After much deliberation....

So, another school year has successfully been completed. Harrison's UTVA online charter school actually finished a week before our district, so he was out before Hazel, but all's well that ends well...right?

It has been quite a year. Shane taught Harrison his schoolwork once I got a job, and did really well at it. However, we decided that next year Harrison would go back to public school.

While he doesn't feel ready, we feel like he is. So, we will see! He and Hazel will be going to a different school because they realigned the boundaries, so, that will be interesting too. I am hoping it will be a good experience.

Still, I think that UTVA is a good option for people who want to homeschool. Your child is still enrolled in a "public" school so you don't have to fill out a release form, and they still do testing at the beginning and ending of the school year just like the elementary schools. Plus, since it is public you get all your books and curriculum for free (due to your taxpayer dollars) :).I liked that, because if you homeschool you still pay taxpayer dollars and then have to provide all your books and curriculum, which can be quite pricey.

I liked the K12 curriculum, which is what UTVA uses. It is nice because you have a teacher assigned to you, and if you have any problems, questions, concerns, you can call them and they can give you ideas, and additional help in teaching your child. They can even arrange tutor sessions if your child needs them.

Washington Online is also good. It is another Utah online public school program that uses K12. Some people like it better because it is a little more relaxed than UTVA.

It's that time again...

So, last week we got the shipment of school books to start preparing for school to start. I can't believe it! Where did the summer go??

I also noticed, after looking over my homeschool entries that I really didn't finish my assessment of UTVA and the K12 curriculum. So, I thought I would do that now.

K12 has an amazing curriculum. If you have a public online school program and you want to homeschool your children, it is a good way to go. Not all online public schools do the same thing though. Most of them use the K12 program, which you can read about at K12.com, and the K12 website even has a search menu that you can search for schools in your state.

In Utah, for example, there is a online charter school (UTVA-Utah Virtual Academy), but there are also school districts that have an online program using the K12 curriculum as well. Some of the school districts allow any student in the state to be a part of their program. (Alpine Online, Uintah Navigators, and Washington Online) Some of the school districts only allow students from that district to be a part of the program.

We decided to stick with UTVA for the time being, but it is tempting to switch to Washington Online. We'll see what happens. The reason it is tempting is the UTVA is very strict about hours spent on classwork, portfolios, testing, and other things. Washington Online has obtained a reputation for being more flexible, and you don't have to sign up for the whole course load, whereas with UTVA, if you sign up, you sign up for the WHOLE curriculum. Like I said...we'll see.

Since Harrison is in 3rd grade this year, it was kind of interesting to see the jump in size for the school books we received. In the younger grades most of the course work is online and the parent is sitting right there helping them navigate through it. Starting in 3rd grade, they really try to get almost all of the lessons to be mostly offline, so that will be a change.

One of the nicest things about using the K12 curriculum is the lessons are planned for you. YOU set up the schedule for your student, but the lesson outline, what parts to focus on, is all planned out, even art projects and science experiments. That is SUCH a relief for me. That was one of the hardest things about planning it all on my own was trying to make sure that Harrison was learning the things he needed to be learning at the level he needed to be learning them and staying up on all the coursework.

Looking at my little bookshelf gets a little overwhelming though, and I just have to pause, take a deep breath, and remind myself that I can do this, and it is a good thing.

Only a few more weeks and we will be starting!

Handwriting Without Tears review

The handwriting curriculum that K12 uses (well, that UTVA uses through K12) is called Handwriting Without Tears. I had read a little about this program when I was researching different methods of homeschooling, but really hadn't seen it or used it first-hand until Harrison started UTVA.

Well, I am IMPRESSED. I thought it just looked like another, albeit unique, handwriting method. It is so much better! Harrison's handwriting was awful. He hates writing, and pretty much anything to do with English (except for reading, he loves to read).

Still, while I had worked with him on improving his penmanship, and it was getting a little bit better, this method has brought sudden changes. He's already forming his letters better. His writing looks so much better than it previously did. When I tell him "best handwriting" it actually looks improved!

So, what is actually different? Well, compared to the other methods I have looked at and tried, and compared to the one that Harrison was taught with at the local school, a big difference is in the paper that is used.

Most methods use the typical traditional manuscript paper that has two solid lines and a dotted middle line. This is supposed to help the student know where to place all the letters. This never really worked so well with Harrison.

