I did spend a weekend with a friend's kids in November and had fun with that. In fact, I even took the little boy fishing, at his request. This is the first time in my life I have ever handled live fish...it was an experience to say the least! But, the fish was delicious, the pond was gorgeous, and I believe we will be going fishing with the boys this summer! I even learned, through the verbal instruction from W, how to gut and clean a fish....since he was too squeamish to actually do it! He was QUITE impressed that a mom would touch guts. (So was I)!
Here is a picture of the lake at Green Mountain Falls, where we went fishing. This is just a cell phone picture so it doesn't do justice to the gorgeous colors that were present, but it was truly a beautiful day! The reason Conner and Keenan didn't go with us to experience fishing is that they and Kevin were in Denver at a model train show with an older man that has really taken a shine to them. They got to see all kinds of model train setups, including, get this, a LEGO one! Of course they had a ball and Conner now has an idea for a hobby kicking around in his head....a hobby for when he is a grown up and has lots of space and money to spare, since it is apparently quite expensive!
On Thanksgiving, Kevin and the boys met up in La Junta with G'ma, G'pa, Aunt C and M&M. Aunt P and Uncle H were there too. They had a good day and it was pretty nice out so the kids hung out outside most of the day. I stayed home on baby watch, and had a deliriously relaxing mom day, all alone in the house!
During the month of November the Virtual Academy required each of the boys to formulate and submit a pretty extensive lab report and they did that, through much complaining! But it was good for them to have the experience....(at least that was what I told them)! It wasn't so much about the lab even, as just learning the formal, proper way to fill in a lab report. However, the grades that they got back from the teachers were less than stellar. When I contacted the teachers to see why, the answer I got was "Conner provided way more information that was necessary". Well SHAME ON HIM! I told him that for the purposes of the virtual academy we will do what is expected, but in the real world we know that doing prior research and going into an experiment with some concepts and ideas in place is NEVER a bad thing!
We are very fortunate to have the option of a virtual academy and have access to the K12 curriculum without paying for it, but sometimes the "requirements" from the school get a little tedious. We will, of course, continue to fulfill the requirements in order to have access to the education opportunity, but we definitely do a LOT of modification. Also, our expectations seem to be a LOT higher than the VA! Imagine that. For example, they expect that by May, the kids will have completed 80% of the curriculum in order to advance to the next grade level. Well, it is the end of January and they have completed 60% in everything right now! And I have told them that 80% isn't good enough and we will be completing 100% and probably still be done before May!
Virtual Academies, in states where they are permitted, are really a wonderful option, but the bottom line is that they are a public school, full of public school teachers, that must fulfill the requirements of public school...so there is still a lot of bureaucracy. However, we are grateful for the guidelines of the curriculum and we continue to modify it to fulfill our requirements and expectations of education and at least they will graduate with a high school diploma.
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