Wise Buys Resell

Building Blogs Twenty One

My little girl reached a great milestone last week. She was tested with her teacher in her reading skills, and has tremendously excelled! Last October she was reading 7 words per minute, she is now reading well over 50 wpm- I am so proud of her! :) Second grade here we come..

Building Blogs Twenty

Connections Academy is quite the creative school.  Recently, the school had an African American Read-in with the students and teachers that was an all day event. It was really cool to watch.  The students great, too.

Which has me excited for this coming Friday, Dr. Seuss' birthday! I am equally as excited as my kids are for this all day read-in.  I also love that my three year old can sit in with my first grader for this story time.  Because of this, he has developed an appreciation for reading as well.

Time to get back to work, happy early birthday Dr. Seuss!

Building Blogs Nineteen

So here we are in the new house, all settled! With the exception of a few boxes still staring us in the face. We do have the classroom (almost) all unpacked and today got the chalk board up onto the wall, ready to use! Yay!  Now the hard part, keeping the little one from coloring on it so we can use it for you know- school work. :P

First grade seems to be going well. The second half of the year is off to a great start, and the first half ended awesome. My little B ended the last half with an awesome score, I am very proud of her.  Her reading skills are amazing and she has earned the nickname "human GPS" for her need to read every road sign we pass. :)

Today we did a math assessment with her teacher, and learned that she favors addition over subtraction.  That of course is nothing out of the norm and is something we can work with over time.  She does however favor math and science over reading and writing.. Well, I guess it's safe to say, she doesn't get that from good ole' mom. haha!

Building Blogs Eighteen

Almost half a year has come and gone once again.  I will admit, this year has been a bit of a struggle.  Bryanna hasn't had the same enthusiasm this school year, as she had last about completing her work, and I've used every bit of energy left in my bones to build her up to complete it. 

Understand though as you read this, that our lack of energy has nothing to do with the school itself.  As a matter of fact the staff and academics are still outstanding.   Bryanna is standing at a great 98% overall and looks foward to playing the new game that the staff at OCA has introduced to the students.

As a matter of facet, she absolutley flies through every game she plays on their website.  I think it's wonderful she's doing so well with it and to be honest, am amazed at her technological abilities to be so young. I do however wish she would learn to love and accept writing as much as her mommy does (wink). 

I am learning throughout this year that her passion for animals still remains strong.  Now if only her passion for writing were the same as it is animals.. wishful thinking perhaps. :) As much as I love her,only one thing comes to mind when she gives me that long drawn sigh when she needs to write, "You must get this from your father" (haha!).

Building Blogs Seventeen; Countdown!

We are on the countdown until school starts!  That's right, one more full day and then it's the big day.  I logged into the school yesterday and got to see the profile for my kiddo's homeroom teacher.  A bit dissapointed that there was no picture, but nothing I'm sure we won't find out soon enough. :)

As for her name, I can't pronounce it.  How funny is that?  So I guess I will find that out on Monday as well.  In the meantime, I shall call her how I see it is spelled.  In the meantime, we will be keeping busy with a birthday party and a wedding this weekend.  Thank goodness for that, because now we will be able to keep occupied until it begins!

Building Blogs Sixteen; We made it!

So here we are, making our way into first grade.  Yes, we are still with O.C.A.!  We are super excited!  I know we dissapeared from our blog during the last half of the year, so I will get caught up.  Kiddo graduated kindergarten, and was on the A honor roll for the year! Yipee!  Since then, we've kept busy buying a new house and moving.  It was a rough start for the first half of the year, but it later paid off in our favor.

As we get settled into our new home, we are getting ready to being school.  As a mtter of fact, we are not the one that we know personally in O.C.A. anymore, my kiddo's cousins now go there as well.  How exciting it has been, to watch the children excel in their grades and have more pleasant attitudes toward themselves and others, by having went to this school.

I highly reccomend this school to everyone!  It can work, if you let it work!  Definetly looking forward to this comming school year.  Check back for more building blocks!

Building Blogs Fifteen; So here we are..

So here we are into the second half our the school year with OCA.  Things are going great.  We are where we should be with assignments and grading.  We are actually now even to the point where I hear "Mom can we do school already?" in the mornings before breakfast is even over!

We just had a Valentine's party recently, with cookies, valentine's and crafts.  All the fine celebration ammenetities.  We made a bag to keep the Valentine's so that we can later distribute to all her little friends.  We also are in the middle of our Black History Month celebrations.  Learning about the past and all of those who made incredible inpacts in our history.

I think about how many months ago, I was stressing about what school she would go to and if it would work out okay.  Now she is typing, reading, writting, adding, subtracting and even doing some of it in Spanish.  So today I can safely say, we made the right choice with this school.  Now we patiently await for spring, and more field trips to come!

