Tuesday, January 16

Preparations for the Fall.

Some of you may know that we sent Bud back to public school for the last semester of this school year. I had been, shall we say, stretched these last few months. Mentally, emotionally, and physically stretched, with extended family personal issues.

While I am enjoying my time home with the girls, I am terribly missing Bud being here too. So, without any further rambling, I would like to ask you what you know about the Wisconsin Virtual Academy Charter School? I understand they use the K12 curriculum, which we've used in the past, and loved.

I should post, for the record, that I need a curriculum that is totally laid out, step by step. I am the polar opposite of organized! What I DO NOT need is a school district laying out deadlines on me. STRESS! (even if mostly self-induced).

Every time I turn around I'm confronted with an idea of how to teach Bud something, or "wow! wouldn't Bud love to do a study on that?", or "cool, what a great field trip that would be!" But then all of those things don't jive well with the time-constraints of him gone all day. Did I mention he gets on the bus at 7 AM!? Then, once off the bus, there's chores, homework, dinner, shower, bedtime. : (
This can't be all there is..................

Please comment, or email me, anything you might be able to add in regards to the Virtual Academy. But most importantly, please pray for wisdom for Steve & I.

3 comments:

Jodi said...

I really don't know much about the Virtual Academy. When we moved here I looked into it briefly but I was turned off by the fact that I couldn't pick and choose what I wanted to teach . . . and if I wanted to use something I found on my own it would have to be in addition to the full K12 curriculum.

In this regard it seems I'm opposite of you, because I prefer to pick and choose rather than have something all laid out for me. This year it's causing a little extra stress b/c I'm doing everything from scratch--so I can definitely see the benefits of having someone else do the legwork, so to speak.

Do you think Tapestry of Grace won't work for you? I've found it's a perfect balance of structure and independence for me, but you might be looking for something different.

At any rate, I will be praying for you and Steve. You'll get this figured out!

Tammy said...

I've not ruled out TOG. I've used the K12 curriculum, and loved it. I like the idea of "from scratch" but I know that I can't be trusted to be diligent in preparations.

De said...

The virtual academy seems to have their stuff together but from my past experience with K12-I did like the curriculum but it was too much with more than 1 kid in the program. We are doing TOG next year and I had a meeting with the superintendent of Cameron and game him the ENTIRE list of books for TOG for the 3 levels I will have next year along with all the Math U See (including manipulatives), Winston Grammar and the spelling I would like to use. We are providing TOG and science since we they are both christian based.He is going to look into it but he doesn't see a problem so far AND we will be able to keep everything. He is going to let me know before open enrollment. It's something that may work. If there is something you would like he is not opposed to having different families do different things and as of right now, no calling in hours, teacher comes about 1/month, and the tests. A LOT differnt than Chetek. Hope that helps