We struggled with knowing very little about the gist of our son's day at KLS and how he was adjusting to his new school. In three months, after many questions to many people, we figured out many things. In hopes that our learnings help some other KLS parent, here is a list of things that I wish I'd known from day 1 at KLS.

A Parent's Guide to Learning About a KLS Child

The following is a list of things which helped us get glimpses of our son's life at KLS.

• Goal Tracker: The teacher will email out a link to this online spreadsheet, which provides regular assessments by each child's main teacher. There is one entry per topic per child. I think all the parents who described to me how they use it admitted that it's too much information to follow it weekly, but a monthly review is informative.
• Teacher meetings: A couple moms told me that they schedule roughly quarterly meetings with their child's teacher. Since parent-teacher conferences are student-lead, parent-prompted meetings are a means to discuss topics not appropriate for discussion in the child's presence.
• Field trips and Quantum Camp: Volunteering for field trips and Quantum Camp are the only regularly offered means to be present while learning is in session. Quantum Camp is the science program, subcontracted to an outside vendor, so volunteering lets you see the classroom and children's interactions but not a KLS teacher's teaching.
• Volunteering: Your child's teacher can invite you to volunteer. If you pay attention to the email newsletter "KLS Insider", and propose a presentation or workshop related to that term's theme, your child's teacher may invite you to lead a session. Be patient: I asked to volunteer on Oct 5, and it took until Nov 16 for Sophie to offer me an opportunity on Nov 29. It's a good way to see into the classroom, though since the parent is presenting it's not a way to see the teacher teaching.
• Chromebook: Get one. Ask your child to log in. Look around. The kids do math (Khan Academy) and reading (Lexia) and other learning on their Chromebooks. (Also, they play games.) What they do varies by child and grade/independence level. Having our son give us a Chromebook tour and trying some of the apps ourselves illuminated for us a lot about our son's curriculum.
• Khan Academy parent log-in: You can create a log-in on khanacademy.org and register as your child's parent. This lets you see your child's progress, but not examples. We found having our son log in more informative.
• KLS Insider: This weekly newsletter presents a glimpse into what the school considers it's top happenings. The most important information is at the end: The schedule of events.
• KLS Calendar: If you use Google Calendar, you can add the "KLS Family Calendar" to your view. Be careful not to sign up for the "KLS Calendar", which is the public one and doesn't include events for enrolled families.

Possibly my favorite interaction with the school was part of my volunteer opportunity. In addition to my reading to IL2, I was invited to help with art class. I really enjoyed seeing a typical class session and Janet's approach to teaching even young kids real art skills. It wasn't just crafts; she taught real art. We had a good rapport and she said she'd welcome my help again.