WA state friends: Columbia Virtual Academy questions....

[anotherbrother]

My girlfriend is pretty worked up about them no longer offering to reimburse for mileage. To me, that is a non-issue.

 

Personally I was surprised to find out that they had every reimbursed for mileage. I think that a lot of these changes were made because of people who abused the system. (I'm not saying your friend did.) These are activities that we most likely would take our children to anyway, and it's a privilege that we don't have to pay for them. A hassle, but a privilege. I can't imagine the people that were able to get vacations, that masqueraded for field trips paid for.

[Amy1k]

I totally agree.

[anotherbrother]

I don't know if it's our AT or our district, but apparently our SLPs will be uploaded sometime this week. I would have liked to get started, but at least I wasn't just missing something every time I looked at WINGS.

[Oakblossoms]

My school year says 2011 and I have had SLPS for awhile. Not that it's done much for us.

[anotherbrother]

We're in Orient, which I think is fairly small in comparison to some of the other districts. They seem to operate on there own time schedule. I have seen that quite a few other people have already had access which is why I was so surprised that I didn't.

 

We received our first contact from our AT last night, when I responded asking about the SLPs, she said that they were being entered and we'd have them by the end of the week. I don't know if that's a district or teacher thing. I'm just going to go with it for now. I'd really like them, but at the same time she was very lax with due dates last year and if that's how she rolls I'll let it work in my favor.

[Oakblossoms]

ERin...totally roll with it;)

 

I have a big handful of CVA friends now. They all say different things:001_huh:

 

I introduced a friend to CVA this year and she was so worried this week. I just kept repeating to take it easy and order her stuff.

[anotherbrother]

I agree, I'm just going to roll with it for now. Last year was our first year with CVA, we didn't get accepted until the beginning of September. When we did get accepted SLPs, reviews, orders, etc. all had to be turned in at once. It made me feel like I was behind all year. I mostly trying to avoid that this year.

 

I most afraid that my children are going to make me look like this :eek: if we don't get back on a regular schedule soon.

 

As for orders that doesn't worry me at all. For the most part I understood how that worked, and had ordered all the really important stuff at the end of last year to carry over into this year. It would have driven me crazy to be waiting into September or later to receive some of my orders. I have very little that needs to be ordered for this year.

[Oakblossoms]

I wanted to post a reminder. I made a social group for CVA. I thought it would be helpful since many of us are going by TWTM guidelines.

 

I just added a question about the library.

[RamonaQ]

I joined the social group. Can you explain how to access it?

[Beth in SW WA]

I joined the social group. Can you explain how to access it?

 

Go to user profile, then social groups, then my groups. Then make a bookmark.:)

[anotherbrother]

I had no idea it was there. Thanks for the heads up, I just posted a question.

[Oakblossoms]

You can subscribe, too. It will show up in your cp.

[mamakven]

you guys, i'm so excited and surprised to see this being discussed here! how cool!!!

 

And to the person who thinks this is inappropriate- I think ALL schooling should be the responsibility of the parent, financially and otherwise, but that is not the society we live in, we pay taxes and we should be able to benefit from them, not just by using the ineffective and anti-Christian school system. ALE's WORK. They produce educated children. Magnet schools, virtual schools etc. tend to be MUCH more focused and effective based on that focus and the care put into one's education. Personally, i wish ALL education would be put on a voucher system like in some European countries, like Belgium, where if a school isn't effective it just plain goes out of business.

[Oakblossoms]

Support thread:D

[Beth in SW WA]

Support thread:D

 

Agreed. :)

[Colleen]

 

And to the person who thinks this is inappropriate- I think ALL schooling should be the responsibility of the parent, financially and otherwise, but that is not the society we live in, we pay taxes and we should be able to benefit from them, not just by using the ineffective and anti-Christian school system.

Yes, we live in a society in which we all (including those whose children who are grown and those who have no children) pay taxes to support public education. In Washington state, those of us with children are able to take part directly in school programs (music, art, sports, etc) if we so choose.

 

[Colleen]

 

You don't think music is part of education?

I do think music is part of education. Very much so.

 

[Colleen]

 

If you really are interested in understanding, I'd be happy to explain to you how I "justify" it.

I'd be happy to hear. Perhaps we should start a new thread so the moderator won't claim the exchange is off topic.

 

[snipsnsnailsx5]

Hello, I know this thread is a couple months old, however I wanted to add our experience.

 

We did Columbia Virtual Academy for five months last year.

 

The pros:

I liked how they reimbursed for materials, and a LOT of materials were covered. Some faith-based companies that local ALE programs won't cover (like Learning Language Arts Through Literature).

You didn't have to pay for it out of pocket first - you just sent the list of your materials to your student consultant person and she/he faxed it in and ordered it. The materials came directly to you.

They paid for consumables too and school supplies.

They also reimbursed for educational field trips.

 

Also, while we didn't do it - I heard a lot of good about the Calvert program they used -which was all your year's curriculum AND supplies in one neat kit.

 

The cons:

For someone new to homeschooling, I was very confused. I didn't like the lack of communication, although I could contact our consultant person through email or phone whenever I wanted...usually the email took a day for a reply. I also have too loud of a house (lots of little kids underfoot) to make numerous phonecalls.

So it was pretty confusing at first. The weekly check-ins via email became a bit of a hassle too and I was late a couple times sending them in. oops! I never got much further then that since we were only in it five months. But I hear you have to send in examples of work eventually too?

 

I ended up opting instead to go through a local program like Columbia Virtual Academy, but the weekly contacts are made in person, in a class. Monthly meetings with your certified teacher to show work and answer questions, etc. are also required. But we get up to 8 hours of class time in a school just for homeschooled kids. We also get to choose whatever classes we want (art, P.E. classes, music classes, lots of sciences and social studies/histories). They are very creative classes too, like my 11 yr old is taking a Mayan Civilization class in which they get to simulate mayan civilization in their class. I love they they'll be learning through doing rather then sitting in desks and reading. The majority of the classes are very hands-on like that.