The Handwriting Without Tears method uses different paper. It looks like this:




This for some reason helps your student know where exactly the letter should go, and how big the circle on the a, o, etc... should really be. From what I can tell after only using it one week with Harrison, it really does help!

I also like the way they describe how to form the letters. I, in turn, describe it that way to Harrison, and we are correcting bad habits that he has always struggled with in writing. Drawing his o's backwards (which you wouldn't think would be a big deal, but really is when you want uniform writing), starting up and going down when you write l's, h's, etc...

The teacher's manual is great for helping you, as the parent, know how to help your child do this correctly. I even started using it with Hazel when we worked on her valentine's and it was helping her too! I am very tempted to get the kindergarten manual so I can work with her on handwriting at home after she gets home from school.

It even talks about some of the incorrect ways that kids hold their pencils, the unique problems that left-handed students may encounter, and other things, that before I didn't notice, but now I am able to help both my kids with.

Here is an example of one of the pages in the book.


So, personally, I think this method is AMAZING and give it 5 big huge shiny stars!

Beginner pro's and con's of UTVA

So, we have been using the K12 system through our state charter school UTVA (Utah Virtual Academy) for one week now. It has been interesting, because we just received the computer, books, and other items today (which all look amazing btw).

Anyway, even not having any books, I decided to write a primitive review on our experience so far. This is purely so other people who are maybe questioning whether they should or shouldn't homeschool their child with the UTVA.

So, that being said. This week we had our first parent/teacher/student conference call. I don't know how it works in other states, but in Utah they utilize "illumination rooms." I, personally, think they are pretty neat. It's basically an online conference room. The teacher was able to show me via power point, how Harrison had done on his placement tests. Since Harrison started mid-year, these were basically just to see if he was on target for where he should be. The placement tests were done online via a scantron website, and it was very easy to use.

The teacher was also able to show me different things about the program, and answer any questions that I had. She then talked to Harrison, and tested him (without him knowing which I thought was cool) on his reading speed and math. The reading speed is a test they do at the public schools and is supposed to give you an idea of how many words they can read in a minute. I still think it's stupid, but oh well. It is a state thing apparently.

All in all, I thought the phone call went well, and the teacher was very nice and willing to be helpful.

Okay, so, now for the curriculum. My initial thinking is that this is a great curriculum for people who have NEVER homeschooled before. If you have and you have your own system down, this curriculum will most likely drive you nuts because it is flexible in some ways, but more rigid in others. On the plus side, they pretty much provide you with everything you will need to teach your child.

Another thing that I know is frustrating for some parents, is that in the elementary grades, the student is mentored quite heavily by the parent, or "learning coach." This can be more time consuming then other homeschooling methods that encourage the child to learn by themselves at a younger age. I also have a difficult time imagining teaching more than one child at a time with this curriculum, but I know that people do it. They also have tutorials on how you can manage your time effectively so you can teach more than one student.

I have been impressed with most of the books so far. The language arts one I have only used one day, so I am not sure yet of my opinion on that.

Harrison apparently has a strong liking for History. I had NO idea! That is the subject he wants to do, EVERY DAY. Since he is in 2nd grade, he technically doesn't have to do History every day because it's not a "core" subject, but since he wants to, it's no biggie if we do. Plus it helps fulfill the time requirement.

The History lessons are pretty much the only subject that you can purely do online for the 2nd grade curriculum. There are offline history activities, but the lesson itself is online.

The other subjects have a lesson outline that can be used online, but the work itself is all offline. So, I think it's a nice mix.

UTVA encourages parents to get creative with the lessons by teaching them in other places (outside, or in a different location), act out history lessons, etc... to help make it more exciting for your student. I thought it was nice that they gave ideas.

UTVA students also have the opportunity to go on outings once a month. At the beginning of the school year they try to place students with the teacher that is closest to them location wise, but since Harrison started mid-year, his teacher actually lives about an hour and a half away. Each teacher plans activites for their students to participate in, and since Harrison's teacher lives far away, the activities are far away too. This is not a problem though because we are welcome to go to the activites that are with the teacher who lives closer to us.

