Homeschooling Through the California Virtual Academy CAVA
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I recently started homeschooling my daughter through an online public school called the California Virtual Academy or CAVA. CAVA is actually a group of independent charter schools. The curriculum, materials and online system to track progress and attendance are provided by k12.com. CAVA serves Kindergarten through 12th grade. Because CAVA is a public school, materials are sent at no cost and a computer and printer may also be provided.
My daughter is in Kindergarten. She does Language Arts, Phonics, Math, History, Science, Music and Art. There is also a Foreign Language option. You can see the curriculum at http://www.k12.com/courses/k-8-courses. The nice thing about CAVA is that you are told what to teach and how to teach it. Many homeschoolers may not like this and will prefer to put together a more individualized curriculum for their children. But if you want to homeschool without putting together your own curriculum and figuring out everything for yourself, this is very helpful.
This online school is mastery based, so you don’t have to teach things that your child already knows. If they can pass the assessment for that lesson, they can move on. If your child makes fast progress in a subject and completes the material before the end of the school year, they may be sent the material for the next grade level.
While CAVA is an online school, not all of the work is done online. I sometimes do the online portion of the lessons in the morning and then go to the library after lunch to do any required book work. You can also schedule when to teach each subject. It is better to do Phonics, Language Arts and Math every day. But the other subjects can be done once or twice a week.
The California Virtual Academy assigns a credentialed teacher to each student. You are required to do four in-person visits with the teacher as well as some required online or over the phone meetings. The school also provides online teacher-led classes. Children can participate using a microphone. The classes are optional. You can either attend everyday or a couple of times a week.
So far, I feel that CAVA is challenging without being overwhelming or unrealistic. My daughter has learned far more in a half a year than I would have expected. I love the guidance and ease of teaching the curriculum. The lessons are well thought out. There isn’t much planning ahead required. If you want to homeschool and feel that you need a lot of guidance, an online public school is a very good option.
You can visit k12.com to find out if there is an online public school option in your state.
