Completed Grade 9- Free Skiing!

Hannah put the final touches on her Grade 9 courses around January 18th and she is now moving forward with Grade 10. She is tackling Math and Science first. We are also signed up for Skiing through ArtSmarts. Let me share with you a lttile about the benefits at Summit. There are three things I want to tell you about:

ArtSmarts: These are fully paid for by the school- they are opportunities for students to experience learning opportunities outside the home and classroom. Skiing/Snowboarding is by far the most popular and it is offered in Jan/Feb one day per week including a lesson, a lift ticket, and equipment rental- all at no cost to my daughter. All I have to do is get her up to the ski hill (Hemlock.) Other ArtSmart classes include dance, drama, pottery, making your own mini movie, music lessons, etc.

 
Allotments: When your child is registered with Summit as a full time student, you are also entitled to an educational allotment which you can spend on items or programs to support your child's education. For elementary students you can spend $500 or $1000 for each student depending on the program you choose. It changes a little at the secondary level but it works out to $500 if they complete 8 courses. My daughter has spent her allotment on a printer for her work and on dance lessons at Fraser Valley Academy of Dance. This was a great help to our family.


Internet Expense Subsidy:  Because Summit is distance education, there is a need to connect through the internet and so this subsidy is made available to parents schooling their children in this method. All you need is a copy of a monthly invoice from your Internet Service Provider, fill out the application and they will reimburse you up to $40/month for every month your child is at Summit. The forms are collected by March 1st and the parent will receive their cheque usually in late April or May. Another benefit of up to $400 for my family.



The greatest benefit for me has been the time I have spent getting to know my daughter better, but what a bonus to get to ski with her at such a low price (parents get a great discount too) and to have the monetary support to make Hannah's educational experience at home more exciting and rewarding. Skiing is a big part of why Hannah wanted to do Summit in the first place. That's all for now....

Scott

Christmas on the way

I can't believe it's past the middle of November already. It is well overdue time for an update on our Summit experience. Hannah is still plugging away- having completed English and Social Studies, she is on to tackling Math and Science. As of today she has completed her first unit of science (about 25% of the course) and hopes to complete her first unit of math by Friday. The Arts Smarts (guitar lessons) were an introduction, but did not challenge her as most of the class was younger and not serious about learning. I have begun to make some connections with some other Summit parents as we have started a Parent Advisory Council for Summit.I hope this is the beginning of a more cohesive community where parents can be an encouragement and resource to one another. Hannah continues to find support by email when she finds something confusing or difficult. Sometimes there is a day delay in communication, so she needs to have several things on the go so she has an option while waiting for a response. Overall we are happy with the level of interaction that we have experienced. We'll see how far she gets before the Christmas break. That's all for now.

October 25th

Hey, it's Hannah again. I have finished my French course, and should be done English early next week. I have finished more than 3/4 of my social studies, and I continue to work on PE and Foods. I have been continuing to to take my guitar classes through Art Smarts, and I only have 2 classes left. I am looking forward to the winter Art Smarts, I know they offer skiing, and I hope I will find some other activities I enjoy as well. I have been continuing to work hard, and hope to finish English, and Social Studies before the end of November. Then all I have left is Math, Science, Foods and PE. Hopefully I can finish grade 9 by the end of January (except PE, which might take a little longer) and start grade 10! That's all for now!

Middle of October Already!

Scott here again. It's been a while since I updated. Hannah is plugging along with English, French, Social Studies, PE, and Foods. At her current rate I would estimate that she may be done all of these except PE by the end of November. That will leave some PE, Math and Science for her to complete the Grade 9 year. It will also allow her to participate in more art smarts that are offered in the winter. The teacher interaction/responses have been good. The study materials have all been available. At the side is a picture of the pumpkin pie Hannah made as part of her foods course. It tasted as good as it looked. That's all for now!

October

Hi, this is Hannah again. Today was the first day for my Art Smarts course. I decided to take guitar, and I had my first lesson this morning at Downbeat Music Studios in Mission. I enjoyed the lesson and am excited to learn guitar. There were 6 other kids in the lesson with me, and most of them were in grade 5. The lessons were for grades 5-12, and I was the oldest one there. Out of all the kids there, only myself and a few others took the class seriously, which was a bit disappointing. Most of the other kids had fun goofing around. Although I am looking forward to learning guitar, I think it might be a bit challenging because of the uncooperative students, which is no different than any music class I have ever taken at school. I also finished my second module in social studies, and I am now half way done the course. I am continuing to work on social studies, PE, English, Foods, and French this month, and I am hoping to finish French, social studies and English by the end of November.

2 weeks in!

Hannah is plugging away at her work. She now has enough work to keep her busy all the time. I'm impressed at the amount of PE she is doing- running, dance, aerobic exercise. I see the first signs of her slowing down on her school work a little. She is not producing quite as much as she did at first, but is still putting in well more than I think she would at school in a day. There have been some frustrations, for example- she worked very diligently on a Social Studies unit, did great quality work (I think), studied for the test, and then found that the test focused on a fraction of the study material and had stuff on it she didn't even recognize. She got a solid mark, but much lower than she felt she deserved. This frustrated her quite a bit. I feel she put the effort in and I can empathize with her disappointment. She has sent an email to her teacher pointing out the flaws in the test and I'm curious to see what kind of reply she gets. Overall, Hannah is still very self-disciplined, though I am concerned that if her hard work doesn't yield great results, her motivation will decrease. She is progressing with French, English Social Studies, PE, and her foods course. She really is enjoying the foods stuff. So far, so good.......

Wednesday, September 19th

So far the week has been going well. I have finally started my Foods 9 and French 9 courses. I have also finished the first Social Studies Unit, and will be completing a test tomorrow or Friday. My dad went to Summit and picked up more work for me in English, as I have completed the first module for English as well. So far, I haven't had any problems that couldn't be solved by emailing a teacher. I have been very happy with how quickly my teacher's respond to my questions, sometimes I hear back from them in less than 10 minutes, and I almost always get a response the same day I send the email. The Art Smarts calender came out last week, and I have signed up for some guitar lessons, which I am excited about. My dad said he will be posting again within a few days, so you will hear more from him later!

That's all for now, Hannah