Lessons Learned Through Family Gaming: A Year-end Report

Lessons Learned Through Family Gaming: A Year-end Report

Posted on

At the end of each school year, we ask the families to send us a summary of how their natural learning journey went. Families can summarize their year however they choose.  It can be a letter, a report, a list with course names and grades, or a multi-media presentation using pictures, videos and slides.

In this year-end report, Erika illustrates how a family can come together and share in their children’s passions.  

Greetings, we want to share with you our past year.  If this year had a theme, it would most likely be gaming in all forms. 

In any given week in 2019 Dean could have up to four opportunities to play Dungeons & Dragons:  the Adventure League at the local gaming store, the online program Outschool, an after-school-teen group, or running his own games in our dining room.  He studies each Game Master (GM) he plays with to learn their methods and style of storytelling and tests them out on his friends during his dining room sessions.  He definitely prefers playing in-person games over virtual games with a regular group of people.  The most sustained group is with the after-school-teen group that met at the local rec center, run by Roll Play Lead (RPL).  Jamie, the founder of RPL, sees the value in what role-play games like D&D can offer beyond just gaming for fun.  Understanding that more kids and teens these days live with anxiety or other forms of mental illness, she sees how well-suited role-play games can be used to help kids learn social skills and how the games can cater the story to meet the individual’s needs or challenges. 

Dean and Vivienne both enjoy playing video games and both have their motives for getting what they want out of the games.  Dean is very interested in the gameplay and strategy, where as Vivienne gets swept up in the story and creatures she is working with or battling against.  Vivienne has become a rolodex of information on Pokemon and can’t seem to get enough of the unusual creatures and abilities.  The stories presented during the gameplay offer a uniquely catered story for Vivienne, which provides the desire and drive to improve her reading skills in order to follow along.  Vivienne is gaining a good sense of pre-planning and problem-solving skills in order to move forward in the story.  Whether she needs to have the correct Pokemon cued up ready to battle, or understand when it’s time to run from a fight, she is exercising her thinking ahead and planning for the future skills that are so important for daily life.  

Dean, on the other hand, is more interested in strategy, cause and effect, and manipulating situations to meet his needs.  Dean doesn’t have a favorite game; rather, he relishes finding a new game, observing others’ playstyle to help create his own.  Dean also enjoys seeing new artistic styles each game developer puts into their content and has grown fond of the music each game or level in the game presents.  Online games offer many good things, such as strengthening your ability to work together and improve communication skills, but there are also some darker aspects that we find ourselves discussing with Dean.  Not all gamers are playing the game for the same reasons and Dean finds himself interacting with some not-so-nice teammates that are more interested in trying to get under other players’ skin or are just downright rude.  Maturity also plays a big part in how Dean deals with these types of people.  Rather than going on the defensive or offensive, Dean uses the situation as a sort of social experiment and attempts to change their outlook.  Despite other players’ mean or aggressive attitudes and playstyles, his findings have shown that when only responding to them positively, the rude player either leaves the game or ends up changing their tune.  

Since Dean was seven years old, we’ve gone through waves between obsession and disinterest when it comes to Minecraft. Each Minecraft resurgence we try to find ways to play with friends without having to go through the trouble of starting our own server.  When COVID-19 struck, the kids missed their friends, so we knew it was the right time to figure out how to host our own server.  We dove into the daunting process of getting a server up and running and named it CoronaCraft.  We learned there is a lot we don’t know, but we got far enough to get a working server to host all the kids’ friends.  Besides giving the kids a virtual playground for the kids to stay connected, it has been an invaluable learning process for everyone in the family.  We play on the server along with the kids. Minecraft is one of the few video games that has captured our sustained interest. It’s great having a hobby the entire family participates in, especially during a lockdown! It proved to be a great distraction and escape from all the bad news outside the house. It took a while to master basic server hosting and we made mistakes along the way. The worst was a server crash or two, losing weeks of work, but we rebuilt and made it better the second time around, and we learned how to not let it happen again.  We helped the kids navigate setting boundaries with friends and have witnessed the amazing teamwork and building skills of all the kids on the server.   

