They have changed the site. It looks like they aren't offering the student/teacher pages without signing up for that course. Before we were virtual, I have bought the courses and cancelled after a month of so of the monthly payments b/c it is intended for you to not have to pay as much should your child finish course work quicker than normal. I just wouldn't advertise when I ordered the materials that I intended to cancel early. It is not against the rules and why the monthly payment plans are excellent money savers for people with kids who work quickly through materials.

Well to get back to topic. I guess I should put a disclaimer that I am looking for a schedule not an opinion on whether one exists or why no one that uses k12 would have put forth the time and effort to make one. And if one doesn't exist, then I will enjoy making it for my kids this year b/c I will take the time and energy and I think it is worthwhile and we like textbooks. :ohmy:

We did HO last year and the mapwork is in the student pages. You can probably get them off ebay or amazon, but k12 does sell the materials without buying the online portion from their store. You can just go to k12.com and then click idividual classes for sale and then go to the history you want and click and additional student kit or click on materials and add it to your cart and you will get everything needed to have a good year with HO. It is worth buying the student/teacher pages for the discussion and map work. All of the questions and such and essay writing is in the student pages. It was a good 6th grade history.

Look, I tried to add smileys and be light but your tone in the other posts were snarky. It was basically why are you asking this if you pay for k12 then you overpaid if you want something else. If you are getting it through a virtual school, then you must be overwhelmed and bombarded with busywork and drowning in mandates from the school. It is hard to post on here as a virtual schooler. It is bashed a lot. I do get my curriculum for free and I do like it. I am sorry it did not work out for you. If you don't know of a schedule, you don't have to reply with that whole spiel that was bordering on saying I was wasting my time and yours by posting the question. You weren't simply answering the question you were adding your opinion...so I added mine and honestly your opinion was a little bit on the rude side the first time and downright snarky the second time.

We do a virtual school and have had no problem going down rabbit trails and adding extras. ds actually finished his grade level last year in about 4 months time and we were able to move forward to the next grade level. :hurray: I do realize that SWB wrote the k12 elementary history. I already own SOTW so I thought I would see if anyone had referenced it to the elementary years to compliment not take the place of K12 history as I am sure it has a different style/flavor than SOTW word for word, If it was SOTW, then they would ship me SOTW. Since SOTW is for 1-4, I thought someone might have already lined it up somewhere to the k12 elementary history. Instead I found it lined up to the middle school k12 Human Odyssey when I search. Having done the 4th grade history with k12 last year and having children who enjoy reading about history, I thought it would be a way to explore history further. :laugh: I haven't gotten our 1st grade materials yet. If such a complimentary schedule does not exist, then it will be fun to line it up this year and maybe make a schedule should someone else have the same question in the future. Virtual schools aren't chained to the desk without a reprieve or lacking in the ability to go down rabbit trails and explore things further. We have actually been able to move 2 of our students ahead rather successfully and help one child who was behind work at their own pace and catch up to their grade level. :tongue_smilie:

Anyone? Any schedules for 1st-4th that lines up k12 history with SOTW 1-4.

I found this with several helpful links for human odyssey and SOTW in case this helps anyone else- http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/356184-is-there-a-schedule-correlating-k12-human-odyssey-sotw-1/ I am wondering if anyone has lined it up against the computer K12 history for 1st-4th. Still unsuccessful with the lower grades.

I was wondering if anyone knew of a schedule that lined up K12 with SOTW history. We are now doing K12 but still have our SOTW books and I would like to utilize them where they compliment each other. Thanks in advance.

We normally do a mix of 1. The Reading Lesson (alongside something like Reading Eggs) 2. MCP Plaid Phonics and 3. Emerging Readers. A quick and easy follow up after initial phonics that has been painless and cheap for us is MCP Plaid Phonics. :)

Yes, you can spread it out over days. It is a different break down for times depending on the grade. You can email them and ask them for a breakdown for the grade you need before purchasing.

