Murrayshire Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Has anyone seen or used this? I came across it yesterday and haven't explored it to its fullest yet. It is free for grades K-12 and has all different kinds of classes with lesson plans for the student. I signed my 3 dc in this morning to see what it's all about! I do know that it is not common core based on the information that I got from someone in my homeschool group. She actually called the company to ask. I am going to cross post this to the logic & high school boards as well. http://discoveryk12.com/dk12/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Victoria~ Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Following :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 I'm a little skeptical of the fact that there's absolutely no information on the website identifying who's behind this. The "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page only shows an email address, and the "About" page that you get when you click on the company name at the very bottom of the page leads to a generic blurb with no real identifying information. Seems odd that they wouldn't have any identifying information on there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 I'm a little skeptical of the fact that there's absolutely no information on the website identifying who's behind this. The "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page only shows an email address, and the "About" page that you get when you click on the company name at the very bottom of the page leads to a generic blurb with no real identifying information. Seems odd that they wouldn't have any identifying information on there. As am I. And how can it be "free"? Major skeptic, I am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teeniebeenie6 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Well www.homeschoolbuyercoop.com normally sells them and is sharing the deal on their site. They have seemed to have a close relationship with Discovery for some time, so I would guess it is legit. Here is their link in case it is different: https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/discovery-education-streaming-plus-free-trial/?c=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5LittleMonkeys Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Well www.homeschoolbuyercoop.com normally sells them and is sharing the deal on their site. They have seemed to have a close relationship with Discovery for some time, so I would guess it is legit. Here is their link in case it is different: https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/discovery-education-streaming-plus-free-trial/?c=1 It isn't the same thing. I did a quick google search and the name of the person who founded Discovery K12 is Sheri Wells. She lives in Orange County, CA and has this info listed on her LinkedIn account: I'm currently working on a variety of projects in transmedia including mobile games, e-books, and technology platforms. Specialties: - K12 Education - Transmedia Storytelling - ARGs (Alternative Reality Games) - 20 years C-level exec for digital media companies - 20+ years application development - 10 years mobile and SMS expertise Her website is only a year old. It's a work in progress I'm sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insertcreativenamehere Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 I think they are two separate things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murrayshire Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 Discovery K12 is not part of Discovery Education, I do know that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocelotmom Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Thanks for asking. I was looking at it a few days ago, and found that the name is rather difficult to search for effectively! I have to wonder whether this was intentional. I haven't looked at it extensively, but it looks very similar in nature to Easy Peasy, which is also free, so the free part doesn't seem all that strange to me. It was floating around last year under the name Palomar K12, so you might get more info by searching for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 I see a 'sample student account' but I can't find anything with reading lists or what their science, history or math progression is. They have no scope and sequence given for anything. I see on the student account a list of assignments, but I see nothing to indicate that there is any actual instruction. I see the student is to write an 'essay about how the human eye works' but I don't know if the student is given any instruction about what constitutes a good sentence, paragraph or essay. I see only 5 math problems assigned for the day and a single example given with no explanation of how or why the math works or why the student should do what they need to do to solve the problem. What if the student needs help with something? Or the parent? Is there anyone there to help them or provide any instruction? And it just popped up whole cloth and offers a full free curriculum from years k-12? And no one has ever heard of the educator behind it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susankhan Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 If you email the site you should get an answer pretty quickly. I emailed them and with in a few hours had my answers :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chris07ss Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 Someone above mentioned that it was called Palomar K12 and that looks to be the case. From what I understand (as said above) it's just like Easy Peasy by Lee Giles in the sense that she created it for her kids and wanted to share it. There are lots of youtube videos to explain concepts, if the student doesn't understand something then ya it's up to the parent to explain it (or look it up with them). We're going to try it out although I wouldn't call it a full curriculum, it looks good. I'm still wondering how the grading works though. It's free and doesn't require any personal info other than an email address. Doesn't hurt to try! Got my info here: http://gettingsmart.com/2013/08/palomar-k12-free-online-homeschool-platform/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocelotmom Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Here's my thoughts after looking at it further: You can see the complete year by clicking on "Past Assignments" in the student account. I've only signed up for 5th grade, so that's the only one I've looked at. I really can't see the math being adequate - most days seem to be "watch a video and do 4 or 5 problems" (at the 5th grade level - the only one I've signed up to access). I suspect I'd substitute Khan Academy for the math if I were using it (not because I think KA is necessarily the best math curriculum, but because it's a more comprehensive and adaptable curriculum that's similar in nature to this). There's a lot of "Take notes" and "write an essay" without any instruction (that I see) on what that means or how to do it. History seems disorganized to me - the 5th grade year starts with colonization of the US, absolutely whizzes through the Revolutionary War (gosh, I've been around Creationism debates too much I guess - I wrote that as Evolutionary War), and then back to early explorers. Science seems fairly scattered as well - I get the impression that there's more breadth than depth. It's hard to get a good picture of the whole year since the subject overviews are pretty vague (but note that the subjects covered do seem to be in the order that they are covered, so you can get an impression of the scatteredness from that), and the only way to see the whole thing is by clicking through day by day. Supposedly they're soon going to allow mixing and matching grade levels, and that will be a definite improvement. I think it could use a parent dashboard where parents can easily control multiple students. Overall, I think it's probably a great resource for crisis homeschooling, when people are just starting out or are overwhelmed and need SOMETHING that doesn't demand a lot of parental involvement in planning or execution (or money - it uses public domain books, so everything is included unless you want to buy hardcopies of the books). I don't think it would be adequate used long-term without supplementation. I think it has the potential to become a great resource if they got people skilled at curriculum development involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murrayshire Posted July 12, 2014 Author Share Posted July 12, 2014 Ocelotmom~ Do you mind if I quote your review to my homeschool group page? There was a discussion about this program and I feel your opinion would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocelotmom Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 agreeing with Ocelotmom. I've clicked around in the 3rd grade level. within first week optional writing assignments are typing 3-5 paragraph essays on the reading of their choice. (intro your topic, state your opinion, state why... I'm not seeing much instructing... just assignment). a little later they are writing plot summary.... for social studies and science, they are expected to make a power point presentation of what they learned (this is in first week????). the art (so far) is to learn how to use GIMP. so far the grammar is read some slides but no assignments on it. spelling is word list (look up word with online dictionary, copy the definition, ) lots of it feels more about "get them using technology as quick as possible even if you don't have the basics down with paper". I'm not anti tech... but something feels shifted in the wrong direction. at this level, it's still going to need plenty of parental involvement. I'm not sure I'd suggest it to someone just starting homeschooling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakersey Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 I looked through the 7th grade lessons. For science, it referred me to a Wikipedia article (not an acceptable source, IMO). There were several misspellings and the math, as mentioned before, was minimal at best. I also noticed that their "library" consists of public domain books - mostly ones published before 1923. For literature, this might be fine, but I certainly don't want my kids learning about the Brontosaurus in Science or eugenics in history. I could pull together better resources over breakfast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingmama Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 I think Easy Peasy is a lot better. I was looking at the K schedule. On the very first day it tells you to read a book and write a sentence about it for Literature. Then further down for Language Arts it starts teaching the alphabet and gives a worksheet for learning to write letters. Surely if the kid just wrote a sentence for the previous activity they don't need to be practicing letters..... and if they are just practicing letters then why on earth are they asking them to write a full sentence? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 I was somewhat turned off by the wording, "non common core". Not that I'm looking for common core or looking to avoid it, but that seems like a weird thing to say. Besides which, I'd prefer the term "uncommon core." ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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