Has anyone used online education for homeschooling?
by Author on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 | 5 Comments
You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Has anyone used online education for homeschooling?”.
I’ve used Connections Academy and k12 and I loved Connections Academy. My daughter was in 3rd and 4th grade for Connections Academy and she did great. Most of the work she did on her own and I spent maybe 1 hour helping on the stuff she couldn’t do on her own. You may not even need a tutor!
K12 is great, but I did not like it as much because of our lifestyle. You may actually prefer it though, since the majority of the K12 curriculum is done online, while the Connections Academy has more book work. K12 is available pretty much wherever Connections Academy is.
I don’t know why anyone would register through a virtual school if they were taking a tutor along. You can just carry your curriculum with you and spend the money on the tutor. You can register through an umbrella program in your home state. If you are looking for a Christian curriculum, Switched-on-Schoolhouse is a good choice. The daily lessons are listed on the computer, and are self-contained, so that the student doesn’t need to be concerned with figuring out what to do everyday. Lifepac is a non-computerized version.
Military families do this ALL THE TIME.
First things first, you’ll probably still have an official "state of residence," correct? Since that’s your legal address, be sure to look up the homeschooling laws in that state…each state gets to decide their education laws, so what works for you in Ohio is gonna change once you move your official state of residence to Georgia or for your friend in Michigan.
The next thing to realize is that there’s a whole spectrum of what’s called "homeschool." Some people sign up with an online version of public school; that’s really technically not “homeschool,” since you’re counted as public school student and you have to have regular contact with teachers, submit work and tests, etc. The dirty little secret here is that the school district gets to keep the federal funds for you, as you’re a public school student this way. (Quite obviously, your school district will like this option best. Often when one queries the school as to the options available for “homeschool,” the school administrators will smile sweetly and mention just such an arrangement, conveniently omitting the rest of your options. This “lie by omission” quietly implies that this is the one and only way “homeschooling is done.” There’s a quite a debate in the homeschooling community about whether or not this constitutes an effort by the educational bureaucracy to redefine the meaning of homeschool, and what effect that would have on legislation and regulation of more traditional homeschool. But I digress.)
Other people may choose to buy materials from companies and enroll with online schools, but they’re "independent" of the school districts, and they don’t owe anyone a darned thing…their test scores (if any; few homeschoolers in the traditional sense are obligated to take state standardized tests) are their own business, as is the pace, order or depth at which they choose to go through the material.
Other people make up their own curriculum, based on their own personal criteria. Some states want you to keep a portfolio of material to prove you’re doing something there at home, other states want you to submit your curriculum for the year for approval, others may require testing that could send you back to public or private school if you fall below a particular percentile…just in case. Again, depends on the state.
Still other people endorse what they call "unschooling," and they throw out all books and tests altogether and simply follow what interests them. (See the writings of John Holt, or Google "unschooling" for more on that theory of education.) A good book for anyone over 12 years old is “The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education,” by Grace Llewellyn. Here’s an excerpt:
"Did your guidance counselor ever tell you to consider quitting school? That you have other choices, quite beyond lifelong hamburger flipping or inner-city crack dealing? That legally you can find a way out of school, that once you’re out you’ll learn and grow better, faster, and more naturally than you ever did in school, that there are zillions of alternatives, that you can quit school and still go to A Good College and even have a Real Life in the Suburbs if you so desire? Just in case your counselor never told you these things, I’m going to. That’s what this book is for."
Even if you don’t hold with what the author has to say, the point of view she has is dramatically different and can be a great springboard to help you get in touch with what you believe school and learning should be like.
As with many things, there’s a wide spectrum of “unschoolers,” as well. Many of them have a certain set of concepts they want their kids to get and don’t care HOW they get the information, while others take a much more laid-back approach and allow the student to set the list of concepts themselves…or not set one at all. All of these people will still consider themselves “unschoolers.”
We currently use the k12 program as independents. I have an 8 year-old and a 6 year-old.
I’ve heard it’s pretty good, actually. When I was looking for online schools, I was referred to Connections Academy and K12.com.
If you choose k12 and use a virtual academy you will be doing public school at home. That is not home schooling in the true sense of the word (see K’s comment). We have home schooled for 9 years and only this year enrolled one child in k12 to try it out. I will not be re-enrolling next year. The problem is the workload is heavy and there is no room to linger over something or get extra help or even take a day off for a field trip. You are required to put in the hours daily and move along quickly through the material. We have found that k12 and the virtual school is taking all the fun out of learning and turned it into drudgery.
I don’t know what your viewpoint is regarding homeschooling but I would suggest that if you are hiring a tutor you might as well pick a curriculum that suits your child and forget the public school hassle. Someone mentioned AOP LifePac’s and SOS. Both are excellent and well-respected in homeschool circles.
Hope this helps…