K12 opinions

[....]

 Unfortunately, I am not capable of paying over $10,000 a year to school my children at home or anywhere else. It just isn't in the budget. 

 

99.99% of homeschoolers are not able to spend that much on homeschooling, either.  I spent around $300 last year and I have 5 kids - and 2 of them are teenagers.

 

Most homeschoolers are one-income families.  There are 7 of us living on one income (which can be terrifying at times).

[CAtoVA]

Liberty University (in VA) says it offers online courses ( a full program I suppose) for K-12. Their website doesn't seem to provide a lot of info but I found this: Liberty Online Academy courses are $495 each. For full-time students, the cost of tuition is approximately $2,500 to $3,000 per school year. Some families may qualify for special discounts.

 

Unfortunately, many of the schools I found when I was researching before start at grade 3 or 4 and above. There aren't  a whole lot of online options for grade 2 except for K12 it seems.

[kmstewart12]

99.99% of homeschoolers are not able to spend that much on homeschooling, either. I spent around $300 last year and I have 5 kids - and 2 of them are teenagers.

 

Most homeschoolers are one-income families. There are 7 of us living on one income (which can be terrifying at times).

I absolutely understand that a "traditional homeschool" curriculum can be made for much cheaper than those with teacher oversight. My issue is that, at least for now, I'm not comfortable creating and implementing curriculum on my own. So I'm looking for an affordable option to start at least. I have looked into private schools as well, and they are only 200 dollars more (on the low tuition side) than Calvert.

[....]

 I have looked into private schools as well, and they are only 200 dollars more (on the low tuition side) than Calvert.

 

I know, right!  Those prices are crazy!

 

I would honestly just try the K12 VA.  It's free, right?  If you end up not liking it, you can always withdraw your kids.  

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Here is some info from a previous post I made about K12 and online charter schools:

 

 

Here are some questions to ask the cyber school about their policies and rules since some afford more flexibility than others. We used K12 via Agora and PAVCS when he was in early elementary school. I would also ascertain their NCLB status and whether they have met the expectations of the PA Dept of Education since some schools in the past were threatened with closure. I am not up on the latest data. At the time we preferred PAVCS. Connections may be the next choice. Schools run by K12 may be my last choice since they have run into scandals before but again I have not researched this lately.

 

I would ask detailed questions such as:

1. Number of mandatory synchronous classes, flexibility in scheduling them.

2. Optional available classes that are available in all subjects. 

3. Mandatory state testing and face to face sessions including dates and locations and flexibility.

4. Test prep requirements for state testing.

5. Available teacher support, tutoring, office hours.

6. Required work submissions and dates for the whole academic year.

7. Grading rubrics, criteria.

8. Flexibility in completing lessons or order of lessons. For example, our school expects 10% completion of each course each month for a 10 month school year. I also can do a day of history if I like or do lessons on the weekend or at night as long as I mark attendance each official school day which takes 1 minute to do.

9. Any expectations or requirements such as health screenings, etc.

10. Expected supplies given.

11. Course acceleration allowed and under what criteria.

12. Length of school year and is the online school available prior to or after the official school year.

 

13. Are there mandatory times when student has to be logged onto computer or can they do lessons 24/7 as long as they sign attendance for that day.

 

14. Any acceleration allowed?

 

15. Flexibility in assignments on topics a student has mastered already? For example, if student knows content already may they just do assessment? 

Pris

 

[kmstewart12]

 

 

 

 

Here is some info from a previous post I made about K12 and online charter schools:

 

 

Here are some questions to ask the cyber school about their policies and rules since some afford more flexibility than others. We used K12 via Agora and PAVCS when he was in early elementary school. I would also ascertain their NCLB status and whether they have met the expectations of the PA Dept of Education since some schools in the past were threatened with closure. I am not up on the latest data. At the time we preferred PAVCS. Connections may be the next choice. Schools run by K12 may be my last choice since they have run into scandals before but again I have not researched this lately.

