I'm in a similar situation -- I didn't register until last week and am still waiting for all the "stuff" to get here. Little brother starts school tomorrow so I was hoping to start OHVA tomorrow, too. How do you handle attendance when you don't even do anything that day?
Thank you for all the feedback everyone! l'll just try to keep the teacher apprised of what Miss B is capable of and how we're modifying the assignments. If they have a problem with that, then we may be going with straight up homeschooling next year since GCA is our only public VA option right now.
I do like the K12 curriculum, but I was just astonished by how much the workload and pace have changed since last year. Hopefully we'll hit a good rhythm (especially once little brother starts his morning out program) and she'll surprise me.
No "back to school list" per se. But you can check the local back-to-school lists and have a pretty good idea what to get, if you don't have items --- crayons, markers, colored pencils, construction paper, posterboard, pencil, pencil-sharpener, erasers, stapler, paper clips (basically home supplies)....
Those who have yet to be contacted by teachers, it's possible they haven't assigned teachers to you yet. This can happen when they have more students enrolling than they expected.
Even for those whose books haven't arrived yet, on the start date for school (or prior?) the "Introduction to On-Line Learning" lessons should be up. Those are for YOU to review. And you should be able to do those without your school curriculum (or at least, that's what they've been like in the past) - they'll give you a virtual tour of how to do attendance, etc. etc. via that lesson. So you can at least get THOSE out of the way.
Your teacher, once you have one, should be able to give you direction about how the delayed start will impact your school year. We got our supplies two weeks late the first year we registered; they simply told us that we had an extra two weeks to finish up in the spring, after school was supposed to be over. That was the first year that our state had a state-wide virtual school, so most of us were in that (late curriculum) category. They also encouraged us to catch up as much as we could in the interim, but we did have that cushion at the end. My daughter ended up finished early despite our late start.
You may be able to do some school without your curriculum - if you have art supplies on hand, you might be able to find some art lessons that you could do, since those lessons are mostly on-line (no text book), for instance. For K, something that you'll learn later in the year will be full name/address/phone number -- so you could work on that now, if you haven't already, and that way it'll be out of the way when you do encounter that later in the year? Otherwise, if you go to a museum, zoo, or etc. during this time that you don't have your curriculum, you can enter the hours you spent doing that under "science" or "history," etc.
Hope that helps! We start tomorrow .... I still need to clean off the desk tonight!
Since you're in college too and probably juggling things, I'd suggest jumping into the art and doing art 'til your boxes arrive (you could also do history and science prior to your books' arrival, as the worksheets you'd use for them are also online and can just be printed out to use that way). So, history/science/art are all possible to get rolling with before your books arrive (so you're not too behind). Then once the math/phonics/reading show up, you can ease up on the art/history/science and double up on the lessons for the subjects that you're behind in, and it wouldn't take long to be all caught up.
Assuming that you want to get cracking on things, and are worried about being behind later. Otherwise, they are likely to give you some wiggle room for your end-of-the-school-year date since your boxes are arriving late.
Caveat: I've only done k-2, art/history/science may NOT be "essentially possible to do with just the online lessons and print-outs from them" for the upper grades, I don't know, but it's worth checking out if you have an older kid and are worrying and want to get started.
Our books/classrooms will also b a few dayslate, but I found that the first few math lessons could be completed w/out books, ie just online. I also looked ahead at the lists of approved novels for lit., and since we had one of them at home dd started reading it and answering the online questions yesterday.
"Summer Fun in the On-Line School"
Anyone know what's going on with this? I think it showed up on our k12 account as a class sometime in late July, but didn't pay attention to it because frankly we were not doing school over the summer and busy, and I wasn't interested in it. I figured it was some nice enrichment for those who wanted it, and moved on.
WELL - school started for us yesterday, and we had our standard Tuesday courses (math/reading/science/music). It used to be that Wednesdays were math/reading/history/art. Today, the lessons also include Social Studies (fine, good, I had wanted something like these lessons and it looks like they last all the way to Christmas but then they're done for the year) - and "Summer Fun in the On-Line School." Also scheduled for every Wednesday 'til around Christmas. We went ahead and did the lesson today (it was basically an orientation to math lessons and why math is fun/interesting). There are 4 units: May, June, July, August.