My sons exact areas of weakness for math were decimals, place value with decimals, fractions, and algebraic relations as well as not having his math facts mastered. His troubles with language arts were with respect to proofreading, writing his own composition, and spelling. Keep in mind he completed BHFHG which only gets to R&S English 2 and does not have formal writing instruction. Because HOD is so relaxed in language arts in the younger years, it is hard to transfer to a different curricula that expects them to have more exposure to writing. I do not regret our years with HOD and I am not bashing. I am just saying that I knew that my son had a very different scope and sequence for language arts than my dd's who went to public school and most curricula for language arts. His strengths were many in testing. They were very impressed with his vocabulary knowledge and reading fluency. His big "weak" area was writing. He just had no exposure to writing on his own for compositions at that point. The math areas were also I think a lack of exposure and different terminology plus the algebraic expressions instead of blanks hindered him. If I was not sure I was in it for the long haul with HOD or following through the middle school guides, I would want to supplement with writing at a younger age and starting R&S 2 with Beyond or something different. Since each guide builds on the others in skills then if at a certain point for whatever reason you change curricula, then there will be gaps. That was what I meant. I am sure if you continue all the way through it all evens out in the end. Testing is changing. They do not use standardized tests which compare them to other kids in their grade levels now. They use tests which measure their individual knowledge. The tests give a hard question and if your child gets it right they get a harder question...if they get it wrong they get an easier question until they are just getting questions that they can not answer at all and then the test is over and scores their knowledge. My son scored well on the CAT test, but when he took the state test and the scantron that measured his individual knowledge and exposure to certain topics, he was behind by about a year. So after testing, his teacher told me that had he been going into 3rd and not 4th he would have been right on track. Even though we are using K12, I knew that the scope and sequence for HOD in the early years is very light in exposure to language arts as a whole until Preparing and up and if you switch to something more rigorous or traditional, there is gaps. That was all that I meant having a child in the early years and using HOD is hard to switch out to something else if you do not bridge those gaps.

I hated that at least 60% of the history from Little Hearts was from the children's Bible and it is heavily protestant. I thought that the Bible books were for Bible time but they are actually a heavy part of the history. I loved the ARFH handwriting K b/c it gave big letters and had a nice coloring page on the back. It worked well for my boys. If you buy the guidebook for the handwriting book it has science for each animal in it for the k book that will add to your LHFHG science. The science book is light and well you jump about and it just wasn't our cup of tea. We added Singapore Earlybird Start Up Science which is 4 small science "workbooks". Both of my boys loved the Thornton Burgess books and we even bought a game called the Uncle Wiggily game. I did not like the devotional for LHFHG either. There were several sections that I just did not agree with personally for that age range. I love the HIstory for Little Pilgrims book for history. However, we skipped the section on Martin Luther and the Reformation b/c it conflicted with our beliefs. The Rod and Staff workbooks are pretty good as well. I liked it better for Kindergarten than 1st. For Beyond, I was pretty happy with it all around. We did add in more science. I just feel the science is light in the early years of HOD and my children love science and it is part of state testing (required in my state). So we added Apologia's Zoology 1 that year. The yahoo group had some notebooking pages for my older kids as that was the year I tried to combine my 3 oldest in 1 guide (my oldest dd is only 27 months apart from my oldest ds). I did not buy the book packs as they are girl/boy/classic. Instead, I read the choices each unit and let my kids pick out which book they wanted me to read aloud. There were normally 3 or 4 choices a unit and we would get them from the library mostly. We did the emerging readers set and I love it. We chose to do the Reading Lesson for phonics with both boys and it is really good. Even my son who has now been diagnosed with dysgraphia/dyslexia reads excellent. Writing is another story. The thing is it is very scripted with the copywork and scripture in the younger years for the science experiments and such. They copy poetry for copywork in Beyond after they finish learning print in LHFHG. They do orally narrate some to you but there really isn't any creative writing. Again, this can come back to haunt you if you have to test in your state and writing is required. Beyond stays on pilgrims forever. It gets very tedious for the children sometimes. A good thing to add to the History for Little Pilgrims for LHFHG is a coloring book that goes with it from Christian Liberty Press. I also agree with the previous poster to buy the Singapore textbooks. It will help you to understand Singapore Math a lot better than the activities in the HOD guide. I am still using the Emerging Readers schedule with my 1st grader even though we use a different curriculum now. There is not free writing or writing from your own thoughts in the early guides and I felt that hindered my son that did HOD LHFHG, BLHFHG, and BHFHG for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. He could not write freely like his sisters that had went to school until 2nd and 3rd grade. He was diagnosed with dysgraphia this year in the charter school but as the year passed and the 504 director proctored his state testing...she seemed to think it had more to do with lack of exposure and confidence than a true inability to take thoughts to paper. He had just never been asked to write paragraphs through BHFHG and well it is a 1st grade skill in most schools. My k'er was doing more language arts writing in his 1st grade language arts than my older son had done in BHFHG. Christian Liberty Press books that are used predominantly in LHFHG and BLHFHG are reformed protestant pov and that required me to work around it a lot. It isn't that big of a deal if you have the same beliefs. One of the reasons I kept going back to HOD and continuing it was b/c I felt my older son who had mainly used HOD would not place in his right grade level with any other curriculum. He didn't when we switched to K12. He tested a full grade level behind in math and language arts after completing BHFHG for 3rd grade.