 

I would ask detailed questions such as:

 

1. Number of mandatory synchronous classes, flexibility in scheduling them.

 

2. Optional available classes that are available in all subjects.

 

3. Mandatory state testing and face to face sessions including dates and locations and flexibility.

 

4. Test prep requirements for state testing.

 

5. Available teacher support, tutoring, office hours.

 

6. Required work submissions and dates for the whole academic year.

 

7. Grading rubrics, criteria.

 

8. Flexibility in completing lessons or order of lessons. For example, our school expects 10% completion of each course each month for a 10 month school year. I also can do a day of history if I like or do lessons on the weekend or at night as long as I mark attendance each official school day which takes 1 minute to do.

 

9. Any expectations or requirements such as health screenings, etc.

 

10. Expected supplies given.

 

11. Course acceleration allowed and under what criteria.

 

12. Length of school year and is the online school available prior to or after the official school year.

 

13. Are there mandatory times when student has to be logged onto computer or can they do lessons 24/7 as long as they sign attendance for that day.

 

14. Any acceleration allowed?

 

15. Flexibility in assignments on topics a student has mastered already? For example, if student knows content already may they just do assessment?

Pris

 

Thank you so much for these tips! Some of these questions never even considered some of these! I will be sure to ask them Monday :)

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I will add that we used K12 charter school 6 years ago and I have heard that it has gotten to be very inflexible due to lots of kids not doing well with the program and NCLB. The curricula was great but many families were not a great fit for the cyber charter school model IMHO. Plus, I heard that the K12 run school had many more students per teacher than the non K12 run school that simply used the K12 curricula.

 

I will also point out that at the time K12 lessons had an overabundance of activities for each lesson which at the time we did not have to do all of them if child mastered the content and passed assessment. If we did every activity we would have spent tons of time on school even for K-3 and for the record I saw no problem with spending 6 to 8 hours a day with lots of breaks and fun activities.

 

Honestly, I think not doing a cyber charter may be less anxiety provoking for you (depending upon your personality) as it was for me. Now if we ever homeschool again for high school, I would probably do a mix of online classes (not charter) and homeschool materials.

 

 

 

[Garga]

You've mentioned a few times that you're not comfortable creating your own curriculum. I'm not asking in a snarky way, but do you know that you don't have to create any curriclum at all? Your choices are not between the extremes of either K12 or writing up your own curric by yourself. There is a middle ground. I'm only asking because you might not know.

 

I do not make up my own curric. I do not use K12. Instead, for each subject, I chose something already created.

 

I buy our math and language arts from CLE (Christian Light Education.). They send me 10 workbooks for each kid for each year. The children learn directly from the workbooks.

 

I buy my history from this website. The history books are called The Story of the World and I do whatever it tells me to do in the activity guide. Well, not everything, because there are many, many options. I read from the book and then we fill in a map or do an activity if we like. I don't make up what to do. I just pick activities from what the book says.

 

Same thing for science and reading and anything I do. I buy something from someone and do what it tells me to do.

 

It's time consuming at first to pick out the curriculum for each subject because there are many math, science, history, etc, choices. But I take this time of the year (spring) to figure out which books/curric to buy for the next school year.

 

I just wanted to be sure you didn't think it was only one or the other. You can use something like K12 and have someone create/pick out the choices for you, or you can pick them out yourself. You do not ever have to write them yourself if you don't want to. Ever. And a few other people have given you the names of companies that provide curric for all the subjects. I pick and choose from many companies.

 

 

Just throwing that out if there in case you weren't aware.

[CAtoVA]

Freedom Project Academy offers full curriculum online classes for grades K-12. Grades K-5 is $1800 per student for a full load of classes (5 subjects).

 

Starting at grade 6 a student can take classes as a full load or individually ($400 per class).

 

http://fpeusa.org/student-info/tuition

[ondreeuh]

I did look into Calvert and I was so amazed by the possibilities. It looked like Calvert was nearly 5,000 per child. Was I looking incorrectly? I really appreciate any options you can point me toward. Thank you :)

 

There are a few ways to do Calvert. One is through a public partner school, but there aren't any in VA.

 

For the cheapest homeschooling option ($1460 for 5th grade) they send you boxes with all of the textbooks, workbooks, lesson manuals, math manipulatives, pencils, paper, etc. Everything is scheduled out by day (literally: on day 1, the assignments for each subject are listed). There are tests in the back of the lesson manuals, and you can give those to your kids, grade them, and issue your own grades. Calvert has samples of the lesson manuals so you can see what they are like.

