Please share your online class experiences for logic stage children

[Penelope]

I am strongly considering online schooling for next year, and thought maybe some of you have experience to share, good, bad, or neither.

 

I'm mainly interested in options that are *not math*, since we seem to have plenty of threads around here about that.

 

If you could share what online academy you used, what course you took what grade/age your cd was, and your impressions. How they did, whether it was a good experience for that child, whether you would recommend the course, how much parental input was needed, and anything else you can think of.

 

Thanks!

[arcara]

My 8th grader has been taking Center for Lit's online class this year. It's been great! Mr. And Mrs. Andrews are very engaging. They meet about once every 3 weeks online and discuss an assigned book. I like the class because my dd is reading lots of great literature and getting to participate in in-depth discussions on them, which is something I just don't have time for, especially not for 12 books in a school year. My dd has enjoyed it. We will enroll in their classes again in the future!

 

(They offer a writing component, but we haven't done that part, so I can't comment on it.)

[EndOfOrdinary]

My 8th grader has been taking Center for Lit's online class this year. It's been great! Mr. And Mrs. Andrews are very engaging. They meet about once every 3 weeks online and discuss an assigned book. I like the class because my dd is reading lots of great literature and getting to participate in in-depth discussions on them, which is something I just don't have time for, especially not for 12 books in a school year. My dd has enjoyed it. We will enroll in their classes again in the future!

 

(They offer a writing component, but we haven't done that part, so I can't comment on it.)

Would you be willing to post the link to the class. My son might be ready for this in a few months. He is really liking the library book club, but wants more advanced books.

[arcara]

Here it is: http://www.centerforlit.com/Courses/2013-2014.aspx

 

They just started a new session. I don't think they do summer classes, so I think you would have to wait until fall to begin.

[Julie of KY]

My 9th grader just took the Center for Lit high school class and really like it as well.

 

The only other online classes we've done are math (AoPS).

[happycc]

Check out attuneup as an option. 

 

Even though you are not looking for math--I am curious of all the math online classes. 

[KarenNC]

My 8th grader is doing several online classes this year:

• Classics book club---Virtual Homeschool Group (www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com)--free---facilitated by a high schooler, which is working better than I first thought it would. The group reads various classic books and discusses them. It's aimed at high school, but she's done it both last year and this year, so it would depend on the level of the student. She wouldn't have been ready to write about these works, but it's doing well as an introduction to the books, and she enjoys it. They meet for an hour once a week online, no homework other than reading the book. My involvement is helping make sure she has the books available and, in the beginning, reminding her of class times and asking if she'd done her reading.
• Saxon math--Virtual Homeschool Group--free---this is an at your own pace course, with recorded voicethreads, online grading of tests and problem sets. My daughter prefers to do the problem sets from the book on paper, but does the tests online. They also had a live class this year, but it didn't work out for our schedule. She prefers the voicethreads to the Art Reed dvds we used last year. There are online office hours for students to get extra help if needed. My involvement has been checking problem sets (because she prefers the book--the online problem sets are self-grading) and keeping her on track with doing lessons regularly.
• Spanish I ---Spanish Clicks www.spanish-clicks.com----just the cost of the materials (about $100) this year through VHG, but regular classes are $399 for the year including all materials----meets once a week for an hour in virtual class, then the students work on exercises, voiceboards, etc during the week. Entirely teacher graded. My only involvement has been checking in with her regularly to make sure she is on track with her assignments.
• Literature--Virtual Homeschool Group---Topic is "The Influence of inequality on literature and culture." The class looks in-depth at 4 different works (Killer Angels, Uncle Tom's Cabin, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Raisin in the Sun). She's had to turn in short written responses, learned about some various web tools, and will be doing a research project. My involvement has been similar to the above---helping acquire materials, checking in on whether she's done her assignments, etc.

VHG class offerings change each year because it's all volunteer, though the at your own pace classes are available year round. They have a wide variety of courses, some of which were too religiously-oriented for us, but others which worked. I've been very pleased with the ones we've used and we'll be using them next year at least for math (other classes will depend on what's offered). We'll also be continuing with Spanish Clicks at the regular price, since the teacher only volunteers Spanish I through VHG.