I have used HOD LHTH, LHFHG, BLHFHG, BHFHG, and CTC. How old are your kids? What grade are your kids? What is your educational philosophy? These would be my main questions with regards to HOD in the early years. The language arts is very light in respect to writing until you get to CTC. This can be good or this can be bad. It depends on your educational philosophy towards writing and language arts in the early years. I found the vocabulary and spelling/dictation to be on par with other programs of similar age/grade range. The creative writing portion or writing from your own thoughts does not begin until Preparing and CTC. Before that, it is mostly oral narration and copywork. Singapore math is a good fit for some kids and not a good fit for others. We never seemed to get going well with it. They recommend R&S English which was not a hit in our house either. The science is very light and it is young earth perspective on timelines. It does tell you to omit on your timeline dates if you aren't young earth belief. The history is the bulk of the curriculum. It is very heavy on history and Bible. The projects in the younger guides seem really young some times and in the older guides a project that would take an hour to complete start to finish is broken up over 4 days of 20 min. sessions. We loved the Thornton Burgess books, the A Reason for Handwriting K, the Emerging Reader schedule, the read alouds, and the paint study in CTC. As with anything that is an all-in-one, there will be things that you love and things that you plod through begrudgingly. We were never able to completely combine any 2 children into one guide successfully and one guide almost always had something that wasn't challenging to the children and then something that was too challenging. It is a gamble. Since it is skill based, it was hard to jump into for us in the higher guides and it be challenging since my children had already received a lot of writing instruction. However, my child who started with HOD and went through Bigger was not making steady progress with HOD guides. I would advise you to get a hold of a guide and look it through from Unit 1 to the last Unit and see if it would work for you. The thing with HOD is that certain skills are trained in each guide, but then you just repeat those skills all year long. Every unit is set up exactly alike and a few weeks in your child will have mastered the new oral narrating, written narrating, or such skill and then they just repeat it over and over through the year.

