Shout out to 1st Grade!

Somehow this week, my blog management system emailed out some old posts I wrote last summer about homeschooling.  I have no idea why, except that I was playing around with settings and probably pushed a button.  I'm SO not a blog expert!

But it was fun to reread what I wrote, and reminded me that I'd love to give a last shout out to this past year of school! 

First -- I am very thankful for Ohio Virtual Academy (OHVA).  It was truly a blessing to have everything planned out for me, and yet still allowed me some flexibility with my child as she reached her learning objectives.  OHVA uses K12 curriculum, which is highly-rated and intuitive.  The curriculum uses textbooks, workbooks, interactive online lessons & materials for hands-on projects.  The 1st grade curriculum covered Math, Language Arts, Phonics, History, Science, Music and Art.  I also logged hours towards Health, Physical Education and Technology lessons, but I could supplement those with whatever curriculum/topics I preferred (a lot easier than I thought). 

One of my favorite things about OHVA was having a teacher accessible to me throughout the year.  I viewed her as my coach.  She was constantly encouraging me AND my daughter, giving me ideas and helping me throughout the year. We had a conference every couple of months, but I could contact her anytime if needed.  She offered online classes once a week, where the students could get together online and learn as a group.  These online classes were fun & a nice change up from the normal day.  My daughter loved it.

Speaking of my daughter, I have to give her the BIGGEST SHOUT OUT of all!  My 7yo is a happy-go-lucky girl who gets excited about anything and everything.  She is a very motivated learner, so she made my job easy!  Not that every day was perfect -- there were certainly days FULL of challenge -- but her positivity and joy for learning helped me stay positive too.  (Shouldn't it be the other way around? haha, I hope it was)  We both worked really hard to reach our goals, and it was so fun to celebrate how much we accomplished by the end of the school year. Our celebration included the Cleveland Museum of Art, a stop by a bakery in Little Italy & the Big Dipper with whole family that evening.  Fun times!

Congratulations, sweet pea!  I'm so proud of you :)