Okay so Ive been homeschooling for over 15yrs but Im rather laid back and not a pushy mom.So I started worrying about my 10yo being on track with public school(his other brothers are all grown and only one lives at home).So I thought , wow, Virtual public school, basically free curriculum plus I can get back on track since we seemed to do so little last year. WOW Im just hating life and its only been 5 days of school.I like the overall K12 curriculum but the pace is insane.The math takes us forever and all the writing involved is unreal.I cant believe they do this in public school these days.If so we are in trouble.And they can only miss one on the tests or have to redo everything. We start at 9am and dont finish till 3pm.With a 1hr lunch break.And we havent even gotten to the online teacher directed classes or any of the electives like Art and Spanish. My son is bright too, he reads books that I read, but not anymore, no time.He is not so good with his writing skills but can dictate quite well, his handwriting is pretty bad.His math is probably not up to par but I didnt think it was unrealistically behind. Ive always been more like an unschooler and this is just sooo overwhelming.I cant afford to buy more curriculum either. Should I give it more time? Has anyone else ever quit after only a week? I dont want to be a flake either.
Do you think he will ever be going to PS? if not, there is nothing to keep up with. If you are preparing him for that eventuality, stick with it. I personally would hate to see him lose interest in learning. You say he is bright, a good reader, but you didn't do much last year. So how did he get to be that way?LOL If he is continuing to grow and learn, who needs busy work? Brush up on math if you feel he should, but that can be done in real life. Don't forget how many free worksheet resources are out there, too. Living books, life experience, all free!
If you can't afford a curriculum and don't like what you are doing, there are plenty of free, online programs. I have a hard time controlling myself online because there are so many good resources out there.
Frankly the requirements placed on kids in PS today are atrocious. They are expected to all learn the same way, the same subjects, at the same pace. Not real life expectations at all! If he's not going to PS in the future, I would drop K12 in a heartbeat and utilize the free resources out there.
I agree. You're going to burn out by switching styles cold-turkey like that. Unless you plan to send him to PS, there's no reason for him to be doing all that.
We used K12 with a virtual school and hated it, also. You are not alone. That was one of my two main complaints with them-the workload was too intense. We literally (3 students) would work from 9-4p and still not have everything done, since they also required virtual classes and Study Island to prepare for state testing. My other complaint was they were not flexible. Math for my 8th grader was too hard because she didn't have a good grasp on the concepts and I wanted to switch to pre-algebra. But they would not allow it. They would rather have her fail utterly than bump her down a grade in math. The certified teacher agreed with me and said she wished she could help us but the 'board' would not allow any changes, even in this case. So my oldest daughter was the first to drop it (over the lack of flexibility math book after about 4 weeks), kindergartner dropped it second (because of the ridiculous workload they expected of her, about 6 weeks ), but I still struggled to hold my 6th grader in it, but he quit after about 4 months, if I recall correctly. I wouldn't feel bad about quitting if I were you. IMO its worse to struggle through the year. If you can see its not a good fit and if you basicly have no plans to return to ps, then by all means, end it. How else could you have seen what the school was like unless you DID enroll. I understand about not having $$ for curriculum but I'm sure you can find some things to use on Ebay, Half.com or something, even if its bare bones (core subs only) at first. That's what I'd do during certain years when we've been REALLT tight.
Oh yes, and you mentioned that your son enjoys reading but now doesn't have time? That happened with my oldest daughter, too. She didn't have TIME to read since she was always reading her assignments and had her nose to the grindstone. By the time she'd finish for the day, she was too tired to read anything for fun. It totally ZAPPED all the enjoyment out of learning and being inqusitive. Boo on that virtual school!
We have a similar free program here, and I have heard the same things about it. The programs aren't really designed for homeschoolers. It's really just public school at home. I would not use the full-time program for that reason. My DS did not do well in public school, so there's no reason to think he would do well in public school at home. Is it possible for you to just buy a math book on amazon.com (they can be very cheap, I bought a few textbooks this year for $8-10), or see if anyone in your homeschool group could let you borrow one? And then just use library and Internet resources for everything else?
If it is not working don't use it. I think you can tell when things just need a little more time and this is just not for us. I think it is just not for you. You know the areas your son really needs work. Why not spend the year focusing on those areas. If you can not afford new curriculum you can look at used curriculum or if you belong to a local hs group see if there is anyone who can lend you a good curriculum for the year (or until you can get the money to buy). I would think the only thing you would want a curriculum for is probably the Math, Writing and Handwriting (sloppy handwriting can cause problems in Math, just something to think about.) History and Science you can just use Library books. Combine the Writing and the other subjects by having him work on reports and paragraphs about whatever you are discussing. It is better to have a good foundation in Math and Writing than worry about the extras.
As far as I am concerned, anything public school is made for the masses. It is made so the state can pat itself on the back. It is political and our children are given little thought when these programs are put together. Public school has become a competition. This is why public school children are loaded with work and little is actually learned or retained. Okay, I will step off my soapbox. But first I want to add and agree with everybody that you can find a lot of free online. Use your library and if your child likes to read, let him run with it. After all, we learn to read and read to learn.
I must say I am satisfied with the cyber-school Rachael is in. She only has to take one class per semester, and can go as fast or slow as she wants. But I also believe that this is the exception.
I haven't used a cyber school, and K12 does have pretty advertising. But NOT having time to read is a huge red flag. I don't think there is anything flakey about dropping something that isn't working out, and imho dropping it when you first realize it is much better than having months of headaches and frustration trying to make it fit.
The other problem is if I end up sending him to PS High school, I dont want him to be too far behind. I did this to give my lazy behind a good kick in the pants to get me going again.But I didnt expect such a hard kick My dh told me last night that I should just do what I want and ignore the schedule they've imposed.Having been "cowed" as a child by the ps teachers this is scary for me.I dont know what I will say when the teacher starts up with me about keeping up.My dh works for the ps in another town and is used to dealing with teachers(database manager). He also said if I dont want to do that I could just give it at least 8 weeks.Then if we still hate it, quit.Then my son will appreciate me and what I ask him do so much more(LOL)..And I'll appreciate my freedom to homeschool so much more too:lol: I think we will try it for a few more weeks and see how it goes.We really do like the science part.I love the spelling and vocab, its challenging and he even likes it.
T-mom, Rachael is in ECOT...the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow. She's taking Honors English this semester, and French 2 next. Plus this quarter at the community college she'll be taking (FREE!) Calculus, Psychology, and Government.
Ugh... We did K12 the first year we homeschooled with my oldest. She was in 7th grade at the time, and we paid for it ourselves. We only purchased the main 4 subjects, and she was doing school 40-50 hours a week... and that's not even including breaks for lunch, etc. It was insane! Way too much busy work. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like had we added in extra-curricular classes as well.
I can't help but thinking that maybe the public school students should be doing K12...maybe it would improve their test scores ~LOL. Okay, maybe that was mean to say but based on what you said in your post, I highly doubt that the majority of PS kids are doing that much work on a daily basis AND retaining it. I've been out of the classroom for 7 years now but what your kids are doing on K12 does not sound like what happened in my high school classroom. We did not work at that pace and many of my students were not working up to grade level in every subject. If I wanted them to master the material, we were always behind schedule. IMHO if it becomes a burden to your family, don't force it. You don't want your kids to begin to hate learning. If you don't want to scrap it entirely, will K12 allow you to slow down the pace?
