Another home school option - ColoCA

[th3w01f]

With all the discussions about home schooling I thought I’d post info on one we’ve had success with, Colorado Connections Academy. There are a few like this in Colorado I’m just presenting our experience with this particular one. It’s basically a public/home school option, the curriculum is based on the state requirements and all material is provided for you, there is also an assigned ‘remote’ teacher for each child. Once per week there was a class Webex meeting and once every week or every other week the parents and child talk with the teach. More often if needed and we found the teacher to be very responsive when we had questions.

When our Daughter started 2^nd grade it was only 2 weeks in that her teacher (Douglas County) gave us a list of drugs she recommended for kids with ADD (our daughter is not hyperactive or disruptive at all but has trouble paying attention when she’s not interested, who doesn’t). That did it for us, we met with the teach on Thursday and on Monday we had her enrolled in ColoCA. It was a great experience for her and she really enjoyed it. We went back to public school this year but next year we’re probably going to put both of our kids in ColoCA.

This isn’t for everyone, if you’re OK with teaching the primary curriculum and supplementing it with topics of your choice it’s a great option. A school day typically took 3 hours and left a lot of time for other topics and things like field trips, vacations (pheasant hunting ), etc. Another benefits is that you can do it from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.

Like traditional home schooling you get out what you put into it.

[spyder]

We've had our daughter in Colorado Connections Academy for a few years now. We took and put her in the second grade to see if she would like it more (did CCA for the first grade), but two things happened, one, she was far beyond the school systems second grade curriculum (school district 51), and the schools were way way too liberal for us. She defended herself from a boy that was picking on children, and then was threatened by the principal with a bunch of lame shit (she kicked the boys ass, started with a headbutt). Anyway, after looking back at everything, we took her out immediately after that, and haven't looked back.

As the OP said though, you get out of it, what you put into it.

[Katastrophic]

As the mother and "learning coach" of our daughter (th3w01f is my other half) I truly enjoyed seeing first hand what she was learning. I was able to see exactly what she struggled with and we could spend more time on those subjects. On the other side, we got to work ahead as far as we wanted on subjects that she excelled in. With the kids going to school full time this year I've truly missed being able to work ahead certain days so that we can do other enriching activites on other days. As long as we make our outing educational, we can log the hours with the school.
Another thing that has prompted us to consider moving both of our kids to online school next year was our bully experience. Our daughter handled it better than most adults would have but the school has done nothing about this kid. This is the kid's third school in 3 years because her behavior is so bad. I know we can't shelter the kiddos from everything and I don't want to. But like Spyder said the schools are so liberal these days that the kids have no concept of punishment, failure, or even success. You can neither have nor appreciate success unless you get the opportunity to have and appreciate failure.

[HBARleatherneck]

we use online, ABC Mouse for the little ones and Time for Learning for the 1st and second grade levels. (so far). we also do alot of book work and hands on learning

http://www.abcmouse.com/
https://www.time4learning.com/

[Katastrophic]

The hands on learning part is what I enjoy so much. When we can escape to the mountains, we spend all day outside just exploring. We also plan on taking some road trips to see places like Yellowstone. Which are far more tolerable in the off season. Last summer we dug for fish fossils. That was quite the experience for all of us. But now I don't know where to put the fossils we found

[10mm-man]

With all the discussions about home schooling I thought I’d post info on one we’ve had success with, Colorado Connections Academy. There are a few like this in Colorado I’m just presenting our experience with this particular one. It’s basically a public/home school option, the curriculum is based on the state requirements and all material is provided for you, there is also an assigned ‘remote’ teacher for each child. Once per week there was a class Webex meeting and once every week or every other week the parents and child talk with the teach. More often if needed and we found the teacher to be very responsive when we had questions.

When our Daughter started 2^nd grade it was only 2 weeks in that her teacher (Douglas County) gave us a list of drugs she recommended for kids with ADD (our daughter is not hyperactive or disruptive at all but has trouble paying attention when she’s not interested, who doesn’t). That did it for us, we met with the teach on Thursday and on Monday we had her enrolled in ColoCA. It was a great experience for her and she really enjoyed it. We went back to public school this year but next year we’re probably going to put both of our kids in ColoCA.

This isn’t for everyone, if you’re OK with teaching the primary curriculum and supplementing it with topics of your choice it’s a great option. A school day typically took 3 hours and left a lot of time for other topics and things like field trips, vacations (pheasant hunting ), etc. Another benefits is that you can do it from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.

Like traditional home schooling you get out what you put into it.

I have my son in K-12/cova, it was a little hard adjusting to the fact that we have so much more freedom! Travel, staying up late, waking up when we want, etc....... he spends a shit load more time with me and goes to work with me as well...... It does take some discipline though, to get the work done.

[HBARleatherneck]

delete

[10mm-man]

We have 140 acres, so we have plenty of room to explore. Whenever I slaughter an animal, I put the skulls out to be cleaned by the bugs and bleached by the sun. After that I take and bury them in places all over. I send the kids out with shovels, paint brushes, notebooks, and a digital camera. I point them in the right direction about where to look. They think they find dinosaur bones. Then they clean the bones, catalog their findings and photograph the site and bones. Then they look up in their books and online to figure out what the bones are from.



We have had rabbits, goats of all sizes, cows, calves, buffalo, horses and more that they have "discovered". No dinosaurs yet though.

Very cool! I am looking for property right now, but worry about isolating my boy to much. it is just me and him........

[palepainter]

I have my daughter in Calvert Academy. It is a nicely structured curriculum, pprobably much like CCA.
We are in our third year with the program. Best thing we could have done.
http://coloradocalvertacademy.com/

[def90]

When our Daughter started 2^nd grade it was only 2 weeks in that her teacher (Douglas County) gave us a list of drugs she recommended for kids with ADD (our daughter is not hyperactive or disruptive at all but has trouble paying attention when she’s not interested, who doesn’t)..

That's me 24 hours a day.. it really sucks sometimes, I have a pile of shit in front of me that needs to be done and I stare out the window.. lol.