Thursday, April 30, 2009

Conveniences of Cyber Schooling

For the last two weeks we have been dealing with various health related issues. Last week, JT had a bad reaction to one of his allergy shots. We were still waiting in the doctor's office when it happened, so things were fine. However, for the rest of the week, he didn't feel well. Because of that, we had a low key kind of week.

Over the weekend, he developed a fever and rash. I called into the doctor's office a few times to get advice and on Monday we went to the clinic. It turns out, he had strep throat that ended in Scarlet Fever! JT's first comment was, "Scarlet Fever! Just like in the pioneer days!" Fortunately, we had just learned about the immune system last week and he understood the role of antibiotics. Learning experience in real life!

During the course of this mess, I realized how wonderful schooling at home is when you have health problems. JT had missed quite a bit of school each spring when he still attended brick and mortar. His allergies would flare up and he just couldn't deal with being in a school that had no a/c and windows open letting in all the pollen. With this illness, he would have missed almost 2 whole weeks of school. Because we are at home, he only missed a couple full days of schooling. Add that to the list of positive attributes of home schooling!

Our new PA Cyber course catalog came in the mail this week. As I paged through, I realized they didn't have Calvert listed beyond 5th grade. Up until now, they had it from K-8. When I told my friend who also uses PA Cyber, she told me that in small print it says Calvert is available up to 8th grade by request. I get the feeling they are working to direct families towards the virtual classes. I know that we will leave PA Cyber when Calvert is no longer available (if not sooner). It made me really start thinking about setting a few long term goals for our education plan. This year, we were busy learning how to just handle day to day goals. Now I need to consider whether we would consider other options besides cyber. I want to remain flexible, but also realize we need something in mind as far as a master plan goes. I like not feeling the need to conform to the norms of education for my kids. But I don't want to be a nonconformist for nonconformity's sake.

2 comments:

Annie said...

Okay, I'm a serious fan of hands-on learning, but is it really the way to learn about the immune system?

(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Seriously, I hope JT is feeling better. Nothing worse than seeing your child not feeling well.

Cyber Momma said...

He is much better, thanks! The antibiotics did the trick quickly. Unfortunately, the medicine was loaded with red food dye...something that causes quite a reaction in JT. School went out the window while that was in his system.