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K12 courses, feedback? What have you loved/hated?


mindygz
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I am working out our plans for next fall and wondering if some K12 classes would be a good fit. My school age kids will be 1st, 5th, and 8th grades. We can enroll without cost to us through our district. I feel like having some practice with outside accountability would be beneficial for us, but I don't want to have a bad experience.  I'd love to hear feedback from those who have used K12.

 

Thanks!

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I am currently using 1st grade with my dd. I used K12 with my older kids up through 7th grade for the first two and 5th grade for the middle one.

 

I like K12. It has changed since my first time around - there is more activies online now: fun stuff in phonics and vocab is totally online.

 

My for daughter, I need to be there for most of the lessons. The only things that I can have her do on her own are vocab and the online phonics review. She has been able to complete the last couple of math lessons on her own, but they were review, otherwise, we do the lesson together.

 

Her favorite lessons are history and literature.

 

When my older kids went through 5th grade, I was partially, if not fully, involved in each lesson - meaning that it was still parent heavy. My middle was doing 2nd grade, which was very parent heavy. 7th grade is pretty independent, you just need to keep up with grading (which you pretty much have to do to mark off the lessons anyway). So, you will have one very parent heavy, one partially parent heavy, and one that is pretty much independent.

 

It is doable, but you will be busy during school time.

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We've used the K12 5th & 6th grade American History (concise edition of Joy Hakim's Story of US is the spine), and my daughter is currently using K12's 7th grade curriculum for world history (volume 1 of Human Odyssey is the spine).  Next year she'll use the 8th grade curriculum, which uses Human Odyssey volume 2.

 

She's using the courses one year young, and it's been a good fit for her.  If I use it with my free-spirited younger daughter I'll use it at grade level instead. 

 

I can't say I'm in love with it, but it gets the job done, and I'm happy with the spine texts, though we're supplementing with OUP this year.  I actually was impressed with how the 5th grade curriculum walked my daughter through writing a paper.  It was very effective.  But some of the assignments are busy work.

 

They don't offer the third year of world history (9th grade, Human Odyssey volume 3) as independent study, so we'll be on our own that year, but that's okay with me.

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I have used K history and 4th grade history online with my now 5th grade ds. I did it independently, meaning I purchased the courses and did not have teacher support (my district will not pay for teacher supported classes). I like the mix of activities that are online and offline. I like how there is "real" (substantial) modern history taught in an age appropriate manner. My ds enjoyed the classes very much. I did have to actually go over the material with him (sit next to him) even for the 4th grade history so I can't say it is independent at the early ages/grades.

 

I just started K12 science 1 with my 1st grade daughter but it is too early to give a comment. So far, she likes it but I am supplementing as it goes pretty "fast" and is not very deep.

 

For both kiddos I have used (am still using) K12 phonics totally offline as I own the guide books and the tiles. It is a substantial, thorough phonics program even if the readers are not very exciting.

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I have never used the online portion of K12, but I do have several years of their literature (I think 3rd-5th grade).  I purchased the teacher and student pages cheaply on amazon along with the appropriate books for each.  I have done parts of those grades with my kids when it has been convenient for us.  I like the program and think it's enough even without the online parts, although I think now they do even more of it online.  The lessons were varied and interesting, and my 2 children who have done parts seemed to enjoy what we did.

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We have used k12 for 3 years now.  I have 4 children so we have done k, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8th grade with them.  We have used 2 different charters.  The charter will make or break your experience.  I can show you what we receive with the charter from a blog post I wrote recently.  It is not nearly all online at all for the younger years.  Science is completely online, but the rest has books.  http://ourtidbitsoflearning.blogspot.com/2015/03/k12-and-charter-schoolswhat-does-it.html

What have I loved and hated?  Well it depends on the charter...We have done a virtual charter academy and a lab school.  The VCA was much more strict and more public school minded.  The lab school has been low key-books sent, classes worked, teachers available...but not so much test prep and insane scheduling.

I don't know what you will get with your options, but the books really are good.  1st is fairly typical.  You are still working on phonics-advanced phonics.  Spelling is not too painful.  Literature and Comprehension is not about reading but about learning how to analyze what you have read.  It is I believe a lot of Aesop's fables type story tales for 1st.  Science is a broad overview with fun experiments.  History is really SOTW 1 but online and sprinkled with read aloud stories.  I love the history.  Music is horrid before middle school and very babyish.  Art, however, can be fun.  Vocabulary is completely online and my kiddo enjoyed it.  Math is not horrible but not great either.  They send lots of manipulatives for math and sometimes jump from concept to concept.  Overall though, 1st grade was fun and my child enjoyed it.

Fifth grade is the last year before it shifts to middle school.  It is the last year k12 has spelling in the language arts.  The literature is always very good and there are many novel study options that you choose the novels from a list.  The vocabulary is a typical public school text.  Grammar is GUM Grammar and I loved it.  Composition is all online instruction.  I am not very fond of their composition courses.  Science is really good and all online.  It is the last year that it is an overview of science.  In middle school, it is content studied. 6th-Earth Science, 7th-Life Science, 8th Physical Science.  The history for 5th is American History through the Civil War.  It is Hakim's.  Music is Music Ace 1 and Art is artist studies. 

Eighth grade is the last year before high school.  You have Literary Analysis and Composition 1, Physical Science, Algebra 1, World History B, GUM grammar, Vocabulary from Classical Roots C, and Composition.  It is challenging and to be honest almost like 9th grade.  My oldest daughter went back to public school this year and it has all been review as k12's 8th grade courses are essentially 9th grade content.

Some of the novel studies are -Anne Frank, To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, The Yearling, A Tale of Two Cities, Lord of the Flies.

K12 does give accountability.  Most times though you are required to complete state testing if you are receiving it for free.  That is really the only thing that I strongly dislike.  The pros outweigh the cons for us.  I would not do the VCA again b/c they were very intense about test prep year round and study island.  I do not miss study island and our lab school does not require it.  I would find out in advance what testing you would be required to take and if you can find someone in real life who is taking classes through the school you would be and ask what they like and dislike.

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Thank you so much, Tidbits. That is really helpful. We can opt out of testing per state law so that isn't an issue, thankfully.

 

I will forewarn you that the provision to opt out of state testing normally applies to neighborhood schools and if you enroll in a charter school you often times are by agreeing to their terms and rules for free curriculum in essence signing a contract that says you will state test.  If you opt out, they do not have to let you re-enroll the next year.  This is something we ran into this year.

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  • 1 month later...

I know this is an older post but I wanted to add for future readers:

 

K12 is revising/rewriting their 3rd-5th grade Lang Arts to be more like the K-2nd. More online content, fewer books to juggle, color, etc.. So far, the new 3rd is ready to roll. I am hoping 4th and 5th will be ready in short order or at least by the time we need them!

 

I have found K12 to be well-balenced and well-thought out. It builds on itself each year in an appropriate way--meaning it doesn't douse the kid with everything there is to know about a subject all at once. It adds to their knowledge year by year. We like it.

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