Question for K12 Independent users

[morgan]

 I have been homeschooling a long time and really enjoy pouring over curriculum choices and spending the day homeschooling my kids. Unfortunately, life has been turned upside down and I find myself tackling the CPA exam and starting grad school, while my now disabled husband homeschools our youngest dd10. He isn't well, so he doesn't have a lot of energy most days, but our kid really wants to stay homeschooling so we are hoping to make it work. 

 

I am trying to find more independent options (preferably secular) for 5th grade and I am wondering how much teacher involvement is needed for K12 5th-6th grade levels. I am not referring to using K12 through a charter school, we would be purchasing it as independent users. 

 

 From the sample lessons it looks confusing, like you are reading online but need to get out books, CDs, etc to finish a lesson. Is this something a 10 yo would need a lot of parental involvement with?  And any thoughts on the quality of the courses?

 

Thanks

[school17777]

At 5th & 6th grade, your child should be able to do most of the work independently, but will need to discuss what they learned with you such as the history, literature, etc.

 

The lessons are delivered both through the internet and through books and hands-on manipulatives and experiments, etc...

 

I was happy with the quality of the courses. I last used those grade levels five years ago, so I am not sure how much they may have changed since then.

 

My friend is currently using 4th and 5th grade with her girls. The 4th grader needs zero help, but the 5th grader does like her mom to interact with her while doing the lessons.

[SoCal_Bear]

It's pretty independent even though I am using those levels or higher for my 8yo in history or science. Agreed on the discussion, but generally that isn't too taxing. It's well laid out for students to follow what they need to do. There's a student guide that goes through what needs to be done. For science, students will likely need some assistance/supervision of the experiments depending on the experiment - gathering the materials, setting up and performing the experiment.
 

My son enjoys these courses. 

By the way, there is a trick to getting your money's worth as an independent user for K-8. When you sign up, you can buy one or more courses. Since I don't want math or music, this totally works for me. I buy 2 courses which gives me 12 months' access. Then what I do is block schedule my son. You can call in to do a course swap as many times as you like. So, I will maybe have science and art chosen, then we do a lot of that. Then in a a week or two, I might swap out art into history and do that for awhile. Then whatever order I want to swap around. You can swap in and out of any K-8 course you like and as frequently as you like. Your progress is saved in the system, so it picks up right where you left off when you swap around. We usually progress through far more than a two courses. Maybe 1 1/2 years worth of 4 courses for the price of 2?

Language Arts would be pretty difficult to not have daily access because of the way it is structured, so if you are thinking you want to do the full LA course, then that would be need to factored in. I only use the literature component of the LA program so I just swap in and print out everything I need and then swap back out.

We also do school year round so that's how we get a lot more mileage out of using it independently.

Edited April 18, 2017 by calbear

[Guest]

We LOVE k12 as independents. I do the same as the poster above. I buy two accesses then switch courses around as we finish them. For 5th, the current version is all offline. The others you must have online access to use. We also skip the science experiments for k-5th. I also do not buy the science/art/music kits. You don't need them.

 

 

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[Guest]

Just wanted to add that on eBay there is an all subjects new current 5th grade set selling for $220. It's not my listing, but I thought it might help the OP with cost of materials.

 

 

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Edited April 18, 2017 by Paradox5

[CAtoVA]

I just learned something new!! I've been using K12 independently off and on for about 8 years and NEVER knew you could "swap" courses for courses. This works only if you buy the monthly option for 12 months, though, correct? I always bought whole courses in one sum (like $249.00 minus 10% for paying in full) so I guess that isn't "swappable" (?)

 

I like your idea of block scheduling and swapping out classes!!!! So, you just call them and say.."I would like to try xyz class instead of what I signed up for" ? And you get switched and can switch back if you want to?

 

I agree that most of the book materials are either not necessary or can be bought cheaply used on Ebay, Amazon, etc.

[CAtoVA]

Okay, I just went on the website and it looks like the pricing choices may have changed from when I last used it about 3 years ago. Could I pay the 12 month unlimited access fee and then get to switch the courses around? Or is switching only for the monthly options, including pay-as-you-go?

 

Oh and there is a 20% off sale going on right now.

[SoCal_Bear]

I pay whole year at one time with the 10% discount. I have never done monthly. You just need to call this number. You tell them you are an "independent user" and want to do a course swap. 877.431.9635. After awhile, the people figure out who I am. I just say my name and they know my account info by heart since I call in so much! I usually switch as we complete units. Like I will do a unit of science, then swap to art, then to history, etc. Or sometimes, we stick to a course longer because that's what my kiddo is into at the moment, so I like having the momentum/motivation working for me.

I never buy the materials. I can usually get the books used somewhere, and I have so many science supplies, I usually have whatever it is that is needed.

Edited April 19, 2017 by calbear

[morgan]

Thank you for all the replies. I didn't understand about the course swaps, that makes it a lot more appealing. 

[SoCal_Bear]

Sometimes, I will ask to be swapped into a course for the future when I want to see what the scope and sequence will be. That's how I decided to use the K12 Physical Science and not the Advanced Physical Science for my son who really wanted to do Physical Science right now. I was able to determine that I could make it work even though he was younger than the intended grade.

 

[CAtoVA]

So, I have been paying the full price minus 10% and only doing one course not knowing I could swap out courses!

 

Can I swap ANY course, like do a 7th grade course for my DS and then swap out for a 4th grade course for my DD? I mean, do they "care" and think it's for another person and not allow course swapping across grades?

Edited April 20, 2017 by chiefcookandbottlewasher

[SoCal_Bear]

They don't care, but the only time that will be a problem is if you want your DD to do a course that your DS already did if you have a combined account since you can't erase the completed work. So, at some point, you probably would want to think about when to switch to a "new" student profile.