 

The other homeschooling option is to enroll them as homeschool students but WITH teacher support. The day-to-day stuff is identical to the previous scenario, but instead of grading the tests yourself you mail them to their advisor and the advisor grades them. That is $2040 for a 5th grade student.

 

There is also the $4000 option for the online virtual school - your student enrolls with them as a private student and they issue the grades. Instead of mailing your textbooks, workbooks, and lesson manuals, the student logs in and does the work online. This could be useful for a student who has to work independently, or in the case of a divorce agreement that prohibits a parent from homeschooling.

 

My kids learn better from books than from screens, and I like keeping on top of what they are learning and making sure they really understand what they are doing, so I prefer the homeschooling option. We did the cheapest version, and they offer a military discount plus a convention discount, so I got it for 30% off. They offer low-income scholarships as well. It's obviously more expensive than "free" K12, but the flexibility was soooooo worth it to me. I could cut out assignments and replace things without worrying about an advisor bothering me.

 

We did most of the 3rd grade this year, are finishing up 4th grade history now, and will do 5th grade science next year.

[mamamoose]

I think an out-of-the-box curriculum would offer more flexibility than K12. A good friend of mine did a year with k12 and they are leaving for less structure next year. I am really tempted to go with Memoria Press for my kids next year. I need to know they are making great progress and I'm concerned especially with my oldest. It's an out of the box program that is very open and go--people who love it really seem to love it! I don't think you will find much support for k12 around here. :)

[mamamoose]

I don't know what your religious preference is, but your oldest might like some of the programs offered by alpha omega in their Monarch program. :)

[momof4inco]

Calvert is about $1500 if you just buy the curriculum and do it yourself (no teacher oversight).

 

We did a Calvert virtual school through our district last year. It's not a terrible curriculum, I just didn't like the amount of work some days. There was a lot of busywork in 2nd grade, which was terrible for a get-it-done child. My boys in 5th and 6th grade didn't have as much busywork, but I feel like the writing instruction was very weak. 5th grade had far more work than 6th, which I found odd. 

 

I was wanting to get my kids out of public school a year ago, and I decided to go the virtual school route because I was afraid to do it on my own. After a year of virtual school, I feel like I can do it on my own with less stress. I have spent a lot of hours on this computer, finding awesome homeschool curriculum and planning next year. If you decide to do it on your own, these forums are a great resource!

 

I hope you find peace with whatever decision you make! Good luck!

Edited May 23, 2016 by momof4inco

[kmstewart12]

You've mentioned a few times that you're not comfortable creating your own curriculum. I'm not asking in a snarky way, but do you know that you don't have to create any curriclum at all? Your choices are not between the extremes of either K12 or writing up your own curric by yourself. There is a middle ground. I'm only asking because you might not know.

 

I do not make up my own curric. I do not use K12. Instead, for each subject, I chose something already created.

 

I buy our math and language arts from CLE (Christian Light Education.). They send me 10 workbooks for each kid for each year. The children learn directly from the workbooks.

 

I buy my history from this website. The history books are called The Story of the World and I do whatever it tells me to do in the activity guide. Well, not everything, because there are many, many options. I read from the book and then we fill in a map or do an activity if we like. I don't make up what to do. I just pick activities from what the book says.

 

Same thing for science and reading and anything I do. I buy something from someone and do what it tells me to do.

 

It's time consuming at first to pick out the curriculum for each subject because there are many math, science, history, etc, choices. But I take this time of the year (spring) to figure out which books/curric to buy for the next school year.

 

I just wanted to be sure you didn't think it was only one or the other. You can use something like K12 and have someone create/pick out the choices for you, or you can pick them out yourself. You do not ever have to write them yourself if you don't want to. Ever. And a few other people have given you the names of companies that provide curric for all the subjects. I pick and choose from many companies.

 

 

Just throwing that out if there in case you weren't aware.

Maybe it's the years of public school my children did, but even being in charge of knowing they are where they need to be academically is frightening. That's why I wanted something with oversight... Mostly just to make me feel comfortable choosing to keep them home. I know, for many homeschooling families this concern is absurd. But it's very real to me. I've looked at some of the boxed open and go type curricula and it's all amazing to me. I think you mammas who are so secure with your role as parent educator are amazing! I just don't trust myself to be there yet. I so appreciate all of your extremely educated opinions and options and I'm going to research them a little more, because I want to be very educated moving forward.

