As much as we absolutely LOVE Connections Academy, we have made the tough decision to take our kids out of the school and home school them instead. Connections Academy is a GREAT school, and we have nothing negative to say about it. Our decision is bases solely on what is best for our family.
I have to say that our first semester at Connections was AMAZING! However, things changed a little....well a LOT when the second semester came rolling around.Connections Academy has a great curriculum, however, there were some things being taught at the second grade level that we just didn't think our kids were ready to take on yet. We as a family have a set of ideas about what we want to teach our children and when, and this just isn't on track with Connections Academy. I won't go into detail to keep this post as short as possible, but we just have different ideas of what should and should not be taught at a second grade level. In addition to that, Connections Academy is a public school....therefore they must abide by the states rules for education which includes Common Core. While Common Core works GREAT for some families, for OUR family it just isn't right. We are also looking for just a little more flexibility than Connections can offer. Yes, there is SOME flexibility within Connections Academy, just not as much as we would have thought.
That being said, we are going to start second semester as a home schooling family. While it would have been ideal to have been home schooling from the very beginning, I am glad that we have discovered that this is what we want now, instead of the kids spending many years in Elementary school before making a decision. Right now we are kind of clueless on where to even begin as far as curriculum goes. There are SO many choices, it is actually a little overwhelming. However, I am not going to let that keep me from diving right in and doing what we can to get started. The first thing we are going to TRY is a site called Time4Learning. We welcome ANY and ALL reviews about this web based curriculum. We are also open to any websites, blogs, or other resources that you have found helpful. We are NOT looking to spend a million dollars to teach our children things we can find online for free, but we do realize that of course we will have to spend a little bit of money to make things "easier".
What it all comes down to in the end is we want our children to stress LESS about test scores and grades, and MORE about what comes natural, LEARNING!
We hope that you will continue to support our journey on the road to learning! I will also be updating the blog with a fresh new look......just as soon as I get a minute to breathe! :)
WISH US LUCK!!!!
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