Top Ten: Why Virtual is the Word for Public School

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”  ~ Sydney J. Harris

A re-post from 2014. Today, the virtual public school
is still how we roll!

Welcome to DirtNKids’ one-room schoolhouse.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s certainly not made life here any less busy. Sometimes I’m amazed at what I can continue to do (like maintain this blog) while juggling the important stuff. The benefits to our family are just too numerous not to share. Here are a handful of our favorites with life in the virtual school.

~ Shannon @ DirtNKids

♦

Top Ten Reasons To Stay Home
with Public Education

10.  The cafeteria.  A lunch room is really quiet without 150 kids in it. Though four can still make a pretty decent racket all on their own, there’ll be no more packing lunch kits every day. It’s real food, home-cooked rather than convenient processed or animals-for-food in the lunch room, and Dad now joins us regularly for family dining during the daylight hours.

Lebanese. Yum!

9.  An end to waste. Being a Trash and Consumption Nazi, this is my personal favorite. Tests, quizzes, assignments are all printed on recycled paper (Dad robs the waste bins at work), no more four-of-each-kind-of-flyer-to-go-to-the-bin coming home in kids’ backpacks every day. School supplies are theirs. That is, if they break it or lose it, they buy the next one, Mom’s rules.

8.  Freedom and the flex schedule. School doesn’t have to be from 8-to-3 anymore. Want a Friday off?  No problem, just work a few extra lessons Monday through Thursday. Besides, museums and natural spaces near the 4th largest city are best visited during the week without all the crowds. We take vacation days how we want, when we want. Like life in general, kids get out of it what they put in.

7.  Field Trips. Because one fun-packed trip per year is just not enough for growing little minds, how does one per month sound?

Field Trip to Play in Mud

6.  No more backpacks. Chunky textbooks are used in the event of a power or internet outage only, because a screen makes for a less cluttered desk. The entire school year of textbooks, lesson plans, and assignments all fit comfortably into one tablet and a tidy 3-ring binder, so the school goes where we do — even outside at the picnic table on a gorgeous fall day.

5.  The shortest walk to school, ever. Bus bully problems, rainy day pick-ups and delays and general traffic congestion are someone elses problems, not ours. In the mornings, ‘tweens get a bit more beauty rest and at our school, bed heads and appropriate clothing choices are optional.

The Beauty Rest Doing It’s Thing

4.  Physical Education and Getting Outside.  Everyone needs to get up and walk around every hour or so to stretch, and riding the Ripstik™ or bicycle counts toward weekly PE credit.  We do it as often as we can. With extra-curricular during the weekdays rather than on the evenings and weekends, there is no frantic schedule-juggling or parent-splitting on Saturdays and Sundays. The weekends are ours again!

The Long Ride to Sonic

3.  No more homework. Okay, well, technically, it’s all homework, Weekends and evenings get freed up for more important things, like cleaning a room/closet or playing video games.  Wait … did I just work those two tasks into the same sentence?

The Classroom a/k/a/ Extra Bedroom

2.  Household chores and accountability. Kids are never too young to juggle work, learning, and play. And finally, they see first hand what’s been driving Mom crazy all these years. Each takes a chore duty and owns it for the whole week — not just on a Saturday morning cleaning rampage with Mom cracking the whip. The Family Team is firing on all cylinders for the first time in a very long time.

1.  Independence, Responsibility, and College Prep.  ‘Cause let’s face it, they are going to need all they can get to survive in their world one day. Better to start building that work ethic early in their school careers.

Future Biologist

 ♦

Connections Academy — Virtual School for 3-12