Anyone else having a not-so-great experience with virtual school? - Page 2

[425lisamarie]

i posted about my frustration with k-12 and got helpful advice. The hours are based on the state law of being in school a certain amount of time.

You are teaching ONE ON ONE, FAR different than a poor teacher with no control, babysitting and trying to teach to 30 kids, all different levels, some with no parental support/teaching. What I do is if a lesson is described as 60minutes and we do it, I log 60 minutes.

You are not going to "get in trouble." this is what I have to tell myself. "I homeschool because *I* want my child learning in the best environment." I kept doing every little assignment.

Do you have the option of taking an assesment? My son does NOT need busy work and as much repetition as some. I'm sure we will get to a point where he does need more practice but right now we are blowing through some stuff. What I do is take a weeks worth of work, print the assesments for each lesson. Instead of doing ALL the work AND the assesment, we JUST do the assesment. If there is a little spot that he isn't so quick with or I feel we could use a little more practice we will just go back to that lesson part and maybe complete one of the worksheets, or do it on the white board.

Worst case is, if you are going through the public funded thing....you give up send it back and do it on your own. I tell myself this everyday and it makes me feel I have an out if I just don't like it. Curriculum doesn't have to cost a fortune and i think there are lots of options with Columbia to choose your own?

Owe I reread...he's in kinder, very easy to make sure he's getting everything on your own. I would check out Math Mammoth online. You can buy it by the year, and it is a fabulous math program! It's like $20some to download. I have it all, but not doing it because I"m doing k-12 but I'm in the same boat. If I have to keep skipping so much and reworking it is totally senseless. I end up dong MORE work I feel like. I think it's a GREAT option, very organized but if you are a seasoned homeschooler or ok with putting it all together on your own it almost seems like more work LOL!

[homeschoolmom1]

QDA stand for Quaker Digital Academy. Here is there website:
http://www.go2qda.org/qda/site/default.asp

[homeschoolmom1]

Originally Posted by minkajane

What does QDA stand for?

QDA is Quaker Digital Academy. Here is their website:
http://www.go2qda.org/qda/site/default.asp

Hope this helps!

[kittie313]

Originally Posted by minkajane

What does QDA stand for?

Quaker Digital Academy.
www.go2qda.org/qda/site/default.asp is their site if you want to look at it.

[Alexa373]

Originally Posted by minkajane

DS is doing Kindergarten with Connections Academy. We've been doing it for a month now and I can't say I'm pleased. I started to type it all out and it was a novel, so I'm going to do the abridged version.

- The lessons aren't very clear, especially about where in the millions of books to find what we're using.
- Many activities seem pointless, especially the uber-structured body awareness/balance/whatever ones. What's wrong with just letting the kid play?
- The teacher has not been very helpful. Every time I email with a question, she references another email or info packet instead of just answering the question.
- The time requirements seem ridiculous. Even if we did every single activity (we skip a lot), it would take us 2.5 hours TOPS to do everything, but we're supposed to have 26 hours a week. We end up having to make up our hours.
- Most of the work is below DS's level. Seems like the only thing he's really learning with is the reading part and that's been minimal. The math lessons are basic shapes, colors, and spacial words. Don't most kids know that by the time they're 5?
- Despite the fact that the lessons themselves don't take much time, I still feel like there's a ton of random stuff we have to do. The livelessons (which DS missed because it didn't work right, but he'll be penalized because the teacher said it was fine on her end), the portfolios, the calls, the emails, etc.

DS loved it at first, I guess because it was new, but he seems to dread school now. It's very tedious for him, even when we skip the non-essentials. I don't feel like he's learning much and lately he seems to be tuning everything out and doing the worksheets out of habit (since they're all exactly the same). DH and I are both miserable. I'm definitely not doing virtual school next year and I'm seriously considering withdrawing him if things don't improve in the next several weeks. I think 6-8 weeks is more than enough time to see if it's going to work for us.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? What did you do/would you do?

I chose QDA for both of my children. I shopped around and after evaluating the pros and cons of most of the ohio virtual schools, I felt QDA would be the best option and I couldn't be happier with it. They offer an array of different curriculum but for Kindergarten, the Little Lincoln curriculum is absolutely wonderful. My little Kyle can't seem to tear himself away from the computer and he thoroughly enjoys learning. Kyle loves watching the online videos and seeing his favorite teachers everyday! He even talks about them when he isn't around the computer. Sometimes I forget who he is talking about and I have to remind myself it's the teachers! The lessons are easy to follow and Kyle seems to be learning at a faster pace than many of the other kids his age. Not only is the curriculum great, but QDA does a great job with staying in touch with us. If we have any questions at all, they are very quick to return a phone call if they are unavailable. Even if we don't have any problems, they usually give us a friendly call every 7-10 days just to see how Kyle is doing, even if it isn't school related.

If you are looking to try a different virtual option, I would definitely recommend giving QDA a try. Not only is their curriculum great, but they are very friendly and work as hard as they can to make sure your child succeeds!