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Home Archive for April 2011


Online Public Charter Schools (OPCS) have become a major alternative to traditional public or homeschooling.  They have grown exponentially in the past few years, with many schools being forced by the state to limit their enrollment or hire teachers quickly.  Many moms that wish to pull their children out of public school (PS) feel completely overwhelmed by the thought of jumping right into traditional homeschooling (HS).  Even some traditional homeschoolers find having an entire curriculum planned for them very appealing.  Whatever your situation, there are a few basics you should understand before you jump into the virtual public school realm. 

What kind of school are they? Public? Private? Charter?
The answer is complicated.  As you know, public schools use tax dollars to fund your child's education.  Depending on which state you are in, the funds can come from property tax, state taxes, and bonds. Charter schools are schools that are privately owned and operated, but funded and accredited through the public school system.  Basically a company applies to the state school system, promises to follow their standards (accreditation) and receives funding. An online charter school uses a school at home method, not to be confused with homeschooling.  They provide all the books and supplies, support from teachers, but you are essentially the teacher. Depending on the ages of your children, they may need you to guide them through every lesson or may just need you to grade and check complete. 

What to expect
After enrollment, you will have your books, supplies and in some cases a computer shipped to you. Once the start of the semester gets closer, the website may open up to give you a chance to familiarize yourself with the program. The first year of school at home can be overwhelming, even if you are just starting with one child.  There is a period of adjustment you have to plan for. The teachers can be an enormous help if you keep in contact with them.  You may be required to turn in certain assignments for verification purposes and to add to your child’s portfolio of work.  Depending on the school and the child’s age, you may be able to rearrange the schedule however you want, for example, block scheduling, take Tuesdays off, 4 day school week, or evening work. You may be required to maintain a schedule similar to a traditional school (summers off), though it is more flexible, you just need to complete x number of lessons per semester.  You may be required to have regular contact with your teachers; this contact could include email or phone calls.

Important tip: If you are starting mid semester, check the school’s policy, you may be asked to catch up and complete all previous lessons or you may be able to test out of some of it.  It can be extremely frustrating and overwhelming to begin this way, so please find out their policy and discuss it with your teachers.

Tailor it to your child’s needs
Online schools provide an abundance of different methods for your child to learn.  If you were to attempt to do everything they list, you may be looking at 8-10 hour school days.  The idea behind this is to allow you to tailor it to your child’s learning style. You will not be required to turn everything in, but you will want to take note of what assignments will need to be turned in and make sure those are completed. In a lesson, they may have a few video options, textbook reading, writing in the workbook, then an assessment to verify comprehension. Once you feel comfortable in the routine, you may find your child only needs to do the reading and a video, saving the workbook for review for tests.  In truth, it doesn’t matter how you go about teaching the concept the lesson is covering, just so long they can answer the questions on the assessments.  You can supplement or replace with your own materials to help your child understand the concept. For example, if your child is covering the different planets and needs more on the sun, you can watch an episode of The Universe to explain further.

Advantages
  • Complete curriculum
  • Child can work at his or her own pace
  • Able to work ahead to the next grade
  • Customized scheduling
  • Portability
  • Easy access to a teacher
  • More control over their education than in a B&M school
Disadvantages
  • Still be part of the public school system
  • Required to attend state testing
  • Required to turn in work as proof
  • Required to maintain contact
  • If they lag too far behind or are not performing, they may be given zeros, placed on suspension or worse case kicked out
  • You may be offered only online textbooks
Controversy
Some traditional homeschoolers see OPCS as endangering their hard work for HS. They feel they fought long and hard to pass laws to allow homeschooling and this option is blurring the line.  Some hs groups will welcome you with open arms, while others may not be so welcoming.  Some may even take offense to calling yourself a homeschooler and will reidentify that you school-at-home and you are still a part of the public school system.  Most of the traditional homeschool community understands everyone's situation is unique and they are extremely helpful and excited about your move toward homeschooling.   Most homeschoolers also have come to realize that the school-at-home approach can be overwhelming and the parents come to the realization they would rather be in full control of their child's education.

Funding
States are searching for ways to cut spending in education.  While some see CS as a viable option as it is a set amount they pay the private company to run the school, they do not receive federal funding for them.  Education reform has become a hot topic and charter schools are taking center stage as an easy way to test applications of these reforms.  Some states are expanding their Charter School programs while others are taking them away or limiting enrollment.  Funding will continue to be a hot issue, so check your news to be sure you know all your options.

School choice
K12 - Began as a traditional homeschool curriculum, can still purchase individual courses for HS, mastery based, students can retake assesments until they achieve a certain score or higher, excellent foreign language program.
For information based on personal experiences, join the K12 Yahoo Group.
Connections Academy - Began as a national private online school, more of a school-at-home setup, gifted classes, online clubs and activities, dual enrollment offered for high school students, includes Live Lessons where classes meet up for a scheduled lesson from their teacher.
For information based on personal experiences, join the Connections Academy Yahoo Group.
Calvert has opened a few Online Charter Schools.  It, too, began as a full homeschool curriculum.

