By SarahLentz
(USA)
Visitor Review:
We’re at the end of our second week with K12, and we have three kids enrolled (Grades 1, 4 & 6) and one very active two-year-old getting into everything when my back is turned (say, when I’m trying to help one of the older kids with schoolwork). There is TOO MUCH WORK to get through for all three kids–even when we skip lesson work that the kids already know and just do the assessment at the end.
Our oldest doesn’t like art, though our girls do. Two art classes each week is at least one too many for him, while my girls (at least the older of the two) look forward to it. There hasn’t been a single day when we got through all the lessons for all three kids, and when we try to do so, there’s no time for ANYTHING ELSE but school–no playing outside, no running errands, nothing.
I’m burned out, already, though I told my husband (who wants my homeschool to look more like school at home) that I’d stick it out until December 23rd, which is when Christmas break begins. I’m fried. I don’t know that we’ll last that long. It seems to work all right for our fourth grade daughter, but she finds their physical science and history classes boring, and she’s not fond of their math program, either.
Honestly, I don’t think their math books do a good job of explaining the math concepts, so I end up explaining them to her myself in a different way. I think we make more progress together in math using the white board at home.
She loves the Spanish PowerSpeak program; her older brother dislikes their German PowerSpeak program and doesn’t have time to even get to that, anyway. Our youngest–the first-grader–hates slogging through all the lessons. When I tell her she still has two or three (usually more) lessons to get through before she’s done for the day, she’s in tears or very nearly there. She hates K12 already and wants to go back to homeschooling the way we did it before–without K12’s “help.”
I do like the on-line daily & weekly plans, progress tracker and links to helpful/educational websites, but I don’t like the content of the lessons, and I honestly think we can do better in that department. I’m looking at homeschooling software that will give us what I like about the K12 OLS but will allow us to use our own content. I know I need help with keeping careful and complete records of their work and of what we’ve covered.
But K12 is not the answer.
It’s Saturday, and I’m having to assign catch-up work to the kids when we’d rather just be enjoying our Saturday together.
6 Comments. Leave new
I knowthis is an olderpost but i feel your agony! My 3rdyear in arva with daughter in 2nd gradeand son starting kindeegarten. Meanwhile a 3 yr old lil Dennis the Menace that cant be unnsupervised for a few minutes. Im talking bathroom break and he has already found something to draw on a table or wall with..or finds his way into the snacks The curriculum started out a little intense with my daughter. Next year more so. Before this year we were discussing alternatives. I was working 3 jobs and ended up enrolling both a few weeks prior to start date.we received materials days after the said start date.. we were told since kids hadnt been accepted online yet but most likely would that it would be fine they would just have later start date.
I was bombarded with calls and emails.
Apparentlywe were to starton regular date with no login info or materials.
Ever since day 1 this year has been hell. My kids are in tears. We wake up early 7-9am and start soon.. maybe after a 30 min breakfast. We work all day usually skipping a good lunch and grabbing something quick to bring to desk where we remain til at least 5 or 6pm. Sometimes up til 9 and 10pm and still not finished. My daughter has scored well aboveadvanced in all tests .. like 2% or 20 points from top score. She has before and wasnt required for connects. This year she did same on tests but teacher is requiring 4 weekly connects!! I have explained to them our situation and its too much and then I get emails saying we missed connects. I thought she was fine with test scores and ols progress. I dont know if itsjust her teacher or what. My sons teacher is amazing and has a much better pacing guide. Maybe a lot of one subject for one or 2 weeks and then some nice easy weeks with the quicker easy going subjects. I have researched to no avail. Have you found an alternative? I dont mind doing it myself I just like the idea of the lesson plan to help guide and make sure they are where they should be… but this work is way advanced in some subjects.. then to have lang skills be so “pre-school” is ironic. My daughter is under going a heartaching whirl of stress and emotions with school. Call herself stupid and dumb. It breaks my heart. My kids are very smart but there is something wrong with k12 when I am spending 2 hours trying to finish an art unit test for them because its absurd! I feel as if im studying or taking a college test!!
I hope to hear from you ?
I’m considering schooling my 7 year old first grader at home. I was thinking about using K12 virtual Academy only because I am new to “homeschooling” (I understand it is actually “public school” online at home not “homeschooling” ) and need structure and curriculum layed out for me and need something tuition free. My son is meeting everything at grade point (and advanced in reading) but is being bullied and we’re unhappy with how the school is handling things. The social problems are now interfering with his learning and things just aren’t working out. My husband and his family thinks I’m cheating our son out of an education if it’s not state accredited and doesn’t cover everything exactly the way public schools do resulting in an official high school diploma. However I feel that a homeschool curriculum different than the schools may be way better for our son and our family, and we would most likely put him in public school around middle school age anyway. What other homeschool programs could you all recommend to someone new at all this? Thank you for your help!
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for checking in! I’m sorry to hear about your son’s experience – my youngest is the same age. I have a couple of thoughts that may help you.
It looks like you have two issues: 1) handling your son’s negative environment and 2) getting agreement between your husband and you about what a quality education consists of.
The first step is to understand the process within your state/district for homeschooling or any alternative education. This lets you figure out how stringent the requirements will be and give you a sense of how long things might take.
At the same time, getting to clarity about the specifics of what would be missed in a public school education should help you figure out a creative to address those concerns. I think there are three main benefits of a public school education: a complex education framework like common core is followed to ensure broad exposure to generally agreed upon fundamentals of an education, the potential for socialization because your child is mixed in with a bunch of kids, and the access to resources that deeper pocketed school systems can provide that a household may not. The major downside is you can accomplish all this while providing a
customized
education tailored your child’s specific interests by having a general understanding of what common core covers (it’s not that bad), using local resources like libraries, museums, and clubs to supplement his learning, and getting involved in hobby groups that meet his passion to address the social aspect.
I can’t recommend specific tuition-free curricula for you because I don’t know the legal requirements where you live. They way I’d handle this is to reach out to a homeschooling group in your area. These can be easily found through an online search. Get your husband’s questions along with your own and talk to 3-5 parents in that group. They’ll have a wealth of knowledge and will guide you toward resources that can best help you.
Good luck with the process. It seems daunting, but is manageable if taken one step at a time!
Caleb
I was extremely pleased to uncover this site. I want to to thank you for your
time for this particularly wonderful read!! I definitely liked every little bit of it and I have you saved as a
favorite to check out new information in your web site.
I’ve been using K-12 for my daughter. She’s going into 3rd grade this year. I just signed my son up for K. I’ve been dreading the first day of school for them. I’ve stuck it out this far. I’m so happy to read I’m not the only parent that feels they are required to do so much work each day. I remember my daughters first day of K . We worked for 8 hours and still didn’t finish. I’m looking into Sky Mountain Charter schools. Thank you so much for your post. I don’t feel so alone.
That’s very good to know! I was wondering what k12 was like for elementary students. I could imagine it being overwhelming with more than one little one since I’ve been told it still requires a lot of hands on from the parents.