Dean has shown real maturity during this pandemic.  He has made a real effort to understand all he can regarding the facts about COVID-19 and he has shared that information with his friends as a way to stem fears his friends were sharing with him and he was able to help his friends make sense of the situation as only a peer could.  It was rough for Vivienne to have a birthday during lockdown, since we couldn’t throw the usual big party.  So we set up a secret amusement park on the server and asked all the kids to build rides in time for her birthday.  We held a virtual surprise birthday party for her, spending the evening trying out all the rides and eating cake. It was just as fun as a regular birthday.  Since we are not experts in the world of Minecraft we are asking for the kids’ help all the time; they light up with confidence when they are teaching us how to make things work.  Many of our dinnertime discussions covered Minecraft topics and we’ll spend many evenings watching Minecraft YouTubers for inspiration.  Dean has challenged himself with complicated Redstone creations; he says it’s his “big brain” moment when he has successfully executed his design.  When Vivienne asks to show us what she built, we are always impressed with how well her plan comes to life.  It’s in the world of Minecraft that we have seen both kids at their most self-directed and resourceful, not to mention their most giddy and cheerful, selves, while playing online with their friends.

Vivienne is inquisitive and curious, as always.  Her favorite way to explore the world is through interacting with others with her pop quizzes.  She inquires into others’ minds by playing question games, asking top favorites on any variety of things.  For example: what is your favorite animal with wings or what is your favorite animal from Australia? But she can get complex at times; “pick an animal’s superpower (like an Axolotl’s limb regeneration)”. Then the other person is to counter it with the superpower’s weakness (but it grows back too big).

Vivienne continued to attend as many nature classes at our local nature center as she could in 2019, although she is aging out of the classes they offer and they are the same ones she’s been to year after year.  The nature center has a fairy garden for kids to decorate and arrange logs, sticks and rocks for the fairies. We were inspired by this, so we created a fairy garden plot in our backyard for all the nature Vivienne brings home from hikes and outings. The garden gives the stones and sticks she collects a place to live and be creative with that isn’t in her bedroom.  In August 2019 the reptile store, where we get feeder insects for our lizard, gave us a complimentary hornworm to feed our pet bearded dragon, Sneezy.  Vivienne was struck by its bright aqua color and was sure Sneezy would choke on its large size.  Not knowing what else to do with this worm, we decided to take it in as a temporary pet and named it Bobbert.  We learned how to care for Bobbert so we could watch it grow and transform, which was absolutely fascinating to witness!  We found information on caring for hornworms from Carolina Scientific, a place where teachers can order these worms to bring into their science classrooms. In our case, life brought us this science lesson.

Art and creativity are ingrained into Vivienne and she uses her skills to provide art sculptures and costumes for her stuffed animals or clay sculptures, among other artistic endeavors.  Waiting around and long car rides are usually filled with drawing in one of her many drawing pads.  There are moments where Vivienne is so lost in her drawing that she doesn’t hear her name being called.  Getting lost in something so deeply that the rest of the world is “tuned out” demonstrates Vivienne’s passion and concentration for what she is working on.  Vivienne recently received a new computer and also a drawing pad.  The pad is similar to the devices Vivienne’s favorite YouTube personalities use to create the animations she enjoys so much and gets inspiration from.  This provides yet another medium for her to try and gain experience from. 

The change in routine brought about by COVID-19 in some ways limited our opportunities to explore our world, but in other ways has stilled the waters of our life enough to see the things below the surface that had gone unaddressed since we began our homeschooling journey.  The year ahead is beginning like no other and we are looking forward to where the new twists and turns in our road will take us.

Best Regards,

Marc & Erika, Colorado USA

Top 5 Online Homeschooling Resources

Top 5 Online Homeschooling Resources

Posted on

We know there are many doors that open once you step into the world of homeschooling and the variety of options can seem overwhelming at first. Now that we are living in a time of “crisis schooling”, families are scrambling to quickly make a plan for the school year and are doing their best to absorb as much information from the internet as possible right now. As advocates for the natural learning approach to homeschooling, the first thing we encourage parents to do is to have an open dialogue with their children to find out how they would enjoy spending their time in a fun and productive way.

