Well, Larissa is now homeschooled. It wasn't the bullying (although that was getting old), it wasn't the teacher (I never heard back from her principal), it was the exhaustion that finally made me complete the paperwork to homeschool her. She was missing at least one day a week for headaches or even dizziness and then I was picking her up early one or two days a week. She was missing too much class time and she was struggling to keep up.
Today was our first day with Connections Academy and we are struggling. Larissa is challenged by all the different requirements and reading all her materials on the computer is causing her to have headaches. Heck, even I am struggling to figure out what all she is supposed to do and where she is supposed to be going. I guess there is a learning curve!
Going with an internet based program made the paperwork easier, I sure hope with time it becomes easier to navigate. Anyone use one of those internet based schools? I think the K12 is a similar program. Say a prayer for me! So far I don't feel that I am doing a great job as a coach.
Tomorrow we travel to Charleston to see a new neurologist. I am hoping for a different perspective but I don't have much hope. It has been such a frustrating experience getting these seizures gone.
Yes! Our family has used both Connections and K12. I think either one is a solid choice. I'm now homeschooling, though, because my 6yo has some behavioral issues and was not controlling himself on the bus. Both cyerschools had wait lists and we needed something RIGHT THEN...so I'm creating our own curriculum. We are finding we like this better!
ReplyDeleteI have some friends who did Connections with their child and they said it was difficult due to structure. You should check into a website called Christian Book Distributors. They have lots of curriculum, popular ones as well. You can look at the curriculum by grade levels or subject. The cool thing about it is that you get to see actual samples and try some of it out before purchasing. There's a really fun/great on-line history curriculum from Veritas Press. You get to watch some lessons first to see if you like it. The lessons are short but so thorough and they use characters from whatever period you are studying to teach. It also has lots of games, maps etc. with it. It does have tests which can be hard the further along you get because of needing to keep up with dates. I know some families who just opted out of the tests. There's also an online/cd math curriculum called Teaching Textbooks that might be fun for Larissa. You have your child take a placement test and then they just watch the teaching video. You can stop it wherever you need to or re-watch. It goes slow and lets you do practice. When it's time to do the math; they just type in the answers and if they get it wrong; they get one more chance to correct it. Or there's a curriculum called Math Mammoth that's lined up with the common core. We are trying that this year and it's been great [we didn't do it though because of the common core]. We could have bought the workbook/teacher book but instead opted to do a downloadable curriculum for about $36 per semester. It includes the lesson plans [through Homeschool Buyers Coop] and includes the answer keys, quizzes and tests. It too has a placement test. You can even start at the end of one grade if you need review and then start into the other grade........one of the perks of homeschooling! Another good online 'school' with all subjects is one called Switched on Schoolhouse and then there's another curriculum called Abeka which many private Christian schools use. They now have online classes as well. There's some fun homeschooling websites that would give you so many options....even in creating your own mix which is what we do. Check out Easy Peasy, Homeschool Buyer's Co-op [and they have something called Homeschool Planet which is amazing because it schedules all of your schoolwork for all subjects for you and tells you what needs to be done each day/week. If you don't get it done you can move it to the next day.
ReplyDeleteWe may end up changing at some point. Honestly, this was the lazy way to get her homeschooled. No bookkeeping and such. In SC you have to join a homeschool association. I am letting things settle and then we will decide if we want to continue along this route. Thanks for all the information.
DeleteA friend of ours has a daughter whose epilepsy was out of control for several years. We're talking a dozen or more major seizures a week. Nothing even helped. In July they went to Boston Children's Hospital. They hooked Natalie up to an EEG for a week and observed her seizures. They were able to do a brain surgery to disconnect the part of her brain where the seizures were occurring. She has not had a single seizure since the surgery. I wonder if you should look into a visit to their clinic. With all the struggles you've had, it's worth looking into. Natalie is Larissa's age, by the way.
ReplyDeleteSurgery was mentioned but we are early with this new doctor.
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