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..
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
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!
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!
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!
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