If these had been loaded in May I might have not minded so much. But they weren't, and I'm seeing no facility in them. I will need to review them tonight and see what they're about but thus far it looks like they're just feel-good lessons for the kids to stay hyped about school over the summer - except, it's not summer and they DO already have school.
Those of you waiting for books/curriculum who have this set of lessons, feel free to dive in and bust through them all, it doesn't look like they require any books and you'd be getting them out of the way. Your kids might enjoy them, too - mine did, I'm the one who's grumpy about them and the time they'd take.
Meanwhile I sent an email to our 'teacher' to see what she knows about them. Hoping that some of you ladies have already encountered them and know what's going on??
If we're stuck with them and/or there's something actually useful in them, I'll move them to a different day so our Wednesdays aren't so packed. But I'm hoping to be told we can just click through and enter attendance on them and be done with them....!
Our's only had one a week and my son acualy found most of them rather boring. They all seemed to be an intro to the subjects, and I thought they were optional. We found them a little useful just because this is our first year, but I think for anyone who has done k12 before they would seem really a waste of time. Hope your teacher just lets you skip them.
"Summer Fun in the On-Line School"
Anyone know what's going on with this? I think it showed up on our k12 account as a class sometime in late July, but didn't pay attention to it because frankly we were not doing school over the summer and busy, and I wasn't interested in it. I figured it was some nice enrichment for those who wanted it, and moved on.
WELL - school started for us yesterday, and we had our standard Tuesday courses (math/reading/science/music). It used to be that Wednesdays were math/reading/history/art. Today, the lessons also include Social Studies (fine, good, I had wanted something like these lessons and it looks like they last all the way to Christmas but then they're done for the year) - and "Summer Fun in the On-Line School." Also scheduled for every Wednesday 'til around Christmas. We went ahead and did the lesson today (it was basically an orientation to math lessons and why math is fun/interesting). There are 4 units: May, June, July, August.
If these had been loaded in May I might have not minded so much. But they weren't, and I'm seeing no facility in them. I will need to review them tonight and see what they're about but thus far it looks like they're just feel-good lessons for the kids to stay hyped about school over the summer - except, it's not summer and they DO already have school.
Those of you waiting for books/curriculum who have this set of lessons, feel free to dive in and bust through them all, it doesn't look like they require any books and you'd be getting them out of the way. Your kids might enjoy them, too - mine did, I'm the one who's grumpy about them and the time they'd take.
Meanwhile I sent an email to our 'teacher' to see what she knows about them. Hoping that some of you ladies have already encountered them and know what's going on??
If we're stuck with them and/or there's something actually useful in them, I'll move them to a different day so our Wednesdays aren't so packed. But I'm hoping to be told we can just click through and enter attendance on them and be done with them....!
It was just something they could access through the summer but doesn't need to be done. It should disappear shortly but you can always hide it via the scheduling tab if it's bugging you. :)
Kind of frustrated with ds. The whole reason we're doing this is because of his distractability and problems with focus but it is taking him FOREVER to get things done, and this is with me sitting right next to him. I don't want to be stuck doing schoolwork all day every day! Motivational ideas are most welcome.
Kind of frustrated with ds. The whole reason we're doing this is because of his distractability and problems with focus but it is taking him FOREVER to get things done, and this is with me sitting right next to him. I don't want to be stuck doing schoolwork all day every day! Motivational ideas are most welcome.
Sorry no ideas for you, just wanted to let you know that you are not alone on this.
I really don't see how we are going to get everything they want done in a day done, ever. I took DS a little over 3 hours to get a laungage arts assignment done, but really he was only trying to do it a little less then 1.5 of those hours. So I don't feel right marking that he was doing LA for 3 hours, though we were sitting there that long.
Kind of frustrated with ds. The whole reason we're doing this is because of his distractability and problems with focus but it is taking him FOREVER to get things done, and this is with me sitting right next to him. I don't want to be stuck doing schoolwork all day every day! Motivational ideas are most welcome.
Getting a reasonable routine going takes some doing, and at first it feels overwhelming (I think this would be true for any curriculum or major change in how your family orders its days, by the way) ....
We've done several different things to motivate/move things along:
1. Reassess how much is learning, when things are mastered, and whether you're doing "busy work." Once kiddo has mastered the skills for that lesson, if they're getting squirrelly, or you have more to do and want to move on, then assess and move on.
