August 19, 2011

Oh, what a year. A year full of discoveries and finding out what is going to work for us.  This year, we are leaning away from the unschooling route. Yes, I do believe that is the best route, but with my work schedule, and time issue, I don't think it can be done right when I am sleeping and the kids are left to their own devices.  They did learn, do not get me wrong, Rachel going into grade 6 this year (skipping a grade) will speak truth to that one.  It's hitting her, too, when she sees her friends (same age) going into grade 5!  We had to do a little 'catching up', but I think she will be fine. I found FLVS.


FLVS (Florida Virtual School) is a free, public, school for public, homeschool and private students. All teachers are certified, and you simply go through them at home. Since my kids are legally private schooled, they can take a full load and NOT register with the program (i can enroll them in ANY grade i want ;)-and they can't tell me no, lol..)


Gracie will be taking grade 6 Spanish. (private schooled kids can only start at grade 6).  Anyways, I am going to try and get Gracie ready, possibly, next year.  What change have we made? Pretty much, early admittance to FLVS= Early graduation.  Rachel is excited.  It will be a challenge to her, since she is really not used to traditional schooling.
http://www.flvs.com/


Also, Gracie will be going back to Time4learning http://www.time4learning.com/ to get her ready, along with doing a combination of Abeka grade 2/3 workbook I made up.  Abeka runs a grade or 2 ahead, so it will be really like doing a grade 4/5 workbook.  This should get her ready, and then they will both be in this.
Both are excited!:)


For those interested, Rachel will be taking-
FLVS Math
FLVS Language Arts
Time 4 learning Grammar(I don't think that course has much grammar...that is something she missed...)
FLVS Science (middle school science looked really boring to me, but she wanted to do it!;)
FLVS Critical Thinking (semester long class)-i told her if she did good in this, she could take guitar next
                            semester!)
FLVS Spanish (a virtual tour through Spain! it looked so exciting, even my 8yo wanted in)
Rosetta French (FLVS only has French for high school)
FLVS World Culture/Geography
Time4learning American History (another area she didn't cover much on her own
Spelling City/Vocabulary City (FLVS doesn't seem to cover much of this..well, to my liking;)
http://www.spellingcity.com/


Gracie will be doing-
Time4learning-
Math
Language Arts
Science (mainly for reading experience)
History (same)
Abeka Math (supplement)
Abeka Language Arts (supplement)
Spelling City/Vocabulary City


Even 4 yo is getting involved! She wanted to do preschool 'so bad' so I am putting her on Time4learning.
Fun, Fun!!


Will post daily on how everyone is doing.