Today my son’s excitement could  barely be contained on the drive over to Do Space for today’s official first day of class.

We parked in the overflow parking lot and with his laptop in backpack and wearing his lanyard headed up the stairs on his newest homeschooling adventure.

I have been exploring K12.com website to better understand how to facilitate, coach and record his learning.  I came with questions this morning and find all of my questions and concerns carefully and thoughtfully addressed.

Even though it turns out we are not registered for Art (the company is quickly correcting it for History) doing the lesson last night with Jasper was a joy.  I can easily see myself, even after a long day or week which for an introvert often gets in the way of completing lessons they way I want to, following or watching him complete a lesson via their curriculum.

The art lesson clearly laid out what to read, provided images for viewing, although loving art the way we do, I added 10 books and more images of my own to the focus and assessed what we had done clearly and effectively.

Taking attendance wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be and today’s session for Learning Coaches provided very useful and helpful information for me to understand how to use the scheduling function or planning functions to create or change or handle the work.  I love that the software for K-5 if you don’t do a lesson scheduled on a given day that it just moves it to the next day and if you want to the scheduling function allows for you to see and manipulate schedule in order to finish on time.  Changes can be made at anytime during the year, either to accommodate for unexpected activities, illnesses or etc.

The second aspect of the software we explored last night in Art was how it gave me good open ended questions.s  I love that this is not regurgitation software but instead thoughtful questions encourage true art sense and language within the child.  Especially the question regarding “Why do you like this art the best and be specific?”  He enjoyed thoroughly describing Van Gogh’s starry night from one of my books and said he enjoyed the swirls of the clouds and the upward movement of the tree in the foreground.

Although I know that many of the lessons will be offline requiring more from me, I love just knowing I don’t have to plan the order and I can build on what he is being taught.  I love that as a part of the lesson he was asked to produce both a portrait and a landscape with him in it.  And thanks to the content text and visuals and engagement it gave him, he sat longer and drew a better more specific picture with more patience and hard work than I typically see him do.  I am so pleased and excited about what other topics such as Science, Language Arts, History and Math will bring fun of learning, a thought of “I can” attitude and others to connect to and share with whether peers or teachers.

So the sessions today even though I had explored extensively did enhance and build on and help me even further.  K12.com explained thoroughly regarding attendance and the various ways to access lesson plans. They also explained how the software accommodates and changes which lesson plans come on which days and how and why it is done.  I particular found helpful the scheduling piece which will allow me if I need to not ever have lessons on Wednesday’s because that’s when we do Omaha Homeschool Learning Center classes and also how to see when the student will be expected to finish the course.

I find the software easy to use and understand and am grateful that when I asked for help on fixing my curriculum from Art to History that the representatives were quick to listen, quick to act to fix it.

The MAP assessment by NWEA is very exciting as I have never heard before regarding an adaptive computer assessment that based on earlier answers your student gives will adapt to give questions so that the fullest sense of your student’s “ready to be instructed” sense can be determined.   It is meant to personalize and allow for giving a personal start point and personalized instruction to the student based on both an achievement score as well as a growth score.  growth as a concept is apparently crucial to this test and how and whether a student is “growing” is as and more important than just straight achievement alone.  In addition, the students will be assessed in a multiple of ways, beyond multiple choice, that not only takes away just guessing but also shows and checks for mastery and allows them to create or craft answers to show real understanding.

I love that when I expressed concern about time that it was indicated that they could take as much time as possible. I hope that this will be actively used when he takes it next week.

After the sessions, I enjoyed talking and connecting to other parents regarding the benefit of the Virtual School as well as encouraging our children to be well rounded.

A special part of today was peeking in on a session and seeing my son intently focusing on his screen and reflecting on all of the hard social work he and I have done to enable this introverted hard of hearing child to be so successful in an environment on his own and able to keep up.

But the best part of today is seeing him at the end of the session and the first thing he said was”it was fun!” When learning is occurring but the child is feeling it is “fun” than everyone is learning.  He then clearly explained a coding activity he learned and participated in with other students.  So pleased with all that he has done, learned and love the flexibility of the schedule and excited to have at History tomorrow!