I'm having a hard time this year homeschooling, for a couple of reasons. 1) I work from home and it's often hard to juggle my time. 2) My kids are getting older and the material is getting more complicated, and their requirement of time is increasing. I'm looking at online schools for next year, at least for some of the subjects. I've looked most closely at Abeka (streaming videos) and K12 (independent study - our state doesn't have the public school option). Does anyone have experience with either of these, or other online schools, that they can share? My main concern is that the presentation is interesting enough that it will keep my kids engaged. Watching a video to learn school seems pretty boring to me, so I'd want the teaching method to make up for the fact that my kids are not there in person! I plan to be as hands on as possible, but am hoping to find a resource to take over some of the teaching for me! Thanks for any help!
We use K12 independently. My question for you is....how old are your kids? If they're in the younger grades (I have a 2nd grader), it's definitely not something kids will do completely independently. The material is excellent and very challenging but assumes a great deal of parental involvement. If your kids are fairly independent, they could walk through the lessons independently to some degree I suppose. They're definitely engaging, as far as the interface and content goes. But at least at my daughter's grade level, not something I could walk away from and have her complete on her own.
I think age and how self motivated your kids are is going to be a big factor in whether any of them will work at all. My niece did K12 in 5th grade, what she was SUPPOSED to learn was great, the lessons were engaging and the material was really good.... but her mom thought that she didn't have to be involved.. so she wasn't, and niece wasn't self motivated at all. She bombed big time, was kicked out of the program and had to return to mainstream school (she was using a virtual).
I agree age and kids' personalities are a huge factor. Abeka and K12 seem to me to both be solid programs. Though if I were choosing betwen those 2 options I'd go with Abeka for 2 reasons- 1. it's Christian based and 2. it's not aligned to common core. While Abeka meets (or exceeds) most of the CCSS it doesn't utilize the teaching methods required to be CCSS aligned.
Thank you! Next year my kids will be in 8th and 6th grade. My 8th grader is more independent than my 6th grader, and he's actually the one I need extra help with because his material is getting much more challenging. I find myself studying ahead of him so I can learn it well enough to teach it! For both kids, to have someone (something) to fall back on when I'm not teaching it so they can understand, will be so helpful! I am not sure I would do either program exclusively. I personally LOVE history and enjoy our modified Story of the World / Sonlight history curriculum. But Math and Grammar are getting tougher, and I like the idea of providing a better literature curriculum that both programs seem to offer. I like that K12 seems to have more mediums of learning...video, games, interaction, textbook, where Abeka looks to be just video and text. But, I REALLY liked the Abeka teachers that I watched and they seem to have more positive reviews than K12. I like the Christian focus as well. Thank you again so much! Decisions decisions....
Crazymama, I have not. I've heard of TT of course, and that is actually a good option. We use Saxon right now. I'll check out Lightning Literature - thank you!
They are old enough to be fairly independent in work after teaching new concepts then... So if you're happy with everything but math and grammar, maybe you could just find those? I would also suggest taking a look at TT or MUS for math. I have a friend that swears by SOS for all her kids once they reach 6th grade for independent learning. (though it looks a bit boring and dry to me)
Thanks Josie! I do need to check into TT. I tried SOS when I first started homeschooling in 4th grade, and I liked that it did so much of the grading and record keeping for me, but I too thought it was dry. Also, it seemed to be a review of subjects, rather than in depth. Maybe the older grades are different.
Also if you still need grammar instruction at all Analytical Grammar is really awesome and easy for mom.