Building Blogs Fourteen; It's contagious!

When we first began with Connections Academy, the online school was a fairly new thing to my community.  Homeschool in any manner was not the typical idea, but my family was determined that there were better options to suit our needs out there.  Finally we took the plunge with OCA.

I must say, even I was nervous in the beginning.  I was not about to breathe that to anyone however.  Confidence was key to making this go well, and the staff at OCA made everything easy for us.  We got our materials, looked over the site and immediately started to brag. Yes, we had bragging rights!

Here we are going into the second half of the year.  We have our schedule down and know our routine.  We are comfortable with the school and yes, are still very pleased with it and it shows.

We have now recruited other children to OCA as well.  My hope is that they enjoy the school as much as we do.  I will be there for support of the parents, as in our community, criticsm still exists, as unfortunate as it is.

So cheers to the second half of the year and may the kids who have joined have a great school year!
Our OCA spirit is contagious!

Building Blogs Thirteen; Wow what a break!

I haven't wrote here in, well what seems to me as a long time anyway.  The holidays are always very busy for our family.  We celebrate many different times, as we have a long distance family.  School was on break for us and we are currently finishing up the middle of the year finishing grades. 

Now for the hump!  It seems with all of the excitement that has surrounded us previously, it's hard to get back into the swing of things again.  Today was a bit rough.  Paper work is no fun, for anyone.  We have found a way to make it fun however.  For every good day that she does her paper work with no complaints, we have a reward bag.  She gets to draw one, very extra fun thing for us to do.  Now she excited to do the paper work, woohoo!  Let's hope the excitement lasts!

Building blogs twelve: Where oh where has all the time gone, Oh where oh where could it be?

It's been a while since I've wrote here.  Things have been very busy.  At some points, I believe my sanity even ran away and hid without me.  Then, when I sit down and just think about what all has happened in the past few months, I become grateful that we're still alive and well.

We had our first experiences with online school planning and dealing with doctor's appointments and funerals.  It really didn't go that bad.  You see, that is the some of the beauty I am finding with this school option.  Not only were we able to work through our personal times, but we were able to flex our schedule so that we did not have to take any time off either.

I must say for myself, the hardest part is remembering to log on and record the attendance.  But I am proud of myself that I have been able to do this, every single day that it was needed.  Now I know, that if I can do this, anyone can.

Pledge of allegiance, all by herself :)

Building blogs eleven: Oh to fall in love

I think we have fell in love with this school.  Sounds corny, but it's true.  This school has everything to offer a family.  We are taking full advantage of it all and trying to be very active.

My little one is all signed up for Book it!  Remember that program? Read books and get pizza?  That is every child's dream.  I remember doing that and I can't wait to see my little one's face, the first time she gets a pizza for reading.

Also, the You Earned It! program is awesome.  I discovered it yesterday and was taken in awe by it.  How cool is that, that your student can earn points just by doing things like orientation and LEAP and in turn be rewarded? Also, they can turn in their points to help others who are need, such as bottles of water or shoes overseas.  How many public schools do you know, can say that they do that? ;)

Building blogs ten: I'm not that mom..

It's funny because I have ran into quite a few people who think I'm crazy for choosing the online public school option, verses the traditional Bricks and Mortar setting.  Now, I will tell you their reasoning.  The same statements follow their judgements with, "school is my break away from the kids" as they giggle.

Now you see, I'm not that mom.  I don't see school as a vacation from my children.  As a family, we researched and interviewed many families of different school settings before we made our final decision.  Once we were set with OCA, we knew it was right for us.  I enjoy being able to know what my child is doing in school, having that direct contact with the school and especially, not arguing with a child about homework (our work is done!).

There are a lot of things I could say that we enjoy over the traditional school.  No school buses, no waiting for her to come home late in the afternoon, no asking her what she learned and getting an I don't know answer, no conversations of who wore what and who is so and so's best friend, no stories of who got beat up on the playground.. although some of these we will eventually deal with anyway, because we do have social events routinely, it is not part of my daily worries.

I could go on and on in comparison.  For now, I won't.  I will leave that for a later building blogs post.  I will just say, that I don't apreciate the parents that use a school system as a sitter.  I feel very strongly that you should care and show support in your child's education, in your child overall.  And really, these parents should take a few steps back while judging me.. and take a minute to look in the mirror.  I am not saying all parents who put they're children in traditional school settings use a school for a sitter, I'm saying the ones that judge others because they admittingly do- are.

Moral of the story.. be careful of what you say, before you say it.  Because you might in turn be calling yourself out, instead.

