Homeschooling - Longview, TX

I am not as familiar with Connections Academy as I am with the Arizona Virtual Academy (AZVA). I worked for AZVA for a year and a half before I decided to become a stay at home mom full time. As a result of my work with AZVA, I did hear some about Connections Academy and did have some parents who had been in both. Most of them preferred AZVA over Connections because of the quality of the curriculum. The thing you need to understand is that going through a virtual academy is NOT homeschooling, it is public school at home. You will have ALL of the attendance requirements from the state, will have to participate in standardized testing, and will be expected to make appropriate progress at the rate they deem appropriate for a traditional school calendar. You DO have the felxibility of working out of the house seven days a week and doing what works best for your kids. You will have access to a certified teacher and / or special education teacher depending on your students' needs. As far as high school, AZVA has added a high school program that is extremely stringent and is college prep. AZVA uses the K12 curriculum and it is an outstanding curriculum, and very costly if you buy it on your own. If you go through AZVA you will be provided with all of your materials including a computer and printer as well as internet reimbursement. Their website is http://www.azva.org/. I would recommend checking them out as well - it is an excellent education with an excellent curriculum. I have looked at the Connections Academy web site and am not impressed when I compare it to what I had at AZVA.

Hi, I would like to know more too. Wonder if this includes high school age kids. I think my kids will be headed to job corps since their high school (Ponderosa) doesn't seem to care if they graduate or not. In California, if a child needs summer school it is "free" for them to attend. Here it is $500.00 per class! No wonder the district implemented the "Suicide Hotline" be placed on the back of the school IDs!

Does anyone else out there have the same issue?

Blessings,
C.

I had a co-worker whose daugher was in the Connection Academy and she loves it! I looked into it myself for my children. They live in Las Vegas and they recently had the teacher fly in to meet with all the kids at the park. The classes are very interactive and the young girl loves it. Thats all I know and I think it is a great program.

I know this is late but I am looking into connections for my 13 yo. last year my fam did cova, which is the colorado chapter of azva, which is k12. k12 is FANTASTIC. the curric is solid, the materials are (usually) clear. but we left cova after a year of conflict with the administration, a gaping lack of communication within and throughout cova, an overall sense of having been misled by advertisements and cova sponsored social gatherings, a what turned out to be widespread active fostering of isolation of struggling students from the rest of the student body, and a plethora of activities and outings sponsored by cova which were usually extremely expensive to attend. we did have a wonderful teacher though, and the problems we encountered with cova also happened with many other families which we met while waiting for our children during the state standardized testing.

I am hoping connections is better.

Hi C. - I was in the same situation with my twins now being 11 years old and a 15 year old I was looking for ways to still have my freedom of time but have additional income. I work with a company that is a subsidiary of CitiGroup. I set my own hours and it is commission so I make however much I want by how much I work instead of it being determined by someone else. If you're interested in learning more let me know.

Don't personally know anything about it, but this site seems to have some information:

http://www.connectionsacademy.com/default.asp

I'm sure that you could contact someone or have someone contact you for more information.

Jes