Connections Academy Blog, Virtual Learning Connections

Congratulations to your high school graduate!

If you’re the proud Learning Coach or parent of a student in the Class of 2013, it’s time to celebrate. You may plan to recognize your graduate’s achievements by giving him or her a graduation gift.

If you are looking for some gift ideas, we’ve come up with a list of personalized graduation gifts that are inexpensive, creative, and long-lasting. Some you can buy and others you can make yourself, but each one has a personal touch to help celebrate this once-in-a lifetime event.

• Scrapbook. Create a scrapbook or binder that highlights your son’s or daughter’s achievements in school. Fill it with examples of his or her best work to make it a keepsake worth looking back at.
  
  
• Book. What books did you read as a young adult that had an impact on you? If you have a favorite you think your graduate would appreciate, present him or her with a copy. Books on careers, finances, and your graduate’s interests also make good choices. Write a note in the inside cover to personalize it.
  
  
• Friend and Family Book of Advice. Find a small journal or notebook and ask friends and family members to write a personal note or story for your graduate. These notes can include advice for the future, special memories of the graduate’s childhood, and more. Instead of creating a book, you could also record DVD.
  
  
• T-Shirt Quilt. Chances are that your graduate has plenty of T-shirts from school, clubs and organizations, ...

This summer, make sure your barbecue grill isn’t the only thing that gets fired up—plan now how you will ignite your children’s minds and keep them learning during the break!

The teaching staff of Connections Academy suggests four simple steps for planning educational activities, represented by the acronym FIRE. We hope these easy-to-remember tips kindle your imagination and spark your summer learning fun!

F is for Focus

Decide now on the focus of your summertime learning plans. Set some goals with your children—and on your own. Is there something your student needs to do to prepare for the challenges of the next school year? Are there particular skills you’d like your child to practice? If you start thinking now, you have time to plan activities that will focus on your objectives—and combine both learning and fun! Be sure to consider a reward system for recognizing your student’s efforts.

I is for Interested

Use your child’s personal interests as a motivation for learning. After all, for adults and children alike, it’s more fun to study something that sparks your interest! Think about the things your son or daughter enjoys: hobbies, collections, athletic or cultural activities, favorite books, computer technology … the options are unlimited! Anything that will get your child’s mind in motion—preferably without whining!—could serve as a central theme for a fun summer of active learning.

R is for Resourceful

Think outside the box—or the house! Find ways to incorporate learning that get you and your family ...

It’s time for summer! And that can mean fun activities, including reading.

In the next couple of months, children have more time to explore their interests, enhance their knowledge, and broaden their perspective by catching up on reading. If you need books or ideas to encourage young readers, visiting your local library can help you get started.

Besides offering a vast number of books, magazines, movies, and other resources to explore, libraries often give your child the chance to make a craft, listen to a story, join a book club, attend an event, and more.

But your child isn’t limited to reading library books at home and attending the occasional library event. Consider creating your own fun reading activities that utilize the library. These can empower children with more creative freedom and motivate them to plan reading activities that fit their interests.

Library Summer Reading Activities

Below are 18 ways your child can enrich summer reading at the library on his or her own or with your help.

1. Plan a picnic and peruse a cookbook or food magazine at the library for recipes.
2. Start a Picnic Book Club. Visit the library with friends to pick out some books to read and discuss during an outdoor picnic. Consider poetry or short stories if you want to read anything aloud.
3. Before you check out more books at the library, do some summer cleaning by collecting old books and DVDs and taking them along to donate.
4. Ask your librarian to recommend ...

Did you miss our Twitter chat, From Virtual High School to College, last Thursday? Whether or not you had a chance to participate, you can still check out the highlights of our chat led by 2012 Connections Academy graduate Jamie Rose.

At Connections Academy, Jamie was involved in 4-H, swimming, and a variety of clubs and volunteer efforts. Now attending Simmons College in Boston, she keeps busy doing biology, playing rugby, working on campus, and more.

