I like k12's music program. In fact, it was what came to my mind when I read the OP. That said, I agree that most people do not like it. It teaches music concepts in a way that is painfully slow for the intended age. However, I think that the 1st and 2nd grade levels are perfect for younger children. I don't have experience with the kindergarten level. I have done Beginning Music 1 & 2 through a virtual school with a 2nd-3rd ds and am currently doing Beginning Music 1 with a 1st grade ds. The ds doing it now rolls his eyes at the silly songs and doesn't want to do it, but he loved it as a 3yo. I also now have a 2yo and a 4yo, who love to sing the silly songs, and do drag their brother into it. The k12 music program uses the Kodaly Method in the early years. I'm not sure how closely it follows that method, since I had never heard of it before we did k12 music. Basically your children learn movable-do solfege (do, re, mi, etc.) and rhythm syllables (ta, ti-ti, etc.). They learn this very gently through listening, singing, playing games, and moving their bodies to gradually learning solfege hand signs and placing notes on the staff, and clapping and writing rhythm patterns. I have seen the benefit to this program for my oldest ds, especially the solfege training. However, if you have an extensive music background, or you expect your children will learn music concepts later through other methods, you might find the program tedious.

Looks like you already got your answer. My dd agrees. She had an easier time with World History A than with the American History courses.

Yes, you would have to pay the monthly fee for the Online School for the K-5 music. The actual lessons are online. I suppose you could use the materials without the lesson plans, but you would be missing a lot.

Book Adventure is a free site that has quizzes for books through 8th grade level (and prizes). I don't know how the quizzes compare w/AR though. I am only familiar w/AR because Renaissance is based in my hometown.

Renaissance is the company that has AR.

Phonics is(are?) for reading and spelling. Since your son is reading easily, you could concentrate on phonics for spelling rather than reading. My first dc learned to read easily. Since I thought phonics was merely for learning to read, we dropped it. When she hit about 4th grade, it became apparent that dropping phonics altogether had been a mistake. Even though I taught her to read with Alphaphonics, she seemed to have memorized her way through. She was a terrible speller and could not decode very large words. We have since remedied those problems, and with subsequent children I have made it a point to focus on spelling from the beginning. Can your son spell all the words in where you are at in PP? You could start where you are in PP have him spell through a lesson orally, with magnetic letters, or in writing, instead of reading it. If you did that you probably would just want to pick a number of words, not necessarily the whole list. ETC would work well too for focusing on spelling.

I agree, but I don't know if resources are still available with the old Z-B cursive. If not, Cursive Connections has a traditional style workbook. That's what I used to teach my daughter cursive, and it was very similar to what I learned in school.

I have not looked at any other modern readers recently, but judging by my own school experience, K12's readers are better than any I've seen. They remind me more of old (19th and early 20th century) readers than of what I remember from my childhood. The 1st and 2nd grades' readers are largely fables, fairy tales, folk tales, and poetry. Units using the reader alternate with units that use trade books and nonfiction selections that are printed in the student pages (in 2nd grade anyway--I don't have experience with 1st grade, but I do have the reader). The readers for 3rd grade and up are similar, adding in more legends and myths--and Shakespeare in 5th. Again, there are a other units interspersed--units where the student or parent chooses a novel, adaptations of classic novels in 4th and 5th (e.g. Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe), and nonfiction units that use magazines with articles reprinted from the Cricket Magazine Group. Literature is my daughter's favorite part of the curriculum.

My experience with a VA has been very good. I think each school and each state is different. Our state does not start testing until third grade, and although I do not have a student with learning disabilities, I know others whose students are allowed special accommodations for testing. I was pleasantly surprised that my daughter, who is two levels below grade level in math scored "Proficient" in math. Her first year of testing (Testing here is in fall, so this score did not reflect K12 at all.), she scored in the 39th percentile, and the next year, after a year with K12, she scored in the 65th percentile.

My kids have enjoyed these books: Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda, Brian Wildsmith's Christian books--Creation, Joseph, Exodus, Mary, Christmas Story, Jesus, Easter Story, and Saint Francis, and Tomie dePaola's Christian books: Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Miracles of Jesus, Parables of Jesus, Christopher: the Holy Giant, Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland, The Holy Twins, Francis: Poor Man of Assisi, The Lady of Guadalupe I have not read all the Wildsmith or dePaola books, but, in my biased Christian view, the ones we have read seem to just tell the stories.

When my children are learning multi-digit multiplication and division I allow them to fill out a blank multiplication grid each day, which they may use while working on their math assignment. (I check it before they start working on their actual assignment.) Dd14 used it through about 6th grade. At some point, she began to recall the facts more quickly than she could look them up and feels it was helpful for learning her facts. Ds10 is still doing this, and it is definitely helping him get the facts down. I don't think I would just give the child a table to use, but our system of having the child fill out a table to use seems to work.

Zaner-Bloser has a place where you can make worksheets with their handwriting font. Also, I have not tried any of these free handwriting fonts, but I assume you would just use these in your word processing program.

Two of my dc have been in a K12 VA. I agree that the curriculum is great. I think the experience people have in a virtual school depends somewhat on the particular state and the school itself. My dd really thrives on the interaction she is able to have with her teachers and other students, so she enjoys the school and is doing better academically now. However, the online classes and teacher conferences really drained my ds. Dd will be going into her 3rd year. We pulled ds out because of the extra requirements, but if we had the money would use K12 independently.

I think that maybe EIE is intended to be a supplement to VIE. The TM is merely a student book with answers in it. The sample on their site is a typical lesson. Each page covers one concept and has the box with definitions and/or examples.

I just realized I did not answer your question at all. Again, I never used VIE, so I am not sure how to compare what it covers, but yes, EIE is just a workbook for each grade.