I hadn't been on the forum in a while and revisited my old thread today. In the end, we went with K12 b/c Connections was only going to give us e-books to get around my son's peanut allergy. I did not know this until we confirmed enrollment and it took a fight to get them to withdraw them in time for us to register with k12 before the first day of school. K12's materials were all new shy of a few novels. We had one that smelled of a cigarette factory that we returned and they graciously replaced. We are in the state of Louisiana which is not known for it's educational standards by any means. The curriculum was excellent and my k'er was in 1st grade math and language arts by Christmas. However, due to several stays in the hospital he did not progress much through 1st grade. The teachers were great during my child's illnesses and gave us extensions and private numbers where my older children could get help in pre-algebra and the like. I really can't speak more highly of how great they were during the most difficult time of my child's life. My 6th grader did have a harder year than my 7th grader b/c they switched the k12 curriculum line-up around to match up with the state test. So my 11 year old was taking physical science meant for 8th grade and it was a struggle at first. I grumbled about it and she grumbled about it...but in the end it was great b/c she persevered. She made an A in physical science and scored mastery on the state test in science. My 7th grader on the other hand wound up with k12's 5th grade history b/c of the topic it covered in relation to our state test for her grade level. I do want to address my 4th grader since we did do HOD completely for his entire home school experience prior to virtual academy. He did not test grade level at all in math or language arts. He tested a year behind in those subjects. He was diagnosed with dysgraphia (dyslexia of writing). However, as the year has progressed and he has had many writing assignments....his writing skills have improved drastically. Whether this diagnosis will continue through his academic career or not, I do want to say that I questioned his writing ability and frequently asked on the HOD board about whether it was normal and received replies that we should keep doing HOD exactly as written or slow down to half speed and it would improve. I will forever beat myself up over the fact that I felt reassurance and did not pursue it further. We made it through Bigger in HOD. His skills never improved in regards to his ability to take his own thoughts to paper. It was a tough decision to keep him in his proper grade level this year with k12 after receiving his test scores and then his diagnosis. We did a lot on the side to bring up his skills that he had never been exposed to in HOD. My k'er was exposed to things last year that my oldest had only just been exposed to in Bigger the previous year. This isn't to curriculum bash at all, but when a curriculum is better late than early you will discover these things later and in hindsight I realize that he really improved 3 grade levels during our one year in k12 while he was stagnant in HOD. After a year of k12, my 4th grader improved 399 points in language arts on the scantron. That spoke volumes for me. There is a policy when using HOD not to discuss other options or materials and I have seen time and time again people asking for help and having the same advice churned out to them to slow down to half speed or that is normal at that age or such replies. This is not helpful to parents of children who may actually need help and their children may actually need something else to help them move forward and progress. All of this to say, that no matter what curriculum you use trust your instincts. Also, if there is any chance your child will go back to public school or charter school in the future...be sure you aren't relying on test scores that do not take into account state standards and such. My children scored out of the park on the CAT test but did not score well at all on the state test or scantrons in the beginning of the year. The "new" tests are individualized in that they recognized a right answer and give more difficult questions and recognize a wrong answer and give easier questions until your child misses a certain percentage of questions and the test ends. This is the format that all the tests will go to in 2014-2015. I do not advocate teaching to the test either, but my children were at a disadvantage due to my choices in the past. We will continue k12 next year and we have thoroughly enjoyed having teachers who care and help and listen to our issues. There are parts of HOD that I loved and still love and plan to implement alongside K12. The emerging readers schedule, the dictation schedule, and the read-alouds to name a few. A curriuclum does not have to be all or nothing no matter how much it is pushed as an all or nothing program. My children have grown so much this year. I had teachers, advisers, and academic counselors who were knowledgeable and could help me to find things for my son to help him. That did not mean it was always k12 materials and the school would purchase any materials that he needed to help with his weaknesses. We are awaiting approval for Calvert's verticy writing for next year to continue his progress in this area. There are pros and cons to anything, but I truly believe the children are receiving a better education now and I have the ability to spend our extra funds on extras such as sports, art, and music.

