So, how does that on-line high school stuff work, anyway?

As I've mentioned, this year we enrolled The Writer in an on-line high school program. We chose TTUISD because it offers a certain flexibility that not all programs offer. This flexibility is both the best and the worst thing about the program. Best in that he has no due dates for anything, so we are free to take off when & why we want, no questions asked. The Chemist travels for work pretty often, and we sometimes go with him, so this was a big deal to us -- not to have our lives disrupted and heavily altered by having to follow a traditional school schedule.

But, worst, in that he has no due dates. The only due date is that each course expires 6 months after he enrolled, which means he must submit his final exam prior that date. That gives a lot of leeway, which we love, but it also means that it is far too easy to skip over harder projects and save them for later. If they have no due date, they can not be late; since they are never late, the only penalty he will suffer for this is that one day, it will be "later" and he'll have a stack of hard projects waiting for him.

Even with that, he's learning some excellent lessons in time management; already he had to work over Christmas break to catch up on some of those "saved for later" projects, and will have to work on a few of them over our upcoming trip with The Chemist, as well.

Beyond that, though, how does his course work? Well, his particular course has been described by others as a directed study course; he does not have any live on-line lectures, nor video lectures, at all. He has assigned reading, sometimes slide shows & videos (not of lectures), and assigned quizzes and worksheets that serve as measuring sticks to see how he's doing, as well as reinforcements to help him retain the information. He also has the aforementioned harder projects.

The Writer, working on a Geography quiz
the blue folder (open) in front has his weekly assignments,
separated by day

He is enrolled in 6 courses: Biology, Art, English, Health, World Geography, and Geometry; this is a full 9th grade schedule.  Yesterday's schedule held the following:

Biology -- do workbook page 77 (20-odd questions over chapter 15)
Art -- do the self-evaluation questions about the prior Studio project
English -- take the quiz over Romeo & Juliet, Act II Quotes; read Act III in the modern text
Health -- do the chapter 22 vocabulary quiz
World Geography -- watch a video on Great Britain & the Industrial Revolution; do the accompanying quiz
Geometry -- do Chapter 3, section 7 (read section and complete assigned problems)

Now, this doesn't look like too much; that's because he spends Monday and Tuesday reading chapters, copying vocabulary, etc. and then usually has a lighter day on Wednesday, with Thursday & Friday holding more reading & vocabulary for the next chapter.

Now for the nitty gritty, how did that schedule play out....

10:00 -- wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, etc.
10:30 -- start school; do Biology workbook page and Health quiz
11:30 -- tell Mom I'm ready for one of the hard subjects, either Geometry, Art or English; Mom prints the Self-Evaluation form for Art, I fill it out.
12:00 -- start Geometry with mom
1:15 -- take a break to eat lunch (left over homemade steak fingers)
1:45 -- get back to Geometry. This slope of the line stuff is so not fun.
3:00 -- we have worked through the section and done 3 of the 12 assigned problems. Mom has to do school with The Adventurer and The Artist, so she makes me take a break and do my other work. I hate Geometry.
3:15 -- do the Romeo & Juliet quiz.
4:00-ish -- take a break to play with the dogs; it is pouring down rain, so can't take them for a walk; play with the squeaky toy instead.
4:15 or 4:30 -- watch the Geography video and try the quiz. Doesn't make sense; ask Mom for help. Find in the chapter where it talks about this stuff; now it makes sense. Finish quiz.
5:30 -- done with the quiz. Find mom; time to finish Geometry. Work through the remaining 9 problems.
6:50 -- finally done. Copy the Geometry problems that were done in pencil into the electronic notepad (that requires an electronic pen) that I have to use so I can submit my work.
7:30 -- done tracing/copying the problems. Finally. No more school for the day. Except I either have to read Act III tonight, or tomorrow......

...and working on Geometry, despite The Adventurer's toys all over the kitchen table...

I feel for him, I really do. Geometry is kicking our behinds. Like I mentioned yesterday, I'm good at math; he's good at math; we are not good at math together. I am wide open to suggestions there. We will finish this semester and next using this same program, but next year is Algebra II and then Trigonometry or PreCalculus. I need, desperately, to find something that has someone else as the teacher. Any suggestions?

UPDATE: I'm a dork. Turns out, the textbook that TTUISD assigned for Geometry actually has, right there in the margins of every single section of every single chapter, notes to Go Online for help. I've ignored those until now. I just discovered that the publisher has linked video tutorials, practice (interactive) activities, homework help, and basically everything I've spent the last 2 days looking for in an outside source, free (if you own their textbooks). We will begin utilizing this wonderful resource first thing Monday; I look forward to stress-reduced Geometry from now on. Even if it took me three entire chapters (and 12 weeks) to pay attention and discover this. 

As for the rest....time consuming; yes. Partly because he is a perfectionist and gives his absolute best, 100% of the time. Always. Most days do not take quite this long, but just as I had an easy day the day before, he had a hard day on this day. Luckily the other courses were light so that the 4 hours of geometry was not a huge hindrance.

The awesome, amazing, makes me so very proud thing is, he never complains. Even during the geometry marathon, he keeps a good attitude and if he does get frustrated, he gets up, walks the dogs, grabs a snack, whatever. He doesn't take it out on me or on his brothers, and he has not once complained about the work load, at all. In fact, he has admitted he likes the heavier load; he finally feels he's being stretched and challenged, and this has been so very good for him.

Outside accountability, someone else grading his papers and affirming what I've always said, that he's very smart, has been wonderful as well. It's one thing to hear Mom say what a good writer you are; it's another thing to consistently earn grades of 100 on every writing assignment and project you turn in.

Will an on-line program like this be the right fit for every kid? No, of course not. But it has definitely been a perfect fit for The Writer. Except maybe the Geometry......