Time 4 a Review

I promised a review of the online curriculum we are using, and well, between the holidays and life, I’m just now getting around to it.

For my 3rd and 5th graders we are using Time4learning.com for all their secular subjects. We are mostly very happy with it.

Content:
Time 4 Learning covers Language Arts, Language Arts Extensions, Math, Social Studies and Science. The content is grade appropriate for all subjects, and compared to what my kids had previously, very advanced in Social Studies. We are very happy with the level of Math – my 5th grader is challenged for the first time ever in Math – and Language Arts and extensions.

Presentation:
Language Arts and Language Arts Extensions are presented in a fun, interactive way. The material is fun and silly, yet serious enough that the kids are learning. Each unit has chapters within, and each chapter has lessons. After each set of lessons there is a quiz, and at the end of each unit is a test. Within Language Arts and Language Arts Extensions there are a lot of activities that require the students to answer questions, and if the topic is not understood they do a good job of explaining it next time around. Math is presented in a similar interactive fashion, but sometimes it is a little too interactive, and the focus of the lesson is lost. This makes it difficult sometimes for the kids to grasp the concept that is being taught. Math also has a number of printable worksheets, which help reinforce what is being learned, and the answer keys to those are available in the parent section.
Social Studies and Science are not presented in the same, fun manner. Both these subjects require a lot of onscreen reading, with no interactive sections. I have found it necessary to sit with the kids individually for both these subjects to make sure that they are covering all the material.

Ease of use:
In general, the kids are able to work independently in Language Arts, Language Arts Extensions and Math. Once in a while there is something that they need my help with. The reading comprehension exercises, the quizzes and the math practice all do a good job of explaining where the kids went wrong. There is a strong need for multiplication tables to be integrated into the curriculum somewhere – there is no instruction whatsoever on memorizing times tables, and multiplication and division just cannot be learned without this.

On the parental side, it is extremely easy to keep track of your children’s activity. Not only can you see how they score on each lesson, you can also see exactly how much time they spent on each activity. It is a piece of cake to pull up report cards, see where they are excelling and where they struggle, and figure out what needs more work and where they can relax a little bit. It’s not all perfect, however. Here are a few areas where I’d like to see some improvements:

1. Worksheets: Every time I have to correct a worksheet, I have to log in as a parent, and go to the lesson planner, click on whichever grade math, scroll down until I find the corresponding lesson, then look for the corresponding worksheet and then click on the answer. That’s a lot of steps. I’m homeschooling 3 kids at 3 levels – I don’t have a lot of free time, and I’d rather correct worksheets as they are done, and not have to leave it until late at night when I have the time to scroll through pages of lessons. There needs to be a way to search for the worksheet by it’s number, and have the answer key show up. Or, if there was a place within the lesson plan called “Math Worksheets” that pulls up only worksheets and the answer sheets, sorted by grade.

2. End of chapter/unit tests: These tests are multiple choice and they do a really good job of assessing the child’s knowledge of material covered. At the conclusion of the test your child sees which answers he got right or wrong. However, when the answer is incorrect, the correct answer is not marked for them to see. There have been times when even I am not sure of the correct answer – especially in a unit that I  haven’t sat in on – and it’s not helpful to the child if they don’t know what the answer is. They can redo these tests if necessary, but the questions will be different each time, so not helpful.

3. Odyssey writing assignments (disclaimer – so far we’ve only done one of these): Writing assignments are a parent’s responsibility to grade. They have to be “handed in” by the student virtually, in order to be marked complete. When you go to “hand in” the assignment, a list of teachers comes up that mean nothing – my daughter was looking for my  name. We had to call Time 4 learning and were told that she can “hand in” to any teacher on the list – it will then be marked complete. They provide a rubric to help grade the paper, but honestly, I still had a hard time doing it. I’m happy to grade written work, I can check grammar and spelling, but my knowledge of the subjects may be minimal, and again, I’m homeschooling 3 kids, I don’t have time to watch the videos and read the articles my daughter did, in order to make sure she wrote a good paper. It would be great if the rubric contained more information, rather than basic guidelines that are not specific to the paper in question. I know, I know, that’s a lot to ask.

