Homeschool Update

We did the full-time homeschool thing for about 2 weeks. Then [thankfully] Rea was accepted into the Florida Virtual School. She was able to begin in November. So far, it has been perfect. And I know friends/family are interested in hearing about it, so this post is for you. 

[If this is news to you, start here.]

FLVS has taken a huge weight off of me. In traditional homeschool, I [the parent] create the curriculum. For that, I dug around on the internet and found a check list of the things a Florida third grader is expected to learn, and we were attacking it like a list. It would have worked. I could have pulled it off as a long-term option. 

But I am glad I do not have to. 

At least right now, I am happy for that. 

The Pros

FLVS is a school, just not a brick-and-mortar one. Rea has a teacher - she's lovely and super kind. Rea has classmates - 22 to be exact. Basically, it works like this: 

Sunday after church, I log in to Rea's class. And I print out the week's assignments and objectives for both LASS (language arts and social studies) and MST (math, science and technology). At this time, I print out any worksheets that correspond. And I read through the plan. I like to know what's coming up and how the workload looks. Also, I need to know what (if any) supplies we will need for science experiments. 

A sample of the schedule.

Rea's class meets twice per week. The kids log in and are all online together with the teacher*. They are able to communicate with each other, ask questions, and interact like a normal class would. The teacher teaches and the kids follow along. 

The rest of the week is spent working through the assignments. She reads, writes, practices math, works on science experiments. All from our house (or where ever we happen to be that week). All at her own pace. 

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A science experiment that went along with a study about the pilgrims. She built a foil boat and had to see how many pennies her boat could carry.

Her boat was able to carry WAY more pennies (pilgrims) than either of us guessed. I think it held 77 before it took on water.

Rea had to do an "hour of code" this week.

She LOVED learning to code things for Minecraft. This was a super cool assignment!

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The Cons

Honestly, the biggest con is that she is alone. I have to be very deliberate about scheduling playdates and activities. Also, I noticed that it's kind of easy to become somewhat of a shut-in. That's not good. 

But I am aware of it. 

It's a delicate balance of being structured and disciplined to get all the work done while getting out and doing/seeing/experiencing things. 

I'll keep evaluating, thinking, planning, worrying, praying.