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Home schooled - with a twist(The Desert Sun)COACHELLA VALLEY Virtual public school invaluable as resource, kids and parents say By Jennifer Larson The Desert Sun For the Schmidt family, the school day typically starts around 7 a.m. That's when Emily Schmidt wakes her three young children for breakfast. But she only loads two of them up in the truck for school. After she drops Eli, 9, and Hannah, 8, off at Bubbling Wells Elementary just around the corner, she heads to her sunny kitchen in her home near Desert Hot Springs. Sitting at the home computer in one corner of the kitchen is her 11-year-old son, Clint, waiting to begin his own school day. The Schmidts are one of a small but growing number of families home schooling their children but using modern technology to make the most of it. They are working with a public charter school that's completely virtual, Connections Academy. Each morning, Emily logs onto the academy's Web site and records Clint's attendance. Then the two of them get to work on his daily lessons. "For Clinton, this is best," Emily Schmidt said. "For Hannah and Eli right now" - she gestured in the general direction of their elementary school - "that is best." Connections Academy, which is about 4 years old, serves about 365 kids in five Southern California counties. There are about seven Coachella Valley families involved in its programs - and five in Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms. It is one of at least two burgeoning networks of virtual public charter schools in California: Founded in 2002, the California Virtual Academies is its main competition. Offering options Connections Academy was set up to give families flexibility in educating their children. Because it is a public school, there is no tuition cost. Some parents have turned to virtual home schooling programs because their child has a medical condition that makes it hard for them to attend a regular school, while other kids are so heavily involved in a sport or art that their parents thought homeschooling would be a better option. Emily Schmidt turned to Connections Academy because Clint just wasn't making it at Julius Corsini Elementary, and Emily was desperate to turn his life around. "He would cry and he would call himself dumb and he would call himself stupid, and he would give up," she said, her voice wobbling slightly with emotion almost two years later. She said when the school decided to promote him to the next grade even though he was failing everything, it was the last straw. "I am my child's last safety net, and I have to do what's best," Emily said. Now Clint, who uses his home computer to complete interactive lessons in English, math, science, and social studies, is making Bs instead of Fs. This is his second year to be home schooled. Clint is able to listen to a teacher read a story out loud while he follows along, reading the text on the screen. He said that the two-pronged approach helps him retain more information, and his reading comprehension scores have shot up as a result. "It helps because I can understand what it's saying," he said. He also can practice math problems until he gets them correct. He takes quizzes online, and he also completes worksheets that he prints out and his mom mails to his teacher, Cindy Pancer. Emily is thrilled to see him learning and succeeding. Since she's not a teacher by training, she's also glad that the academy provides a staff of credentialed teachers like Pancer, with whom she regularly communicates about Clint's education - whether about tailoring the curriculum to meet his needs or asking questions about the content of a certain lesson. That's by specific design, said Jean Swenk, the academy's principal. "You can communicate with your homeroom teacher at any time if you're struggling or need help," she said. "We're very much focused on one-on-one." Confidence booster Clint even takes standardized tests like every other public school child in California. Each spring, the academy sets up testing sites, and the students travel to them. He also can participate in clubs and field trips that are organized by the academy. Emily said she's confident Clint is on track to meet the requirements to attend a regular high school in a few years. She prefers to keep him at home during his middle school years. "He's done really well since we did this," she said. "His confidence level has increased." Clint will continue to be home schooled throughout seventh and eighth grade, and then he will enroll at Desert Hot Springs High. "I'm going to play football there," said Clint, who's also an avid paintball fan and bass player. However, if she changes her mind, Clint might be able to stay with the program through 10th grade. According to Swenk, the academy hopes to add a 10th grade-level program next year. Either way, Schmidt said she's glad that they gave home schooling a try. "He wants to learn," she said. "It's changed the way he looks at school." "It's fun," said Clint. "Yeah, it's put the fun back in learning," Emily said. Photo: Taya Lynn Gray, The Desert Sun Clint Schmidt, 11, reacts after successfully completing a computer lesson on equivalent fractions as his mother, Emily Schmidt, watches inside their Desert Hot Springs home on Thursday. Clint has been doing better academically since his parents decided to home school him, his mother says. Glances: VIRTUAL HOME SCHOOLING Some of the highlights offered by virtual public charter schools: Organized field trips Instruction by credentialed teachers No tuition cost LEARN MORE Want more information? Check out www.thedesertsun.com/quicklinks for more on two Southern California virtual charter schools - Connections Academy and California Virtual Academies. |