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!

Home School Resource

Hello I hope all is well!

I found this great site for charts, I just printed out the student roster.
I have been having some trouble staying on top of our school work and staying organized so we are doing something a little different.

Teacher Vision lesson plans, printables and more.

You get three free items to print out then you have to get the membership.

I hope to get a paid membership this site looks like a great resource for teachers and home educators.

Thanks!

from Joanne

Get To Know Your Community Social Studies Project

        The other day my kids and I went to the store and like always my son picks up one of the free pamphlets provided by the store and I let him take it, when we got home we sat down to do some school work, after we did that we read the pamphlet and actually learned a lot about the grocery store we got it from.

So my home schooling social studies idea is this when you go to the store pick up a free store pamphlet and read it cover to cover when you get home and you and your children will learn something about the stores you shop at and possibly more about the owners of the stores, then have the child do a project relevant to what you learned in the pamphlet drawl a picture right a short story etc get creative with it. This is a great social studies project

The one we read was all about how the store we go to recycles and uses recycled goods as well as how there store brand is a very healthy brand with no artificial stuff in it etc..

What a great opportunity to teach kids about recycling and why it is important to buy recycled goods, then you can do a recycling project in your home etc..

More Social Studies Project K-2 grades..

Chinese New Year Paper Lantern project, grade K

Home Schooling

It is near the end of the school year and I hope you all did well, this was our first year we learned a lot and I was surprised at how fast children learn my son did not read when we started and now has been reading at a first grade level and getting better everyday. We learned so much and had fun despite some difficulties we have had in the past year.

I also learned a lot about being patient and becoming a good teacher to my kids. This next school year I plan on being more organized and stick to our schedule better as well as getting involved in more out of home activities.

We don't plan on stopping our educational activity for the summer however we will still be working in our workbooks and reading books.

I have gotten all of my sons first grade year curriculum already so we will be getting started on that as well. Most of all this summer we want to have lots of fun and do many things because everything is a learning experience there is always so many opportunities to learn and educate ourselves and that is the focus that is why I home school.

Look for my new posts I will be posting about some great activities that we do and you and family can do as well.

Thanks for reading!

Phonics Curriculum

EPS Books Curriculum. Primary Phonics and Explode The Code Workbooks.

We have used the EPS books curriculum, Primary Phonics and Explode the Code workbooks so I wanted to give you a review, we love them and my son did to these workbooks are easy to teach to your kids and very affective my son learned to read using these. We had both the Primary Phonics and Explode the Code workbooks and we did a page a day in each. The Primary Phonics comes with easy readers to read at specific points in the workbooks after words have been mastered this way they practice the words learned. You can start with the pre school and move up to the next as your child progresses, or start with the one pertaining to the grade of your child.

What do you recommend? Post your Favorite K-2 grade Phonics/Reading Curriculum..

The EPS Books company is a great curriculum for the phonics as I mentioned, they also have other curriculum you should look into I feel this is a great company with quality teachable product.