the littles ones have naps. the big ones have core studies. the little ones have arts and crafts, the big ones can too. the little ones have PBS, the big ones have the rest of core, the little ones have P.E. the big ones do too. ebb and flow people, ebb and flow
however, if you are k12, you are still going to have to deal with all the 'schooling' aspects. So it is an eclectic mix in the end.
For instance, we do all k12 assessments open book and if the kids ask a question, I will answer it or if I do not know off the top of my head, they can google the answer.
we do not 'do' all of k12, I go in and mark it done, sometimes I have to answer an assessment for my child, but I use it as a guide not the holy grail.
with Magnus we deschooled for MONTHS and with Erik we deschooled. It was actually a shorter process for Erik in school longer than it was for Magnus, who was in school less time, but the trauma for Magnus was significantly more deeply disturbing. overall we do totally need to also look at the mindset of what we are overcoming. for them part of the problem was that the kids truly expected me as the teacher to spoon feed the curriculum rather than let them explore on their own.
"do not push so hard the first couple of weeks that you fall into bed exhausted at 4:10pm" relax, the first two weeks are supposed to be online learning, and you do not have to make 3% progress."
"write down now WHY you are doing this. at the end of 9 weeks when you are mentally exhausted and ready to give up, pull that out and see if it is still valid."
this is not just a change of location, but a whole lifestyle of education and family. you do not have to be perfect, you can pick one area that you feel really needs to be addressed and work on that this year. set measurable goals and see how they progress over the year.
no spazzing allowed. ;-) I can only speak for 3-8 school model here in Texas, but so far from everyone I have talked to in the last 4 years this is pretty universal.
1) you CAN do all your work off line. you have a box of books, and those
are to be utilized off line if you want. for instance this month, we do not officially start until 27 August. so we are just reading the books, and filling in the work in the Student Guides.
2) there are 5 -15 question assessments online, you and your child can log in, answer those questions orally, and that marks your progress, which is what is evaluated by your Virtual School as mastery.
3) as Learning Coach, YOU will mark attendance, this can be done every day at once, or throughout the day as you work on each topic. I usually keep a post it and write down time for each lesson.
4) attendance is one of those complicated things, if you only spend 10 minutes to complete something, you enter in the default amount of time for that lesson (could be 20 minutes (spelling) or 50 minutes (health) or 1 hour (science) HOWEVER if it takes you 2 hours and 17 minutes to get a particularly hard concept done, record the whole amount, so which ever is MORE for attendance.
5) your computer is not going to stay logged in for 6.5 hours, the children will not be 'educated' for the whole time in OLS, many things require going off line and reading or working in a work book or completing an assignment.
6) you will need to schedule your Class Connects in your personal calendar so that you do not miss those, attend them all at first to see which ones add value to your day, and which ones do not. if there are conflicts, catch the recordings.
