WAVA SURVIVAL TIPS 

MATERIALS
• BELIEVE YOU CAN DO THIS! It’s overwhelming at first when materials arrive!
• KEEP THE BOXES that K12 sends materials in—flatten them if necessary, but it’s a good idea
to have them later for returns
• START LEARNING. Don’t wait for all materials to arrive before you can start learning!—learn the OLS
system, do things you can that are on-line, read for literature attendance, but know that the first date you put
in attendance is the date that determines your end of the year completion goal.

COMMUNICATION
• TALK TO YOUR TEACHER/FACILITATOR! We’re here to help!! Be part of the dialogue as
we’re all here to support the learning of your child.
• CHECK YOUR E-MAIL EVERY DAY. There’s a good chance your assigned teacher is sending you important
messages—it’s our number one communication tool.
• SCHOOL COMMUNITY vs. COMMUNITY CHEST. School Commuity is specific to WAVA and along with
other info is where Work Sample Criteria is posted (wava.org); Community Chest is another resources
provided by K12, again with lots of good info for all K12 schools nationwide (k12.com)
• ELLUMINATE SESSIONS. Participate in Elluminate sessions and info activities provided by K12, WAVA and
staff. (There are many specific to the curriculum too)!
• MINGLE. Whether in a discussion group or with a nearby family, I’ve noticed that the families that were most
successful were the ones that interacted with other WAVA families.

SCHEDULING/AGENDA
• ESTABLISH A GOOD SCHEDULE. Establish a good consistent schedule or routine from the
start that works for your child and family. Plan out the lessons – keep in sight progress goals.
• PRINT OUT THE WEEKLY SCHEDULE. Many families have found it helpful to print out the weekly schedule
and have the student check mark it or put a sticker by it as he completes each task. This has worked out
especially well for multiple student families because everyone can work on the same subject at the same time.
Some students still like something tangible to look at rather than just seeing it on the screen too.
• FORCE YOURSELF TO INCLUDE HISTORY, SCIENCE, AND ART INTO YOUR DAILY PLAN. It may feel
like a lot at first, but eventually you’ll get the hang of it with proper planning. To not do so means you’ll be
playing catch up all year long in these non-core subjects.
• TAKE ATTENDANCE NIGHTLY. Many parents experimented with doing it weekly, or semi-weekly, and
ultimately many hours were not accounted for. Developing a routine for yourself is just as important as
developing one for your WAVA student.
Categories:
Materials
Communication
Scheduling and Agendas
Field Trips/Outings
The On-Line School
Curriculum
• DEVELOP A ROUTINE AND STICK WITH IT. Parents that had a constantly changing routine ultimately
struggled with keeping their children on a schedule. I noticed that parents without a strict schedule were the
ones that complained most about “Little Johnny isn’t motivated to do anything.” Pick a routine and stick
religiously to it.
• KEEP GOOD RECORDS. Make record keeping (like the attendance) a daily routine so that teachers/
facilitators have accurate information when reviewing the OLS for conferences, updates, or compiling reports
for WAVA.

FIELD TRIPS/OUTINGS
• ATTENDANCE. Field trips and family outings etc. that relate to the curriculum being learned at
the time can count as attendance hours for that particular subject. For example, if he’s studying
measurement and helping you cook…and you discuss measurement and cooking and practice, then that time
can be added to math for the day. Or, if you go to a history museum and attend a talk or chat about what he’s
studying…maps, directions…archeology, nomads and Egyptians (things he is learning in that course), then all
that time applies too.

THE ON-LINE SCHOOL (OLS)
• CLICK THE SUBMIT BUTTON. Don’t forget to his “submit” when inputting Attendance, and it
usually works best to update attendance every day. Don’t forget to check the “Check for
missing attendance” pull down menu from the Attendance Tab. If it’s showing, there are days
that are not accounted for…click on the date and answer the Yes/No “did you teach today?” question.
• GO THROUGH TUTORIALS. As the Teaching Adult, take OLS tutorials (in the Help section), review Course
Introductions and Teaching Guides.
• THE OLS IS YOUR FRIEND. J It’s there to help make things easier! Let it guide you. Many folks come to us
from a textbook-based program and try to follow the textbook instead of the OLS – this isn’t how WAVA/K12 is
designed. Some ways to use it:
◊ Check the Plan tab first every day and do what is scheduled for the day
◊ Keeping total hours per week the same, change what the Daily Plan looks like in Schedule Set-Up…for
example, some choose to do maybe history on Saturday and Sunday when the other parent is home
instead of on the defaulted Wednesday and Friday.
◊ Check the Progress tab first every day and see which courses are the lowest % and work on those first,
going to the Lesson Lists tab to see what comes next in that course.
• ABOUT CALCULATED END DATES. Know that the Calculated End Dates tab calculates to 100% from the
Schedule that is Set-up, NOT on what is actually completed. So if one sets up 10 hours of math a week but
only does 2, the End Date will show completion in the middle of the year instead of showing that one is
actually behind. (Will let you know if K12 changes this for next year).

CURRICULUM
• JOURNALS. Any course that mentions “journal” means that this is something that a family provides…could
be a spiral notebook or binder with tabs per course.
• STATE HISTORY. Only 4th graders (by age) take State History.
• EXTRAS. Typing CDs? Use as supplemental, add attendance to LA.
• TEST READINESS AND ANALOGIES. Test Readiness and Analogies start appearing in the
spring in the Daily Plan, but do as you’d like. Some students like to do it all at once.
• TEACH TO THE LISTED OBJECTIVE. Doing too much can lead to stagnation; doing too little
can lead to potholes in learning.