School on the Road…
Before we ever considered our now adventurous road life, I was already determined to find a better educational system for my little one. A little back story…after moving to Southern Oregon, he started first grade at our local brick and mortar school. He was excited until after a few weeks of homework that seemed way to easy and boring, which led to frustrating homework time and lots of tears. I met with his teacher shared my concerns with him, only to be told “If he thinks its too easy…then I’ll give him more of the same to do.” WTF!?!? I disagreed with this approach and asked if I could build on the homework he gave him to create a more challenging experience. That seemed to work and needless to say, his advancing showed up in school and as the year went on his teacher had him teaching other kids how to work the computer and would have him read out loud to his peers, who struggled with reading etc. I had mixed feelings about this, I thought it would put him in a position where it would single him out from his peers.
In his second year, he lucked out and had an amazing teacher. She came to us with her concerns that she felt he wasn’t being challenged enough and that she would like to offer him a creative way of making his everyday classes more challenging…ie had him doing extra work in the way of book reports, presentations etc. All of which he totally enjoyed. She also suggested he be tested for Talented and Gifted (TAG), the districts program for advanced students. Though they usually wait til 4th grade to do this, she got it pushed through, though he wasn’t approved til the end of the year…it gave us hope for the coming year.
But by his 3rd year, he once again had a lame (in my opinion) teacher, who had no interest in doing anymore than he had to. So much so that I called a meeting with him, the district TAG representative and the Principal. Bottom line, they had two extra curricular offerings for him and no other adjustments to his daily curriculum. One was the battle of the books and the other was the School Spelling Bee. Soon enough he started complaining not only about the homework but about understanding new concepts being taught but that the teacher would disregard the fact that he got it and because the rest of the class didn’t understand, the teacher would scrap the lesson and start over. It didn’t stop there…Keagan studied really hard and won the school Spelling Bee beating out the 4th and 5th graders! He was suppose to represent the school at District but the day came and they FORGOT to take him on the day of the contest! Talk about a disappointed child. I once again stepped in and build on his homework to challenge him the best I could, but this was it for me…he wasn’t going back.
So I looked in
to Home Schooling and various curriculums, I found my way to Connection Academy…an online school. What drew me to them the most was that they were a state accredited school, who’s curriculum would seamlessly transfer over should we decided to put Keagan back into public school in the future. But oh is it sooooo much more than this…