So, how did virtual school help her transition to college? We asked Jamie to share more.

How Virtual High School Prepares Students for College

“Virtual school prepared me extremely well for college coursework,” explains Jamie. “I came into college thinking that the professors would be super-strict and that the homework and exams would be incredibly hard and time-consuming, so it was a pleasant surprise when I realized that it’s not that scary.

“One of the biggest things online school helps with, of course, is time management. Being able to schedule and motivate myself to get things done has been so important. I’m very glad that I learned that skill in high school so that when I came here to college I wasn’t overwhelmed with the fact that I was 100% in control of every aspect of my schoolwork.

“The other thing that has really helped me is knowing what type of learning/studying works best for me. I have my own style of taking in information and practicing skills that works well for ...

How do you celebrate Mother’s Day with your family?

Your family may have a variety of traditions. Receiving flowers and gifts, eating breakfast in bed, and taking the day off are just of few of the perks you might enjoy on this well-deserved holiday.

Most of these activities give mothers the chance to sit back and relax. But for those who want to spend the day more actively engaged with their families, there are plenty of alternatives to choose from. Take a look at the list below for some creative ways to substitute common Mother’s Day traditions for hands-on educational experiences.

Tradition: Give Mom Flowers

Alternative: Enjoy Nature Together

Cut flowers and potted plants are wonderful gifts to receive, but they’re just as beautiful in the wild. Take some time to enjoy the spring weather and blossoming plant life by trying these ideas with your child.

• Go on a hike through your local park and discuss your favorite things about nature.
• Weed the garden or plant your favorite flowers.
• Plant a tree and discuss how it helps the environment.
• Visit a flower garden, arboretum, or state park you’ve never been to.

If your child needs more stimulation while exploring the outdoors, add some activities to your day that will keep him or her engaged. For example, ask your child to bring along a pad and pencil to sketch the landscape, or teach him or her about the symmetry apparent in nature.

Tradition: Give Mom a Gift

Alternative: Give to Others...

When virtual high school students approach the end of their senior year, they participate in all of the typical graduation activities that students do at brick-and-mortar schools. Virtual students can get their senior pictures taken, plan graduation parties, and receive their diplomas at a live graduation ceremony.

As a virtual school student, you can also send out graduation announcements to remind friends and family members that your graduation is coming up. Your announcements can also double as invitations to your graduation party. But that’s not all—there are countless other ways to use printed graduation announcements. Get creative by trying some of the ideas below.

Announce Your Future Plans

Graduation announcements offer an effective outlet for sharing your future plans. On the announcement, you could include:

• The name of the college or university you’re attending
• Your course of study or training
• The professional opportunities you plan to pursue
• Your plans for joining the military or another organization
• Your new address and contact information if you are moving away from home
• Your summer plans

Save It as a Memento

Sending graduation announcements that share your senior pictures are great for hanging on the fridge. But announcements have a lot more longevity when used in other ways. Here are some of things in which students can showcase an announcement:

• A scrapbook
• A memory box
• A picture frame
• A time capsule (write down your goals on the back of it)
• A high school collage for your room or dorm room

Include a Thank-You Note

Use ...

From raising chicks to cooking breakfast to decorating for fun, eggs have a wide variety of uses. You can even use eggs to conduct educational science experiments with your virtual school students!

It’s time to crack open some eggs and make your own geodes. The Egg Geode Experiment is designed to help students in grades K–5 discover how crystals grow. Just a few of the concepts you can cover with your child during this experiment include solvents and solutes, chemical reactions, and geology.

Take a look at the Egg Geodes instructographic below to see the directions for this experiment.

View the full version of this Instructographic.

How Much Do You Know about Geodes?

What are geodes?

Geodes are hollow rocks that have a mineral formation inside.

Did you know…

Not all geodes have crystals inside. Some have more colorful formations of minerals such as agate and jasper, and sometimes the insides are solid.

