All Change

It seems like everywhere I look, things are new.

  • For a while it seemed like Spring would never quite settle in, but it finally has.  We are firmly in that perfect time of year with lovely warm days and crisp, cool nights that make for perfect sleeping conditions.  Our last few weeks of school seem like no bother at all since we can spend them mostly outside.  Also, Pippa’s already had her homeschool evaluation for this year (our first!), so we can relax a little and know that third grade is pretty much in the bag.
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Chillin’.

  • My friend Mary had her baby (a bit early, but mom and baby are doing well) three weeks ago.  I am looking forward to my first ever playdate with my best friend, and her deliciously adorable new daughter, Maura, this coming Monday!  Congratulations to their sweet little family.
  • We are looking into school options for Niko for next year.  We have been in the process since January of having him evaluated for special services by our local school district.  He does indeed qualify for speech therapy among other things, as we knew he would, but it remains to be seen what the school district will actually provide to us as homeschoolers, if anything.  We are watching hopefully to see what God might do here, but also wanting to push on other doors in case this one closes.

To that end, we went to a Cyber Fair today to check out some of the many wonderful online public schools that our state offers.  I think we found at least a couple that would be a good fit for our family, so we have a bit more homework to do if we decide to go this route.  The concept of having a public school beamed right into my home may take some getting used to, but I am thankful to know that Niko could receive all the services he needs this way (for free!) without my having to sacrifice precious face time with my boy.  Wisdom, anyone?  Thoughts?  Experiences?

Post Office Photo Op

Post Office Photo Op

  • Trevor is starting his second week of night shifts (following two weeks of training during normal business hours).  While it is very strange to be dateless on a Saturday night, I think we are both thinking this schedule is actually going to be pretty great once we get the hang of it.  In exchange for 3 or 4 nights a week of 12 hour shifts, Trevor will be home with us (and awake!) Wednesday through Saturday or Sunday each week.  So far, we seem to think it’s great mostly when we’re in the middle of the not-working part of the week, but the overall first impressions are good.

 

  • Finally, we have a new bike-rider in the house!  Thanks once again to the fantastic New York Method of no-training-wheels bike learning, Beatrix became our 4th bike-rider just this week, at five and a half.  If you don’t have time to watch the video, the gist is this: take off the training wheels and the pedals.  Let them learn to coast and balance using their feet for a while, then reattach the pedals and off they go.  We have taught four kids to ride this way now, and it is so much more effective than all the time we spent with training wheels before we discovered it.

Here’s our girl.  Doesn’t she still seem too little to be doing this?!

Hope you’re all enjoying the beauty and newness of the season, too!

4 thoughts on “All Change

  1. Your family is just beautiful! We are homeschoolers who used an internet based public school this year, so I thought I would share our experience. We joined the K12 program in our state. It is nationwide but I believe it is called Virtual Academy or Cyber Academy in some states.
    When you join you are considered to be enrolled in public school, so you have to follow the same immunization requirements, provide medical records, and follow the same attendance requirements.

  2. The things I liked about our program were:
    They provide nearly all of the material you need for the entire year including art and science supplies, we had everything we needed except paper and pencils. We even got a computer, plus a stipend to pay for internet!
    All of the lessons are completely planned for you.
    We were able to customize the younger kids’ lessons to give them more practice where they needed it and skip things they already knew.
    The online lessons were really fun for the younger kids, the math and reading lessons seemed like games to them.
    The website keeps track of all the progress for you and lets you know exactly which lessons to work on next.
    There were lots of fieldtrips planned for the “school”, and there is a directory that you can use to look up other students you might be interested in meeting.
    There were some things I didn’t like:
    There was a lot more paperwork (mostly online, but still) than I expected, just keeping everyone’s attendance record up to date took a lot of time.
    The teacher led classes weren’t very helpful, they took a lot of time and there was little meaningful interaction with the kids in the “class”. Many of the classes were required attendance, which was hard with more than one child needing to be online.
    The classes and meetings that were recorded so you could watch them later often didn’t work or give you credit for joining in, even though they were supposed to.
    The teachers seem to have a lot of administration work for many children and they were very slow responding to emails, or didn’t respond at all.
    There is a lot of emphasis put on math and reading and much less on science, social studies and other subjects.
    A lot of time is spent practicing test taking skills and getting ready for the state testing, which is mandatory just like public school. In my state it is not required for homeschoolers to take those tests so it was a big change for us.
    Classes and requirements for older students (high school) is very inflexible. My son was not able to work in extra practice in Algebra, and his computer classes were so far below him that it seemed like busy work.
    You can set your own daily pace but they will tell you if you’re not moving along quickly enough, and we didn’t have the option of working through the summer and setting our own vacation time, (we usually take all of December off).
    There were a lot of things I did like about the program, but I hated the stress put on test-taking practice. We won’t be doing the same program next year. I would love it if it was a curriculum that we could buy and do on our own, without all the oversight. Maybe I just don’t like being told what to do!
    I know this is a long response but I hope some of it was helpful.

  3. Hi Jodi! While I found your blog (through the Blessing of Verity Blog) I can’t find your facebook! 😉 I should just text you. I saw you at the cyber fair but didn’t get to say hi and I think you were leaving as I was coming.

    Are you thinking about cyber for all of your children or just Miko? I was just considering for Abigail but am thinking about Selah as well. Really Selah is an awesome self learner, I just struggle with wanting to give up that control.. maybe that’s silly?? Also, she’s learning well now as it is why change things??

    C Smith: I am wondering and hope you read this.. which school did you choose and are you still using cyber?? I am looking at Connections (mostly because they have a “community class” stipend as well as the programs A’s audiologist suggested that she use. I was turned off by the fact that the people at the cyber fair seemed to think I still need to teach her. I expect to be similar to a parent with a child in public: I want to be very involved but it should not be my job to teach her.. Pa cyber seemed more flexible with what they offer. I can’ tell if they offer the certain programs that the audiologist recommended or if there is a community class stipend.

  4. The school we enrolled in is called K12 Cyber Academy, it is our state’s public online school. So, you are considered enrolled in public school, you just do everything at home, I think there is a version of the same program in every state. We are finishing up this year’s program now, but will not be using it next year. We are happier with the more traditional type of homeschooling that we have done in the past. If you do any type of cyber or online school, I don’t think you can get away from the fact that you are going to have to do a lot more teaching than the average public school parent. You will be the only adult available most of the time and you won’t be able to limit yourself to only checking homework. But, you might be surprised at how easy and natural it is to teach your own kids. We are their teachers from birth even if we don’t realize it!

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