We Are Re Enrolling

  So?  Will we do this again?  The answer is a very loud YES!  This choice we were so uncertain about a year and a half ago; this choice that seemed so risky has turned out to be one of the best things I have ever done with my family.

   Honor roll with academic achievement!  Yes!!

   I was concerned at the beginning of the school year that at some point, they were going to ask me to show them the completed work.  I created a small file basket with folders for each child and each subject.  It is filled now. 

   No, nobody has ever asked me to send them copies, or produce any of them, but that file basket is a treasure trove.  Each of the art projects have had a purpose.  My child has learned so many techniques and so much about various artists.  It is wonderful to look through her papers and I will create a display with them for her room this summer. 

    Each of the writing assignments are there.  They are in order and I can see the growth and progress.  It is wonderful.

    The science papers with the explanations in their own words, drawings of what they have seen and learned...are all so wonderful.. I have proof of how much my children have learned this year.  They have done so much and learned about so many different things.  Their self confidence and personal responsibility has grown by leaps and bounds.  I am impressed.

    I can open the cabinet and see that we still have school supplies in good shape.  There will be a few things to replace, but not much.  We didn't spend as much this year on school supplies and it looks like even less next year.

    Now for a quick run down of what we actually used.

    My children quickly abandoned the three ring binders and the spiral notebooks and found that loose leaf paper in a folder worked best for them.  This might be due to the file system.  The work on things until they take the assessment, and then file them. No need for a cumberson binder.  Keeping a different colored spiral notebook for each subject proved equally cumbersome to them.  For another family, those might work better, but since my children take their lessons and laptop "to go" three times each week, it did not work for them.

    I will estimate the total paper use for printing at 2 reams for the year.  If we were doing this completely from home, I would imagine we would have used far less paper and ink, but again, for our purposes, this is how much we used. We also used the plain paper for art projects and science drawings.

    We used the colored pencils quite a lot.  The crayons were used a bit, but we will not need to repurchase those.  We did use the math kits that I purchased.  They had protractors, compasses, etc in them.  Find them on sale if you can.  We also used about half a package of graph paper.  The lessons requesting graph paper come with a file to print some, but it was easy to just grab some from the cabinet.

    Pencils.  Both children now prefer mechanical pencils.  I don't think that it really matters either way, but it is nice to have little lead refills in a drawer rather than sharpening often.

    Paints: The K12 kit came with more than enough paints and oil pastels for the lessons.  We still have quite a bit left.

    Glue and Glue sticks:  We have used almost as much of this as we did in previous years at B&M schools, but I honestly do allow for a LOT of lattitude in the creativity of completing lessons.  If my child is studying a unit on ecosystems and wants to create a representation with cut up National Geographics and a shoe box, I will let her every time.  So, for two children, one bottle of glue and four glue sticks have been used so far.

     There is one teeny, tiny thing I plan to look for this summer for both of my children.  I plan to find one of the journals that contains both blank and lined paper.  This is not really for curriculum purposes, but it seemed like it could blend in well.  At the beginning of each day or week, I would like them to do their writing assignments in the journal and they can draw or take pictures and glue them in.  They could cut out things from magazines that relate.  Basically, I think this will help them to be even more engaged in their writing assignments.

    Ahhhh.. the flexibility of being able to add to the curriculum.  I really do love it.  Last week, we added a project on Alexander Graham Bell. The girls built a telephone like system and were able to recreate a few of his other designs.  As long as my children are getting the main curriculum done first, I plan to continue these little extras.  It just happened that there were books and kits on sale at Half Price Books on clearance for $4.  What a bargain to add extra reinforcement to both their history and science lessons.  Next week we have a kit about Thomas Edison and making "movies" from still drawings... How much fun!

    Yes!  We have already re-enrolled and have been approved for the next school year.  I will have an 8th grade and 5th grade student next year so I will focus on preparing my 8th grade student for more challenging work.

    I am more than ready to do this again.  This has been an amazing opportunity for all of us.  I feel so grateful for being able to be so involved in my children's education while having all of the guidance and support I could possibly need.  We found our groove quickly.  We found what did and did not work for us quickly.  The curriculum is pretty intense at times, with cummulative tests and other more challenging elements, but this is what we were looking for.  My children need more challenging material.  They need to move quickly. 

    I still marvel at how history and science and art often teach the same time period, discoveries and about the same historical figures at the same time.  This greatly reinforces the material for all and gives my children a much better understanding.

   I love this!

   

School Supplies Shopping

   Yes, every year, whether in private school or public school, we have had a list.  Sometimes this list has been depressingly long and expensive. 

    This seems to be an area that K12 is rather vague on, so I thought I would take a moment to jot down our experiences. 

    First, let me clarify. I do not know if there is a recommended school supply list. I can simply say that if one does exist, I never was able to find it.

     Now, I have a 4th/5th grade student, and a 7th grade student. I have reviewed many of the lessons and can see that there are a few that require a printed worksheet.  Only for that reason, I am recommending that you start with a ream of paper.  Several of the worksheets that do have the "print" icon are identical to workbook pages, so for now, I only purchased one.  I cannot imagine we would actually be printing so much each day.  Also, they recommend printing the goals for the day as well as necessary supplies.  I have not found it too difficult to simply glance at the list online and pull items from the shelf, rather than print out a list to carry around each day. Maybe you need the printed list, if so, your ream will not last as long.

