Posted on 07/29/2009 3:45:07 PM PDT by teenyelliott
This year, I will begin home schooling my two youngest children, ages 6 and 8. My oldest, however, will be entering the 8th grade and for various reasons I am looking into a distance learning school for her.
Do any of you have suggestions or input on distance learning schools for kids? I have looked at several, but am hesitant to pull the trigger without additional input.
I have taken a few on-line grad classes from U of Texas, and SMU, and both work well. Can’t help you on the high school level, but if the courses are anything like the college level courses, you will stay busy.
This is the program we are using, my son is dyslexic, here in Pa the school system could not meet his needs.
http://www.squidoo.com/at-risk-youth
Can you enroll concurrently at the local JC?
Here is an article about transcripts:
http://www.homeschooldiploma.com/diplomas-transcripts/what-about-transcripts-.html
Also donnayoung.org is good for transcripts and organizing tools. And it is all free.
Otherwise, I’ve used Learner.org (Annenberg) for many courses, some of which are completely self-contained. Use the drop down menu to pick adult/college courses.
http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/index.cfm
I have enrolled my daughter (9th grade) in the Kaplan Academy Online... they are very helpful, and graduation gets you a HS diploma.
Cirriculum looks good, but as the school year has not started yet, I’ll reserve my opinion till then
However, I am looking for a good online private school for my oldest. That way, I can keep her out of the public schools, and keep myself out of family court at the same time. My ex doesn't agree with home schooling.
http://flvs.net/Pages/default.aspx
I am quite happy with the Florida virtual school. The classes are challenging without being overwhelming and teach the state standard curriculum so when the student goes on to a state university they are not at a disadvantage. This is also free for Florida residents which makes it more attractive. There are several other states which have their own virtual schools as well. I don’t know what FLVS charges for an out of state student. Best of luck to you it is a lot easier if you let someone else do a lot of the work like a virtual school or a canned curriculum. I used Switched on Schoolhouse before the virtual school and that was good too.
Great Books Academy or, if you are Catholic, Angelicum Academy.
The tuition free thing was tempting, but I want to be free of the Big Brother aspect.
K12 has schools, but they are state based. IIRC, this is a William Bennett company.
Certain school districts have online departments/elements in many states, so you might call one of the better districts in your area and ask about degrees from an online education or how meetings with teachers would be conducted.
You might also ask at the companies that manufacture learning management systems, e.g., BlackBoard or ANGEL, to see if someone might direct you to better online schools. Or, call DoDEA, the DoD education arm—as they are cutting edge on many things.
Finally, certain Christian churches have programs, but this needs more research. Perhaps Liberty University can help you. One of the problems will be certification in your state and meeting curriculum requirements set by state Depts. of Ed.
Ga. has its home school state program that provides you with pretty much everything you’d need,,, have you checked what your state might have?
We’ll be trying a virtual charter school; This is the main site for the program overall:
I’m going for my Bachelor’s online with Liberty University and I love it. It looks like they also have an affiliated grade 3-12:
http://www.LibertyOnlineAcademy.com/
I tutored a kid who had flunked out of a posh boarding school — 11th grade. They wanted him to make up his courses and they would only accept BYU — Brigham Young University — Distance Learning courses. I worked with this student and LOVED the courses. Well thought out, well written, deep and thoughtful. We did US History and it was even pro-America. The American Lit class was wonderful, too.
I would highly recommend BYU’s Distance Learning. You need a proctored exam, but they can set that up for you through your local library. Your kids are young, but I would talk to them anyway. Feel free to query me further on this. The teachers were easily accessible and BYU worked well with our center. Five Star.
And yes, by 10th grade or so our son was at the local Jr College. We homeschooled, he had graduated, but there were many 14 year olds there. We took Latin this spring there, too, and there were two Jr Hi school students in our night class. Their school didn’t offer Latin and they wanted to learn it. As I understand it, if you are still a student and earn a B, they give you an A.
try The Calvert School
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