The idea of the activities is to get the students out and interacting with other students in an educational activity. So, that will be interesting. We haven't gone on an activity yet. The activity that Harrison's teacher is doing is going on a tour of the State Capitol Building. Last month the teacher that lives closer to us took her group on a tour of the Hill Air Force Base airplane museum (which is one of our favorite places to go!) So, I am looking forward to see what the next activities will be.

My opinion of our experience so far is that it is working well for us. Harrison loves it, mainly because it is on a computer, and he did tell me that he likes it better than how we were homeschooling before we got accepted with UTVA. In the morning he is actually excited to start school! (History of course!) So, we will see if it keeps up!

First Impression

So, today was the first day that we could use the lessons that are online for the k12 system. Apparently I am one of few who knew nothing about k12 until I started researching online programs.

Harrison LOVES it! I mean, I guess it's because it comes from a computer. We don't have the lesson books yet, so we are still supplementing with the resources that we already have been using until we get them. Even so, I was pleasantly surprised. We did two history lessons today (technically only needed to do one), and we did review history work that Harrison had never learned, so all in all about an hour and a half of history. (This was not by my choice, Harrison wanted to do it!!!)

So, if that is a sign of things to come, then I have a feeling this is the route we will take.

I will write more about the lessons in another post.

Another new adventure...

So, initially when I first looked into homeschooling Harrison, I looked up lots and lots of websites that were for virtual (or online) schools. Doing this I found out that Utah DOES have a public virtual school, so I signed Harrison up. I didn't think much of it because there was a waiting list, so I figured if anything, he wouldn't be enrolled until next fall, if we decided to homeschool next fall.

Well, last week, I got an e-mail telling me that they had a spot for Harrison. Since I had pretty much not planned on hearing anything, I was surprised! Then, as I thought about it, I wasn't sure it I wanted to go through with it, but as I thought about it more, I thought, why not? I mean, it's free (as in, my tax dollars pay for it), so why not try it? If we decide it's not for us, then we can go back to the more traditional methods of homeschooling.

As I was thinking this through, I looked EVERYWHERE on the internet it seems, trying to find a review for the Utah Virtual Academy. NOTHING. Only one blog article that said they were going to try it out. So, here is the overview, and then after we have tried it, I will tell you my initial reaction in another entry.

So, here are a few things that I have learned, for those who are wondering. There are two online public schools (Utah only has one), and the main one is called K12. K12 in and of itself is not public. If you wanted to buy the curriculum yourself you could. If you lived overseas and wanted your child to use K12's international private school, you could. A lot of states have formed a charter school that uses the K12 curriculum and Utah is one of those. Again, because they are public, they are FREE.

As I was reading different reviews about K12, I realized that they really didn't apply for the most part to me. Mainly because each state has it's own rules and regulations for public schooling. The charter schools have to follow these rules. For example, in some states (Utah), you are assigned a certified teacher, and you have contact with them (phone/e-mail) about once a week to make sure everything is going okay, lessons are being taught, etc... In other states, the teacher goes to the house. In Utah, if you want the teacher to come to your house, that is up to you...not required.

Being a part of the online charter school, you HAVE to follow the state guidelines of teaching your child for 180 school days per year. You sign in online, and attendance is taken. For people who have a difficult time being consistent with homeschool but want their children homeschooled, this could be a good option for them! For me, it's not that big of a deal, since our homeschool is more structured anyway. Using the online academy your child is expected to do 5 hours of schoolwork every day (M-F).

For some, this seems excessive. For me, at this point, it doesn't matter. Harrison does a lot of work anyway since I am trying to get him up to a 5 hour a day curriculum. (He's basically there.) Some days he stays on task and has no breaks, so he gets done early. (This is his choice, not mine). On days where he is a little more distracted and has more breaks, it takes him longer.

So, we will see how that works out. For the younger grades most of the coursework is done offline with textbooks, etc... Here is what is appealing to me... We will get all his coursework...free. He will have the use of a computer and printer that will be loaned to him. Free. The coursework includes all the core subjects, including an elective foreign language, which I chose as Spanish. If Harrison wants to do a different one next fall, I'll let him. His records will be kept...I won't have to worry about it. He will be on task with his peers who are going to regular public school (or most likely ahead once he gets going) and that is fine! I think that is great! An added bonus is that since we are still at home we can still do the religious things that we have been doing every day.

I will definitely keep you posted on the pro's and con's of using this system!