4. Lesson & Activity Planner: This lists all the lessons available for each grade and subject, which is wonderful, because you can see exactly what your child is going to be learning, and even access each lesson or activity ahead of time. However, there is no way to know how long a lesson is (e.g. Language Arts Extensions – some of these lessons take as little as 10 minutes, while others take closer to 20. Same with Math – 3rd grade math lessons don’t seem to take more than 20 minutes each, but 5th grade takes 45). After the first few weeks I stopped using the lesson planner altogether, because my children were getting stressed out about completing enough lessons each day. In addition, if you want your child to learn things in a different order (like right now I have my 5th grader learning the chapter on political science in social studies, because of the upcoming elections) there is no way to put those lessons into your child’s organizer so she knows to that first. I would love to be able to assign lessons to the kids in a specific order and for it to appear that way in their dashboard.

5. Necessary materials and resources: There is a list of everything you need for science in each grade. There is also a reading list for each grade. What would be great, would be if at the beginning of each science activity it said “Today we will need x, y and z”. As for the reading material, it is hard to know what is actually required, and what is recommended.

All in all, we are happy with the program. I would love to see some of these things implemented – especially making it easier to find the worksheet answers. It’s a great curriculum, the content is age appropriate, the lessons are interesting and the price is right. In addition, the couple of times that I have called their 800 number or emailed for assistance, I have had excellent customer service, my questions have always been answered quickly and satisfactorily.

I would highly recommend Time4Learning as a homeschool curriculum, or even as an enrichment program for anyone who feels their child could use a little extra help in any of the subject areas – it’s definitely less money than hiring a tutor, and for many kids it likely will do as good a job.

G’mar Chatima Tova!

What with homeschooling and running a household, I barely have time to take a shower these days, let alone sit and blog!

It’s Erev Yom Kippur, and I know I’ve offended people during the past year, both on the blog and off the blog. Those of you whom I am aware of having insulted I have either called or emailed to ask in person for forgiveness. (If you got an email over a phone call, it is only because I have very little time to call people, most people who I spoke to over the phone initiated the phone call to me, rather than vice versa, just to clarify for anyone ready to get offended all over again!)

If I offended you, and I didn’t know that I did, please accept my deepest apologies, and forgive me. My intentions have never been to upset people, just to get people to think more and discuss more, and to hopefully bring about a just and affordable solution to one of the many crises the Jewish community faces.

I happen to be one of those individuals who likes Yom Kippur (well I really liked it before I was a mother, it’s harder to like it now when I’m spending so much time feeding the kids who seem to be so much more hungry on fast days than on any other day of the year!).

While I don’t love fasting, I find the day to be spiritually uplifting, full of hope and promise for the new year. I enjoy the davening for Yom Kippur, whether I am in shul or at home with the kids. The words in Vidui have so much meaning for everyone that they could have been written today, rather than centuries ago. I take my time over every word, making sure to understand what it is I’m praying for/about. At the end of mussaf on Yom Kippur I usually feel cleansed and lighthearted, ready for the rest of the day. I don’t usually go back to shul for mincha and ne’ilah now, because I stay home with the kids, but I daven at home and do the best I can to feel the power of the words while the kids eat dinner and play games around me.

The morning after Yom Kippur is special too. There’s that best cup of coffee of the year, but also that clean slate, the possibilities for the new year, the hope that you have been granted a “Ketiva veChatima Tova” – a good inscription and seal – and that you will merit to live another full year, of health, happiness and prosperity.

My wish to all my readers is that you should be inscribed in the Book of Life, that you should be blessed with a happy, healthy and prosperous new year, and that we should all merit to see the coming of Mashiach, bimhera beyhamenu (quickly, and in our lifetime) – le Shana HaBa’ah BeYerushalyim – Next year in Jerusalem, the undisputed, undivided capital of Israel.

Great Expectations – Who are we trying to impress?

When I first seriously began to consider homeschooling as an option, my research showed that children need a period of “deschooling”. I chose to disregard this advice. After all, the recommendation is a month of deschooling for every year your child has been in school!!! Now, I know most of my readers, and I can picture you sitting there reacting to that similarly to how I reacted. What?! Seriously? You’re kidding, right? So, say we only count kindergarten as a year (let’s pretend preschool never happened, even though we loved preschool), that means my 5th grader would have to take 5 months off from formal learning?! So she wouldn’t start “school” until January?

