Online Home School Programs

    I wanted to post more about home school options this time focusing on online home school programs. There are many choices for home education and some of it may depend on the state you live in. I wanted to give you some information so you can know a little more about what is available to you and your children, and help you get started in finding the right program for you and your family.

Many of these online home school programs offer free curriculum, one on one support with a teacher, online classes the children can attend as well as online testing, I have also seen some that offer free lap top computers for each child enrolled. Many of these programs are Internet based and do require kids to be on the computer a certain amount of the time but even this is dependent on the age of your child and learning skills. I would assume that the average child spends a good amount of time with online activities but that is the world we live in and children need to acquire those skills as well.

Some of these online schools are private which you would be responsible to pay for their services and curriculum, but many online home school do offer the online public school option and these are free to families who live in states that acknowledge these programs.

One option is a online home school program that I have heard good things about in the forums among home school moms. Some said it is way to structured and others say that is what they like about it. It is called K-12 and this online home school is offered to families in every grade K-12. Established in 1999, the K-12 mission "To provide any child access to exceptional curriculum and tools that enable him or her to maximize his or her success in life, regardless of geographic, financial, or demographic circumstance."

"K¹² offers outstanding, highly effective curriculum that enables mastery of core concepts and skills for all kinds of minds"


K-12 does offer the online public school program for elementary to Jr high and high school, in many states, check into it for your state by requesting info from K-12.

Another online home school program that I have heard good things about is Connections Academy. They also offer the free online home school programs and is available in many states as well. 

"Connections Academy schools are growing throughout the United States. Working with state education officials, leading education publishers, and curriculum experts, Connections Academy ensures that our program meets the highest accreditation standards in every state we serve as well as our own standards for excellence. To learn more about our free, quality public education offered in your home state, simply select your local school below."

Connection Academy began operations of its first schools in two states in the Fall of 2002. In September of 2004, Connections Academy was sold. The company now operates schools under management contracts from charter schools or school districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin. Connections Academy provides a new form of free public school that students attend from home.

This is a unique program that combines:

Strong parental involvement of homeschooling
Expertise and accountability of public funded education
Flexibility of online classes


I will post more about these types of programs later but these are two of the best in my opinion from what I have heard and read about on their sites. There is a wide range of online home school programs with many different curriculum and methods to choose from you just have to pick what will be best for you family.

We use a home based public school program much like the online options only located in our town and without having to use the computer. I did look into the K-12 and the Connections Academy programs for my kids but chose to go with our local program but I am still open to these programs and may be using one in the future. It is nice to know we could pretty much move any ware without changing schools.

You can visit these sites and request more information if you would like to learn more about what these programs can do for you and your family!