2. Build in breaks. "When we finish math and history, we're going to go to the library for some new books, then when we get home we'll have lunch and we'll do music and reading after lunch." Make those "breaks" things that you don't have to do that day; ie, don't say that the break is to go to the grocery store if you're not prepared to say, "Well, school took too long this morning and we don't have time to go to the grocery store this afternoon." That said - even if you cancel the 'fun' break, you should do some small breaks between the classes to keep kiddo(s) sane. Maybe a short walk, or playing outside for a little bit (best to do something that you can wind up without a lot of gnashing of teeth).
3. Start the day with a class they like, and end the day with their FAVORITE class. That way they begin with a positive attitude, then plow through their least favorite course, and the reward is being able to do art once they're done with everything else (for instance).
4. Consider block-scheduling the class they like least. We did this with Phonics. DD1 loathed it; we did it ALL in one day and then we were DONE with it for the rest of the week. Those were always tough days for both of us, but the rest of the week went much more smoothly! And I could remind her, "Hey, I know you're frustrated, but we're halfway through, and then there will be no more phonics this week!" We typically did Phonics the last day of the week. You might find doing the least-liked class work the first day works better.
5. We rewarded DD1 with a board game (of her choice) if she finished her school work by X time. We also have done this as the "end of week" reward. Pretty much, anything that the kiddo really likes and enjoys, use it as a 'carrot' for finishing things well and in a timely fashion. After all, that's what we grown-ups do, right? 
Rewards work ....
Hope something there helps?
Getting a reasonable routine going takes some doing, and at first it feels overwhelming (I think this would be true for any curriculum or major change in how your family orders its days, by the way) ....
We've done several different things to motivate/move things along:
1. Reassess how much is learning, when things are mastered, and whether you're doing "busy work." Once kiddo has mastered the skills for that lesson, if they're getting squirrelly, or you have more to do and want to move on, then assess and move on.
2. Build in breaks. "When we finish math and history, we're going to go to the library for some new books, then when we get home we'll have lunch and we'll do music and reading after lunch." Make those "breaks" things that you don't have to do that day; ie, don't say that the break is to go to the grocery store if you're not prepared to say, "Well, school took too long this morning and we don't have time to go to the grocery store this afternoon." That said - even if you cancel the 'fun' break, you should do some small breaks between the classes to keep kiddo(s) sane. Maybe a short walk, or playing outside for a little bit (best to do something that you can wind up without a lot of gnashing of teeth).
3. Start the day with a class they like, and end the day with their FAVORITE class. That way they begin with a positive attitude, then plow through their least favorite course, and the reward is being able to do art once they're done with everything else (for instance).
4. Consider block-scheduling the class they like least. We did this with Phonics. DD1 loathed it; we did it ALL in one day and then we were DONE with it for the rest of the week. Those were always tough days for both of us, but the rest of the week went much more smoothly! And I could remind her, "Hey, I know you're frustrated, but we're halfway through, and then there will be no more phonics this week!" We typically did Phonics the last day of the week. You might find doing the least-liked class work the first day works better.
5. We rewarded DD1 with a board game (of her choice) if she finished her school work by X time. We also have done this as the "end of week" reward. Pretty much, anything that the kiddo really likes and enjoys, use it as a 'carrot' for finishing things well and in a timely fashion. After all, that's what we grown-ups do, right? " rel="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/wink1.gif"> Rewards work ....
Hope something there helps?
Oooh, so much great advice, thank you! I am seriously going to print this out and put it in my homeschooling folder.
I also joined the local OHVA Yahoo group and am getting some great advice from them, too. I feel sure we're going to like this once we get going but I am not a fan of the huge learning curve. Seems like there must be a better way ....
On the plus side, ds1 seems much more relaxed than he did when he was actually in school. And that's with me losing my patience with him at least occasionally! He seems quite content to be at home (and he is very extroverted, so it surprises me) and hang out with me and the cat, with little brother coming home from school around 4:00.
I posted on my K12 Facebook group about that problem -- I was pulling my hair out trying to get the darn thing hooked up with a wire. Anyway, you can buy these plug-in things that will hook you into the internet wirelessly -- they cost $30-50. Mine hasn't come yet and ds has been using dh's laptop.
The learning curve has been pretty steep for me but I do think I'm starting to get the hang out of it. I wish there were more professional support -- I've been making good use of peer-to-peer communications but my "teacher" is pretty unhelpful and I find those webinars to be a waste of time.
Still, so far, so good!
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