Traditional Online Curriculum: K-12 Curriculum Review of the Home Study Program for Homeschool Families

If you are looking for a superior traditional curriculum for your students then look no further than the K12 program. The education company established in 1999 by former Secretary of Education, William Bennett, and a group of education professionals who are passionate about their field. K12 is a classical core knowledge program that inspires children to learn the fundamentals of a solid education.

A portion of the curriculum is on-line with superb graphics and valuable computer interfacing that allows the student to learn in various functions. Accompanying the on-line portions are offline text and materials. This is a go anywhere program. When a student signs onto the OLS (On Line School) they come to their specific name and a set schedule which is designed by the parent. Though the subjects have an established outline the parent can skip around to sections of any given subject. If you have more than one student this allows for parents to possibly teach the same concepts at different levels. There is optional course work at the end of each lesson to solidify the material, and to give each student more diversity in their learning style. A kinesthetic learner will be able to do the optional hands on portion of the lessons. This could mean building a model of the earth's core, or designing a viking village.

The core subjects for the K12 program are English/Language Arts, Math, History, Science, Music, and Art. All lesson plans are written professionally and with good detail which meet all state's academic standards. There is a teacher's guide as well as a student guide for when the student becomes more of an independent learner. K12 also provides additional supplies such as science equipment, CDs, manipulatives, or arts supplies along with the OLS and written materials. One can review sample lesson plans for each subject and each grade on the K12 website.

Currently K12 has designed curriculum for Kindergarten through the Ninth grade. It is the plan for K12 to add an additional grade each progressive year to obtain a full k-12 curriculum program. There is another alternative to the independent option for those who desire to use the program. Though traditionally it is a home study program, K12 also has Virtual Academies in several states across the U.S. The Virtual Academy would be similar to the Independent program with a few exceptions; each student has a teacher assigned to them, and the student is assigned to a specific school district in their state. Being assigned to a school district means the program and materials are completely cost-free for the participating virtual academy families. The program is funded through the school district.

One onadvantage in using the K12 program is that the non-teaching parent can sign onto on-line school at the K12 website and check the home student's progress to see which lessons they completed for the day. This gives parents a full view of how well their student is doing in the given subjects, the ability to check their progress, and opens a window for dialog. "Tommy I noticed you got a 90% on your math assessment today, well done!" is a better conversation than, "what did you do in school today" or "do you have homework tonight?"