Annette72 Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Hi everyone...I came across this forum from hours and hours of searching homeschooling for my 16 yr old. I am removing my son from the public high school here in FL and was searching for an online education for him, but my head is spinning after all weekend of digging through the internet. He is 8 1/2 credits behind from failed courses and my son and I both feel that at home he will have a better chance of graduating and hopefully moving on to a higher education. Does anyone here use online schools or do you all prefer to do all of it yourself? I have been looking at National Connections Academy and The American Academy, but it is so hard to know which online schools to really trust my son's learning to. For those of you that might be using a online environment how do you really decide if the program is an honestly good program? Any advice would be appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bugs Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 I don't live there, but doesn't FL have its own on-line academy? (Free?) Maybe someone from FL will chime in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annette72 Posted March 27, 2011 Author Share Posted March 27, 2011 Yes Deborah, we do have free online through Broward Virtual, the online program, but you must have a 3.0 in order to apply and even then not all students get in from my understanding talking with my son's guidance counselor. We also have FLVS, Florida Virtual, BUT no high school diplomas are given through there, which is why I am looking at other options. I would home school him myself, but I know that would be an utter mess of constant arguing. He really is smart, test scores on yearly tests are very high, but in public school the social life has taken over while the academics are a mess. He has expressed that he wants teacher interaction and feels he wants some power point presentations or video instruction and not 'just' books to study from. He also desires something self paced that he can complete at a faster rate. This home school stuff is really hard to figure out when trying to do it with only 1 1/2 yrs of high school left :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in AL Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Oak Meadow is a very good program. IT has online courses that I think you can do self paced and the work is checked by a teacher. K12 is another. Veritas Press and Potter's School are what I would consider extremely good quality. Both have online actual "classes"that you attend once or twice a week. You can't self pace with these. We find the instructors very engaging, but classes are 1.5 hrs long, so they do eat up a chunk of your day and most require a good bit of homework throughout the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in AL Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Also, most homeschool students don't earn an actual "Diploma." They are usually home generated. Homeschool students get into great colleges and receive excellent scholarships without an certified diploma of any type. What really counts are good test scores ACT or SAT, outside grades are a plus and good extracurriculars or a passionate interest that the student has developed and explored. If you for go the diploma you have a huge variety of choices for school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annette72 Posted March 27, 2011 Author Share Posted March 27, 2011 Michelle, Thanks! I was still browsing the net and now came across Oak Meadow, Laurel Springs, and Northstar academy. I had no clue there were so many choices out there! :confused: I think I have narrowed it down to The American Academy, Oak Meadow, Laurel Springs, and Northstar Academy after looking at about 30 or so online schools. I think I have pretty much now thrown out National Connections Academy, looks so expensive compared to some of the others and some of the others seem to be more educationally nurturing. My son just wants to finish high school, I want him to gain a love of learning again, but just without him knowing it is happening :tongue_smilie: I am so glad I found this forum, even if we are going a bit different route than some on here, it is still nice to see so many involved parents in their child's education! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jibaker103 Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Yes Deborah, we do have free online through Broward Virtual, the online program, but you must have a 3.0 in order to apply and even then not all students get in from my understanding talking with my son's guidance counselor. We also have FLVS, Florida Virtual, BUT no high school diplomas are given through there, which is why I am looking at other options. I would home school him myself, but I know that would be an utter mess of constant arguing. He really is smart, test scores on yearly tests are very high, but in public school the social life has taken over while the academics are a mess. He has expressed that he wants teacher interaction and feels he wants some power point presentations or video instruction and not 'just' books to study from. He also desires something self paced that he can complete at a faster rate. This home school stuff is really hard to figure out when trying to do it with only 1 1/2 yrs of high school left :/ I have used Texas Connections Academy at Houston which is the free public school version of National Connections Academy for my son the 1st semester of 9th grade. From what you described as far as what your son is looking for it may be a great fit for you. I will give you my pros and cons based on what we have experienced. All of the teachers were wonderful, knowledgeable, and caring about the success of their students except the Spanish teacher we had. The Parent is the Learning Coach not the Teacher which really cuts down on the amount of arguing. I loved saying ask or check with your teacher, I didn't make this rule your teacher or school did! There is lots of support for the student and Learning Coach, if you take advantage of it, at least once a week. Almost every class has some sort of Teachlet to view at the start of each lesson. The lessons are open and go, structured for independent student use, and easy to understand but you must stick to the schedule outlined. Some classes didn't care how far you worked ahead and others did (depends on teacher). Technically all high school students are suppose to stay within the same week to make the Live Lessons more relevant. If your student falls behind because of struggling