It's full!

Alex has managed to fill in all 30 boxes on this chart with stickers by getting through school days without any major head-butting.  So now he gets a pizza party with friends from his old school, his baseball team, and our church.  He's one excited boy!

 Also, for the first time since the beginning of 1st grade, he is pulling straight As!  So proud of my Alexander. 

Taking Advantage

There really has been little blog-worthy to post here in the last month or so.  Alex continues to do well at Indiana Connections Academy, and I've been having fun re-learning a lot of stuff that I'd forgotten from my school days.

At the beginning of October, we went to one of the school's welcome picnics and got to meet his teacher and some other students from our area.  We got t-shirts, ate some wonderful food, went on a hike, and made friends!  It was a great afternoon!

Last week we did something we never would have been able to do had we kept Alex in a brick and mortar school.  We went on a trip!  Alfred ended up getting a minivan as his rental car and only had to go as far as Cincinnati to work.  The day before he had to leave, he asked, "Would you like to come with me?"  Since we hardly ever get such a chance, we decided to grab all of Alex's school books and hit the road.  He was able to do some of his work on the way, and then he did the rest on his dad's laptop at the hotel.  It was great to be able to spend the extra time with Alfred in a way that didn't interfere with school. 

I LOVE this program!   

Redo!!!

Alex had a math test today.  It wasn't a particularly difficult test, but the directions kind of confused him.  The first question told him to use mental math, so he used mental math on ALL the problems.  Whoops.  The total score was 50%. 

I sent the teacher an e-mail explaining what happened and asked if it would be possible for him to re-take the test.  She reset it for us, and this time working out the problems, he got 100%.  If this had happened last year at the b/m school he was attending, I'm pretty sure the teacher wouldn't have allowed it.  I'm so glad we have this level of understanding and flexibility.

GOOD Days

The tantrums and whining were getting to be a bit much for us.  Last week, my husband and I had to sit Alex down and explain to him that this may not be regular public school, but he still needed to do the work.  He doesn't necessarily have to do it happily, but he at least needs to stop his fits and whining.  He wouldn't act that way towards his teachers when he was going to a brick and mortar school, and he shouldn't do it here.  We explained that he would be much happier if he didn't act out so much.  A change of attitude is a MUST.

We now have a reward system in order.  We keep track of his good, non-whiny days on a chart.  There are 30 squares on it.  When he has a sticker in every single box, he gets a special prize.  When we presented ideas for said special prizes, we included really big things like a day at an indoor water park, things that we sweated over because we knew they'd cost big bucks.  Imagine our surprise when he said that he'd much rather have a sleepover here at home with some of his closest friends!  And so far, it's working great!  All three days since the last bad day have been good.  He's gotten a few warning looks, but when he saw the looks, he shaped up immediately.

 
Another good thing that has come from this is that Alex's school days have gotten shorter.  He now realizes that fewer tantrums=work done quicker.  Work done quicker=more time to do the things that he WANTS to do. 

Also, now that he's trying not to whine or throw fits, he's actually having some fun with his different subjects.  He wrote a really fun story today!  Enjoy!

Hands-On Science

Alex had his first science experiment today. The school day was extra long because we had to make a Wal-Mart run this morning to pick up the things he needed for the experiment. We got a late start, but for the most part, it was a fun day.

The experiment was to observe how water moves through plants. We used celery and a white rose as our plants, and we used blue food coloring in the water so that we could actually see the water moving through them. Alex had fun with this experiment mostly because it got him out of the office for a change. :-) It was pretty cool to watch the leaves and petals turning blue, though.

Writing IS fun!

This week, Alex had to write a personal narrative.  At first this seemed a little daunting since he can't stand writing.  So I tried to help him think of fun things to write about.  This was supposed to be personal after all, and who doesn't like to talk about fun times they've had?  I thought I'd post the finished product on here for your enjoyment.  Feel free to comment and make suggestions for improvement!

The Big Championship Game

By Alexander Harbich

It was baseball season.  I was so excited!  My team and I were going to the championships.  We only had 1 loss and 13 wins!  All season I hit the ball.

During the final game, we took the lead.  Then, in the bottom of the fourth inning, there was a terrible downpour!  And boy was I mad!  And I mean M-A-D!  We couldn't finish the game with a bunch of puddles on the field.  What were we going to do?

When the rain stopped, the coaches decided to clean the field with a leaf blower, a pail, a rake, a shovel, and a broom.  Then we went back out on the field to finish the game.

The final score was 6 visitors, 11 home!  We won!  I was filled with glee.  I got a trophy.  We took the water barrel and poured it on Coach Adam!

The End

Alex is also very pleased with his latest art project.  The assignment was to draw an animal and show texture using lines.  He's decided that he's really into huskies, so that's the animal he chose to draw.

We're loving this form of education so far.  Sometimes when he's getting to be whiny about the assignments he has to do, all we have to say is, "Ok, maybe we should call your old school to see if they'll take you back."  His answer is always the same.  "No!  I don't want to go back there!"  I'm glad he loves being home with me so much.  :-)

Alex's Favorite Subject

Alex has a new favorite subject this year.  It's art class!  Too bad he only has it one day a week.  On Friday he had to do a water color painting of a tree, so he chose to do a painting of the pine tree in our front yard.  I think it turned out pretty well for a first attempt!

 This week is going better than it did last week.  At least we have been able to avoid major tantrums thus far.  There's been a little whining here and there when an assignment called for writing, but I've found that if I just leave the room, he at least gets going on it.  It still takes him a long time, but it's progress.  

Tantrums and Laughter

What a roller coaster this first week has been!  Today we finished day 4, and so far, I'm amazed and exhausted.  We've gotten off to a rough start due to mama and one baby being sick with painful colds, but so far we've managed to stay on track with all of Alex's lessons. 