     I recommend a 3 hole punch.. As a lesson is completed, I am placing the completed work in a three pronged folder.  I have assigned colors for each subject.  Each child has Blue for Science, Green for History/Geography, Pink for Literature, Red for math... You get the idea... Each of my children has their own shelves so that they do not get confused with each other, but when I am looking to go over the math pages, I can just reach for the red folders on each shelf.

   K12 sent plenty of paints and other art supplies, however, I did purchase colored pencils, markers and crayons.  K12 sent a math kit, with a protractor, compass eraser, etc...  None of that needed to be purchased.

   One of my children works better when taking notes in a three ring binder on looseleaf paper, the other likes individual spiral notebooks. I accomodated them.   I already have glue, glue sticks, rulers, pencils, etc...

   So, in summary, for the children taking similar classes to my children, here is the list I would recommend.

• (1) one ream of printer paper
• (1) package of crayons  (even if you have multiple children, they can share)
• (1) package of markers *
• (6-7) per child colored  three prong folders with pockets  (paper ones are fine as your child will not have to carry them in backpacks, etc)
• (6-7) per child Spiral notebooks or (1) 3 ring binder with looseleaf paper
• (1) Pair of scissors per child.
• (1) package of refillable mechanical pencils. (regular pencils are fine..)
• (1) ruler per child

   As you can see, it really is not a huge investment.  One of the things that just feels different, is there is no need for every single child to have the exact same school supplies.  That means it really does not matter if one child prefers a 3 ring binder and one prefers spirals.  It means if I want to buy folders with religious symbols or pop star photos, I can.  It means that one child can have a fabric pencil case on her shelf, while the other can have a plastic box.  We were able to individualize.  I did not buy a case of anything.  Technically, tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, disinfectant and sanitizer should all be added to this list, as we will use them all, but I'm not an accountant nor a financial analyst and I will not spend one single moment of my life trying to figure out the cost per child of toilet paper, tissue or any of the other items on the list.

      If there is something I have left out, I will update later.  I did purchase a white board and dry erase markers in case I would like to try to demonstrate something... Honestly, at home in the past, I have simply sat down and used extra paper so it is not necessary. I justified it as a "green" expense.  We would use less paper, and because I had really gotten used to using one when I was helping to teach at their school.  I did not add the glue or glue sticks to the list as we have not had a need for them with K12.. I will recommend them, because it really is fun to do extra art projects.  

    So, maybe this helped.. maybe it did not.. One of the most challenging things about converting to this new method is its flexibility... What works for us, may sound completely insane to you.  I also made individual clipboards covered in whiteboard paper to use instead of scrap paper for math problems at the computer.  (I'm very proud of these.)



           It's also nice that we do not have a list with specific brand names. I can shop the sales and get only what I know we need.   I do not have to buy a case of tissues in August with every other family, I can do what I would normally do and watch for a sale with a coupon...  After all, we are using a box occassionally, not going through 2 boxes per week.  It's more fluid.  I know that I will probably need a second or maybe a third package of markers, so I stocked up on those items.  When the spiral notebooks were one sale, I bought several in a variety of colors.  When they were 10 cents each, I purchased about 20 of them..  So, just the items I recommended, for two children, I spent around $20 on school supplies this year.. I could have spent more if we went for special character notebooks or whatever, but the girls decided they didn't really care and with the plain ones, they would have room to decorate them with colored permanent markers.   I spent about $20 getting our white board and dry erase markers, but, like I said, it was an extra.. Do what works for you.

     Any teacher will tell you, if you have children who like to do their schoolwork, or complete things quickly, you will have some down time.  I have always kept an art cabinet filled with snow day goodies, so I will continue that. It is filled with things like air dry clay, construction paper, water balloons and tissue paper to make snowballs with in winter.  We have extra watercolor paints as well as recycled printer paper.   You may not need these items. You may live in a climate more suitable for playing outside all year.  Since not only do we live in an area with both dangerous heat in the summer and cold in the winter, we have Wii for indoor PE, we have extra science goodies and extra art goodies. We also have a good collection of books.  Again, you may not need any of these things..

   If you are new, I would not immediately redesign your entire home and purchase an entire school room filled with supplies.  You will find things that work and do not work as you go through the first few weeks.  Those things may change as your child matures, the subject material changes, etc.  The greatest and most terrifying thing about this for me is the flexibility.  I like concrete rules... This has a few, but within those rules, we each have the ability to make adjustments... Do we want to do PE first thing in the morning or after lunch?  Would we like to sprinkle science throughout the week or cover the entire lesson on Monday?  We are still making these decisions.  They are no longer scary decisions. I am beginning to embrace this individualization as well as the flexibility. 

    

Amendment:

    Occassionally, there will be a few extras needed.  For instance, the other day my daughter needed a 2 liter bottle for science and a comic from the Sunday paper.  I have reviewed several lessons and have seen a few odds and ends like

• masking tape
• rubber bands
• brown paper bags
• balloons
• sponge

There are a few other things.. I would not recommend starting another cabinet with odd supplies. I especially would not recommend that you stay up endlessly going through each lesson months ahead so that you are not surprised.  I would recommend that at the end of each week, just print the 'materials needed' list. (Click on the week so that you can see an entire week ahead.)  Look over the list and take it with you when you are at the store if you just do not happen to have masking tape.  It will also give you a head's up if you need to save the egg carton when you use the last egg.
    Another savings that I found:  for PreAlgebra and Algebra, the school does list a Scientific Calculator on the school list, however in parentheses, they let you know that it is optional as an online version will be available..  More savings for us.