So like I said, I chose to ignore that advice, and we jumped straight into a relatively structured learning model. As I mentioned in last week’s post, we are using an online curriculum for secular studies for the older kids. We put together schedules for everyone, including me, so that each of the kids got to benefit equally from one on one time with mommy during lesson time. This worked very nicely for the first week. In fact, everything went very well the first week, as I mentioned in the blog. I was pleasantly surprised, and felt justified in jumping into school.

Then Tropical Storm Isaac bore down on Florida. I ran to the library and checked out books about weather systems, storms & hurricanes so we could learn about these natural phenomena. Oh, and school was closed Monday for all their friends. So we took a day off and they got to hang out with their buddies. And then the next day, when public schools were still closed, but their friends at HDS went back, we sat back down to work. And it didn’t go so smoothly. They were antsy. They were getting frustrated too easily. They didn’t want to stick to the lesson plans they had made for themselves. They didn’t want to do much of anything. And I felt pressure. And stress. After all, if I am to prove to doubtful family members that homeschooling can be successful, my kids MUST keep up. They absolutely have to learn daily in a somewhat formal manner. So I pushed them to stick to their schedules. By Wednesday I think our house may have started to crumble, but thankfully, I learned about karate classes for homeschooled kids on Wednesday mornings, and told the kids we were going. I’m sure it was the saving grace of the week. The older two got a great workout, met some new friends and are excited to go back. Even the little one wants to try next week.

Back home we sat down again to study after lunch. And the lack of concentration was apparent. Emotions were running high. They hated Mommy, they hated Daddy. They hated homeschooling, but they didn’t want to go back to school. They don’t want to learn anything at all. Learning is boring. Stupid. Annoying. A waste of time. Something had to change.

I began to reexamine the deschooling notion. Maybe there’s something to it. Perhaps we all have unrealistic expectations of ourselves and of each other. So Thursday morning when we got up, I told the kids to get dressed, daven (pray) and eat breakfast, and then I told them we’re not going to have formal classes today. We’re going to have fun. What would you like to do?

Oddly enough, they all said they’d like to do a couple of their online lessons before having fun. The youngest said she wanted to do more Hebrew reading. So we all sat down at around 9am for an hour or so and then we took a break. We put on the Wii, put in “Just Dance ABBA” and had a blast (and a great PE session). Everyone was laughing. Everyone was happy. The kids were all getting along. They were joking with Mommy instead of yelling at me. In fact, they were having so much fun that I got to sit down and write this, when earlier in the week I wondered if I would get to blog this week.

Once they’d had enough dancing we went to Target to take advantage of clearance on back to school supplies. We had a picnic lunch with the dog in the yard. We spent the afternoon doing art projects for Rosh Hashana (and learning laws of the holiday at the same time – ha! I did sneak some learning in there!).

I’m not sure I can bring myself to allow complete deschooling for a long period of time, but I humbly admit that I was wrong when I thought it was unnecessary.

We really don’t need to prove anything to anyone. We know that our kids are learning. We know that if we choose to go back into a school system at the end of this year, the kids will be up to where they need to be. This doesn’t worry us. So why should we worry at all about what others expect from us and our kids? As far as I’m concerned, as long as they are happy, healthy and mostly well behaved (in a child-like way), my expectations have been met.

1 2 3 a b c

Last week on Facebook I saw the statuses of my friends change to things like: “4a, 2b and Ka anyone?” I felt happy and nostalgic at the same time, as the posts were referring to class placements at our former school, and previously I had done the same thing, hoping to find out which of their friends my children had been placed with.

The school year has begun again, and for my family it has brought an entirely new adventure. Our Plan B was always the Ben Gamla charter school in Plantation. Plan A had been the Ben Gamla charter school in Boca, that sadly never materialized for this year. So we defaulted to Plan B. We didn’t give it a lot of thought initially, until I learned that the bus to school was leaving at 6:50am, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how that was ever going to happen for us. OK, I’m kidding, clearly that was obviously NOT the deciding factor!