We had a return of one old friend this week:  the tantrum.  Last year, anything that required Alex to write made him cry, whine, and/or scream for hours.  He HATES writing.  I'm finding that this year is no different in that regard.  The minute an assignment asks for him to write something, he throws his pencil down and starts bawling.  So we're looking to find ways to make writing less of a pain for him.  I've had many good suggestions from friends, and I'm open to any more anyone can think of.  If we don't figure this out soon, it could make for one miserable school year.

We're laughing, too, though.  Some of the animations are so funny!  And sometimes, we'll be sitting in the office deep in serious study, and we'll hear something funny from one of the toddlers.  Having them around really lightens things up for Alex, and he's happy to not have to leave his little brothers behind every day. 

One thing I'm noticing is that public school must be nothing more than state-mandated daycare.  Nearly all of the work that Alex completed this week resembled what he used to bring home as homework last year.  The only difference here is that we usually see either a short movie or animation before we actually have to do the work.  And those don't take long at all.  So what are our kids actually doing at school all day?  Really makes me wonder..

First Day

I knew when we chose this path that it would be a HUGE adjustment for us, but our first day at Connections Academy was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.  In fact, even with constant interruptions from my toddlers, we still got through it with fewer problems than we ever did in traditional brick/mortar school.

First and foremost, there were no fights.  Alex got up at a decent hour, took his time with breakfast, brushed his teeth and got dressed without me having to ask him (or scream at him, as usually happens) to do anything.  In fact, I fully expected him to stay in his pajamas all morning while he did his work, but he wanted to put on clean clothes.  Even taking his time, he was still able to start school by 9:15 AM.  I had fully expected to have to wait until at least 10 to get him going.  I guess he was excited.  :-)

We had a little bit of a rough start with his language arts lesson.  Our toddlers are both whiny with colds, and they were constantly begging my attention, even with their daddy here for the morning.  I had to get Alex going, though, so I closed the office door to muffle the screams and left them to be consoled by Daddy.  Once I was able to help Alex figure out how to navigate the Learning Management System, he was able to do a lot of work on his own.  Except for the occasional distraction of noise from his brothers, he was able to get through it just fine.  It helps that most of the work was review from things he learned last year.  So I guess today was more about learning how to function in a virtual school.

Some of his courses had a lot of writing activities.  Before lunch, Alex was complaining of writing cramps.  I guess tomorrow we'll do his classes in a different order so that he doesn't have to do so much writing all at once.  Live and learn, I guess.

I noticed that my boy's work gets done a lot faster while the little ones are napping.  When we figure out what his more challenging courses are going to be, we'll do those at that time to hopefully help him focus better.  I LOVE being able to choose when and what to have him work on.

A couple new courses are on the schedule for tomorrow.  Can't wait! 

We Chose Connections Academy!

Since virtual schooling is such a new option, especially in our state, I decided to start this blog to document our first year with Connections Academy.  Connections Academy is a virtual charter school.  It is considered public school and is state-funded.  So there is no cost to our family.  Much of the school work is completed online through lessons in the school's Learning Management System and LiveLesson Sessions with the teacher.  Our oldest son, Alexander, is attending this school for the first time this year in the 4th grade.

We actually had many reasons for taking our son out of his traditional brick and mortar school this year.  I must admit that in the beginning, my reasons were mostly selfish.  The last school year was especially difficult for me physically.  I have two toddlers only a year apart in age, and my husband has to travel a lot during the week.  On top of that, I have fibromyalgia, so it is especially hard for me to get going in the mornings.  When I had to get two toddlers dressed and out to the car in the snow while my whole body was aching, every day, to take my oldest son to school, I just wanted to die.  And it ruined me for the rest of the day.  My mother came to my rescue many times when I just couldn't get it together, but I couldn't ask her to do that forever at her age.  When I first saw the ad for Connections Academy, I saw it as a possible solution.  He could learn at home, for free, and I wouldn't have to put myself through so much agony every day.  The only hang-up I could think of was that my son wouldn't like the idea of learning at home away from his friends.

When I brought up the subject with Alex, his reaction surprised me.  He said, "I've been waiting for this my WHOLE life!"  I had had no idea that going to school was making him so miserable.  He then told me about how the kids at school were so mean to him, and the teachers couldn't really do much about it.  And he complained about how he was always just too tired in the morning to really understand much.  With the virtual school option, he'd have more flexibility on when he would actually do his work, so he could sleep a little later if necessary.

So what about socialization?  How will he get social experience?  These are always the first questions I get asked when I tell people about our decision.  My answer is that he will still have plenty of opportunities to socialize.  Besides school field trips and activities with other CA students, he will still participate in baseball, cub scouts, classes at the YMCA, church activities, and he will still play outside with his friends.  School is not necessarily a good place to build social skills.  You can't learn social skills from other kids that don't have social skills.  I frequently noticed that school was becoming less about what my son was learning and more about what other kids were saying about him, what other kids were wearing, and what other kids were DOING to him.  When you only have one adult supervising 25-30 kids, a lot of things get overlooked, and children get hurt.  They need to learn social skills from responsible adults and practice those skills in smaller groups of children with adult supervision and guidance.  And how many times do you remember hearing from your own teachers, "This is NOT social hour!"?  School is a place for gaining an education, not insulting your peers.

Since Alex was on board, we made the leap.  We were thrilled when his enrollment was approved!  After we confirmed that we intended to have him attend CA, the school sent his books and other supplies.  When the UPS man came, it was like Christmas!  It got us even more excited for the coming year, and it gave me a huge kick in the bum to get our office organized.

Today was our first day of school.  Stay tuned for the story of how it went!