Connections Academy Blog, Virtual Learning Connections

The final day of virtual school lessons ushers in those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.” An unstructured schedule and change of focus can provide a much-needed break after a busy school year with an online school. But it can also provide the perfect conditions for spending too much time on the couch and sleeping till the crack of noon. Learning loss and summer inactivity have gained the attention of many in the news recently when First Lady Michelle Obama spoke out about the “Let’s Read. Let’s Move.” initiative to support parents and communities with resources to help kids stay on a path for success.

So, how can you keep kids from being too sedentary this summer? Here are 10 quick ideas for an active summer.

• Create a backyard scavenger hunt.
• Learn to play a good old-fashioned game of jacks. 
• Jump rope.
• Create an obstacle course, time how long it takes to complete, and work to beat your record.
• Running errands? Make exercise part of the day.
• Start a garden.
• Create an activity calendar.
• Map out a family walk, bike ride, or hike.
• Learn and practice nine different swimming strokes.
• Look for volunteering opportunities.

What activities did you enjoy during your summers as a youth?  Your kids would love to learn about what you did.  Think back to your younger days, create a list and share with your kids and with us too!

Our house has been very busy the past week as my daughter is finishing up math lessons, taking finals, and planning for summer break. Can you believe that the school year is ending so soon? Summer is definitely a time for kids to relax a bit and enjoy being young. That doesn’t mean that their minds need to shut down, though! This year we are taking advantage of every sun-filled moment, but will keep learning alive at the same time.

Here are a few ways to help you plan some summer learning fun.

1. Check for upcoming fairs and expositions in your state using the free fair finder tool at http://www.fairsandexpos.com.
2. Check your local libraries for summer reading programs.
3. Sign up for an online summer school course to keep kids engaged in learning during the summer and earn credits needed for graduation. The great thing about online summer school classes is that they can travel with you wherever you go this summer!
4. Join a summer program at your local community center, or check out the hundreds of activities available at our wonderful state parks:
   http://www.recreation.gov/.

Cherish these wonderful summer days with your kids. Share in their learning and their experiences, take lots of pictures, and don’t forget to wear sunscreen!

Share your favorite summer planning resources with us!

Twelve-year old Koa Halpern, an online middle school student with Colorado Connections Academy, has a challenge for kids (and grown-ups) everywhere. Pledge not to eat fast food for 2 weeks!  Could it really be that simple to make a huge difference? Yes! 

The “Spring into Healthy Eating Challenge” that Koa posted on his Web site www.FastFoodFree.org, kicks off on Earth Day 2010, asking kids to sign a pledge to give up fast food for two weeks. His hope is that by giving up fast food for just two weeks, we can help keep hearts healthier, help the environment and keep extra pounds from developing on kids. If you are a busy virtual school or homeschool family, you may be wondering how to meet this challenge—don't fret, Koa offers some great tips! You can also find ideas for healthy meals on some of these other Virtual Learning Connections blog posts!

 “The mission of Fast Food Free is to reduce the consumption of fast food through education and community awareness, resulting in healthier people and a better world,” reads Koa’s Web site. “Fast Food Free is important to me because of the health risk fast food poses to people, animal rights violations, and the effects the fast food industry has on the environment. Personally, my number one concern is how the fast food industry impacts the world we live in. I don’t want kids growing up obese, I think it's awful for chickens to be packed in ...

I teach digital photography to virtual high school students at Arizona Connections Academy and run my own photography company on the side. I love the fact that my students can learn in an environment in which they feel comfortable, at the time they feel they are at their best, and also that they receive one-on-one attention from licensed teachers. I teach my students the importance of taking digital pictures to capture memories of family and friends.

Digital photos are the most current and highest quality pictures one can take. Plus, no film is wasted, because if you don’t like a picture you can just erase it. With the editing software that is on the market today, anyone can take a good picture. So get out there and create some memories by taking some digital virtual school yearbook pictures, using my tips below!

1. Get down on your subject’s level

   • Hold your camera at the subject’s eye level

   • Your subject doesn’t have to look directly into the camera

2. Use a plain background

   • Before taking a picture, check the area behind your subject

   • Look for "mergers"— avoid objects that may appear to be merging with the image of your subject when you take the picture

   • A plain background will emphasize your subject

3. Use a flash outdoors

   • Eliminate shadows on the face by using a flash outdoors

4. Move in close

   • Fill your picture with the subject to eliminate background distractions and to show off details

5. Take some vertical shots

   • Try both horizontal ...

Have you noticed your children daydreaming more? Are they unreasonably restless or more easily distracted than usual? These are sure signs that spring fever has planted itself in your school day. Today, my daughter announced it was a beautiful day and she couldn't wait to get outside. It was obvious she would rather be outdoors instead of working inside on a Geometry lesson. Luckily, at this time of year, the flexibility of being in a virtual school definitely has advantages!

The challenge is to find a way to let springtime and learning time share the same space. These 10 ideas have helped our family over the years, and may give you some ideas on tackling this blooming situation. 

• Start early in the day and finish your lessons before it gets warm enough to tempt you outdoors. Or take a mid afternoon break and return to lessons later in the day. Isn't this flexibility great!
• Finish an extra lesson Monday-Thursday, and make Friday an outside learning adventure day. 
• Set a good example. Yes, Learning Coaches, this means that you need to finish your chores before you can go out and play, too! 
• Grab the books and study outside. 
• Plan a regular break time to go for a walk, play catch or just breathe fresh air. 
• Enjoy lunch outside. 
• Bring some greenery from outside into the house. 
• Add bright colors to the learning area with colorful pictures of flowers, or even better, a few fresh picked early blossoms. 
• Encourage daydreaming...

