Check-in

Hello Everyone! I hope your summer was as relaxing, engaging, and fulfilling as mine was :) I am so excited to see everyone, hear how your summer went, and get started on this new school year.

While school doesn't officially start for students until Friday, August 28th, I'm sure you are anxious to begin planning, ordering, scheduling and checking-in. All Visions CTs begin work today, so I am available to you for any questions or help you need.

I will be calling all new families either today or Monday to touch base and get started.

Returning families, please feel free to call, text, or email if you have any questions or need any help.

Meanwhile, (for new and returning families) make sure to fill out the meeting preferences form below so we can start scheduling meetings :)

What is New at Visions

You may have noticed some changes at Visions for this school year.

Funding has been increased from $1,700 to $1,800 per student. Yay!

The Homeschool Hub, The Wire, and the ehandbook have been updated. They are all accessible through one location. The New Wire.

Meeting Schedule

Tamsen Bryon - student location map (35), August 2015.

One of the first things we need to do is organize our meeting schedule.

As most of you know, I travel quite a bit to meet with students, and it can be a challenge to be flexible about meeting dates and times. I know that you have busy lives with lots of activities and commitments, so I will do my best to make sure our meetings are at a time and place that is convenient for you.

Please fill out this form with information about your meeting day and time restrictions as well as desired locations of our meetings. Thank you!

Semester Plans

I have created everyone's semester plans and will be sharing the links out to returning families (via email) by the end of the day today. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about how to use the semester plan.

New families will get their semester plans at our first meeting. We will work on them together.

Reminder: We want to have the Fall plan complete by the end of LP1, and the Spring plan complete by the end of LP5.

Boston Alley Homeschool Gym Class?

Interested in a Homeschool Gym class at Boston Alley Fitness?

The idea would be to incorporate the standards for: Balance & Rhythm,  Ball Skills, Movement, Fitness, Aerobics, Strength & Flexibility, Body Composition, Social & Emotional, Cardiovascular Activities, and Enrichment.

This could/would include beginning mixed age tumbling, rock fit, ball basics, yoga and group games to reinforce all of these areas.

Possible times are:
Thursdays: 9:30 - 10:30
Thursdays: 10:00 - 11:00
Wednesdays: 12:00 - 1:00 
Ages: 5 – 10 years old (maybe a little older as well)

The folks at Boston Alley Fitness would need a minimum of 8 students to start this new class.

If you are interested, please email jaz@bostonalleyfitness.com with your 1st and 2nd time preference and put Homeschool Class in the subject line. Boston Alley Fitness would love any ideas you might have.

This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 5/25
Memorial Day - No School

Tuesday
Jackson Library
Daisy & Gracyann - 1:30
Leila - 2:30
Tristan - 3:30

Wednesday
GRADUATION!

Thursday
Office Day

Friday
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!

See you in August :)

Ordering Reminders

As you prepare to submit your curriculum and voucher orders for next school year, here are a few reminders to help your orders get processed without delay.

Before You Submit Your Order
Be sure to look over your order carefully before submitting. Remember to fill in all fields (Item #, Product Title, Price, etc.) Use the notes box if there is a special circumstance or detail that should be included.

Purchasing Guidelines Matrix (link) 
Supplementary materials, listed on the Purchasing Guidelines Matrix may be ordered as long as they're deemed acceptable. Supplementary materials are classified as either Acceptable or Unacceptable. For acceptable materials there are specific limitations and guidelines listed in the matrix. Items listed in the Acceptable category as "None", or items listed under the Unacceptable  category, will not be approved for purchase under your student’s Visions account.

This document is intended as a reference guide and is not inclusive of all items that can or cannot be ordered.  All orders will be checked for reasonableness.  All items ordered are for student use only.  This document can change throughout the school year, and it is important that you frequent this page prior to ordering.

Instructional Materials Purchasing Policies (link)
This Google Doc is a helpful reference. Please take note of these procedures and guidelines for Curriculum and Voucher orders.

 Please note: Amazon orders should be limited to no more than 30 items per order.

