Are any of your kids taking regular classes online for elementary school?

My son uses an online curriculum for five of his courses: Language Arts (spelling, literature, grammar, vocabulary, composition, analogies), Science, History, Art, & Music.

We use K12, and contrary to what I’ve seen posted here on Y! Answers, you CAN USE K12 and NOT be part of a public virtual charter school! I have never used a public school with K12 – I use it as an independent HS’er just like anyone would purchase Sonlight, Abeka, Calvert, etc. In so doing, I have the freedom to pick and choose activities, the order of units, the speed of each course, its schedule, etc.

My son has used K12 for over 4 years and is completely thriving with it. Also, contrary to what has been said, K12 is NOT all done online. Only 20% of the time in K-5 are students at the computer. There is a lot of offline work with science experiments, art projects, history journals, listening to music, playing music, etc. We don’t just sit our kids down at the pc and say “have fun”. *We* are still the teacher, NOT the computer.

I just subscribed to two of The Homeschool Buyers Co-op’s CyberEd online science courses. They are done mostly online and it’s simply for supplemental work for my son. He loves learning and even K12’s depth and breadth can’t fill his desire. They could possibly be used as stand-alone courses, but I won’t know until we use them, and even so, we’d still use K12 for Science.

Oh, and yes, my child is excelling! That’s the reason we chose K12 – it is a very in-depth curriculum! He’s taken standardized tests every year he’s been using K12 and has scored in the 99%th percentile across the board. So if that is one way of measuring his success, then there’s the numbers. I don’t use standardized tests to see how he’s doing against some standard – I already know how he’s doing being with him one-on-one. I use it to have records (my state doesn’t require it), to help him get used to testing, and to see if there are any holes.

Oh, and my son uses some elementary and some middle school courses. He’s 9 and has a 4th-8th grade course mix.

*** Edited to add …***

I’m not sure what you mean by “regular” courses. Do you mean complete courses, or core courses, etc? In other words, not supplemental learning like SpellingTime.com???

I love online classes. I am a procrastinator and work a lot and barely ever have any time. I got all A’s in high school and in college I am a C student, just because I don’t really push myself as much as I should. I believe online classes are better, you have to push yourself to learn. It is a bit harder, but then it’s not, you don’t really have anyone telling you to do this and that, and no lecturing is the best part. There are plenty of people you can ask questions to as well. I have taken a variety of classes online from math to english to psychology. My strong point is math so if you have any questions message me and I will give you my email address. I love it. The good thing about online classes is you have deadlines, but you can also do things early. What I usually do is write out a syllabus for myself with the due dates, then I break them up into like 4 sections, and I will make 4 dates that I just need to sit down and do all the work. That way I can get it done early, and you may finish your whole college course weeks before it actually ends. Also you can do this at 3am, noon, 6pm, whenever, it is nice to work around your schedule. Any help needed send me a message!

My elementary age kids do not do classes online. Children in elementary school should be getting their hands dirty with concrete real-life things. Online classes are abstract. Plus, there’s enough free stuff out there for the early years, that paying for an online class is, in my opinion, not worth the money.

Online classes for middle school, high school or college level classes – I think that’s a great idea. Especially for kids who work really quickly, or who would rather type than write. Or with topics that are hard to come by at the local community college.

There is SO much out there for elementary school kids. It’s overkill. But, if YOU find online classes to be useful, it doesn’t matter beans what I, or anyone else here, thinks. Homeschooling should be all about what works for you and your children.

We use no on-line classes at all; at any level.

Virtual “schooling at home” (public school on-line), is not traditional home schooling.

We may use some interactive web sites for fun, and for extra practice, but that is the extend of it.

When computer work is chosen as part of practicing concepts, or as a addition to a subject; we just buy the software.

After they finish high school (16/17), they go to work, and attend a local college, or a nearby community college so they can finish their AA before transferring to the college of their choice.

They a hard working, independent, but have servants hearts; what more can parents hope, and pray for.

I have seen and looked into some online programs, but to me, they are too close to the classroom to interest me. They involve young children getting eyestrain from looking at the computer for hours a day, learning information and testing on it before they forget it, and a prepared curriculum that you have no authority to change if you disagree or dislike part of it.

Part of the joy of homeschooling is you can pick what you like, when you want it, and how. Online classes do not offer that.

My son loves http://time4learning.com/ . It is a fun core curriculum from pre-k to 8th grade. He loves working on the computer and will choose it over any workbook. He is able to learn at his pace on the subject of his choice. It is set up to span 3 grades in the different subjects. It’s not expensive at all (about $20 a month). We also use so many of the free sites for enrichment. We also use A Beka book for traditional workbook approach.

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“regular” classes? as opposed to…….I’m assuming supplementary type work?

no, my son does not do any course work online, but he does do tons of supplementary activities online.

he loves it and yes he is excellent in what he does.