 

West River Academy is very unique because we encourage each family to create a routine and learning flow that feels good to them. We ask them, “if you didn’t have to think about standardized testing, what do you think is important for your children to learn? How can you incorporate life lessons into your conversations, and ignite their love for learning again?”.  These questions prompt a new way of thinking and re-introduce the child to a world where learning is fun and exciting again!

 

Once you have figured out where you land on the spectrum of learning styles, it will be easier to narrow down the resources that will fit your family best. We have compiled the top 5 of our most popular online homeschooling resources directly from the recommendations of our families enrolled in West River Academy.

 

Enjoy!

 

Galileo is the new, innovative, self-directed online school for students aged 8-18 who are world schoolers, homeschoolers, and/or unschoolers from all over the world. They provide opportunities to collaborate with other students on projects, with groups that do projects together on STEM subjects and electives like Coding and Robotics, Foreign Languages and International Cultures. Choose your own adventure by mixing and matching a variety of topics!
Cost: $240/month or $2000/year
Age Range: 8-18

 

They offer a huge variety of classes and options. From phonics to AP Physics to Minecraft to Piano. Outschool feeds your kid’s curiosity and elevates their learning with a variety of 50,000+ classes.
Cost: $10-$600/ class
Age Range: 4-18
 
They offer tuition-free online classes with high school and college credit for grades 6-12. Includes Financial Education by Dave Ramsey for teens, and college courses from Grand Canyon University. 300+ Credit-based courses.
Cost: Many classes are tuition-free
Age Range: 10-18
 
The main things homeschoolers want are high-quality resources and flexibility, and they offer both. Lesson plans consist of in-depth powerpoints with images and videos to enhance the material. Plus, they offer a wide range of optional supplemental activities so you can customize your child’s educational experience based on their individual learning style.
Cost: $60-$175/class
Age Range: 10-18
 
They offer personalized learning of all core subjects. There are modules that the student can do at their own pace, they offer scholarship contests and they are popular worldwide.
Cost: Free
Age Range: PreK-12th grade

~

If you would like to talk more about finding a learning style for your family, feel free to schedule a phone consultation with Peggy Webb, the Founder and Director of West River Academy, here.

Homeschooling Global Summit 2020

Homeschooling Global Summit 2020

Posted on

An influx of questions has flooded the internet in recent months regarding homeschooling and we are thrilled to address an array of topics in this virtual event called the Homeschooling Global Summit!

There will be ten days of expert interviews, from the likes of Sir Ken Robinson, Pat Farenga, Peggy Webb, Lainie Liberti, Melissa Church and many more! With hundreds of millions of kids around the world learning at home for the first time ever due to Coronavirus, this knowledge is needed by parents more than ever.

We will be interviewing some of our currently enrolled families, as well as West River Academy graduates. Learn how self-directed learning can be an advantage to navigating this rapidly-changing world.

Event Calendar:

Screen Shot 2020 06 09 at 7.37.24 PM

As this is the second annual event, anyone who is interested in watching the 40+ hours of footage from the 2019 Homeschooling Global Summit is now able to do so for free!

Visit https://hgsummit.com/ to get your FREE premium pass.

We are so grateful to all of our families and graduates who are participating in this event with us this year. We hope you register for it and share it with your loved ones!
~ The West River Academy Team

Navigate Another Way of Learning

Navigate Another Way of Learning

Posted on

In these stressful and uncertain times, creating a curriculum or new routine for your child may seem overwhelming. We would like to offer some of our resources and tips to help and support you in this new journey of education. Homeschooling does not just mean doing school at home, it can mean so much more for your family. It’s okay to let your children learn naturally…and it’s way more FUN!

West River Academy supports families from all walks of life. and accepts enrollment year-round. If you are needing advice or support you can schedule a consultation with our Director Peggy Webb, a 30-year veteran unschooling mom and founder of West River Academy.

We know you are all being a great source of guidance and support in your communities right now. We hope that learning about and being part of our worldwide natural learning community will help you navigate this new paradigm.

Enjoy!

