Our experiences with virtual school. Let me make a tiny disclaimer...
We are not experts. We are still new to the virtual school program, curriculum and all this entails. We have in no way completed any scientific research. This is simply our personal experiences.
There, now I can enjoy myself as I add this little update.
First, let me say we have already made a few adjustments. In our classroom area, I placed an assortment of shelves from around the house. There are some taller shelves and some shorter shelves. Ok, enough. Originally, we had placed all of the textbooks, workbooks and other materials on two lower shelves next to the work table in our "classroom" area. Bending over or sitting on the floor quickly became annoying for all of us. We simply moved the school books to a shelf at eye level, and then filled the now empty lower shelves with clearly labeled plastic bins and totes filled with art and science extras.
The second most helpful change we made: Especially with my younger child, we began to see that she would be producing a LOT of worksheets and writing assignments. Rather than have her notebook become overstuffed and cumbersome, we created a file bin. We found a cute shelf storage bin for $4.00 and filled it with file folders. Each folder has a child's name (which I have blurred in the photo) as well as a subject. Now, at the end of the unit, each child gathers all of her assignments and places them in the appropriate folders. We can find them again quickly for semester review or to copy and send work samples.
We have the storage bin on the table in this picture because we had just created it and added paperwork, normally, it resides on a shelf. (The table was a garage sale find. It is a small breakfast sized table with a leaf that we found a garage sale. The top was scratched and water stained. We used to use it as a board game table, but this summer, we sanded it down, cut up extra scrapbook paper into different sized squares and decoupaged it. We sealed it with a heavier polyurethane since it would be used daily.. VIOLA! Fun project for us and a wonderful workspace for the girls.)
In this photo, my older child is working to the left with a laptop and my younger child is working in her notebook on the right. To reduce the number of times my younger child would be searching for the right workbook and the right pages, I made one other change. The workbook pages are perforated, so I put dividers in her notebook and on Saturday or Sunday, I tear out an entire Unit from each subject and hole punch them. I add them to her notebook along with more filler paper at the back. This may seem petty, but my younger child has several workbooks.
Another disclaimer: She is not bound to her chair for the entire day. She must still get up to get her textbooks or other resources. This simply reduces the silly hunting in between lessons.
Now, something I was secretly worried about. One of my children drives me bananas. I knew that she had a great deal of difficulty sitting still. I also knew that because she does complete her work, her teachers had made certain concessions. She was permitted to stand, wiggle, and walk around her desk within a certain very small radius as long as her pencil was on the paper and she was working. I grossly underestimated how much this would annoy me. I allow it, because she simply works better when she is permitted to wiggle, but it really has been difficult for me to adjust to her need to move her body while she is reading and writing.
I mention this because your child may have a habit. It may be foot tapping, wiggling or whatever else children can come up with. Your child's teachers may have even mentioned it to you as it may have been a distraction in the classroom. Guess what? It is your problem now. You get to be the one who decides if it is getting in the way of their ability to learn, or if it is simply an annoyance. You get to decide if you are allowing a habit that will cause problems for your child in the future. My child can sit and act well at dinner, so I don't get it, but it is what it is. She will wiggle and complete her assignments, so she will continue to wiggle.
We have also made a few adjustments to the schedule. In a regular school setting, children often line up to walk to PE, or line up to walk to art class. Yes, the older children typically only have one recess, or an afternoon snack time. Anyway, I do have them get up and move around after each lesson whenever possible. Sometimes they simply want to move on to the next lesson, but we have added a few "leg stretchers" in between. It helps greatly with their ability to pay attention and more importantly, they enjoy their work better when it is broken up a bit.
There have been a few other glitches here and there. One of my children did not click on "submit" at the end of her scantron test, so it did not ever register. Yes, we went past the deadline and did not realize it, but her teacher said it was okay and to just redo it. We have had two appointments to schedule around so far and that has been wonderful for so many reasons. We just picked up where we left off. One of them was a pretty intense dental emergency, so that child had a "light" day.
All of my questions and/or concerns have been addressed. There are solutions for everything we have come across. If it takes my child 5 minutes instead of 30 to complete an activity, she can make up the attendance time with related activities. Just as a for instance, one of my children really likes to read. She gets 6 hours of classwork completed in 5. What do we do about attendance? She can count her reading time toward her Literature attendance. The other child may watch a show on the History channel that is similar to her History unit. Viola, she gets to count that toward her History attendance... once her work is complete. These extra activities do not get counted until the required coursework is complete. It would be pretty foolish to have logged 6 hours of attendance in History and have no work completed simply because your child likes that channel. When this was explained to me, I was reminded that in a typical school, children do not sit with pencil to paper for 6 hours per day. There are other activities, other art projects, other videos and movies as well as all of the time used for bathroom, lining up, recess, etc... If I want to add an activity to supplement the material that is being covered, it is not only something I would have ordinarily done, but now my kids get class credit also. BONUS.
This will be the third week of school. We are still new, but already we have found a comfort level. Monday is a holiday, so we can take the day off or do some school work to get ahead. We have not decided yet. That is the beauty of this. We have options and flexibility. I can see where this would quickly become a spiralling nightmare if "procrastination" became a regular visitor, but if you are doing what you intended, and that is spending the time educating the children, this is filled with bonuses.
I also have another blog if you would like to read more detail about our virtual school adventures.
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