Does anyone do online schooling with K12 curriculum?

Question

I am looking into different schooling options for my 2nd grader and have come across virtual or online schooling that uses K12 curriculum. If you use or have any experience w/this I'd appreciate any opinions. I home-schooled my son for 2 mos. after we moved to GA and the 2 mos. was all he had left before summer. I actually enjoy teaching him and my daughter and he seems to learn more at home with me while doing his homework than he does at school.....so, I'm just researching my options and, again, would appreciate any input! Thanks!

Answer 1

We've used K12 for five years and my 9 y.o. son is now doing a mix of 4th-8th grades.  It is a wonderful curriculum!!!

We've always used it as independent users (purchase it ourselves), not as part of a virtual school.  The main reason is that when we started K12, our former state didn't have a virtual school option (now there are three), and then we moved and our current state doesn't have one either.  We enjoy the freedom of being independent HS'ers, so we may never join a VA if there is one available.  It is a great option for many families, though.

K12's depth and breadth are unbelievable!  The scope & sequence is based on the Core Knowledge Foundation, with a *lot* more included.  Another responder gave a good overview of the curriculum.

Not only is the curriculum very good, but the parent tools are wonderful.  They are dynamic planning and progress tools that are very customizable (unlike static, printed teacher's guides).  There is very little planning and prep work involved, and what there is is noted in the Advanced Prep area of the parent's account.

You should attend a virtual information session to see more of what it is like.  If the school is going to have open houses, attend to see an overview of the online portion, and the wonderful offline materials.  Sometimes you can get a demo account to see the online system closer.  The K12 site also has sample lessons.

http://www.k12.com

Answer 2

I am now doing K12 with my 6th grader. I am a middle school public school teacher and can attest that the curriculum (at least for middle school) is comparable to what they are learning in my middle public school.  The biggest difference is, and  I believe this is a good thing, is that if a parent/child choose to, they can spend a whole day focusing on one subject. So if a child falls behind in an area, he or she can make up for it. Another thing to be aware of with K12, is that there is no such thing as getting a C. When a child gets under a certain percentage, I believe it is an 80% they will be asked to redo the lesson assessment until their grades are brought up to mastery level. Hope that helps.

Answer 3

We used K12 from 4th grade through 7th grade for one of our children. He had an intense passion for computers, so it seemed it would be a good fit - it was. Overall, it is an excellent curriculum. I felt the blend of online and offline work was a good one for my son. I thought that the language curriculum was one of the best I have seen. That is saying something coming from an elcectic homeschooler of 15 years and four children. The math was so-so. Not bad but also not the best thing out there. Science was terrific, especially in 4th and 5th grade. History in 4th and 5th was excellent and extremely engaging (online presentation); though the History of Us titles used in 6th and 7th didn't engage my son as well. Lots of homeschoolers love History of Us, so it was likely to be a personal taste sort of thing. K12 synchronizes art withthe history course. I liked that. Music was worthwhile in the area of voice-training, but it is severely lacking in teaching any instruments. If you want instrumental training I would go with a local musician for that.

I hope you will get a post from someone who had their child in second grade so you can get specifics for that grade as well.

Answer 4

I've heard that the curriculum is good; I haven't tried it partly because my 5th grader doesn't want to do the majority of his work on the computer, so I couldn't say for sure.  I've heard good things about it, though.