Home school, what ya know about that?

School has officially started back at our home. I was convinced by a well-meaning friend (actually I'm questioning her reasoning behind this now) to set the girls up on Georgia Virtual School this semester. This site is basically what it sounds like: an online academy where home, private, or public-schooled children can take classes with teachers and assignments and the whole nine yards. Getting set up was truly awful; there were so many sign-offs, orientation videos, articles to read, and emails to set up that I was exhausted by the time classes "started". I think a more streamlined process and site layout would be awesome!
The teachers have been amazing since the beginning, they send welcome letters and encourage students and parents (and sisters that act like parents) to ask questions as often as they need to. I wouldn't say that the assignments were too hard for starters, but I found out too late that due to the interface being so complicated, M spent a lot of time wandering around on the site not actually completing work! I continuously encouraged her to seek help when needed (and harangued, and begged, and pleaded...) until she finally started realizing how badly she was behind. Thursday at midnight was the deadline, and on Wednesday and Thursday M and I started turning in her required work. She is the kind of student that requires someone to constantly keep her on track, if she is even minutely confused about a question, she will stay on it for 30 minutes, never thinking to move to the next one so that she can at least get everything else accomplished!
My desire is to see both girls truly succeed in their schooling and to enjoy the learning process as much as possible. I'm learning that sometimes that means I have to learn a different way of communicating ideas and meeting them where they are. I will be keeping my blog updated with school and life stuff as a form of therapy (only half joking.)

One fun new thing we've done is sign up for a natural pal exchange. Now, I first saw info about this on the pages of several people I followed and it piqued my interest because I tried near the end of last semester to get the girls into nature journals and learning about science and nature through personal discovery. Even if you're not "into nature" the pictures on the nature pal exchange instagram will make you drool. Check it out HERE or by clicking the beautiful picture below. The picture is originally from the instagram of @julie_kelchner which is pretty cool in it's own right!

Til Next time,
Elisabeth Arona