with the subject you can call the teacher during office hours, email, anytime, or attend math tutoring (offered twice per week in the evening) but the work load keeps progressing daily and you are required to complete it. Each class has Live Lessons scheduled at least twice per week at different times for the student to attend but the students rarely get to use microphones to speak (they type in the chat box). The teachers do not use video cameras but use PowerPoints and still have lively interactive sessions. Biology classes have no real dissections, they are virtual which was dissappointing for my son. Spanish classes had no live Spanish conversations allowing the students to practice what they have learned. We left the school not because it was horrible but because my son struggles with math a great deal. Before entering the school he only got 1/3 of the way through Pre-Algebra and our state requires all 9th graders to take Algebra 1. He could not keep up the pace with understanding and was relying more and more on me to reteach at a slower pace. The required daily work kept piling up along with corrections/revisions of low scored quizzes and tests. We were both filled with anxiety so we decided together that he should drop the program and go back to Pre-Algebra and go at his pace. We do miss getting up in the morning and logging in with daily lessons all laid out and ready to go but I am also happy that my son can pick and choose the type of classes he wants to learn and we can go at a pace that suits him. All of my experience above is based on the free ps version in TX. Ds did take Digital Photography during Summer I through National and he enjoyed it. I have also glanced at the National classes for the regular school year and might consider one or two if my son craves the interaction again but it will not be math or science for sure because of what I have stated above. If you have any other questions feel free to ask me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annette72 Posted March 27, 2011 Author Share Posted March 27, 2011 Jennifer, that helps a great deal! TY! I had my son here with me and we have 90% decided on Laurel Springs, but I will keep National Connections in mind if Laurel Springs is not something for us after I speak with them. My son really likes Laurel Springs course choices and the idea that he gets college counseling (if what they proclaim is true on their site) and that he can start within 2-3 weeks, which was a big plus for him too. I will let him read your post about National Connections and see if that would continue to be an option for him :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jibaker103 Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Jennifer, that helps a great deal! TY! I had my son here with me and we have 90% decided on Laurel Springs, but I will keep National Connections in mind if Laurel Springs is not something for us after I speak with them. My son really likes Laurel Springs course choices and the idea that he gets college counseling (if what they proclaim is true on their site) and that he can start within 2-3 weeks, which was a big plus for him too. I will let him read your post about National Connections and see if that would continue to be an option for him :001_smile: I'm glad he found something that he likes. Let us know how it goes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
74Heaven Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Hi everyone... I am removing my son from the public high school here in FL and was searching for an online education for him, but my head is spinning after all weekend of digging through the internet. He is 8 1/2 credits behind from failed courses and my son and I both feel that at home he will have a better chance of graduating and hopefully moving on to a higher education. .........For those of you that might be using a online environment how do you really decide if the program is an honestly good program? Any advice would be appreciated! Annette - welcome! This is a very diverse group of homeschoolers, but many of us have chosen homeschooling as a career choice and the degree of outsourcing really varies! Especially if your son is 8.5 credits behind (that is more than a year in WA state where I am?), I would predict that the likeliness that he is highly self-motivated towards academics is unlikely. That kind of leads me to point that there really isn't any place, online service or DVD service that you can "trust" your son's education to. It will likely require many hours of supervision and oversight to make sure he is applying himself, keeping up on assignments and working hard. There *are* self-motivated students out there, they just aren't as common as we like to hope. So homeschooling, in essence, is often a tutorial approach in the younger years and slowly grows toward a supervisor approach as students mature and become more self-motivated. We did Bob Jones University (BJU) DVDs in 4 subjects a few years ago for my daughter's junior year. We had 3 NonDVD classes also that year. I found that the instruction was excellent on the DVDs, but I still had to give and correct quizzes and tests, monitor and correct or go over homework and make sure my daughter was paying attention to the DVD. I kid you not, that was the year my daughter learned to "doodle" because she was unsupervised and uninterested in some of the DVDs and was too often tuning-out from the video instruction. For our family, I have found that DVD instruction can only be 1-2 hours a day TOTAL and not back-to-back hours. Best wishes on your homeschooling journey - it is worthwhile! Read, pray and study on how *not* to be your child's adversary when discussing, doing schoolwork with teenagers - that is probably my biggest battle!!! IN Christ! Lisaj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danestress Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 I am thinking that you may be able to transfer those "accredited" passing classes to an online academy. That would be good. I would look at k12 international as well as Oak Meadow and Laurel Springs. Would he be a junior next year? One of the crucial questions for you is whether they will give him a diploma based on those transferred credits he has completed. Will they transfer those so he ends up with one transcript reflecting all of his course work? I know that Oak Meadow will allow it's "enrolled" students to take classes elsewhere and transfer them from an accredited place as long as they have 3 hours of credit from OM for that year. So if he were taking English, History, and Spanish