Building blogs nine: Creativity is everywhere

We have been very productive lately.  Education is definetly everywhere and this family has taken full advantage!  Recently we took a trip to the Ohio Renassiance Festival where we got to witness real live jousting, hand crafted materials and more.  (This was not a school field trip however we found it to be educational for the kids anyway).

Yesterday our activity was to go on a Discovery walk, and so today we decided to do it again but make it a Nature walk.  We took a bag with us and as we came across items we gathered them.  After comming inside, we made a poster of how our season (early this year.. but we live in Ohio so what's new) is changing from summer to fall.  Not to mention, it made the little ones a bit more hungry for lunch, and a wee bit more tired for rest time. :)  Science at it's best!

Building blogs eight: The 12 days of Chris..oh, OCA

We are officially twelve days in, as of today. Hurrah!  Our schedule is down to a tee.  We are rockin' and rollin' through school now.  It feels so good to get up with a somewhat flexible routine and begin our day.  The flexibility the school gives us is amazing.  Our family has adjusted very well.

Building blogs seven: Let the good and bad days begin!

So, as mom I've come to learn, that there will be days that are definetly more challenging than others.  The words "I can't" and "Moooooom" will be said out of frustration, and patience will be challenged.  Ironically enough, on the "I can't" day, the story for the day was the little engine that could.

We read the story and discussed it for a bit.  Not much later, the "I can't"s started creeping back again.  Again we discuss the little engine that could and with a "okay okay" we were a bit more patient with the next assignment.

The majority of our days have been wonderful.  For that, we're thankful. :)

Building blogs six: Who's teaching who?

Me: "You did a great job on that circle. I'm proud of you!"
The aparently smarter than me kindergartner: "Mom, that's an oval.. not a circle. See?"

I must be doing something right if she recognized the difference.  But now I'm thinking.. man, maybe I'm the one that needs to take this kindergarten class hehe.

Building blogs five: Say that one more time?

I have now officially experienced what I have read so much about, answering the questions about a public charter school.  I really do not mind.  As a matter of fact, I love sharing the positive experiences we're having with everyone.  But I must say, it is a bit overwhelming.

Today I finally said to someone, just give me a  little bit to gather my thoughts- as I've repeated myself of the same answer to many other people these past two days.  Ten minutes, I got the same question again and kindly answered it lol.

However the initial reaction is the same from everyone.  The immediate response is this, "Oh so it's homeschool".  At this point I'm thinking.. were you listening to me? lol.  I simply say, eh okay kind of.. I guess..   Then I repeat the public charter school explanation, and by this point my answer is clear.

I am pleased to say I have had no negative responses.  Which makes me happy but I do know that at some point, I will come across one.  And when that time happens I will be ready. With patience, kindness, love and understanding to their own perspective.  On another note, the sarcastic part of me will be very quiet and not say, butt out.. haha :)

Overall we are very pleased with our decision to go with OCA.  Our first Livelesson was very cool and my daughter is loving the assignments.  I am finding it not be as overwhelming as I'd imagined and doing well with handling my own classwork.  I greatly encourage everyone to look into CA.  I will gladly keep passing on the word, not matter how many times I am asked. :)

Building blogs four: First day

Here we are on the first day of school with OCA.  My daughter was up and ready to roll at 7a.m. this morning, all by herself.  Asked for breakfast, was dressed and ready.. for the first time.  Normally she is my itty bitty slacker.. mope around and not really enthused to do much. Not this morning though!

I had everything wrote down that we needed to gather and do today, last night.  So we'd be set.  I'm keeping a notebook/journal as we go along.  That was a great suggestion, thanks CA via facebook.  This will definitely help me go back and review my own notes and what we've done.

Now the fun part, figuring out why the desktop computers in our house randomly turn themselves off.  Yup, even her school computer is doing it.  If I were a bit more paranoid than the average joe, I'd think some paranormal thing was messing with me, heh.  I am trying to get this problem solved though, as it's rather annoying when your working hard on something, and the computer just restarts itself.  We'll get that figured out, and hopefully soon.

So anyway, we are set on our first day! Our first live lesson is at 9:30 this morning, it will be neat to see.  The bell system we have here is pretty nifty.  I was able to set it up to only go off on certain days/hours and set the bells. So we have what I like to call "pretty tones" instead of harsh wake you up ones.  Also, I incorporated some other fun things that even the almost two year old can do with us.  I have a flag in the room, and hung up the pledge of allegiance so we say that and a prayer in the morning.  We are also doing a stretch after breakfast to help get our bodies motivated.  And of course the normal book and nap in the afternoon.

With all that said, we are going to rock this first day.  Now, let's see how the rest of the week goes. ;)