Back to School

Whoo Hoo! It is time to plan for a great year!

Visions' credentialed teachers are back to work and we are busy putting all the processes and procedures in place to help you have a wonderful year.

Please don't hesitate to call, text or email me with your questions. I am here to help.
tbryon@viedu.org
(925) 337-1972

Meeting Schedule

I am so excited for our first meetings of the year! Help me get a plan in place that will work for everyone.

As you know, Visions requires us to meet once every learning period. Most of these meetings will be face-to-face, but we are allowed 2 per semester on a virtual platform.

I'm sure you know how difficult it is to schedule multiple families in multiple areas. It is super important that our meeting schedules are kept as a priority*. For you, it is the one day per learning period that you get to share what you have been doing and get all of the required documentation filed. For me, meetings happen Tuesday through Thursday, every week.

(I don't have meetings on Mondays or Fridays. Mondays have too many teacher trainings and holidays, and Fridays are my office/paperwork days - with the exception of the last Friday of each LP which I keep open for make-up meetings.)

Do you have days and/or times that absolutely won't work for you? If so, please email me asap, and I will try my best to accommodate your schedule.

After I get the initial emails about meeting time and date restrictions, I will send out a proposed meeting schedule. (Hopefully by Thursday.)

*I understand that schedules change. Enrichment activities are added, life events happen, people get sick. My schedule changes, too. Sometimes I get new students or have life events interfere as well. I just ask that you keep schedule changes to the important things, as they can make a lot of extra work for me :)

What to do before August 27th

Student instruction begins Tuesday, August 27th. Are you ready?

Here is a checklist of things to do:

• Understand Your Student's Courses and the Required State Standards
• You can view your student's courses via Pathways and the state standards are linked to the semester plans. Please let me know if you need help in viewing them.
• Choose and Order Your Curriculum
• There are so many options! You get the chance to decide what will work best for your student and your teaching style. Homeschooling is amazing, rewarding, fascinating, and also incredibly time intensive. What do you want to do and how do you want to do it? Do you want complete control? Do you want to teach all aspects? Would you like to have resources that teach for you and you monitor progress? You decide. You need to order your curriculum items as soon as you are able. If you need help choosing or ordering curriculum, please contact me.
• Plan Your Year
• Teachers across the country are planning how they will teach students for the year. They unpack their curriculum and decide what they want to teach and when. This is what you will be doing over the next week. Visions uses the required Semester Plans to document this planning. I shared out all semester plans last Friday so you can begin to document your academic plans for the year. The semester plan is due on our LP1 meeting. Please contact me if you need assistance in filling it out, or if you didn't get it or can't access it.
• Reach Out
• I am here to help. I have up to 40 families with incredibly different approaches to learning. Some are completely independent and only want my assistance to cross the t's and dot the i's for the state, others desire more input and support. I respect you. I respect how you decide to educate your children and how you approach that endeavor. I respect where you are in your journey. I am available to you for questions, advice, support, tutoring, extra meetings, etc. Just reach out via email, text or phone if you need anything. If I don't hear from you (aside from required communications and meetings), I assume that you have things under control and don't want or need added input.

Ordering Reminders

Curriculum and Supply Orders
You can find ordering resources, ordering reminders and ordering reference videos on your ordering screen on Launchpad.

Here are a few often used links:
Purchasing Matrix
Religious Content Review and Ordering Guidelines
Supported Curriculum Lists
Common Home School Curriculum Folder
Home School Instructional Materials and Services Purchasing


Vouchers

• Vouchers are officially non-refundable, so try to order only what you know you will use.
• Vouchers can only be ordered once curriculum has been obtained. 
• You may only use 1/2 of the remaining funds once curriculum is ordered for vouchers for the Fall semester. The remaining funds must be saved for the Spring semester.
• Be specific about dates and fees. More info is better than less. Dates, fees, quantity, description and fee type must match. 
• Visions will not approve any backdated orders. All vouchers must be dated from the date you order forward.

Acellus

For those who are using Acellus this year, you will order through Launchpad. 

Go to New Order >More Ordering Options > Curriculum >  Choose International Academy of Science in the drop down menu > No ISBN, Quantity 1, price $100, Description Acellus Academy 1year subscription.

Enrichment

There are lots of things going on in our area to enrich your educational plans.

You can do a search on the Visions website to find vendors in our area. There are new local and online vendors added often.

https://www.viedu.org/home-school/enrichment-vendors/?utm_medium=301&utm_source=/visions-vendors/


Here are some popular local vendors:

Anne Soule - Foothill Equestrian Center - Fiddletown - (209) 245-4991
Kaizen Martial Arts - Jackson - (209) 419-0803
Ko Sutemi West Karate - Jackson - (209) 296-4200
Lisa Lawson - Violin and Viola Lessons - Ione - (916) 549-3806
Karen Reed - Piano Lessons - Ione - (209) 781-6228
Dana Kreishok - Writing Class and Tutoring - Jackson - (209) 304-5671
Mary Longacre - Enrichment classes in science, history, writing, art, music, home economics - Pine Grove (209) 419-1686
Mother Lode Music - Musical lessons - (209) 223-4323
REACH - Amador County Recreation Agency - Sutter Creek - American Sign Language, Spanish, art and other enrichment courses - (209) 223-6349
The Dance Academy - Dance lessons - ballet, pointe, jazz, creative dance, tumbling, and lyrical -
Ione - (209) 256-0634

Stephanie Strong has art classes in Ione:

I will share out additional information about enrichment activities as I get it. If you have a vendor you like, or a class your student enjoys, please let me know so I can share with other local families.