fair project and write it up. I think we can do that. Her teacher has been really good about adding little extras to her goals and I really appreciate it. It's nice that they recognize that my youngest needs to do more.
I cannot wait for the fall semester to begin. I nice fresh start for us all. This school year has been an amazing learning experience. My children have become so much more self confident and responsible about their own education. I am so proud of them and I think virtual school has been a great help to them.
My goal for the fall will be to take more photos of them during the lessons and explain how things are going a little more clearly. I wish I had been able to follow a family for a while before we chose this. I was so anxious about so many things. Now that we have a little experience, I think if we can reduce the life drama, we can do even more with this program!
