So I have decided that the only way to make everything in my life work is to have my 12 y/o do most if not all of his schoolwork online. We have tried the ALEX math online and I am liking it. I do sit next to him most of the time and watch/teach, but it is nice to just go to the computer and do math. My question is does anyone have any suggestions for other online curriculum. ALEX is only math. I looked at K12 and like the sample lessons, but still need convincing that I am making the best choice. I would love one that actually keeps track of everything for me. I just have too much going on and can't seem to plan well enough for my soon to be 7th grader. I feel like he is missing out on subjects every day, because i can't find the time to sit with him, or print out the material, or plan. Tell me your experiences please.
Does it have to be online, or would self guided work for you? If I wanted to go completely self guided with a kiddo your son's age, I would use: Math: Teaching Textbooks Writing: Writing Strands Grammar: http://englishgrammar101.com/ Science: This one is tough.. but Apologia comes to mind.. wouldn't work for us becuase it's Christian based, but it's self guided (for me I would have my DS work through Prentice Hall's Science Explorer, try to provide the needs for the labs and have him keep a science journal of the different questions asked throughout the book along with lab notes) History: Again, not sure how I would work this one.. for middle school we need to cover world history.. and our plans are to work through The Complete Book of World History and come up with lots of hands on projects and extra reading via living books. Oh.. I know.. have you looked at Robinson Curriculum (think that's what it's called).. it's not something that would work for us, but I believe it is meant to be student guided.
I have tried homeschooling him many times. Unfortunately he has been in and out of school. I have found some fantastic curriculum. We have used Writing strands and he hated it. I have a wonderful science curriculum, but it requires a lot of planning. History is SOTW and he likes it, but i feel like I need to do a lot of planning for it. English also requires a great deal of planning. He is just not your ordinary child. I homeschool my 1st grader as well and he requires me to sit next to him for almost everything. I just need more time in my day. Can we please have a 28 hour day! four more hours would be a great help.
My oldest, who is back in PS now, was not an easy kid to homeschool. He would do the work.. but only half, he didn't put much effort into anything, and I would have to stand over him. Writing Strands was the first program I found for writing that worked.. he didn't like it, but it was writing and he hated it period, but I didn't have to "teach" it to him, he just did it. Teaching Textbooks was another thing that was a breath of fresh air for us.. I didn't have to teach it, so I wasn't the one he was mad at about what he needed to do (even though he didn't put in much effort), he just did it. For a 1st grader, he shouldn't need too much time to do his work, unless he has a heavy load.. When my oldest came home in 2nd grade we were done with our work in 1 to 2 hours MAX. With my K'ers we dont spend more than an hour on work a day. Good luck, I hope you can find something to work for you... if you are into Christian based curriculum I keep hearing of some Monarch thing and also there is Switched On. Again, these wouldn't work for me.. but along with Robinson, they are the only things that pop into my head.