[Garga]

Maybe it's the years of public school my children did, but even being in charge of knowing they are where they need to be academically is frightening. That's why I wanted something with oversight... Mostly just to make me feel comfortable choosing to keep them home. I know, for many homeschooling families this concern is absurd. But it's very real to me. I've looked at some of the boxed open and go type curricula and it's all amazing to me. I think you mammas who are so secure with your role as parent educator are amazing! I just don't trust myself to be there yet. I so appreciate all of your extremely educated opinions and options and I'm going to research them a little more, because I want to be very educated moving forward.

 

 

Got it.  No problem.  I was just making sure you knew it wasn't all or nothing.  I know a number of people who do as you do: they start off with something with oversight and then move away from it after they've had time to research things/get their feet wet. 

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Maybe it's the years of public school my children did, but even being in charge of knowing they are where they need to be academically is frightening. That's why I wanted something with oversight... Mostly just to make me feel comfortable choosing to keep them home. I know, for many homeschooling families this concern is absurd. But it's very real to me. I've looked at some of the boxed open and go type curricula and it's all amazing to me. I think you mammas who are so secure with your role as parent educator are amazing! I just don't trust myself to be there yet. I so appreciate all of your extremely educated opinions and options and I'm going to research them a little more, because I want to be very educated moving forward.

To ease your mind, you could get a educational screening or diagnostic test done. For example, many tutoring centers will do educational assessments.

 

For less money, you could administer an educational assessment like Terra Nova which is available from Kolbe Academy. Seton also has testing available. These tests could give you an idea of your children's strengths and weaknesses.

 

As for a plan, The Well Trained Mind book has useful advice. Also, the WTM Academy has a tutor mom that could give you advice.

 

Lastly, Aleks can determine holes math education automatically.

 

What grades are your children?

[....]

Maybe it's the years of public school my children did, but even being in charge of knowing they are where they need to be academically is frightening. I know, for many homeschooling families this concern is absurd. 

 

How is that absurd?  I felt that way, too, when we first started homeschooling.  For the first few months, it seemed like we were doing something illegal!   :tongue_smilie:

 

If the VA stuff doesn't work out, try to get a copy of The Well-Trained Mind.  She's coming out with an updated edition this summer.  She maps out every subject from K-12th grade - in detail - heck, in the greatest detail of any homeschooling book out there...   :D   We don't follow the book and I still use it constantly for reference.  Her booklists are awesome - as well as her instructions for teaching writing (we actually follow her writing methods very closely).  She also has podcasts that cover specific areas (like how to teach writing) on the Peace Hill Press website and she has a handful of Youtube videos.

 

If you are interested in a free podcast where she explains classical education, I listened to this one last week while I was painting a room in our house (painting is so tedious, I needed something to listen to).  It was a pretty good interview!  http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/04/04/podcast-189-the-classical-education-you-never-had/

 

And even people who have been homeschooling a long time are sometimes worried about their kids, confused, curriculum-hop, unsure of what to do next, etc.  

 

Good luck with your decision! 

[kmstewart12]

How is that absurd? I felt that way, too, when we first started homeschooling. For the first few months, it seemed like we were doing something illegal! :tongue_smilie:

 

If the VA stuff doesn't work out, try to get a copy of The Well-Trained Mind. She's coming out with an updated edition this summer. She maps out every subject from K-12th grade - in detail - heck, in the greatest detail of any homeschooling book out there... :D We don't follow the book and I still use it constantly for reference. Her booklists are awesome - as well as her instructions for teaching writing (we actually follow her writing methods very closely). She also has podcasts that cover specific areas (like how to teach writing) on the Peace Hill Press website and she has a handful of Youtube videos.

 

If you are interested in a free podcast where she explains classical education, I listened to this one last week while I was painting a room in our house (painting is so tedious, I needed something to listen to). It was a pretty good interview! http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/04/04/podcast-189-the-classical-education-you-never-had/

 

And even people who have been homeschooling a long time are sometimes worried about their kids, confused, curriculum-hop, unsure of what to do next, etc.

 

Good luck with your decision!

Thank you! I will get a copy of that asap.

 

 

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