A group of very committed individuals spent many hours during the last school year working to develop a curriculum for an after school Judaics program for the Ben Gamla in Boca. A program that would teach limudei kodesh on par with the best yeshivot in the country. A program that would be located on the same campus as the charter school, so that the children would seamlessly move from secular to religious studies, and hardly feel that they were no longer in a day school. A program that would enable many families to guarantee a Jewish education for their children without putting them into further debt. Alas, it was not to be. For reasons that remain unclear, there is no Hebrew language charter school in Boca Raton.

Something didn’t sit right for me. Not just the ungodly hour of the bus, but that Plantation was always “Plan B”, how did it suddenly become “Plan A”? I’m not a Plan B kind of person. I like to have a backup, but I prefer to come up with a Plan A that works. Last summer, when the educational future of our kids was unclear, we spent a lot of time researching homeschooling. Ultimately we were able to keep our children at HDS for one more year, but we had done the groundwork for homeschooling. We understood the state requirements, we had found a wealth of information (mostly online), and we had discussed with the kids the pros and cons of homeschooling as compared to conventional schooling.

The decision to homeschool was relatively easy to make, and to my great surprise I found a number of local Jewish families who also homeschool their children. Since we already planned to homeschool in Judaics (a tutor for 3 kids was well beyond our budget), had we gone through with Plan B, that part of the curriculum was already taken care of. Keith will teach the majority of the Judaics curriculum while I am responsible for their secular education and for Hebrew language.

The older two children will be using an online curriculum that covers Language Arts, Math, Social Studies and Science. I hope to review it properly on the blog once we’ve been using it for a while. So far, I’m impressed with the content and the appropriateness of the grade levels. The youngest, entering kindergarten, will be taught one on one by me, and as she is really eager to learn, I look forward to watching her as she begins to grasp concepts such as reading and math. She will also use the computer for some things, as it does make it more fun for her .

The reaction of most people has been supportive and positive. I am not pretending that I think it will be easy. I know that it will be a challenge, and I expect that there will be days when I am ready to throw the towel in and put them on that 6:50am bus the next morning! Mostly I am excited, and so are the kids. The options are endless, the flexibility will allow us so much more freedom. We will regularly socialize with other home schooling families, and obviously my kids will always be available for playdates with their schooled friends – during the week and on weekends. Our first week has gone incredibly well – my eldest commented more than once at how much she can learn in 30 minutes when she’s not in a classroom full of friends…

For the record, I still firmly believe that Hebrew language charter schools can pave the way for the future of Jewish education. With the support of communal leaders there is no reason why an afterschool program, like the one we worked so hard to establish this past year, cannot give public school children a superior Jewish education. I cannot fathom how anyone believes that it is good to teach our children that major debt is the responsible way to live, because Jewish Day Schools are the only option.

I look forward to blogging about our homeschool regularly. We have named it “Yeshivat Shalom Bayit” and so far it lives up to its name.

Shabbat Shalom.

Bags all packed and ready to go…

And so this is it, my final post on the local day school crisis.

There’s a week left of school, summer is here (you can tell by the torrential rain every afternoon), and the kids (and I) are all done with homework and ready to relax for a while.

I have one last thing to say to HDS and to all the Jewish day schools.

When people fall upon hard times, treat each family as an individual case. Meet with them face to face. Talk to them and try, really make an effort, to listen to what they are telling you. Pick up the phone and call them. It only takes a few minutes to call someone, and let them know that you have noticed that they haven’t re-enrolled their child(ren), or that they are asking for financial help for the first time.

Don’t concern yourselves with children like mine. The Brooks’ kids will be alright. They are lucky to be in a stable family environment, with parents who both grew up frum, and who both continue to be frum. Judaism will never be on the back burner in our children’s lives.

But please, I ask of you, consider this:

Children from certain families NEED to be in a Jewish education system more than others, to remain within the fold.
So every time children leave the school for financial reasons, look closer, meet the parents, listen to them. Are those children at risk of losing their Judaism? What will it take to keep them at your school? Is there any way at all to make it work for them? Is it better to shrug and say “sorry to see you go” but not make the effort, or is it better to do whatever necessary to keep those children in the system?Just think, you might save a Jewish neshama of this generation, and help guarantee the neshamas of the next generation…

To everyone else, thanks for following along. If your children are in the same grades as mine, please don’t forget about them when they are in their new school. It will mean the world to them if you remember them for playdates and birthday parties.