Looking for a fun way to warm up a winter virtual school day?  Me too!  I love getting forwarded emails filled with suggestions. I'm almost always ready to try something at least once. 

It was only natural that when I received an email about making homemade popcorn in a brown paper lunch bag, I was enticed by the promise of a wonderful, inexpensive, different, simple, nutritious snack being ready in a minute (be still my heart)!  It also gives my daughter and I the opportunity to use all those great reasoning skills she's learning in her courses.

I did a search for "brown paper bag popcorn" and found many people that said making popcorn in a brown paper bag would work just fine, there are even some references to it on some well known cooking sites.  Some of the directions given suggested stapling the bag shut  so that the popcorn doesn't pop out while microwaving.  I had some lunch bags and popcorn kernels and decided to give it a try. 

Suddenly I started thinking about whether or not a staple in the microwave was a good idea.   So, once again I headed back to my trusty search engine and rethought the questions that I was typing in.  Instead of searching for "brown paper bag popcorn", I searched for "microwave food containers safety". This second search led me in a whole new direction!

It wasn't the popcorn or the microwave that could be a problem, it was the brown paper bag! 

The Popcorn Board explains on their Web site: 

"Plain and/or recycled papers ...

In a breakfast rut? Got the cold cereal blues? Or do you dole out breakfast bars like a Vegas card dealer? Never fear – I’m here to shake things up!!

Whole grain cereals and low-sugar breakfast bars offer a bounty of nutrients, but nothing screams COMFORT more than a hot breakfast on a chilly morning. Problem is, most people think a hot morning meal means setting the alarm 30 minutes earlier. Not so! And breakfast doesn’t have to be traditional either. I think outside the box for ALL meals. I serve eggs dishes for dinner and dinner meals in the morning. Just because it’s 6:00 A.M. doesn’t mean I’m hungry for waffles. Why not have chicken egg rolls with leftover chicken from last night? Put shredded chicken in a flour tortilla with salsa and shredded cheese, roll it up, zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds and you’ve got a hot, hand-held breakfast! You can also assemble the egg rolls the night before, wrap them in plastic wrap and in the morning, just micro-and-go! A few more ideas to inspire you…

Be Creative: Don’t relegate pasta to P.M. meals. Toss whole wheat pasta with cubed melon, sliced strawberries, blueberries, red grapes, and low-fat yogurt for the ultimate fruit-pasta salad. Add fresh mint or cinnamon for a twist.

Serve “Snacks” for Breakfast: And choose what you crave: some days you want salty, other days a sweet treat is in order. Some fabulous ideas:

• Oat bran pretzels dunked in peanut butter ...

Math...math...math...

Does the thought of doing a math lesson send chills down your spine? Or do you love math so much you look for free math lessons online just for the fun of it? 

No matter what your learning style, there is one quick way to sweeten up a math lesson in a hurry - CANDY!

Candy can help make numbers jump off the page.  Throughout the year, you can buy candy in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes (watch for them to go on sale). Put some in a bag in the back of the freezer and bring it out to spice up a lesson. 

Use for:

• Learning to count
• Lessons dealing with addition & subtraction
• Reinforcing place value
• Exploring fractions
• When a lesson suggests using a math counter (such as beans or beads)
• Plotting points on a number line or graph
• Have your student tell you a math story ("Dan has 8 pieces of candy.  He wants 10. How many more...")
• Practice measuring lengths

We would love to have you share your favorite candy math stories here.  There's nothing like sharing sweet success with friends.

Let’s face it. Everybody is trying to be more resourceful these days. Whether it is saving energy, saving the environment, or saving money, we are all interested in doing a little saving wherever possible!

One way to save and to become more resourceful is to try some upcycling. Upcycling generally refers to taking a material that is no longer being used and creating an entirely new higher-quality product or valued piece of art out of it. Upcycling prevents valuable materials from being wasted, and it also reduces the unnecessary environmental impacts of creating new materials for consumption. Upcycling can also be a lot of fun!

Here’s an example of how I upcycled materials in my house to make something new, improved, and very useful. I live in an older home with “charming” older, drafty casement windows. I am always chilly when relaxing on the couch and was considering purchasing a heavy, warm blanket for the winter months. I also have a collection of outdated wool sweaters in storage that I felt too guilty to part with, but the truth is I wasn’t planning on wearing them ever again. The resourceful side of my brain got working and I ended up cutting my sweaters into various squares, stitching the patches together, and upcycling all of that wool into a warm, functional, and stylish quilt! It looks great, and it keeps me warmer than any other blanket in the house!

With 2010 in full swing, and in honor of the “Get Organized” ...

Over the years I have discovered that some advantages of virtual learning are easier for people to grasp than others. Personalized learning, challenging and diverse curriculum, specialized teachers, and alternative scheduling—most people can understand these benefits. The socialization factor, however, draws many blank stares and more questions.

It's not uncommon to be in a store in the middle of a weekday afternoon with my children (especially when my children were younger) and suddenly find ourselves faced with a barrage of questions from a curious (but friendly) sales clerk. After the initial curiosity is addressed as to why the kids aren't in school, other questions like "What do you do all day?" "Do you work in your pajamas?" “How do you manage to socialize with your classmates?" and "Do you have friends?" will keep coming at us. I watch my kids take a deep breath, smile and proceed to describe the details of their virtual schooling life to anyone who asks. Naturally, I'm glowing the whole time, because the simple fact that they can converse like this with anyone reminds me that they are growing into well socialized young adults. 

The reality is that patterns of socialization for virtual learners are not so different from those in a traditional school. Do my kids ever miss the activities in a traditional school setting? Of course they do, but there are many things my kids have been able to do in a virtual school that they would have missed in a traditional bricks ...