Stevens Family

So now that we are in a better grove this is our day: 9:15-9:45 math 9:45 -10:00 handwriting.......kinda a waste of time because she has perfect handwriting. 10:00-11:00 online class with virtual teacher and classmates 11:00-11:30 spelling......today we worked on th, ch, and sh words 11:30-12:00 lunch afternoon we do: Reading comprehension Vocabulary words then every other day we switch science and history......yesterday for history we talked about the 7 continents, 4 oceans, and a compass. And then we also switch art and music everyday. That is our day!

one of the things my daughter misses most from public school is the cafeteria style lunch so she had me buy her these trays from the dollar tree to make it more fun. ay four and it is still going great!

We start off nice and clean then Evan does this!  LOL.........this is the girls learning about music, they have music one day then art the next day......today was art and Emmie had to draw a self portrait.  I also signed her up for a co-op art class twice a month.

I LOVE homeschooling, and have time for nothing else so this blog has been neglacted!  Homeschooling ROCKS!  More to come later!

I am ready for the day...and it is going to go smoother....I am better prepared today. 9:10 we did 30 minutes of writing....easy because Emmie has great handwriting. 9:40 we did 20 minutes of math.....greater then, less then, equal.....this was really easy we have about 10 minutes left. 10 to 11:00 she is doing her online class connects....all be herself!  AN Hour for me to spend with the other kids :)

So glad today is over.....feeling like I made a mistake.....I do not like this.....I took an live, online hour orientation tonight and feeling better about tomorrow......not sure it could be worse :)

I have to write this post so at the end of the year when I love homeschooling I will remember the first day has been horrible and I hate it!

When Emmie grows up she wants to go on a mission first then go to school to be a fashion designer. Today we started a little after nine and did math until ten.  math is really easy for Emmie.  She did like 5 pages!  in public school no matter how fast or smart she is she had to stay on the same pace as everyone else. then she had "circle time" from ten to eleven with her class and teacher.  It was hard but it was the first day.  trying to figure out how to raise her hand etc..... Now we are are doing history it is about the continents, I do not like the way K12 does it.....it is a lot of reading and she is only in first grade!  So we are kinda doing our own thing. then lunch and recess from noon till 1pm......and that was our morning! Did I mention Evan is sick our one year old and screamed the whole time!

We don't start until tomorrow but she was dying so she did the first ten pages this weekend!

So the following night I went to a meeting, still very excited, and it was me and 4 other moms.  Every  other Tuesday we are going to do a two hour co-op.....one mom will do science for an hour, and one mom will do gym for an hour.  Then the other two moms....I am one of these moms will do preschool for any children/siblings under the age of five.   So Evan and Maddie can go.  We are going to do a theme each time along with a bible story.  So very excited.....and the lady I am teaching with is super sweet and has two little girls she is homeschooling....and she lives by me! Also they told me about an Art class co-op and some other homeschool parenting groups!   Am so excited there are others out there like me!  Sometimes I feel like the only one!

I'm not sure what that meant at first but know I do!  This is actually a story about How God works! We went to my oldest daughters back to school night, I was in the hall ways with literally hundreds of other parents and one of my friends yelled across the hall....who is emmies teacher?   I yelled back....I am homeschooling her.   There was a lady standing beside her who kinda looked at me funny.  I thought it was odd, and I know all the parents at the school and I had never seen this lady before.   Then it clicked with me that when we drove into the school I saw her, her husband, and four kids walking and I made a comment to my husband that they look like our twin family.   The kids were all about the same ages and they looked like good parents.......yes sorry to be judging others upon the way they look. Getting off track...........so we went to my oldest daughters classroom and the teacher talked for about 15 minutes and we were excused to put our childre...

we had six boxes on the first day weighing 34 pounds each of school supplies from K12.......my daughter was so excited! the next day we had four more boxes delivered with her computer and printer......didn't cost us anything! Obviously our tax dollars go to the K12 program which I believe is about 9,000 per child.....really what does a public school do with that money?  A lot of it goes to administration because I know teachers don't get paid well!   

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2013/08/2013_ohio_school_report_cards.html?appSession=48162814837109 Have you heard of the new school rating system for the state of Ohio?  Before schools were rated excellent, excellent with distinguish, etc......now they are given letter grades A to F.   You can click on this website to view your school.  Our local school district did great, I believe they got all A's and B's.  But if you look up Ohio Virtual Academy they got like all F's.   I am on virtual online support groups and community's and everyone is out raged.....facts are facts......the government HATES when you take tax dollars away from public school whether its on line school or charter school....obviously the government is going to give us an F!  Good thing I don't care what the government thinks, they all ready try to run every aspect of our lives!

The kids have to do Study Island and Reading Eggs......two online games/ learning websites.....they go along with all the new common core things.  To start reading eggs you have to take a test....Emmie scored 58/60 which jumped her to level 115 and most kids at her age start at level 1!  I looked through her materials we received for this year and she can already do all of it so I talked to the teach and thy are going to test her in September to see what level she is at.  I am homeschooling so she is not bored like she was in public school.  the test is at 2pm and it is over the phone while online, that will be interesting to see how it works.

We went to our local library yesterday and met my daughters teacher.  She was super sweet!  We have to have 4 face to face meetings through the year, so this will count as one.  she spoke for about an hour about online schooling and answered questions.   Can't wait!

We had our first online class meeting on Wednesday......it was so cool! You are in a virtual classroom with a black board, and the teacher talks and you have a button to raise your hand if you have a question, a confused face if you don't get it, a clapping hands button when someone does something good!  You also have a microphone for questions.  the session was an hour long and it was awesome! It was mostly for parents to go over everything.  So excited!

I found out today that we are not considered home school but instead considered eschoolers......I like this name.  If we were home schoolers then we would be eligible to participate in our local school district sports and extracurricular activities but since we are eschoolers we are not eligible :(

I get this question asked ALOT to me......and the truth is I never have a great answer and If I do I can not get it across and say it the way I want too.  The truth is I am homeschooling because I FEEL it is best for my daughter. I have four children and they all learn differently and have different personalities......shocking I know!  So at the end of every school year we will evaluate which learning option is best for each child.  I am blessed to be a stay at home mom so my schedule is really their schedule. My oldest daughter is 9 years old and is in an advanced 3/4 split class in public school......she is in fourth grade and was in this class also last year.  It is set up for the highest scoring 12 third graders, and highest scoring 12 fourth graders.  My daughter is VERY social and LOVES school.  She happens to be smart but does not apply herself.  It can take her hours to do one page of homework because she is day dreaming......I often feel ...

I have decided to start blogging about my experience with K12..... I call it homeschooling because I am doing it at home but it is actually a public online classroom.  I signed up through K12 and am using Ohio Virtual Academy.  I am so very excited to be able to do this with my daughter Emmie who is 6 years old and will be in first grade!