A New Normal

I’ve had lots of people ask how home(virtual)school is going, and I’ve had a few ask about the details of our days.  If you’re one of the former, the answer is GREAT!  We love it!  If you’re one of the latter, read on.

Last week I took it one day at a time.  For the first week of school, that was perfect as we were all getting acclimated to the system.  I did, however, spend quite a bit of time each night preparing for the next day.  Now that I know a little more about the system and know what to anticipate here schedule-wise, I decided to sit down Sunday night and prep their folders for the week instead of doing it daily.

We start our morning together at 7:15ish.  While we are eating breakfast, we talk about our weekly bible verse.

By 8AM everyone is fed, clean, and (mostly) dressed.  (Unsurprisingly for our house, pants are optional.)
While I finish getting the littles all ready for the day, the bigs write in their journals for 10 minutes.
(One child’s writing style is very Bridget-esque.  One is very Marshall-ly.)

Once they are dressed, the little two get special “school toys” that I have locked in a closet.
They only get these toys while we are working in the other room, and only if they stay in Alden’s room.
Sometimes Alden just wants to be with us, and as long as she’s not distracting we don’t mind.

Carter gets started on written work while Lydia does work online or with me.
Then we trade.   Then we trade again.  And then we trade again.
(Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.)

In the morning we cover English-Language Arts and Math.
Periodically someone finishes before I’m ready to start with them and they get a break to go play with the littles.

By around 11:00-11:30, we’ve finished most of our morning work.
If it’s not raining, they can go out to play while I work on getting lunch ready.
(Last week we had a lunch date one day and a picnic on another day!)

After lunch, Alden goes down for a nap and Asa gets iPad time.
We do one or two lessons in either Science, History, or Social Studies.
Because they are only one year apart, there is a lot of overlap in the lessons so I teach them at the same time.

We also throw in ‘extra’ classes such as art, health, PE, music, and such.
Most of those were things we were doing anyway.
(We’re going to the dentist today, so that’ll count towards our Health requirement!)

We do have access to teachers if we get in a bind or I feel like we’re struggling (and I know those moments will come)!
They each have teachers who have regular classroom times where we can log on and connect with her virtually.
If we are logged in while the class is in session, they can interact with the teacher and other students.
If we don’t make it to the class and then realize we need to see it, we can watch the recorded sessions.

If you’re interested in this model of education or just want to know more, you can visit the Georgia Cyber Academy online.