Online classes from different schools for high school?

[KJB]

I am thinking of having my daughter take a few classes online next year.

 

I am trying to decide between TPS, K12, and Memoria Press. Each has classes she would be interested in that would meet our goals.

 

Having never taken classes in this format before, I have a couple of questions.

 

First, is it unwise to take classes from multiple schools or is it better to pick one and stick with it? Is there any disadvantage to picking and choosing a la carte from different schools to make up the high school transcript? Is it a pain to deal with more than one online school?

 

How difficult/time consuming is it to take more than one online class at a time? Is it a bad idea to take for example a science class, a latin class, and a literature class or will the workload be too much?

 

Are these schools designed for you to really take a "full load" from them or are they really set up for a student to just take one or two classes at a time?

 

Also, anyone have specific experiences with these schools they'd care to share? Recommendations? Excellent classes not to be missed?

 

I know I've asked a lot of questions, here. Please feel free to answer just one!

 

Thanks very much!

[Lawana]

I can't answer most of your questions, since our experience is limited to one online middle school Latin class from Memoria Press. The time commitment is about 45 min a day plus the chat session. I think it would be doable to add more classes if that suited a need. I can't imagine having a conflict with using more than one source at a time, as long as the logistics work out.

Dd is really enjoying the Latin class and has developed a comraderie with other students in her class through the forums. That has been an unexpected plus.

Good luck with your decisions.

ETA She also takes science from a coop, so that may be similar to taking more that one online source.

[CO MOM]

We have used primarily TPS for online classes at the middle and high school levels. My dd has taken classes from other online sources at the same time however. One down side that I've noticed is that their schedules are different - e.g. for spring break, they don't tend to land at the same time, so she tends to never have a time with no classes other than Christmas/Thanksgiving. Another is the tech set-up seems to be unique for each and the way they want things submitted, etc. Both my kids and my dh are all fairly tech-savvy, so that doesn't seem to bother them, and I don't have to figure it out, thank goodness, but it might be a problem for some. Each has its own learning curve, but once they get going and used to it, they seem fine.

 

As far as a full load, other than the obvious drawback of cost, I think you can take all your classes from them. For TPS, they have a classical track that seems to encourage just that. However, that would be a very challenging load. TPS classes seem to be quite time consuming for the most part, so the most by we have tried at a time is 3/student. My dd is taking 4 online classes (2 TPS, 2 AP) this year, but one is more a recreational elective and she is a senior. Another disadvantage would be missing on getting to do things together and having less flexibility with scheduling, etc.

 

As far as the transcript, I just made a reference key as to which classes were from what sources, so I don't think that was a big problem. We have been pleased for the most part with the addition of online classes as long as we've found a balance.

 

HTH,

 

Jane