This is our sixth year of homeschooling and what we have decided to do this year (A Beka virtual school) is just sooooo different... in a good way! It has taken so much pressure off of me, I just can't believe it. The kids do have a long school day (from about 8:30-2:30, plus time for any work that was not finished in that time period), but we are so much happier. My kids are loving it. They say the teachers are funny and they love doing it. I was burned out and it feels like a huge weight was lifted. I do still have to do "traditional homeschool" with my youngest, but just one is not so bad at all. Anyway, just wanted to update everyone on how it is going since we started.
I was looking into the A Beka virtual school recently. I did read a lot of posts about the day being long. To me 8:30-2:30 is a reasonable school day. I saw some posts that said the school day was much longer. Are most of the assignments done during the lecture? The A Beka curriculum that I use calls for class work and homework. This is something we may consider switching to or maybe BJU virtual school.
kmarie30, I also think it's a reasonable school day for 4th and 6th grade. It might go until 3:30 if there is homework, but so far my kids are finishing around 2:30. This includes breaks and lunch, etc. There is independent work time scheduled in that gives them more time to finish assignments. A lot of work is done during the lecture online. Emma's#1fan, thanks! cornopean, For the grades we are doing, it's $795 per grade, but if you enroll during certain times of the year, you get $100 off (which is what we did). BJU is $995 per grade. I do not know if there is a discount.
It's actually VERY reasonable when you consider many private Christian schools use Abeka and the price of a year of our local private school (K4-8) is $3,600 PLUS registration fee, application fee, books ($275), and shirts (required). And to do the online highschool program at home through Abeka under the private school (which is not required in our state) is $360/month!
My ds12 is done around 3:30pm; somedays are longer than others but it's worth it when you see them make progress... Keep up the great work!!