Where do they come from?

Geodes come from sedimentary and igneous rock. They are created when rock forms around a pocket of gas or an empty space in the earth. You can find a lot of geodes in the Midwest, particularly where Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri meet.

How do you identify a geode?

Geodes are typically round or oval with a somewhat lumpy surface, but you can’t determine exactly what’s inside it until you break one open.

Although the eggs are already broken in this experiment, their shells give the homemade minerals a place to form. Let ...

How does virtual high school prepare teens for college? Can online school help kids get ready for careers? Is the transition to college difficult for a virtual school student? Learn the answers to questions like these by attending our upcoming live Twitter chat, From Virtual High School to College, featuring Jamie Rose, a college freshman and 2012 Connections Academy graduate.

Jamie, who switched to Arizona Connections Academy during her sophomore year of high school, believes that virtual school was extremely beneficial in preparing her for college. She will join us live at #AskConnections on Thursday, May 9, from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. EDT to share her experiences and answer your questions!

Even with a challenging curriculum and Advanced Placement classes, Jamie enjoyed her virtual high school experience and found that she had more flexibility to do her favorite activities, such as swimming, taking care of her horses, and being the vice president of her local 4-H. She appreciated the helpful guidance from her Connections Academy counselors, as well as having a real graduation ceremony and celebration.

Currently wrapping up her freshman year at Simmons College in Boston, Jamie reports that the time-management skills she learned as a virtual school student have helped her manage her busy schedule, which includes full-time studies as a biology major, a campus job, and playing rugby.

Jamie says, “It helps to already know what learning and studying methods work best for me. As a virtual school student, I learned that I ...

Engaging classes, thorough curricula, and supportive parents all factor into a quality education. But most importantly, great education takes great teachers. National Teacher Day is coming up on May 7th—and it’s a great way for students to reach out and thank a special teacher.

If your student attends a virtual school, consider celebrating National Teacher Day by sending a creative online thank-you. Here are some different ways you can help your student show his or her appreciation.

Send a Thank-You E-Card

Sending a thank-you card is a traditional but effective way to show your appreciation for a teacher. To send a card online, your student can design his or her own thank-you e-card using a free tool such as Punchbowl.

In the message, encourage your student to be as specific as possible, describing an instance when he or she truly appreciated the teacher’s help with a concept or exercise. The details your student provides will make his or her teacher’s day extra-special!

Create a Teacher Word Cloud

A word cloud is a graphic that visually represents a selection of text. When you use a word cloud website, you type in or paste text in the designated area, and then the tool will generate the graphic for you. The more often a word is used in a selection, the larger it will appear in the word cloud.

To make a word cloud, tell your student to create a list of positive words that describe his or her teacher, such as ...

Admit it, Mom (or Dad)! When warm weather and longer days arrive, it’s easy to let your mind drift away from education. While you may be tempted to “let kids be kids” this summer, this practice can result in significant learning loss. Most students forget two months of math skills, and many slip in their reading achievement as well. Fortunately, if you start planning now, you can prevent this learning loss by integrating learning into your child’s activities!

Here are some simple steps you can take now to get ready to BLAST OFF into a summer of learning and avoid the “summer slump”!

B is for Brainstorming. Ask your kids to put on their thinking caps and brainstorm about what they’d like to learn! Were there any subjects during the school year that captured their interest? Do they want to delve deeper into a topic related to their hobbies?

L is for Learning opportunities. Learning opportunities are everywhere! Can you work an educational side trip into your family vacation? Are there any historical sites, museums, nature preserves, factories, or other interesting places you can tour? Be sure to also look in your immediate area for any cool educational day trip ideas.

A is for Active! Don’t let your kids become summer couch potatoes! Start collecting exercise ideas and ways to combine fitness and learning, and your family will stay healthier for your efforts!

S is for Suggestions. While your virtual school is still in session, ask your ...