The boys (and I) will start our new school year tomorrow. A teaching job never came available for me, so we're homeschooling again this year. Thankfully I found a program that takes a big load off me - Texas Virtual Academy (TXVA).
TXVA is an online public charter school. The boys will receive all their books and supplies (minus paper and pencils) next week sometime, and we'll be on our way! In the meantime, I'll be doing "Learning Coach" training and new family orientation, and they'll be testing in math and reading proficiency for the beginning of their year. (They'll test again at the end of the year and their progress will be measured.)
They each have a teacher who plans their lessons, conducts online classroom sessions, and grades their work. All I have to do is follow her plans and guide the boys through their lessons. The burden of planning and searching for curricula I'm happy with is no longer on me!
Jacob will study math, English/language arts, science, social studies, health, PE, art, and music.
Caleb will study math, English/language arts, science, social studies, health, PE, art, and Latin. He has music on his schedule, but I'm going to have it changed to Latin, which he'll study for the next 3 years if we stay with this program. (Jacob will start Latin when he reaches 6th grade.)
Since it's public school, the boys have to "attend" 180 days, and they're required to work approximately 6 hours a day on schoolwork. I will have to be diligent with recording their attendance and progress each day, but that's just something I'll need to work into our daily schedule.
It's going to be interesting to see how this works out. The boys are excited, but I'm not sure they're grasping the amount of work they'll be doing now. When I homeschooled them on my own, I taught the basics: math, English/language arts, science, and social studies. Now they'll have health, PE, art, and music/Latin thrown into the mix - things I never really felt much like pursuing on my own.
Stay tuned!
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