Schoolishness

I think this is the first year we'll be adhering to a 'regular' school schedule. I suppose there was the year that The Boy was at Montessori and The Girl was officially a first grade Homeschooler. Dropping and fetching one child does make the family toe a certain line. 

Schoolwork this semester will include live, online lectures, regularly scheduled across the week for 9am. The work area for the kids has been tweaked so a second computer is available. They used the iPad over the summer when their classes ran concurrently. It worked out, but a full size monitor, keyboard and mouse is the more desirable setup. 

To answer Miranda's comment of earlier this week, the kids are enrolled in an Ontario virtual school called Virtual Learning Centre. It's run through the Lyndsay area school board and offers homeschoolers who are not attending a bricks and mortal school the chance to earn high school credits toward their Ontario Secondary School diploma. It's the more desirable alternative to the province's correspondence learning setup, in my opinion. It's also free - as compared to the other online high school options I've found which charge around $400 per credit/course. 

The Girl has signed up for Biology 11, Computers And Information Systems 11 and English 11. Each class requires 2.5-3hrs per week of class time with a teacher. Then there are the assignments and course content to work on. At home, with materials most homeschoolers might recognize, she's doing math and a college first-year (so senior high school?) Anatomy & Physiology. 

We've been sure to add work time for each course to her weekly schedule. She's pretty much booked 9am to 3pm or 4 pm every week day. 

I'll have to talk about the registration process and the user interface another day. 

Today is up and running. The kids are logged in and waiting for their lectures to begin. It's English for The Girl and Science for The Boy this morning. The Boy is trying to organize his life and assignments as he's leaving on Monday for a week to visit family. After this morning's work, we're off to put an appearance in at the annual homeschoolers picnic. I've got treats ready and it's supposed to be the hottest day of the summer. 

Treats are pound cake and strawberry freezer jam and lemon balm and honey jelly. I'm sure I'll also have to take a full compliment of drinks and snacks and bags of outdoor accoutrements so as to look the part of a good homeschooling mother. 

♥Mrs. A