Has anyone heard of or is anyone enrolled at California Virtual Academy. Caliva.org? Homeschooling

Question

Whats it like..how does it work.do you like it?

Answer 1

Our child was enrolled in Caliva for a few months.

To be honest, we found them to be incompetent.

They over enrolled, and did not have a teacher assigned to our child for three months.  Her materials arrived quite late as well, and we were missing several key items. As a result, she was considered "truant" by the state, even though we continued to teach her.

We left Caliva and filed a PSA, and find it to be much more to our liking.

YMMV, of course.

All the best.

Edit:  ASD & DYS Mum wrote: As for OzBoz, there are *many different* CAVA schools and perhaps you were part of one of the inagural years. You have to give them a break and not write off an entire schooling option, or curriculum, due to one experience.

Thanks for your input.  We were not part of an innagural program.  The questioner did ask about experiences.  Ours happened to be negative.  I did say at the end of my answer. "YMMV," which means I do not expect everyone to have our experience.  If we cannot answer questions honestly, there isn't much point to Y/A, imho.  All the best.

Answer 2

CAVA is *not* homeschooling - it's public school at home.

Yes, I've heard of it and know many people whose children are enrolled in the school.  It's one of K12's first virtual academies and it's a wonderful option for many students.

As for OzBoz, there are *many different* CAVA schools and perhaps you were part of one of the inagural years.  You have to give them a break and not write off an entire schooling option, or curriculum, due to one experience.

K12 is an incredible curriculum.  It's what CAVA uses.  I've taught the majority of the Kdg-8th grade courses to my son in the past 6 years.  I have no experience with their new high school courses, but if they're the same quality as the rest, then they are awesome.

I would recommend you (and your parents/students...don't know which you are) attend either an in-person, or online, open house session to learn more about it.  You can get access to a demonstration account of the "OLS" - online school system.  That will really give you an inside look into the curriculum and the school.

You can also get information on K12's site, in addition to CAVA's site:

http://www.k12.com

CAVA works by you logging in to the OLS from anywhere, reading your lessons online and offline (texts, workbooks, etc.), doing both online and offline activities (science labs, art projects, etc.), and meeting up with your teacher(s) and other students both online and IRL.

CAVA supplies all your materials, plus a computer and printer to use.  You still have to abide by public school rules and regulations since it's a public school option at home.

Lessons are submitted both online and via the postal mail.

Answer 3

I have a 8th grader and a HS Senior this year in the program.

My 8th grader was not doing well in a traditional brick and mortar educationally (socially she was a butterfly) and my senior who is new to it all this year has medical issues keeping her from traditional schooling. They can each work at their own pace spending more time on something or less time on something depending on the challenges they face with each lesson. It is easy to tailor it to each child as opposed to tradionally having kids get left behind or getting bored cause the class has not caught up to them yet.

We expect my 8th grader to hit 9th grade partially thru this school year, finishing out early and and actually getting ahead.

I would highly recommend attending a local orientation. All your questions can be answered and addressed in person. You can meet other parents of the program as well.

There is nothing more positive than being with your child during the day while they are learning new things (you learn a lot too). They also get to see that as a parent you might know a thing or two about what they are learning.

I have had nothing but close contact with our teachers and they have been more than supportive throughout our educational journey.

I feel the girls are getting a much better education and a more one on one approach with being the adult tutor in the home. I am more connected to what is really going on in their work than I am with my

1st, 4th and 6th grader who are in public school still out of social skill building preference.

Brick and Mortar schools just send home busy work to do for 3 hours every night after 6 hours of working in school already ( it takes that long cause there are 32 other kids in the tradional classroom all scrambling for the one on one instructor time they will never get)

and that is ridiculous.

I can take them on our own field trips and learn things relevant to the way the actual world works in relation to their lessons... I think the kids will ultimately benefit down the road seeing things other than who is wearing what and the other petty social stuff in traditional schoolroom settings. We can log in from almost anywhere at anytime wether at home or on vacation. The education never stops and they can even do work when they would otherwise miss school from having colds etc.

For my two oldest? we have removed the petty competitiveness found in traditional school and are getting down to the learning the real educational business at hand by cutting out the PTA, the kid who disrupts the class, the bullies etc. Teachers who do not really care about my kids education are also eliminated from the mix.

All in all... I would definitely look into it especially if you have a middle or high schooler.