thinking about doing this with DS next yr. I think that it might work very well for us.

search my posts in this forum on k12 and our experience.

it was awful for our family. i felt the same way you did...so much so i nearly paid for it outright and then found out georgia would pay for it for me.

bad idea, that. we now public school (happily.)

We use and have just enrolled for next (pending funding). I will gladly post more, but it is getting late and this mama is heading to bed. Look for more tomorrow.

Search in this forum for posts...there have been several recently. Generally, the experience seems to be that it's too much work, from what I have read.

This is my 6th year using K12, I currently have 4 in the program K-6 grade. I am very happy with what it has to offer.

hey girl, one other thing I did not get a chance to mention about LVS, is that the principal is very "home school " minded. His vision for it when it started was not just to be 'public school at home" but to really fit the homeschooling life. OS I have heard from quite a few people in this area that it is pretty user friendly, no hours etc to keep track of.

I did see they have some info meetings in May in Lawrence if you want to drive over together.

Great seeing you today!

I was wondering if you would be here T! Yeah - I would totally be up for an info session. PM me with what works for you. I am very flexible :lol:

It was great seeing you and the kiddos too! :)

Are you looking at this as an independent user or as a virtual school enrollee?

We are using it as a virtual school. It is a superb program. There are multiple activites for each lesson, you do not complete them all--unless you choose to--but rather you pick and select the ones that will most benefit your child and his learning style. We do find that an average of 4 hours a day is necessary for this program. My son is ADHD (and now unmedicated) so I am sure we could "do school" more quickly if I could keep him consistently on track. Our decision to stop meds is what led to our homeschooling. He could not function in b&m school without them and we just hated the side effects in him.

History and art are linked, so you study the same era in both at the same time. Some literature units tie in that era as well. I like that history is chronological. I hated jumping around in time (this is why unit study tends to be a poor choice for us--I have to rearrange the units into order). Science does cover a broad spectrum of subjects during the year, but I think at my sons age, he would be burnt out after a few months of the same topic. Spelling is a proprietary program, along with the history, art, music, science and literature. Math utilizes Sadlier-Oxford textbooks, and language arts is a combination of the Exercises in English workbook and K12 material.

Here is a c&p of a pm to someone on the topic of K12:
There is a good deal of parent involvement in 3rd grade. Math: 5-10 online skills update problems as a refresher before the days assignment and the rest is parent taught, textbook for assignment and then a written assessment. Spelling, Lang Arts and Literature have no student online components in 3rd. Science has a good deal online in an informative slideshow that goes along with any books used for that unit and the project/experiment. History is almost all online, some geography workbook early in the year, written assignments. Art coincides with History and an artist/style will be shown online, followed by student project. Music is not my cup of tea, but many like it. Combo of online, cd/dvd and performance. There is a "standard" time for each lesson, ie: a lit lesson is 60 min by default, spelling is 20 min by default. The OLS tracks the lessons completed and you mark the time, by default or change to reflect actual. There is also handwriting to log in LA and independent reading to log in lit. Field trips can be logged for the subject involved, ie historical trip, science for marine center/zoo, etc. The attendance time is not a difficult rec to meet. Our hours are set by the state of FL, not K12. It is flexible so you can mark time off for vacations, just know you have to make up the work sometime. And if you have to take a test (like FCAT for us), you can not be gone when the local ps gives the test.

There is a lot of writing in K12. I do some of the assignments orally with DS as it would take him 10x as long, minimum. I try to limit his work to 3 large writing assignments a day. I am not sure what they do if the standard test results are not where they want.

Have you reviewed the sample lessons:
http://k12.com/get_a_taste_of_k12/k1...ons/index.html

It is a bunch to take in, but the program is tops. I created another log in with dif. email addy to register as an independent user and there is no way we could afford K12 on our own. Esp. once DD starts next year.
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I would do it as a virtual school.

infact a neighbor is using the program and her son and Evan would botrh be doing 4th grade next yr. She told me that she doesn't do the history journaling and that they just do the weekly comkposition and that she feelis this is enough. it seems like it would be a lot if you did it all - but you do not have too. they will be done on the 19th this month and are 83%finished and were told next yrs supplies will be ordered for them

i am very very tempted! (how does it work for the ADD child?)

We are carrying over history, art and music as we are not even close to completion on those subjects. I have to admit that I despise their music program, but have heard from others with musical abilities that it is a great teaching program.

