Notability is much more user friendly for the kids to mark their workbooks. Easy to understand interface. Goodreader is much more organization friendly for me, and it is markable, just not as intuitively.

GoodReader for my own use. I have oodles of curriculum materials on it. Notability for working with my children.

I just took a look at Lori Pickert's book and website today because of this thread. I like the concept and guess I have been doing this for quite some time, but we call it "personal pursuits". I am going to post what we do in hopes it will help someone else who feels the need to combine pbl with a more classical education approach. We do structured school lesson time in the mornings, with all the typical subjects: language arts, math, science, history, etc. We tend to get finished with the "checklist" around lunchtime. The afternoons are reserved for "personal pursuits" where the children direct their own learning. They may read about a subject, experiment, observe, create a model, a craft or project related to the topic du jour. I am involved in a few ways: I do require that they spend some afternoon hours on their personal pursuits, but they decide the topic and the way they will explore. I help them brainstorm topics that may interest them and keep a running list. I help them find resources and supplies for their pursuits. I allow them to pursue an interest as long or as short as they desire (although for the older children with more expensive interests, I make sure they want to stick with it for long enough to justify the cost.) I have been amazed to see their knowledge, skills and enthusiasm blossom with this style of learning.

I give different types of checklists to my older and younger children. For my younger children (under 8), I use baseball card sheet protectors. I make cards out of halved index cards. One side has a clipart picture and the task written on it, the opposite side has a "good job" or other similar sticker. Each child has 2 sheets per day, one for school lesson tasks, one for chores. The sheets are kept in a daily folder for each child. When they complete a task, they turn the card over. When all the cards are turned, they know they are done for the day. For my older children (over 8), I use Evernote, and I love it! Each older child has a "notebook " in Evernote, and the app is installed on our two laptops and two iPads, and stays synced over all devices. I also have a "checklist template notebook" where I have a note for each child with a daily list of the school subjects they should complete, along with instructions for subjects that have repeating tasks. They also have their chore lists on this checklist. Then daily or weekly (whenever I get to it), I copy and paste the list for each child for each day and add/modify any instructions and add it to their notebook. Then they can check the list on any device and when they are done for the day, I can double check the list on my device. I would prefer to give them a weekly list and have them scroll to the right day, but they prefer daily lists, so I oblige, since it is really only an extra 5 minutes of work a day for me. The lists save my brain power for teaching and helping where help is needed instead of for repeating daily tasks to 5 school aged children. They still do occasionally ask "what do I do now" to which my only answer is "check your list".

My 11 year old son, who loves math and science, and is a very self-motivated learner in these areas, has been working through LoF Physics for a couple of weeks. He does find the subject matter quite a bit more challenging than the Fractions and Decimals and Percents books. However, on topics he really doesn't understand straight from the LoF book, he finds a corresponding video on Khan Academy and has been making good progress in the book. I have him do each "Your Turn to Play" section and self-correct, and then I grade each Bridge. He says this is his FAVORITE Fred book so far!

My children and I have come up with something we call Personal Pursuits for them to spend their time on after the official school and chore lists are checked off for the day. I sit down with each child at the beginning of the month and come up with a list of 3-4 interests they have that they will work on that month. These interests really vary based on age, gender, and just plain old changing interests. I try to help the child think of things that they are interested in learning, developing a talent, or just trying something new. I also try to limit the cost and level of my involvement required. My younger children have enjoyed drawing books and videos (janbrett.com has some great drawing videos). All of the children have been interested in basic stitching projects from time to time. This activity does require a lesson or two from me, but after that I supply some fabric or plastic mesh and thread and let them practice. Other pursuits have been origami, bird watching, various cub scout activities, finger knitting, chess, computer programming, gardening, paper crafting, paper airplanes, various collections, cooking, baking (both of these require my help and supervision for the actual activity, but the cookbook browsing and ingredient shopping lists can be done alone), etc. Topics they have wanted to learn on their own have been The White House, army uniforms through the ages, outer space, bugs, reptiles, guinea pigs, etc. I really do expect them to spend time on these personal pursuits each day, but am unconcerned with how "productive" the end result is. In other words, if they choose gardening and really do spend some time everyday puttering in the soil with some seeds and a trowel and hose, but only 1 seed ever sprouts, and nothing ever flowers or fruits, oh well. They still gained valuable experience from that exercise. I also allow frequent changes (every few weeks, not daily or weekly) as new pursuits spark their interest and old ones fade away. Hope this helps.

I used K12 through a virtual school this year for ds11 & ds9 as a jumping off point into homeschooling. It did give me some time to learn about my boys' learning styles and what works well for them as far as curriculum. However, I found the curriculum to be very rigid, and inflexible for my sons when they needed to slow or speed the pace. I was constantly contacting their teacher (who was very helpful), to get permission to modify this, adjust that, etc. I also found all the "paperwork" and "accountability" for each item on each assignment, and each school hour of each day, to be excessive and a great waster of my precious time. There is also a heavy emphasis on testing, which I am not fond of as an extensive means of evaluation. I will be homeschooling without K12 or the virtual school next year.