Home Schooling for Beginners: The K-12 Online Study Curriculum

Just over 1 year ago I, along with many thousands of other parents, hiked up my jeans/skirts/whatever and headed for the local Superstore to get my child's school supplies. Wanting my 4^th grader to have a significant choice in what she was dragging into the school I took her along and let her do the "list reading" and picking (within reason). BIG mistake. I quickly realized she was not happy shopping for supplies so I quickly gathered everything I could and we moved along to clothing. Now, my daughter loves clothes shopping, but nothing would put a smile on her face. Even getting to pick out the stuff for her lunches did not make her happy. I thought maybe it was just because she was getting a new teacher and possibly new friends. But after the first quarter of school I knew better. She was miserable, doing very poorly in all subjects, and was being very belligerent to all her teachers. The first parent-teacher conference sealed her fate and I started searching for home schooling options for the next school year.

In the end I ended up pulling her out mid-way through the 3^rd quarter. This was after 2 weeks of her coming home in tears because of bullies and her teacher telling me it was some kids at home. Well, there weren't any kids at home and that still didn't explain why she didn't want to go outside at recess. Turns out there were some really nasty bullies in school and after I pulled my daughter out they ended up expelled for picking on another young girl who's parents didn't tolerate it at all. For the rest of the school year we concentrated only on Math and History, the 2 subjects that she was severely lacking in, but I knew that wouldn't cut it for next year. I did a lot of research for home school options - even talking to a very close friend with 8 kids who also home schools - and I found 2 that seemed promising. One turned out not to be accepted in my state, the other was K-12.

K-12 is an internet based learning curriculum for children in kindergarten through 12^th grade. Unfortunately k-12 is not being offered in all states (as of the posting of this article New York is one state that is not participating in the free-public option, though you can pay private school tuition to participate from any state and even internationally) and because the laws of schooling are different for each state the requirements of k-12 may differ in your area. The thing I LOVED about the k-12 program is that the school sends out the curriculum needed. The 5 boxes I received were all books, workbooks, music CDs, Art wall hangings, and even a desktop computer and printer. We spent and entire day going over the workbooks, hanging pictures, listening to the music (just for fun) and enjoying examining the science and art supplies. Everything from a graduated cylinder to a protractor bags of rocks and even alum was provided by the school. What a difference this made in my daughter. Instead of sulking over what she has to do or what kinds of stuff she has to buy, she was flipping through the workbooks excitedly exclaiming, "Look what we get to do here!" It made my heart leap to see her so happy.

Each day we login to the k-12 website and see what is on the agenda. That's right, I don't even have to come up with lesson plans, k-12 does it all for me! If the plan doesn't work because of time, budget, or simply a lack of supplies I can trade it for something else and move the lesson to the next day. Some lessons have online components where she logs into the website and goes through a kind of interactive slide show that gives information, links to websites that may be informative and of interest to the student, even links to the audio to pronounce words properly. At the end of each slide show the system will give her a short quiz about the information, or tell her it is time to go offline and do the workbooks associated with that lesson. In this way I have a choice to either guide her through her lessons (which we do with math and science and music) or let her go through the lessons on her own (reading, language arts, and drawing/art) at her own place and at her own discretion. As long as she gets the work done the system is happy; as long as she is learning and excited about learning I am happy.

In addition to the online and offline work k-12 provides a teacher who is responsible for ensuring that each student is following fairly closely with the program and to grade assignments that might be more subjective and harder for parents to grade. This teacher is available by telephone and through the k-12 portal email program (kmail) to answer questions and give information...this is great when it comes time for standardized testing and giving out field trip information as a quick email to all students reminds us parents that it is coming up quickly. Students even get their own kmail account and everything is copied to the parents. If a student is stuck with an issue and a parent cannot answer, the teacher is generally available by phone or internet conference to answer the question. Yes, the teacher is able to visit with your student and use an internet based blackboard to help your child through a difficult concept. In this way (especially with math) if your child struggles with the way you and the online portal are trying to teach them the teacher may be able to find another method that makes the concept "click" and your child can get it!

But everything with k-12 is not all fun-and-games. Before officially starting school things can be a little hectic. In the 2 weeks before starting school she had to take a test to make sure she is placed in the correct grade, and that she did not lose too much information over the summer. This test took almost 90 minutes to complete but it provides excellent information for the teachers. In addition to her testing we also had to organize all her classroom materials, hook up the computer, and go through all the pre-assessments for each subject. I was also instructed to take the "learning coach" orientation which was almost 10 hours of conferences and slide-shows. Most of the information is more easily found if you visit the FAQs page through k-12 but since many people do not take the time to read these it is understandable to make sure people visit these orientations. As a Learning Coach (not all k-12 families use parents to learn, so they call us Learning Coaches) it is my responsibility to ensure my student follows the lesson plan for the day. I must also keep track of her time in each subject and report that each day on the k-12 attendance site. I am responsible for keeping track of assignment pages in case the teacher asks them to be scanned and "turned in" by kmail to her for review; this is often done for art and writing assignments. And, finally, I must also grade her papers and tests and record those results in the k-12 website. This is fairly easy since I am provided a "teacher's guide" for each lesson which also includes supplemental ideas if my student is struggling with a particular lesson. At first this may seem overwhelming, but imagine if you were doing this for 30 kids! The teachers are there to answer your questions and concerns and generally ally your fears of stepping into this wonderful new realm of schooling. And, remember, you and your student move at YOUR pace...not the teacher's, not the school's...and your own pace and comfort level. If you need a break, take a break, just don't forget to come back!

I think what finally sold me on the k-12 program is all the wonderful extra stuff you get. There are mega discounts at many local and national stores and attractions for being a k-12 family. Most of these relate directly to the school (museums, zoos, teacher or office supply stores) but some are just for fun (amusement parks and local restaraunts) and students are encouraged to form co-ops (see my article: Creating a Cooking Co-op (for Home School, Public School or Anyone Who Wants to Learn to Cook), Ideas for a Great and Educational Cooperative Opportunity for Extracurricular Schooling Activities) and use these discounts to meet on neutral ground for planning and brainstorming. In addition there are many opportunities for Physical Education provided in special k-12 lessons or discounts and programs for PE oriented businesses. The YMCA, dance clubs, ice skating, roller skating, and swimming groups are just some of the many businesses that participate in k-12 PE classes - and community Parks and Recreation organized sports are always encouraged. Finally k-12 likes to put together field trips for k-12 only students. This can be anything from a day at the amusement park (for k-12 only so short lines!), museum, planetarium, and even special movie showings that relate to k-12 classes. These are great ways for students to meet each other and for kids to get socialized in a controlled, yet free, environment. In other words there is no room for bullies in these gatherings but kids still feel they can easily express themselves.

The hardest step in home schooling is the first. Once you have chosen to home school your children follow the laws and have your child officially un-enrolled in the local school district. From there the path becomes very clear and very stable. You quickly learn the best way to teach your child and while it seems overwhelming when you first start, you quickly realize that teaching your child at home is a lot easier than dragging them to school every day. Do school when you want, take a day off if you want, enjoy the freedom to have weekdays off (when other kids are in school so you get the movie theater to yourself) but work on the weekend and your child can "show off" their latest art masterpiece or get friends to help do a science experiment. The possibilities are endless and for those just starting (or even not just starting) k-12 is a great option to bridge that gap between dragging your child to public school and "going it alone" for home school.