Ross is taking his lit. assessment as I type. We are on track to complete spelling, lang arts, math and sci. by the 28th of May (our virtual districts last day). I will likely work on the history, art & (gag) music over the summer months. We will not receive the 4th grade materials for those subjects until 3rd coursework is completed. We are 42? hours above what is required of us. That I am attributing to a combination of field trips (sci center, marine center, co-ops, etc) and the fact that sometimes my boy just spaces and daydreams on assignments. When he does, the work takes longer to complete. Some days I can just tell he is not going to pull out of it and we change course for the day. Other times I can tell it is more of an attitude issue and then I do push a little harder for him to complete his work (maybe switching some activities in a lesson, maybe a combo of written and verbal work....) I have learned to mix things up a little to keep my ADHD boy involved. On my not-so-fine days, I have resorted to telling him this is just the way it is, do the work or he can start third grade all over again next year. The VA is like a shield I can pull out: blame them, not me, this is the work we have to get done. Again, not my finest day when I pull that card.

I feel very mixed on it. I have used it through a virtual school for two years. I recommended it to friends, but now I am not so sure that it is a great fit for everyone. I am feeling a bit controlled right now and I am thinking of taking a year off.

We tried it and didn't care for it - I think my opinions can be found by searching this forum. :) We found the coursework to be very dry and the record-keeping very labor-intensive.

Just reading what people had to say... but had to say hi! I haven't seen you in forever, Michele!

We tried it and didn't care for it - I think my opinions can be found by searching this forum. :) We found the coursework to be very dry and the record-keeping very labor-intensive.

through a virtual school there are no records though, correct, for me to keep. and what, if any are the motivators to keep kiddos on track?

T when do you want to go to a mmet and greet?

My DS enjoys most of his course work. Somedays are more writing intensive than he would like, but we do find the lessons interesting. The only dry subject IMO is music (can you tell I just do not like the music, LOL).

DS enjoys sharing his work with daddy at the end of the day and with anyone else who will listen. History has quite a bit of journaling work, so I can see how that might dissuade someone who doesn't care for that. Science is a mixture of reading and hands on projects.

Ashley, if there is anything you'd like to see, there are sample lessons online and they will set up a sample OLS account if you register as a possible independent user. I can email you a copy of something if you are interested in a specific course or lesson. Have you seen the scope and sequence online? Their site has so much info, it is easy to get lost navigating it.

PS. I've got to find my stamps or get to the PO. I have the stickers for your girly. Sorry for the delay!

I think I am headed to a session in a few weeks so I can talk to ppl and see it all! I jsut am nervous to make things smooth next year.

we are decorating the brace this weekend! I think we might run our of room! :lol: :hbeat:

If I live in a state where I don't really have to do anything... at all... would this be worth it or would it just be a big pain in the backside?

We don't have to keep any kind of records or have any requirements for what we teach our kids. I remember seeing in another post that someone else was saying that she didn't have any requirements like that in her state either, so it just made a lot fo unnecessary work for her, so I've been wondering about that.

I've thought some about trying out the virtual school, but the idea of public school at home scares me a little. We are so used to just doing what we want to do when we want to do it I'm not sure if we could adapt to 'school at home' vs homeschool.

We have used K12 for two years and have always scheduled somewhat. Here is what I think about the amount of time it takes. For us, if the curriculum works, then it allows plenty of free time to be learning what you want. It works great for my oldest dd. My 2nd dd has some reading issues and it is not working for her. We will most likely drop LA next year. Different kids are just different :)

then it allows plenty of free time to be learning what you want.

do you do extra things or do you let DC have their own exploration/play time when done?

This is my 6th year using K12, I currently have 4 in the program K-6 grade. I am very happy with what it has to offer.
We are too.
We are in our second year of K-12 with a virtual school. We are part of OHVA here in OHIO.
DD is going to start K next year with OHVA (who uses k12) and we do a ton of stuff with the school, a lot of fieldtrips and other school or parent initiated stuff.

Yes, we have to do our school work, we have to be accountable for what we do. I like it that way. We have to do the state testing etc, but to me, that is not a big issue. I know what I did and I know where we need to work a bit harder by receiving feedback from the teacher.
A new thing our school is offering next year is foreign languages for elementary/middleschool. I love that, since we already do that (they will use powerglide).
We work right now 4- 5 days a week and get about 30 hrs total each week done (including extra stuff we do, like last night when we went to the museum for 2 hrs). I can add up to 12 hrs of extra curricular activity to our hrs each week.

I think it is very flexible. Right now I watch my grandbaby once a week and we basically get no work done on wednesday, but we make that up on a different day or on saturday/sunday. As long as I get my 25 hrs each week, I am in good shape.