k12/Virtual Academy Spring 2010

[elanorh]

So here's our spring k12/virtual academy thread!

The question was asked, whether the March 15th cut-off for getting the next grade level's lessons was national or for just Wyoming. Based on the other answers, I suspect that it was for just Wyoming? But if you're hoping to move up a grade level in a subject or two - it would be worth sending a kmail to your teacher and asking him/her whether there is a firm cut-off date for your state.

It has put a bit of a crimp in my plans. But we'll cruise along. Last Th, F, and today are supposed to be "Spring Break" but we've worked right through it. One of my sisters is getting married the end of this month, and we'll be taking about a 2 week trip there and back (tour 'round the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, some time on Route 66, etc.). So we will not be getting as much school work done during that trip (some but not all) - so working ahead a bit now, so we're able to relax more during that trip.

[Satori]

[eilonwy]

Subscribing. Back later! (It's scout night, woohoo. )

[kittie313]

I *think* our cutoff for getting new materials is in April but I'm not for sure on that one. I'm trying to finish up phonics and math with Melissa by the end of this month so that she can get the next level and we can at least do those two subjects over the summer to keep our routine in place without them losing the skills we're working on.

I need to work with Melissa on counting backwards to redo that diagnostic testing next month, as well as with money skills. I'm concerned, those two areas she's been struggling with all school year and we're just not making progress on those two areas. I also need to start working with them on preparing to do the spring portfolio, they both are supposed to draw a picture and then write about it (one sentence for Lydia, 3-5 for Melissa) So I'm going to start working with Melissa today on it since she has the bigger writing portion. We have 3 options for the portfolio piece for each kid and I've already chosen the ones they will do, so the other 2 options for each kid will be used as our practice pieces to get us started until I come up with other ideas for practice topics.

I don't wanna do lessons today though, but I have to do extra because we really didn't do much yesterday or monday. I'm going to do the extra lessons over the rest of this week, and pick up some Saturday if needed. If I do it right, next week Melissa will finish phonics K and we can move her up to phonics and lang arts 1. Maybe another 2 weeks on math? I dunno lol I have to look and do some math of my own to figure out how long it'll take her.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by kittie313

I *think* our cutoff for getting new materials is in April but I'm not for sure on that one. I'm trying to finish up phonics and math with Melissa by the end of this month so that she can get the next level and we can at least do those two subjects over the summer to keep our routine in place without them losing the skills we're working on.

I talked with the whatchamacallit resource person at CAVA yesterday and they said so far they haven't set a date and it will just be a case by case kinda thing if they get next years early. She REALLY ticked me off and wanted dd on a formal contract for low progress and didn't seem to understand dd's work pattern and that she's following the same pattern she did last year and we cant really do anything about it. Flat out told me we wouldn't be getting 4th grade materials early because dd was so far behind which REALLY ticked me off. The materials are not hard this year for dd, last year she did the entire year in 3 months. The past 4 days she's done 2-3 weeks worth of work without a problem. She's doing the same thing as last year and I was pretty sure this would happen. I want the materials to work with dd over the summer because Nov-March she's pretty nonfunctional and we need a school year from March to Nov. If it wasn't for the fact I like K12 materials and "I" need that level of structure I would pull her just to get the flexibility we need.


Does anyone know of any free online typing programs? I want dd to learn to type rather then the pecking she does and I know Connections Academy starts teaching typing skills much earlier.

[zacharysmom]

with 5 th grade K12 we got typing. not sure if that is still in place. or you could try mavis beacon teaches typing. we are done with art almost done with science and finished math this week all we have left i lauange arts and lit, by the first of may we will be doing all supplemtal stuff, but the biggest struggle we have left is vocab it is poorly put together this year in my eyes but i still love K 12 and OHVA

[kittie313]

Well its that time of year, we're discussing if we're staying with OHVA or going independent. I'm leaning toward going independent but BUYING the phonics and lang. arts programs to do with my girls next school year. I want to have a different focus on lessons than we can have with OHVA, I want to focus on math and reading while using history and science as an exploration supplementary subject right now. I can't do that with ohva. So, we're giong to probably be leaving after this school year and going independent. I'm nervous about it, but not too concerned how it'll go thanks to having this school year in k12. The structure and accountability REALLY helped me get into the habit of doing daily lessons.

[Smithie]

Still chugging along here! We finally had an IEP meeting, which was a total sad joke. James had OT and speech evals with their preferred provider waaaay back in October. All these alleged proessionals showed up at the virtual meeting with NO COPY of these evals - just a year-old eval from the OT we'd worked with privately, that I sent them via registered mail in September and they managed to hang onto. It was pathetic. We are having another meeting at some point, whenever they manage to get their preferred provider to turn over those assesments that they spent so much money on. But it won't matter anyway - this place is next to a loan shark, a sketchy laundromat (maybe the unofficial office of a drug dealer? hard to tell) and a superior courthouse, a few blocks away from a gun and pawn that was robbed the same day I took James for his evals, and I'm never going there with three little kids in tow again.