To all the amazing teachers my children have had at Hillel Day School, thank you, from the bottom of my heart . You have all, without exception, contributed to the little people that they are, to the depths of knowledge they have acquired, and to their Jewish selves. I will miss all of your smiling faces each morning and afternoon, and I hope that you will all miss my kids and their very inquiring minds.

And just because I’m going to miss driving around it every school day next year, a quick reminder about the roundabout (Traffic Circle) – TRAFFIC ON THE CIRCLE HAS THE RIGHT OF WAY!!!!

Shabbat Shalom & have a great summer!

Penultimate Post

Feedback is always good because, even when it is negative, it encourages further thinking and analysis of the matter at hand.

The majority of people who commented on last week’s post, or who contacted me directly, disagreed with what I wrote, regardless of their own tuition situation (including my own husband, for the record). I have had some time to mull over my earlier thought process, and it all comes down to this:

Communication. I don’t think I made that point strongly enough last week.

Time and again, despite earlier mistakes, the school continues to send out communication that upsets people. Timing is tantamount to success, always. Therefore, sending out emails regarding financial aid and scholarship application while the Business Manager is on vacation, and unavailable to field questions, will fuel people’s anger. In addition, sending out an email to the entire school, when only a small percentage of families meet the requirements, adds to the general feeling of degradation amongst families benefiting from financial aid. In fact, a number of people expressed just that to me – why does the whole school need to know what we are being put through if we ask for help? The feeling seems to be that people already believe they are being scrutinized, that everyone knows (or thinks they know) who is getting help, and by sending out all these communications to everyone (including The Questionnaire) it furthers the feelings of inadequacy and helplessness amongst those in need.

Is there a better way to do this? Probably. When the initial re-enrollment forms are sent out, there is a box at the bottom to check if you plan to apply for tuition assistance. So, it is clear from the time of registration who is applying, and who is not. In this great age of technology, it is pretty simple to create a “group” email for all those that checked the box, and to send those emails only to those people.

One comment on last week’s post (from someone who clearly lives outside of Boca) said:

I don’t think it is a bad idea for you to petition those on the HDS finance committee to publicize details on the formula they use to determine who gets tuition assistance and in what amount such assistance will be awarded. I can’t imagine they would have any objection to revealing that. You seem concerned that groceries and clothing expenses are not taken into account because you are not asked to disclose those expenses on the scholarship application – I would imagine that there is a general assumption for those expenses taken into account, but if it isn’t, or if the assumed amount is unreasonable, then you have a legitimate concern.

I understand that the people making the decisions about financial aid are supposedly anonymous (i.e known by many, but not officially). I wonder if anyone would petition HDS for those details. And I would be interested to see how exactly they figure out how much a family can pay. I heard this week from someone who received a contract asking them to pay double what they paid the past year, even though neither spouse is making any more money than they were…

I got an anonymous email from someone saying how pleased they are that my children are leaving the school, because that is 3 children fewer that they will be paying for. I don’t respond to anonymous emails, but I’m sure you are reading this, and here is what I say to you: tuition is about $16,000 for each child. About $3000 of that goes towards another child’s tuition. As far as the school tells it, there is no family receiving 100% tuition assistance. In fact I believe it maxes out at either 50% or 60%. Which means that every family at the school is contributing something. If every family on tuition assistance leaves, you will not be paying for other people’s children but in order to survive without merging with another school, HDS would
a)have to significantly raise tuition for the families left behind, and
b)downsize their teaching staff as fewer classes per grade become necessary.
So then you create a new problem – the teachers who are let go will most likely pull their kids out too, and the school shrinks further and is less likely to survive.
So, before people walk around saying “good riddance”, just remember, everyone is paying something, and every dollar coming in keeps your contribution where it is.

Next week will be the final post in this resurrection series, and likely my final word on the tuition “crisis” in Jewish Day Schools. A lot remains unsaid, but as my family leaves the system, at least for the time being, I will leave it to those who are still within to hash it out, and maybe come up with a plan for the future of Jewish education

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Shavuot Sameach!