We used it before we switched to virtual school. We did not use blue ever so I can not speak to it. We chose to go with The Reading Lesson then into the Red book. I have used Red, Yellow, Orange, Purple, and Tan. My kids all loved them and it made language arts painless. My children all tested above average in language arts when we entered the virtual school. The only truly weak area is spelling to me. I would supplement spelling. The rest seems light some times, but it honestly does not need supplementing for your child to grasp the concepts. Now that we are in the virtual school, I do not think we are covering more material. We just have more books for language arts. A separate grammar, vocabulary, and spelling books plus a separate reading program. It is not better, it is just more. If we were to switch back to pure homeschooling, we would definitely pick back up LLATL for each kid's respective grade and if they were 5th and under add in a spelling book as well.

You need to find out if they have a kindergarten and first grade exit exam. If they do, he has to pass it to go to the next grade. I would call the school and ask.

When we were doing the CAT for reporting purposes, I didn't teach to it. I did have olders that had taken it before so I knew most of what was covered. We just always bought the spectrum test prep for their grade and added it in to the day about 2-3 months before testing. We would just have like 30 min. of test prep a day. And if we missed a day of test prep, I did not stress it. It did help them with actual test taking skills like filling in the circle and being aware of time. My kids generally test well but like the pp above each year there is something that has a low score but the overall score is pretty good.

When we did CTC, I had a 10 and 11 year old in it. If he places there, I wouldn't worry...you can always adjust your schedule as you go or school on Fridays (HOD is a 4 day week)...that could help you ensure to get to the high school guides in time. Even with kids who had been in HOD and doing narrations, it takes a few weeks to learn the skills in a new guide and get in a groove. I normally was very close those first few weeks to help any of the kids who hit a roadblock or to help them visualize what was expected of them by giving examples of narrating. Just things like that.

We like GUM Grammar by Zaner Bloser.

I love the Jump at Home Math workbooks that Timberdoodle sells. They are not expensive and work well as a supplement. http://www.timberdoo...p?mfg=JUMP Math I just buy stickers to add to pages and also have a melissa & doug teacher stamp set. It is easy to make a progress chart on the pc and put your own stickers and stamps.

This is a great idea.

It honestly depends on the day of the week for us. My 4th grader does- Math, Literature, and Language Skills daily. Language skills rotates GUM grammar, composition, and vocabulary. They are each 1 lesson a day and 1 hour per subject. Art is 2x a week and music is 2x a week. Science is 2-3 x a week with labs here and there. History is 3 x a week. Spelling is daily.

The Grammar/Comp Supplemental Course and Math Supplemental Course are not going up in pricing. The complete course for 3-5 Verticy is going from $1512 to $1810. The complete course for 6-8 is going from $1631 to $2014. The Verticy Language Arts 3-5 is going from $784 to $1054. The Verticy Language Arts 6-8 is going from $879 to $1230. The Reading Supplemental is going from orange, yellow, or green $534 to $779, Red is going from $579 to $900. The phonics/spelling supplemental orange, yellow, or green is going from $249 to $502, red is going from $249 to $581. This does not include ATS for any of it. This is just the course price without ATS. We had toyed with the idea of going all Verticy next year for ds 4th who has dysgraphia/dyslexia issues and paying out of pocket instead of doing K12. The price increase probably turned us completely off of that idea. Our options now are to do the Grammar/Composition supplemental course alongside K12 (paid for by our charter). I am nervous that we will start one of the supplemental programs and then it will double in cost before we get to the next level. Right now the main one we would use as a supplemental is not increasing, but I know that when Calvert raises prices that they raise them extensively by hundreds of dollars. Looking at these increases, it would be more beneficial $$ wise to get the full grade level than to pay $900 for one course of reading or phonics/spelling. It almost seems like they do not want to encourage the individual courses as supplements or remediated learning, but want full students. I could be wrong, but if I needed the last level of reading or phonics/spelling for $900...I could get all the courses for $1800 or $2014 that means that those single courses are being priced at 50% of the cost of the full grade level courses. Something is off there.

GUM (Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics) by Zaner Bloser.