Monday, May 25 - Memorial Day (No School)

Wednesday, May 27 - Graduation Day

Friday, May 29 - Last Day of School

Friday, May 29 - Field Trip reimbursement deadline

Friday, May 29 - Pre-Ordering deadline

Friday, June 5 - Book Returns in Jackson, 9:30 – 11:30 am, Grace Fellowship Church

Friday, June 5 - Book Returns in Rescue 1:30 – 3:30 pm, Foothills United Methodist Church

Thursday, June 18 - Visions book sale

Tuesday, July 7 - TextbookX ordering opens

Friday, July 10 - Vendor and voucher orders open

Friday, August 14 - CTs will contact families

Friday, August 28 - First day of school

This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 5/18
Office Day

Tuesday
Ione
Gage - 1:30
Daisy & Gracyann - 12:30
Lillian - 3:00

Wednesday
Plymouth
Michael & David - 8:30
Ione
Grace - 11:00
Somerset
Teran - 1:00

Thursday
Pioneer
Wyatt - 12:00
Joseph - 1:00
Emma E. - 2:15

Friday
Office Day

Book Return Events

From The Wire...

As we are wrapping up another great school year,  we wanted to let you know that we will be hosting several regional events to assist you in your year-end book returns.

Please see the following information for the locations, dates and times:

• May 29 – 10 am – 12 noon, Pleasant Hill Community Park, 147 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill
• June 3 – 10 am – 2 pm, Northgate Christian Fellowship, 2201 Lake Herman Road, Benicia
• 
June 4 – 10 am – 12 noon, Century Assembly Church, 550 West Century Blvd., Lodi
• June 5 – 9:30 – 11:30 am, Grace Fellowship Church, 8040 S. Highway 49, Jackson

• June 5 – 1:30 – 3:30 pm, Foothills United Methodist Church, 3301 Green Valley Road, Rescue

Have a great end of the school year!

This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 5/11
Ms. Bryon in Carmichael for Professional Development

Tuesday
Pine Grove
Emma N. - 1:00
Joy - 2:15
Tristan - 3:30

Wednesday
Jackson Public Library
Emma P. - 11:30
Ana & Baruch - 1:00 - 3:00
Leila - 3:00

Thursday
Placerville 
Marley - 11:00
Thomas, Dianne & Kennedy - 12:15

Friday

Office Day
Phone - 
Thomas, Dianne & Kennedy - 1:00

LP10!

Wow. LP10 is here. The last month of school. This has been such a wonderful year. Watching your children grow and learn, and being part of your educational choice has been such a privilege for me. Thank you.

A few things to keep in mind as we wrap up the school year:

• Our next meeting will be the last one of the year. It will also be our report card meeting.
• Mother's Day is Sunday, May 10.
• Memorial Day is Monday, May 25.
• Graduation Day is Wednesday, May 27.
• Field Trip reimbursement deadline is the last day of school, Friday, May 29.
• Pre-Ordering deadline is the last day of school, Friday, May 29.
• Regular ordering begins for TextbookX on July 7. (TextbookX marketplace orders begin August 14).
• Regular ordering for other vendors and vouchers begins July 10.
• Visions book sale in on June 18. (Thanks Audre for catching my error!)

Don't forget to check your returnables list. There will be a book drop off day in Jackson at the beginning of June. Time and date to be determined. You can also give books and materials to me at our last meeting and I will return them for you. If you forget to return books or materials, they will just roll over to next year's account at 10% of their current value.

Field Day This Friday

Field Days are a “no fee” event and open to all K-12 Home School students and their immediate family members. Students will compete in a variety of field games supervised by the Visions staff.

While your children are playing, parents/guardians will have an opportunity to network with CTs, administrators and other Visions home school families.

The morning ends with a family barbecue provided and cooked by Visions staff. [Hot dogs (turkey and vegetarian), chips, lemonade and water]

Questions? Contact Nancy Peterson in the Home School Office at 916-971-5518 or email napterson@viedu.org


Where: Detert Park, 560 North Highway 49/88, Jackson
When: Friday, May 8, from 9:30 to 12:30
You will need: to register here and bring a completed permission slip available here.

Flyer

This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 5/4
Ms. Bryon in Carmichael for Professional Development

Tuesday
Plymouth
Jezreel - 11:00
Haley, Madeline, Paige & Riley - 12:15

Wednesday
Camino
Alex - 11:00

Thursday
Ione
Alex & Luke - 12:30
Jasmine & Roxie- 2:35

Friday
Field Day

Vendor Fair

From The Wire...

