How It Works

At Christian Virtual School, we strive to offer support for homeschooling families by providing blended learning opportunities at home. Our courses range from Grades 4 to 8 and align to the Ontario curriculum. Students are given 12 months from the date of registration to work through the content at their own pace. Students will have the support of an Ontario certified teacher who will help guide your student through the course, provide feedback, grade assessments, and provide progress reports. The intent is to give home educators the freedom to focus on their students’ individual needs, differentiate instruction, and identify intervention opportunities, while still confidently covering every standard in the Ontario curriculum.

Program Details

Our elementary program was built on seven imperatives: building a strong understanding of fundamental skills, bridging the gap between understanding and doing, fostering a positive mindset for learning, developing problem solving and critical thinking skills, application of real-life skills, encouraging communication, and placing all content in a Christian context.

Each imperative plays a fundamental role in the success of students but, along with the Christ-centered worldview, this program focuses especially on bridging the gap between understanding and doing. Without the knowledge of how and when to use fundamental concepts, most students are simply unable to demonstrate their understanding. When these imperatives are implemented together in a personalized learning environment, all students have the opportunity to succeed.

Prior Learning Activities

Each lesson begins with an activity called Warm-Up to activate prior knowledge. An interactive quiz or game provides students with immediate, automated feedback to help them determine whether they need more practice before proceeding to learn a new skill. Immediately following the warm-up activity, students have the opportunity to review remedial skills in an interactive section called Helpful Hints.

Focus on Fundamental Skills

Our courses provide continuous opportunities for students to work with fundamental skills and apply their understanding. Many lessons contain a short activity called Skill Drill that encourages students to recall their facts using a variety of strategies.

Gradual Release Model

Each lesson begins with a clearly stated learning goal. As the student moves through the lesson, knowledge is transferred through a gradual release of responsibility framework. Each lesson concludes with an opportunity to first practice the material and then apply the learning with an assessment.

Building Confidence Through Practice

A section called Let’s Practice consolidates the concepts from each lesson. Students either complete an offline activity, such as a worksheet, or an online activity that provides immediate growth mindset feedback to students. At this point in the lesson, students have been taught the skill and have been equipped with a series of steps to answer problems that require the application of the skill. Students apply these steps in a practice environment before attempting an assignment.

Mistakes as Learning Opportunities

The courses encourage students to view mistakes as a natural part of problem solving and as opportunities to learn. Additionally, the course guides students to enhance their self-monitoring skills and instill a positive attitude even, and importantly, when mistakes are made. Such support allows students to adopt constructive behaviours and positive attitudes towards learning.

Intrinsic Motivation

Our courses are designed to spark curiosity and motivate students in their own learning. We believe that if the teaching is relevant to the student, and if we can inspire confidence, students will experience success in the future. To this end, we provide students with opportunities to apply newly acquired skills in meaningful ways, foster feelings of accomplishment to boost confidence, and promote feelings of equity among students.

Application Problems

Explicit instruction on the skill of problem solving has been interwoven into the courses. For example, in mathematics, students use a recurring problem solving checklist when working through word problems. With this checklist, students plan how to solve an equation, carry out their plan, and check to ensure that their answers are correct. Using the same model to solve problems each time bolsters fluency in problem solving.

Exposure to Open-Ended Questions

Students are presented with open-ended questions throughout the courses. These questions are intended to prompt engaging discussions between peers, with their teacher, with a parent at home, or among a small group. The nature of these questions allows for various approaches to solving the given problem, but acute critical thinking skills are also required to determine the validity and viability of a chosen approach.

Connections Through Storylines

Each lesson is situated in the context of a storyline with student and teacher characters guiding students through the content. These storylines serve to make the content more relatable to students and to connect math concepts to everyday life. Something as simple as a row of flowers in a garden becomes an example of an observable pattern one may encounter in the world every day. A complex concept such as capacity becomes understandable through the example of building a sandcastle.

Communication

Throughout the courses, students are given the chance not only to read appropriate vocabulary, but also to listen to, ask questions about, and discuss such words and terms. The language used in lessons supports a wide range of learners, especially when new words or terms are introduced. New words are defined for students and used consistently to ensure clarity of meaning, while still using precision.

Starting Conversations

Supports have been built into the courses specifically around matters of vocabulary and communication to help students communicate their ideas clearly and effectively. For example, sections called Talk like a Scientist recur throughout the lessons in science courses. These activities give students opportunities to speak with others and to use the language being taught. These talks include sentence starters and prompts to help students begin these conversations.

The Bigger Picture

Each unit begins with a lesson on The Bigger Picture which puts all of the student’s learning into a Christian perspective. Throughout the lessons are numerous opportunities to continue to build on this perspective through character building, Firmly Rooted activities, and thoughtful assessments.

The content has also been built with flexibility in mind. The lessons contain numerous online activities with enjoyable, interactive games and offline activities that can be completed independently or as a family. Examples of offline activities include worksheets, games, working with manipulatives, sorting, patterning, crafts, collaborative investigations, and exploratory and sensory activities with common household items. By using the manipulatives and resources already available in their homes alongside the lessons, these courses truly come alive for students. For more information on any of our programs, select a subject area below.

Math

Coloured Building Blocks

Science

coloured petri dishes

Language

Stacks of reading books

Social Studies

Phys Ed

French

Enrollment Process

Enrollment at Christian Virtual School is meant to be barrier free. There are no application forms, no waiting periods, and no hidden fees. Enrolling is as simple as filling out the details on the registration page.

There are two pathways families can take when enrolling students into Christian Virtual School at the elementary level:

Option 1: Full Elementary Program

 
The full elementary program includes mathematics, language, science, social studies, physical education, and French at a yearly tuition rate of $1999.00 per student.
 

  • certified teacher support

  • full elementary program

  • access to weekly bible study

  • access to guidance department

  • discounted tuition rate

  • student ID card

Option 2: Build Your Own

Building your own means you can choose courses individually to create a program that makes the most sense for you and your family. Each course has a tuition fee of $399.00 per year.

  • certified teacher support

  • customizable elementary program

  • access to weekly bible study

  • access to guidance department

Frequently Asked Questions

Christian Virtual School courses are asynchronous. This means that they do not align to a schedule and students can move through the course at their own pace, taking up to 12 months. Each elementary course is designed to provide enough material for an entire school year.

Asynchronous means that our courses do not align to a schedule. All of the course content, teachers, and administration staff are available year-round. Students can enroll in a course on any day and begin their coursework within 1 business day. Students can set and maintain their own schedule, completing a course at a pace that matches their needs. This means they can complete it in less time than a typical school year or take up to 12 months.

Christian Virtual School has a flexible admissions policy and students are able to enroll in 1 course, or several, depending on what they need at the time.

If you enroll in our Full Elementary Program, or Build Your Own program, yes – each course will give students access to an Ontario certified teacher who will help guide your student through the course, provide feedback, grade assessments, and provide progress reports. If you are looking for homeschooling resources, we do offer our courses without a teacher. See our homeschooling resources page for more information.

Absolutely! You can use these courses to confidently cover every expectation within the Ontario curriculum. If you do not require a teacher for your child, please see our homeschooling resources page for more information.

Still have questions? View our full list of Frequently Asked Questions or Contact Us. We’re here to help.