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Need advice for rising 8th grader-online school or piece together curriculum???


Kencam
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Hi!

     I am wondering if anyone can help us/give us advice.  We are missionaries serving overseas.  Our oldest daughter will be in 8th grade this next school year and we are trying to decide the best course of action for her.  If we are going to use an accredited online school for high school, we would like to start her this next year so she has time to adjust to the different style of learning.  However, we aren’t completely sure a fully online education is best for her.  She struggles greatly with math.  She’s been using math-u-see, which has been a good fit for her.  If we switch to an online school for accreditation and accountability, we will have to use their math program.  She takes several distance learning classes now for her other subjects, but she uses an actual textbook and then watches a teacher “teach” the lesson.  From what I’ve gathered of fully online schools, the textbook is online so the students read the text and then complete activities and homework online, so there isn’t any actual teaching done by a teacher.  Is this correct?  She struggles staying focused while reading her textbooks, so maybe reading the information online and doing activities interspersed in the lessons will help her?  We’ve looked at schools such as Alpha Omega, Enlightium, Liberty University Online Academy and a few others.  The other options we are considering are the Veritas Press Omnibus class (self paced) and the apologia science classes (self paced), continue with math-u-see as she does well with it, but would need to find classes for grammar/writing and electives.  These would all be included in an online school, but again, we would be locked into their classes.  And finally, we travel some and I’ve seen schools such as Alpha Omega and others have set schedules with end dates.  Maybe there are others that are a bit more open ended??  Anyway, I’m just wondering if anyone has used online schools and would have advice for us as we try to figure out the best way to proceed for the future.  Thank you!!!

Carrie

 

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Do you *have* to have online? Because there are other schools which are accredited which use actual textbooks and whatnot. But most of them do follow a formal school year with required testing dates and so on.

Is there any reason that you can't teach her? Because then you really could customize her learning.

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Hi!  Thanks so much much for your response!  No, we don’t “have” to do online.  I’m just feeling very inadequate and overwhelmed for teaching the upper levels, as well as all the planning for college (transcripts, testing, etc).  We thought it might “look” better to schools in the US for her to have an accredited program as we aren’t accountable to any state while overseas.  I don’t feel I would do a good job teaching/grading writing and the sciences get too advanced for me.  Maybe I’m just feeling very nervous.  

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I would say it depends on what level of involvement you *want* to have. I am confident that any mom who loves her kids and values their educations can find the resources, learn right alongside them, and give them a meaningful and deep education despite any holes in her own education. BUT ... not all moms want to do all that. Or are in the right season of life to do that. Or whatever. And that's ok! You just have to know what type of involvement you want to have and go from there.

I personally would have felt very confined with an online or accredited program. We came from the public schools and I already knew I didn't like the school dictating our schedule. I have a very lacking math and science background, but I learned Algebra and Geometry right alongside my kids. I handed science off to Dr. Jay Wile and never looked back. I bought IEW so I could learn how to teach and grade writing confidently. These boards are invaluable when it comes to guiding you through high school and transcripts and college and whatnot!

But some people like the handholding that type of program provides. It all depends on what your goals are and what your family's needs are. Good luck!

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Thank you so much for this!  It was very encouraging to me.  I really appreciate it!  You gave me several things to think about, and that’s good!  I would say I lean towards wanting more hand holding, but I’m not sure that’s what will work best for our daughter.  So I may need to break out of my comfort zone a bit and learn some with her.  I’m overwhelmed with all that needs to be done, but I’m so thankful for this forum to ask questions and find answers.  I also don’t like a school dictating our schedule.  We need a very flexible schedule to get our traveling done in the midst of ministry.  So that’s definitely a downfall of online schooling for us.  Writing definitely intimidates me, especially grading it, as I want her grade to be a realistic mark of her skill.  I’m very concerned I will give inflated grades in this area, simply because she’s my daughter and it’s hard to know what “typical” written exercises look like from her age group.  I tend to have rose colored glasses with my girls at times.😉  But, I will look into IEW and see if that would work for our family.  Thank you for your insights!!

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