from OM but liked K12's math, you could do that. Ask about this for your son. Also, Oak Meadow does all of it's AP classes through Aventalearning.com. Aventa also does "credit recovery" classes, and if certain subjects are especially challenging for your son, I would ask if he could do those through that credit recovery program. I have been looking at all these options for my son too. He's an athlete with a heavy training schedule, so our situation is different from yours. But I will say that OM has been incredibly nice and helpful over the phone. They do allow you to start classes at different times. So you could enroll your son now in two classes, finish them (for example) in September, and then enroll in more. You can start any class whenever you choose, but have to finish in 10 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 My oldest son earned a diploma through American School. My younger took the GED after dropping American School, which was a mistake. I let people convince me that a "gifted" student deserved "better". American School is the oldest and best known correspondance school. There may be "better" schools...but...AS has a solid reputation and there are no surprises. I don't like surprises :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Look at all the courses offered free online at Khan Academy and at Hippocampus: http://www.khanacademy.org/ http://www.hippocampus.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Yes Deborah, we do have free online through Broward Virtual, the online program, but you must have a 3.0 in order to apply and even then not all students get in from my understanding talking with my son's guidance counselor. We also have FLVS, Florida Virtual, BUT no high school diplomas are given through there, which is why I am looking at other options. I would home school him myself, but I know that would be an utter mess of constant arguing. He really is smart, test scores on yearly tests are very high, but in public school the social life has taken over while the academics are a mess. He has expressed that he wants teacher interaction and feels he wants some power point presentations or video instruction and not 'just' books to study from. He also desires something self paced that he can complete at a faster rate. This home school stuff is really hard to figure out when trying to do it with only 1 1/2 yrs of high school left :/ Annette it's great that you want to help your son graduate. I don't see why you couldn't have him do courses online through FLVS and then provide a home school diploma yourself. It might be an especially good option for the remainder of this year at least and then you can decide what to do next year. It sounds to me like he may need to consider graduating a year later to make up for the credits needed, not only for graduation, but to be able to succeed in college if that's his goal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloggermom Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 If you want an accredited diploma that is truly SELF-PACED I recommend Park City Independent http://www.parkcityindependent.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleHouseHomeschool Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Annette, You do not have to have a 3.0 average to get into FLVS. You might if you are a public school student. But if you are a homeschooled student, you don't need a gpa at all. You might want to pop over to www.fpea.com for more information on homeschooling in Florida. This is the Florida Parent Educators Association. This is a great place to begin. They have a beginner's guide that will be very helpful to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annette72 Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Yvonne, no you are totally right, you do not need a 3.0 to get into FLVS you need a 3.0 to get into Broward Virtual. The problem with FLVS (we used it for course makeup) is that it does not offer a lot of course selections. He would only be able to take 4 core classes in the summer. It has the core classes, but is limited on the rest and really I would rather have a situation where he is at a school that he receives his diploma at. I have a severely autistic daughter also and she requires full supervision when she is home from school. That puts a kink in my time to really do any kind of homeschooling myself so it really is just not an option for me. I plan to have him up and working online from 9am -3 pm everyday. He will be going back in a few weeks to an online program, work through the summer then again next year and see where we are. The funny thing is, when he took a make-up course at FLVS he got an A without issue. It is not his ability that is lacking it is the fact that in public school he would rather chit chat, socialize, and hang out than do his work. If he is at home and everyone else at school that will no longer be an option. I am glad he asked for online and wants to graduate and go to college so that really is the first step anyway :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memphispeg Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 We were in a similar situation here but, we are not in FL. We used an umbrella school and developed our own curriculum. My dd outsourced her language to an OSU on-line course (1 hr./ day). We use books, etc. for the rest of her studies. I sat with her and we made our curriculum decisions together. This was probably the coolest thing about getting to homeschool. Talk to your ds while you are researching and outlining ideas....he knows more than you think!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annette72 Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Thanks for all the input from everyone, I really appreciate it! We decided to go with Laurel Springs. I called them today and am very thrilled so far after speaking with a guidance counselor. They were very informative, answered all my questions, and believe he still has a chance to go to a University, which I was happy to hear. They seem more than willing to work with us to help him keep doors open for his future, which was my greatest concern really. They sent along the placement exams, are already requesting his transcripts from school , and are fast moving! The school is not cheap, but it has accreditation and will give him his best **** I think. We shall see how everything goes. Again, thanks for the input from all of you. I am going to continue following these forums for sure!:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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