Best Business Practices

Let’s discuss best business practices today.

In most situations, the party making payments is the customer, and the party in receipt of payment is the business. American businesses are great at giving discounts – there is always a sale going on, there exists such a thing as double coupons in some places, it is win win!

On a larger scale, when it comes to large sums of money, the customer negotiates a price; a contract is drawn up and is signed. The business then receives payment based on the dollar amount in the contract. It is the business who draws up the contract, therefore one has to assume that the business agrees to receive only the amount in the contract from this customer. The business has the right to demand timely payments, and to take action if those payments are not made.

If the customer subsequently finds a way to save even more money – perhaps a manufacturer’s rebate – he pays the business, and is then reimbursed the amount of the rebate. Or in some cases, the rebate voucher is given to the business, which then is reimbursed by the manufacturer – like using coupons at the grocery store. It is the customer who benefits from the savings.

Let’s discuss schools, hypothetically, of course.

A low income family wishes to send their child to a private school. They cannot afford tuition, so they apply through the private school’s system for financial aid. They are awarded a 40% grant on a $15,000 tuition, so they are obligated to pay $9000. After receiving their contract the family hears about a program whose mission statement says that they provide K-12 scholarships to economically disadvantaged families, to give them the freedom to choose the best school for their children. The school tells the family they must apply for this grant, or they will lose their financial assistance that has been allocated.

This family is eligible for the maximum amount awarded by this program – $4000. So now, their personal obligation is only $5000. The family is ecstatic, not only because their child can now go to the school they feel is best for him, but also because they will now pay $500 per month, rather than $900 over a 10 month period. This $400 per month difference allows them to pay off their credit card debt and their student loans faster, and perhaps they can take their kids to a movie or the zoo once in a while.

The school is still getting the $9000 they agreed to for this child. With the lower payment coming from the family there is also a higher chance of it being paid on time. Everyone should be happy.

These programs exist to help low income families, not the institutions. In fact, the definition of low income families, for the purpose of this program, is for a family of 4 people (i.e a 2 parent, 2 child family) to be making less than $3500 per month.

Once a family is approved for a scholarship, a check is made out to the school, not to the parent, which must be endorsed by both the school and the parent.

But the school says “hey wait a minute! You signed a contract saying you would pay us $9000 for the year. We want YOUR $9000, AND we want the $4000 that you have been allocated by this grant program!”

Should schools encourage their families to apply for these scholarships, knowing that only a handful will qualify? Absolutely! Should they make it mandatory for all families applying for financial aid to apply? Yes! Anything that can help should be encouraged.

But if a family has already received a contract for the coming school year, and subsequently discovers that they are eligible for scholarship money through an external program, does the school have the right to ask for this money in addition to the amount stipulated in the contract? Or should that money help alleviate the burden from a family already stretched?

Legally, there is little doubt that they can ask for the money in whichever way they want. Morally, however, especially in a faith-based school, one would hope that those in power would view these scholarships as a way to assist these lowest income families to pay their portion of tuition on time.

If a school is aware of voucher-type programs that will relieve families of some of the burden of tuition, they should advertise them. In fact, I think it is fair to say that the schools should require all families asking for financial assistance to apply to any or all available programs. From an ethical standpoint, if they plan on taking that money in addition to what they think a family can pay, surely they should first find out if the family is eligible for one of these scholarships? Once established how much each family will be allocated, a contract can be drawn up by the school for the amount that the family should be responsible for, in addition to what they will receive from an external scholarship. Have them submit their grant eligibility along with all other relevant income information and “The Questionnaire”. Then the school has all the information that they need before putting together a contract.

Make information about these schemes known at the time of re-enrollment. Make it clear at the time of registration that everyone MUST apply for these grants if they are applying for aid, and that if grants are awarded, tuition contracts will be drawn up for an additional amount.

If a school wants to be treated like a business (rather than a non-profit) then they should act like a business and have good business practices.

I welcome comments to my blog, positive and negative. If you feel the need to post anonymously, go right ahead. Comments are not moderated, but I reserve the right to remove anything that is deliberately hateful.

Shabbat Shalom