A few of our favorite voices:

I’m Unschooled, Yes I Can Write

This blog is written by lifelong Unschooler, Idzie Desmarais. She offers an honest perspective on our current times as well as insight for the new unschooler. A must-read for families that are new to the term “Unschooling”.

Rock Your Homeschool

Rock Your Homeschool is an amazing website full of resources, tips and fun activities to do with your child. If you are needing encouragement and positive reinforcement on your homeschooling journey, this is the place to look!

Be Wild and Free

This is a great community for homeschoolers and their website is filled with great activity ideas such as nature journaling templates, morning routine advice, and they even host events around the country!

Homeschool Mom

The Homeschool Mom is a great website for new homeschoolers looking for resources and tips on how to begin their homeschooling journey, and information help to decide what method will work best for their family.

Survival Mom

Survival Mom is a blog website with great articles and tips for how to prepare your family for a pandemic. She is full of practical advice even if you are not searching for survival tips!

WRA Graduate Shares an Update

WRA Graduate Shares an Update

Posted on

I graduated from West River Academy in 2013. Since then, I have completed a Bachelors and Masters degree in Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and will be pursuing a Doctorate in Computational and Applied Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall. Additionally, I received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to support my graduate education. I believe that my nontraditional pre-college education as a homeschooler with West River Academy was significant in the formation of several skills that have served me well since graduation.

Much of the academic success I have encountered is due to self-motivated, curiosity-driven learning. I had the good fortune to be heavily involved in undergraduate research in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, primarily Oceanography, during my time at CU Boulder. The process of research, with its lack of a higher authority to reveal the correct answer, is very much akin to the free-form style of my education before college. Therefore, I recommend this educational style without any reservations. More than anything else, my pre-college education as a homeschooler helped me to develop a love of learning and an intrinsic locus of motivation.

~ William, Class of 2013

~Photo Contest 2019~

~Photo Contest 2019~

Posted on

Screen Shot 2020 04 13 at 3.20.45 PM

Dear families of West River Academy,

We could not be more thrilled, honored, and downright AMAZED by the photos submitted for our Photo Contest! Families all over the world have submitted their photos, and we have received more than we could possibly display.

Please take a look at these images as a whole; representing the collective childhoods that are being savored by courageous and resilient parents world-wide.

Finding educational freedom is a journey that is unique to each person and there is no ONE correct way to do it. By allowing your children to learn naturally, you are helping them grow into confident, happy and thriving young adults!

 

Isaac Loves Learning: A Year End Report

Isaac Loves Learning: A Year End Report

Posted on

“I love being homeschooled.” Those words make it all worthwhile.
~ Barb, WRA mom, Colorado USA

We love seeing our West River Academy families thrive! No matter what educational journey you are on, we want to see you and your children happy, healthy, and loving their freedom! .

This year we completed our third year of Classical Conversations, supplemented by a variety of curricula, activities, and events. We are enjoying our time together and making changes in teach methods as we work together.

The goals we have for our home(school):

  • Encourage Isaac to be at or above grade level.
  • Help Isaac maintain a love of learning.

The values we have in our home(school):

  • Kindness above all else
  • Protect and care for those who need it (younger children, animals, elders)
  • Grow an awareness that he can do anything he wants or needs to do if he is willing to work hard.
  • Have integrity; do what is right whether it is easy or not.

Field Trips This Year:

  • History Reenactment
  • School of Mines Geology Museum
  • History Museum of Golden
  • Denver Zoo
  • Denver Aquarium
  • Denver Capital
  • Denver Museum of Nature and Science
  • Longmont Humane Society
  • Garden of the Gods
  • Denver Art Museum
  • Denver Library
  • Jim Hamm Nature Preserve
  • Butterfly Pavilion
  • Chick hatching at the public library

Family Fun:

We have been playing a lot of board games (Isaac is great at Chess), doing legos together, reading aloud, archery, walks, hikes, bike rides. We have a mini-farm (guinea pigs, 3 cats, 1 dog, 3 fish, 3 hermit crabs) that Isaac helps care for.

