In 6th grade Science, we’re learning all about volcanoes! Living in Musanze, we have the unique opportunity to see many volcanoes from the front porch of our school! We are learning about the structure of volcanoes, the types of eruptions, the types of lava flows, and so much more. We’ve learned that volcanoes aren’t quite as rare as we thought. Asher says,

I always thought volcanoes were rare, but I didn’t know that there were so many volcanoes in the world, especially around the Ring of Fire!

We’re researching information about the volcanoes around the Ring of Fire and everywhere else in the world, but we’re paying close attention to the ones that are here in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Congo. Then we’ll work on our oral presentation skills, and give a report about everything that we’ve learned. To end our study, we’ll build a model of a volcano, one that really has “lava” flowing! This will help us see up close how a volcano works!

~ Sarah Wheeler

If you heard shouts of celebration coming from one of the high-school classrooms or saw some of the high schoolers raising their arms in triumph, don’t be alarmed! At the beginning of the school term, each high-school student set individual goals for their academic calendars. Because there are no deadlines or due dates in the Keystone online classes, students have to set their own schedules and hold themselves accountable to their personal goals. At the beginning of the school term, the students divided the academic school year into 4 equal parts. Then each academic subject was divided into four parts based on the number of assignments.

After dividing the year and class assignments into four parts, we could easily set a goal for each class. This helps us stay on a schedule with our online classes. Reaching our first goal meant that we were 1/4 of the way through our classes and our school year…

~ explained High-school 9th Grader Aidan Miller

With a big smile, Matthew Crowson recalled the Monday after reaching his first goal.

We celebrated by drinking Fantas and eating popcorn all day in our classroom! We worked diligently to keep up with our assignment schedules. Even though we took time to celebrate our success, Aidan and I kept right on working towards our next goal, which is December 18th.

The first goal date was October 23, 2014 and VVA’s 9th Grade Class succeeded in meeting the first goal for all courses! Congratulations to Aidan Miller and Matthew Crowson!

~ Julie Reagan

VVA’s 2nd graders are off to a great start this year! In this first month of school we have been reviewing our phonics sounds, improving our reading, and learning how to become better writers. If you were to write about your favorite food or animal, how you describe it? Come visit our classroom and see what our students have to say!

Our Math studies have us learning about patterns in new shapes like trapezoids, hexagons, and parallelograms, as well as patterns found in even and odd numbers. Science class has us exploring what it means to be a scientist. Did you know that we are all scientists as we observe, discover, and write down what we are learning from what we see in God’s creations?

The 2nd graders have especially enjoyed learning about animals in their habitats and beautiful creatures like butterflies. We like to draw, write, and do experiments about what we are learning.

History has been a fun subject to study. Our eyes are being opened to the world as we learn what it was like to live in Ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt. When we compare those people and places with our own lives, we can see many differences and similarities.

At the beginning of the school year, we had our first meeting of the Student Service Council. The Student Service Council is an organization of students who meet together to serve our community. At our first meeting, we decided who would serve in each leadership position. Stephen Crowson is the President, Aidan Miller is our Vice President, Abby Miller is our Secretary, and Matthew Crowson is the Communications Officer. We also established our theme verse for the club as Philippians 2:3-4,

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Each High School student is required to have 25 hours of service each year in order to graduate. At our first meeting, we discussed how that requirement is the secondary reason that we meet and serve together. Our primary reason is because we want to be servants like Christ. At our first service day together, the students showed how much they understand this. On September 27, we spent the morning serving at the African Transformation Network property just outside of Kigali. Our students moved hundreds of boxes of books, helped build a fence, and helped clear brush, all with smiles on their faces and great attitudes.

We are very proud of our students and the hard work they have done so far. They are showing Christ-like attitudes not only during their service hours, but also each day as they interact with the VVA students and staff, and their community. The students are currently planning their next service day, and thinking of other ways that we can serve. If you have any suggestions or ideas of ways that we can help our community here in Musanze, please contact us.

6th grade has started off strong this year! We’ve got  lot on our plate to learn and master before the end  the year, so we’re working hard. We’re mastering  skills, learning new vocabulary, and working  our organization; skills that will take us far not  in school, but also in life! In Language Arts,  been focusing on the different parts of speech,  how to use them in our writing, and practiced a set of spelling words each week. We’ve also reading the book Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, discussing characterization and vocabulary as we .

This year in the 6th grade, we’re studying  History, focusing on how the United States  interacted with the rest of the world during  events. We started off with the colonies, and  quickly worked our way up through the War of . We’ve charted all of the important people, and terms from the American Revolution, and working on memorizing the Presidents and their foreign and domestic policies.

In Science, we’ve spent the first month learning all about. We’ve collected and categorized leaves from yard, diagramed all of the parts and processes of a plant, and have completed a research project and presentation on the Baboab Tree.

In Math, the 6th graders are working hard on many concepts, including factors and fractions. Along with our core classes, our 6th graders also participate in Physical Education, Art, and Typing each week, and have Bible every morning. All of our students also have the opportunity to take Taekwondo lessons after school 1 to 2 days a week. We are staying busy here in the 6th grade but we are learning a lot!

School has only been in session for one month and the High School students have already become immersed in their science courses through hands-on labs. In Biology, 9th Graders Aidan and Matthew tested the effects of salt on the boiling point of water. Aidan, who enjoyed wearing the special science lab goggles over his own glasses, summarized his findings from the experiment, “We found that the more salt you add to water, the lower the boiling point temperature of water. So, water will boil faster if you add salt.”

“You can memorize facts from a book, but you’ll never understand those facts until you see and  experience those concepts in a hands-on environment.” ~ Abby Miller

The 9th Graders most recently conducted an experiment to test for the presence of the enzyme catalase in a cow liver, an onion, and a potato. “We covered small parts of the cow liver in hydrogen peroxide. The enzymes in the cow liver broke down the chemical bonds of hydrogen peroxide, creating lots of small bubbles. We did not find the same effects when testing the potato or the onion,” recalled Matthew who enjoying the hands on experience of touching a real cow’s liver.

In 11th Grade Chemistry, Abby and Stephen’s first experiment focused on finding the density of various objects. “Once you determine an object’s density, you can predict what material that object consists of. It’s a nice change to get out of the classroom learn through hands-on ,” said Stephen. Abby agreed, “You can memorize facts from a book, but you’ll never understand those facts until you see and experience those concepts in a handson environment.” ~ Julie Reagan

VVA Charter Families

In September, 2014 VVA will officially launch! Families who enroll their children in the first 2014-2015 academic year of VVA will be considered “VVA Charter Families.”

VVA Charter Family Scholarships

To reward charter families who enroll their children in VVA’s first year, we have acquired scholarship funds to significantly reduce annual tuition. Charter Family Scholarships are available to all nuclear family children and will be available for every year the student(s) enroll(s) at VVA through High School Graduation.

See the following comparison chart for details:

Semester Payment Option

 VVA will operate on a 2 Semester System using the International School Academic Calendar Year. The 1^st Semester runs September through December. The 2^nd Semester runs January through May. Families can pay for the entire year or one semester at a time.

 Charter Family Semester Payment Schedule

Please contact us for more information.