In Louisiana we were waiting for it to be approved for the 2010-11 school year but of course they didn't vote on it, something happened as usual, so it isn't gonna be an option for us next school year. We are hoping for the school year after it will be. I have read alot about it but haven't totally made up my mind if I'll go that route. It does sound exciting though.
I don't know much about the program but one thing that puts me off on it is that kids (homeschool kids included) that school through them are on Yahoo Answers all day long cheating! They, like so many other online schools, obviously don't change the assignments so the kids just post the chapter they are working on and others will post answers. I don't think it is a real problem for most homeschool parents, except those parents who work and think their teens are home doing school when really they have a little "homework" circle going online.
If it is the same one they have Connections here in AK. One of my good friends has her oldest on it. It's not her favorite but he needs to be enrolled to play highschool sports. They definately have more control over your kids than what I would like.
Wow, I didn't know it wasn't going to happen this year. The Connections Academy says it will be available August 2010. I was curious about it myself.
I like to start my school year in June and then go easy when we want. I don't like the idea of someone else telling me what days to study on and how long and so on.
Oh and I don't know if it is an issue to you but they do not let you use Christian material. Just a thought.
Here Connections Acadamy is public school only at home, you follow their rules, their days, their hours, etc.
After looking them both over, it does sound very similar to K12. I am looking into something like that for my 9yo ds...I think he needs to be responsible to another adult besides me and I know that if someone else was checking to make sure things got done he would do them with less fighting with me. But I do hate how much control they would have over us.
For high school, I wanted someone else to be responsible so we are using distance learning program. I love the staff at the school we are using but hate the price and the curriculum. Next year, we are switching to a different program. The thing that is nice about the private programs is that I can say when they start and what they take, at least some of them do. The one I have picked allows it. So, while we have someone else to grade papers and such, I can pick when to start a class, when to end it, what to take, etc.
I looked into this just today. I liked the sound of it until I watched a clip of a family that uses this. The mom said it was school at home, not home schooling. I would like to be more flexible then what this program provided. I would like to be somewhat scheduled, but not so ridged.
From what I read, it is not home school at all in the legal sense. It is public school at home. You are considered a public school student by the state.
That is true. Maybe I won't be doing this after all. I don't like the control the PS system has over kids.
if you are looking for another teacher there are better choices out there, check out SOSAcademy, and Abeka Academy, and what is the other one out there? MY friend used Jubilee Academy out of CA. so you could chekc wiht them too.. I am not sure of the costs, but in Science I got a catalogue yesterday with Apoligia Academy listing its courses for HS!
I know a family that does both the Connections Academy and K-12. They like it, but they have never homeschooled. We tried K-12 this past year, and I will say that I will NEVER go back to K-12. It didn't work for our family. You cannot just take a day of here and there. They are really strict, every teacher doesn't care what the other teachers are giving, they want their work done, when they say. We were over whelmed. I wanted to take a vacation in October for 2 weeks and make it up - Absolutely NO!!! Of course that was high school, Kindergarten was a little better, but we just sent everything back. They do "give" you all the books, computers, printers and just about every other thing that you would need, ie. science kits. Of course you have to return them when you finish. Everything is done on-line and faxing. Any other questions, please feel free to pm me.
Ohio Mom - Any idea of what you want to use next year? Back to abeka?? I'm still going to use abeka with dd but ds is a mix again and I'm not positive on all of it yet.
I used them for 1 year and didn't like it. They give you everything and tell you what you have to do for every assignment. I found myself sitting there wishing I could change many of the lessons to make them more interesting or more indepth. You can't change anything. Everything has to be done in their order, on their schedule, and sent in. We even had one packet get lost in the mail and it made for quite a nightmare!! I guess if you want to be told what to do every minute of the day it is a great program, but if you want the freedom to adjust things for your child than it isn't the right program to use.