Highlights:

We are very proud of Isaac for many reasons, but some highlights included:

  • Caring for the younger children at the Classical Conversations after-care program. Isaac was never asked to help the younger children, but he could be counted on to look out for them. He played with them, helped them get snacks, drinks, etc, and hugged them when they were sad.
  • Several times this year Isaac has stood up for other kids who were being hurt by others or who were just sad. He also has started standing up more for himself with bossy or rude peers.
  • Standing up for animals when some peers were joking about doing cruel things to animals
  • Persevering with the things that are hard for him, such as handwriting.

Read more on their personal blog!
https://isaacloveslearning.wordpress.com

Congratulations to our Class of 2019!

Congratulations to our Class of 2019!

Posted on

As our academic year of 2018 – 2019 comes to a close, we would like to give out a heartfelt CONGRATULATIONS to our graduates!

Our students have had the educational freedom to pursue an array of incredible opportunities that have led to careers in music production, film/TV industry, professional sports, graphic design, animation production, coding/java creation, drone-racing, environmental projects, sustainability, social entrepreneurship and much more!

For those who have chosen to pursue higher education, we have compiled a list of colleges that our students have been accepted into:

  • Albertson College of Idaho
  • Arizona State University
  • Bellevue University
  • Benedictine College
  • Boise Bible College
  • Boise State University
  • California Baptist University
  • Chichester College, England
  • Clark University
  • Cleveland Institute of Music
  • Colorado Mesa University
  • Colorado Mountain College
  • Colorado Northwest Community College
  • Colorado State University
  • Felician University, New Jersey
  • Florida State College, Jacksonville
  • George Mason University
  • Lees-McRae College
  • Michigan Technological University
  • Naropa University, Texas
  • Northwood University, Texas
  • Quinnipac University
  • Regent University, West Virginia
  • Saddleback College, California
  • Santa Fe Community College, Florida
  • School of Art Institute, Chicago
  • Stanford University
  • Summit Christian College
  • University of Arizona
  • University of Colorado, Boulder
  • University of Denver
  • University of Derby
  • University of Hawaii
  • University of Maine
  • University of New Hampshire
  • University of St. Andrews, Scotland
  • US Air Force
  • US Army
  • US Marine Corps
  • US Navy
  • Wentworth Military Academy
  • West Virginia University
  • Wheaton College

We are so fortunate to be able to assist families in making their own educational decisions, free from outside mandates. We encourage parents to take charge of their children’s education and help them grow into confident, happy, and thriving young adults!

Dear Peggy

I want to express my deepest gratitude to West River Academy! About four years ago you signed a Student Learner agreement so that my son Dillon could work at Bennett Forge Works. Last Fall Dillon moved to Fort Collins and now works for Distinctive Welding. I just visited him there. He loves what he is doing and is just cranking out projects. They give him the plans and he builds it and installs it. He is being successful out in the world, doing what he loves and living with three college friends.

Thank you West River Academy for the freedom to trust children and Life Learning.

~ Nancy, CO

4/27/2019

I Don’t Want A Day Without Learning…

I Don’t Want A Day Without Learning…

Posted on

Rocio is a West River Academy senior in Argentina. Unschooling has reignited her curiosity and love of learning.

I’ll be honest, I always found it difficult to follow a routine but having one and sticking to has been easier these past few months.
Before, my routine was based on activities, schedules and places I didn’t like – not interesting or fulfilling at all. I can guarantee that I enjoy every moment now; I like what I do every day, even those days that are similar to others.

Some of my favorite things are books, photography, cooking, languages; each one teaches me something new and changes me. I think every time we learn, we also change, we are not the same person we were before, and one day without learning is a wasted day. 

I’ve been traveling a lot lately, which makes me so happy and adds only excitement to my days. There is nothing more beautiful than to visit a place you wanted to go to; to imagine being there and then to finally do it. Apart from learning about the place, I really enjoy taking pictures.

I want to say thank you to West River Academy for giving me the opportunity to set my own schedule, activities and academic learning according to my interests. I’m grateful for being able to fully enjoy my hobbies, to finally feel mentally and physically healthy. I love where and how I am now. I love what I do.

 

WhatsApp Image 2018 09 18 at 11.58.19 AM 169x300@2x

Español