Monday, May 4th

10am-12pm

Christ Community Church 

5025 Manzanita Ave Carmichael CA, 95608

This year’s Curriculum Vendor Fair is bigger than ever with 34 vendors participating—16 of them brand new to Visions or never before represented at the fair!

We’ve compiled our list of participating vendors and are excited to share them with you below. The fair is your chance to take the guess work out of which curriculum or services to purchase in Fall. You will have the opportunity to learn more about each vendor, browse through their curriculum, check out e-vendor websites, take home brochures/catalogs and goodies, and to speak directly to a company representative or a CT who is familiar with the vendor’s services.

There is no fee to attend and parents are welcomed to bring the kids!

Participating vendors are (companies marked with * indicate new or never represented vendor):

• ABC Mouse

• Acorn Naturalists*

• All About Reading & All About Spelling

• Blackbird & Company*

• Book Shark*

• Brain Pop
• 
Brave Writer

• Brighter Child
• 
Essentials in Writing*
• 
Evan-Moor Educational Publishers*

• Gradpoint*

• Growing with Grammar/Soaring with Spelling/Winning with Writing

• Highlights*

• Homeschool Programming

• Institute for  Excellence in Writing
• 
Kids Discover*

• Lakeshore Learning

• Math U See

• Mathletics*

• Moving Beyond the Page*
• 
Nasco Science*
• 
Oak Meadow, Inc.*

• Quality Science Labs

• Raddish Kids*

• Right Start Math

• Royal Fireworks Press*

• Singapore Math

• Spelling City

• Starfall & More Starfall

• Study Island*

• Superkids
• 
Tech Rocket*

• Time4Learning & Time4Writing

• Visions In Education Classes

• Visions In Education Resource Center

• Zoo-phonics

Testing Update...

Testing begins this week for those of you that are testing at the Rescue site.

Rescue Site

Foothills United Methodist Church

3301 Green Valley Rd.

Rescue, CA 95672

STAR Testing*
April 20, 12:45 p.m.

SABC Testing
April 21, 22 and 23, 12:45 p.m.

(Dianne, Thomas*, Alex)

Please arrive 10 to 15 minutes early for check-in.

Go Thomas, Dianne and Alex! Try to relax and just do your best.

This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 4/20
Office Day

Tuesday
Ione
Gage - 11:00
Daisy & Gracyann - 12:30
Lillian - 12:45

Wednesday
Plymouth
Michael & David - 8:30
Ione
Grace - 11:00
Somerset
Teran - 1:00

Thursday
Pioneer
Wyatt - 12:00
Joseph - 1:00
Emma E. - 2:15

Friday
Office Day

Curriculum Ideas

One of our CTs has compiled a list of common homeschool curriculum by grade. The lists are pretty comprehensive and have information on how to order, if the curriculum meets standards and what you would need to supplement if it doesn't, and notes.

She is updating these lists continuously, so if you have suggestions of items that you think would be helpful to add, please send me an email with the information and I will forward it to her.

Kindergarten
1st Grade
2nd Grade
3rd Grade
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade
7th Grade
8th Grade

High School is still in Development

I will also place these links on the Homeschool Resources page.

Upcoming...

Monday, April 20 - STAR Testing in Rescue - (5, 7, and 9th Grade Science Test Only)

Tuesday, April 28 - STAR Testing in Jackson - (5, 7, and 9th Grade Science Test Only)

Tuesday April 21 to Thursday April 23 - SBAC Testing in Rescue - (3 -8 and 11th Grades)

Wednesday, April 29 to Friday May 1 - SBAC Testing in Jackson - (3 -8 and 11th Grades)

Friday, May 1st - End of Learning Period 9

Monday, May 4th - Vendor Fair in Carmichael - info
Friday, May 8th - Field Day - info
Sunday, May 10th - Mother's Day
Monday, May 25th - Memorial Day (No School)
Wednesday, May 27th - Graduation Ceremony
Friday, May 29th - Last Day of School
Friday, May 29th - Deadline for pre-ordering

~ June 3rd - 5th - Returnables Drop off in Jackson (Actual date and time to follow)
Saturday???, July 6th - TextbookX ordering begins
Wednesday, July 10th - Voucher, vendor and computer ordering begins
Thursday, June 18th (12 - 3) - End of Year Book Sale - (To be confirmed)