I think we're going to end up with a signed IEP by the end of the year that says he can dictate work when a considerable amount of writing is involved. And they were actually receptive to my complaints about the locale of their preferred therapy provider - not receptive enough to insist that the provider send an OT to my house if they want to keep the contract with the school, but receptive enough to start the process of a new contract with James' original OT provider. Sometime NEXT YEAR, they might be able to authorize 30 minutes a week of OT for James in a safe location.

I am so done with these people. Fortunately, James' handwriting has improved so much this year that his teacher says it falls within the normal range of sample she gets from her K5 students. So I'm just going to forget all about IEPs and OTs and keep doing what I've been doing - being a Handwriting Martinet.

All Spec Ed frustrations aside, we continue to do well with the curriculum. I dislike the number of subject and look forward to a more streamlined first grade year (and a 4-day workweek I hope!), but if another mom asked me if I thought she should try K12, I'd tell her to go for it if I knew her to be the kind of person who wanted the curriculum laid out for her.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by Smithie

All Spec Ed frustrations aside, we continue to do well with the curriculum. I dislike the number of subject and look forward to a more streamlined first grade year (and a 4-day workweek I hope!), but if another mom asked me if I thought she should try K12, I'd tell her to go for it if I knew her to be the kind of person who wanted the curriculum laid out for her.

You have a point there, I would love to spend a year focusing more on the 3 R's rather then worrying about the extra stuff. I might just take a year off of CAVA to do that although I will miss the extra computer in the house

[Satori]

Anyone have a 4th grader in k12?

I've been really thinking about going independent since posting and I really think that might be a better option for us. I do like how the spelling and comp is done and would probably get those books off ebay since they were designed to be used away from the OLS. Math, any text will do since I have never used the K12 materials to teach math anyway but I do like how its laid out in the text book (actually just opened it for the 1st time today). I don't think taking a year off history and art will matter and science I don't think I need to worry about, the kid learns enough of that on her own. The only thing I don't like is the fact that right now its "school" and the "teacher" being the meanie and she can see in the OLS what needs to be done that day rather then "mom says" which doesn't go very far with her

Man, the idea of going independent is kinda scary though, but I think not being tied to a traditional school year will really take a lot of stress out of the house since we can plan work around seasonal mood shifts and stuff rather then having the school up my butt because she's not moving at the pace they want then getting snotty when she up and starts doing 2-4 weeks worth of work in a week when she's in a better mood. Anyway, Its got me kinda worried too because 2 medically fragile kids plus bipolar preteen with frequent tantrums (we just got new neighbors and I have no idea what to expect, our neighbor on the other side has a child like mine and understands that no I'm not trying to kill my child.) makes you a high risk for CPS showing up at your door. A friend is in a similar situation but as an independent homeschooler and they got all up in her biz and she's stuck with them checking on her for the next year. Granted HS'ing wasn't the only issue but they made it a big issue and forced her to enroll him in school and she went with K12 just to make them happy. I've seen my friend deal with CPS on a pretty regular basis and they did show up twice here years ago (like 6-7 years ago) and it ended up being unfounded but man, it was scary as heck and embarrassing when they talked to everyone we dealt with from Dr's to EI. I don't want to deal with that again and I it feels like being enrolled in public school just gives them one less thing to go after ya know? Unfounded I'm sure but after seeing my friend go through this just makes me edgy you know? But I need to weigh that against the constant stress of keeping up with all the k12 stuff and a child who doesn't move at a steady pace like they want. It all averages out in progress but they don't like it when a kid does nothing for a month then raise there eyebrows when the kid suddenly does tons of work.

Anyway, does anyone have the 4th grade lang arts Writing in Action level C & D consumable that they didn't use (I know we rarely use our consumables and just pull it up on the OLS) and would be willing to pass them on for shipping?

[kittie313]

Well, dh and I have discussed it seriously last night and this morning (then I got a migraine that put me down for a few hours) and I *think* that we are in agreement that we're leaving OHVA when this school year is up. We're working out exactly how we're going to do this within our REALLY tight budget but we do feel like it is the right decision for us. So, Come the end of May we will no longer be enrolled in k12. We are *planning* to finish out the math and phonics levels we'll have for each kid, and after that we'll be off doing our own thing. I'm feeling pretty good, and have a feeling that we're going to end up as unschoolers once we finish our materials............ lol

[cbyrum]

I'm subbing to this as we plan to do CAVA with my son in the fall. It's interesting to see how people like/dislike k12. I also like that if he finishes something early he can move on.

Have people had success with acclerating in a subject (math/reading) right off the bat? My DS is in K right now at our local school but is doing 2nd/3rd grade math which is one reason we are considering k12. I've been looking into it since October and currently ds is on board with it as he wants to do harder stuff than he gets at school now.

[amis2girls]

Originally Posted by cbyrum

Have people had success with acclerating in a subject (math/reading) right off the bat? My DS is in K right now at our local school but is doing 2nd/3rd grade math which is one reason we are considering k12.

Unless they change things, he will have to start at grade level and take assessments for every unit in the subject he wants to move ahead in. My dd started K12 2nd grade last month and the only way to get to challenging material is by sitting through every lesson.

[Satori]

Originally Posted by amis2girls

Unless they change things, he will have to start at grade level and take assessments for every unit in the subject he wants to move ahead in. My dd started K12 2nd grade last month and the only way to get to challenging material is by sitting through every lesson.

If its obvious the material is to easy you can request placement testing if the child really is that far ahead.

[eclipse]

Count me as another that will be leaving k12 soon. We're planning to sign up with another Charter that is more flexible and provides funds for outside classes and curriculum purchases. We have a meeting set up with them for next week. If everything looks good and they have room, I plan to sign them up right away, rather than wait out the year. The kids are just really bucking the structure, and my giveash!t is broken when it comes to dealing with some of the requirements.

[cbyrum]

Originally Posted by Satori

If its obvious the material is to easy you can request placement testing if the child really is that far ahead.

I will definitely have to request a placement test. He's currently doing EPGY at 3rd grade lvl (about 1/5 of the way through), Singapore 2b (but has yet to come across anything he doesn't know already), and has fallen in love with dividing and multiplying. So much so he's trying to teach his 4 yr old sister how to divide with remainders.

[Satori]

I am having a kind of week. dd has her end of the semester/year assessment and I swear she has forgotten EVERYTHING for math. She's always been a wiz at math and was way ahead but we took some time off to work on memorizing multiplication and in that time it’s like her brain has left her. She can't remember anything, she's not paying attention and is even messing up on addition/subtraction problems! I put her on study island to work on stuff and the child is only at 50% for rounding, she missed half the 95 questions she did! I have explained it several times, I even had her watch a brain pop episode. I’ve explained it again and again! She understands place value (for which she acts like she doesn’t half the time) but just can't seem to get rounding! She has known this forever! She's just blanked out on all her math, literally, out of the I think it was the 26 questions on the semester 2 test I think she got 2 right. I have explained how to do stuff over and over and over and its like she's gone brain dead. She KNEW all this and its gone. I just don't know what to do, the test with the teacher is Thursday and at this point I'm just I do not want to have to repeat this semester or at the rate she's going there going to kick her back to kindergarten! Its like she's lost 50 IQ points all around (were having problems in every subject!) and I'm ready to just throw my hands up. What happened to my smart kid who grasped concepts in seconds? Now I'm explaining over and over and over for simple things and I might as well be talking to a wall

[EXOLAX]

Things have been going really well for us. I'm happy with the curriculum and I have found the K and 1st grade curriculum to be pretty flexible. We are already enrolled for both kids for next year and I'm excited to get started!!

Those who are leaving I am curious what your reasons are. Is there anything specific?

[amis2girls]

Originally Posted by Satori

If its obvious the material is to easy you can request placement testing if the child really is that far ahead.

OK, sorry, that I hadn't heard. I mention that the material is super-easy and get 'just click through until you come to something she doesn't know.' Which is impossible, b/c she's a left-brained thinker, finishing a math lesson completes math for the day. Why would she want to do three?

We will not be returning. Next year is 3rd grade, a mandatory state testing year here. The only testing site is 5 hours away. We could not make the trip with my highly-sensitive daughter. She'd be hyperventilating the whole way. We're going to make up our own curriculum. The K12 curriculum is engaging, but we don't want to feel tied to what someone else says she should be learning. As engaging as the lesson may be, it doesn't hold her attention if she doesn't want to learn it.

[eclipse]

Originally Posted by EXOLAX

Those who are leaving I am curious what your reasons are. Is there anything specific?

My kids have really been itching to branch out more. Aside from that, there's a lot of pressure to participate in things like Study Island and the god awful elluminate classes. We're moving to another homeschool charter that will pay for outside classes, let you get whatever curriculum you want (as long as it meets state standards), etc. Also, my youngest will be kindy age next year, and there's just no way he would do well with k12 curriculum.