For even more information, check out my article on Squidoo


Updated 8.07.13


Complete Curriculum/ Multi-Subject
Ambleside Online
An Old-Fashioned Education
The Puritans Homeschool
9-12
National Repository of Online Courses - Free High School, AP courses and lower college courses.
You Tube: MIT Channel - Watch MIT Lectures
MIT Courses - Courses, Lecture Notes, Assignments, Projects and Final Exams from MIT

Math Magician
Math Fact Café
Math-U-See Drill Page
Comprehensive School Mathematics Program
First Lessons in Arithmetic
Center for Innovation in Mathmatics Teaching
Living Math: History of Math - Free Links to Study

Math Worksheets
Dads Worksheets 
Math Worksheets 4 Kids - Up to Trigonometry & Statistics
Math Worksheet Site
Addition Worksheets
A Plus Math
Super Teacher Worksheets 


Reading Units
Glencoe Literature Library
Nancy Polette's Children's Literature Guides
Cyber Guides

Kids 4 Classics
The Online Library of Liberty
The Baldwin Project
Planet eBook
The Basic Cozy Spelling Course
Webster's Spelling Book
Merriam-Webster Word Central
Spelling Connections


Character Study
Cub Scouts - Character Lessons
Supplemental
Unit Studies
Homeschool Helper - Lesson Plans

Blogs Dedicated to Free or Low Cost Homeschooling
An Old-Fashioned Education
Homeschool Freebie of the Day
Homeschool Resources 4 Free


Ambleside Online
An Old-Fashioned Education
Head of the Class
Lesson Pathways
Currclick - Free Stuff List
Homeschool Freebie of the Day
Kids Know It - Free games and activities for just about every subject

PreK - K
Starfall - Really well done phonics program. Safe, no ads and super easy for the preschoolers to navigate.  Pay $35 for 3 licenses/1 year subscription and receive math, colors and more songs. Tip: the pc you sign up on will count so choose wisely. Split the cost and licenses with your friends. 
Succeed to Read - Lessons to teach your Child to Read
Nick Jr. Boost - Free through Cox Cable High Speed Internet (check their homepage, my connection, surf, scroll down and there will be a link to Nick Jr. Boost) All of your kids favorite characters from Nick Jr., keeps track of lessons completed, a little difficult for preschoolers to navigate, unlike starfall.

K-5
Lesson Pathways  - Core Knowledge Lesson Plans with Planner for Mutlitple Children
Head of the Class - Core Knowledge Lesson Plans
Homeschool Helper - Lesson Plans

K-12
Internet 4 Classrooms - Links to any subject and grade

6-12
CK-12 is a free curriculum that is designed to be customized by the user. You can use provided complete digital textbooks or create your own "flexbook" by choosing your own modules to add to your scope and sequence. It is designed to work on any platform.



Math
Khan Academy - Excellent site for Math and Science. Uses video lectures to walk the student through it.
Rader's Number Nut Math
Ray's Arithmetic: Primary Lessons and Tables for Young Learners - Google Books
Practical Money Skills - Life Skills: Money
Orange Kids - Life Skills: Money from ING
Language Arts
Guide to Grammar & Writing - Grammar Lessons with Quizzes
The McGuffey Readers - Language Arts
Wacky Web Tales - Like Mad Libs to help with parts of speech.

Literature Guides - See Lit Guides Post for More Here
Novel Study Guides
Books - See Free Books Post Here
Project Gutenberg - Free Classic Books in PDF and many other formats
Google Books - Free old textbooks, classics and whatever you can think of.

Spelling/Vocabulary
Spelling City - Spelling Lists and Games
Vocabulary Coach - Vocabulary


Worksheets - See Free Worksheets Post Here
Multi Subject Worksheets
Super Teacher Worksheets
Worksheet Works
Education.com
Mr. Printables - some beautiful flashcards and more
My Schoolhouse
Donna Young
Ed Helper
TLS Books 
Busy Teachers Cafe
Homeschool Helper
All Kids Network
Jump Start
Enchanted Learning - Limited Free  -Full Version requires Membership
ABCTeach - Limited Free - Full Version requires Membership


History
Kids Past
Ancient History Encyclopedia

Geography
AAA Where - Study geography, flags, nicknames, capitals and more through interactive maps with quizzes.

Science
Rader's Chemistry 4 Kids
Rader's Cosmos 4 Kids
Rader's Biology 4 Kids
Rader's Geography 4 Kids
Rader's Physics 4 Kids
Educational Inventions - Experienced school teacher with a basement full of hand-on projects and educational games.
Science Buddies
Matchcard Science
Kids Do Ecology
Nature Detectives

Computer Science
Code.org - Zuckerberg and Gates team up with the mission to teach code to kids. This site has links to some of the sites you see below. It's kind of a one-stop shop.
Scratch - From MIT is a free download that can easily be used by kids as young as 6 (like mine!).
Gamestar Mechanic - A fun quest-based program that unlocks pieces the student  can use for their own game.
Learn Street - Ruby, Python and Java Courses.
Alice - Next step up from Scratch. Java, C++ and C#
Codeacademy - Javascript, HTML/CSS, Python, Ruby,  APIs. Community support. Points and badges to earn.
Coursera - College level courses. Beginner level to very advanced. Courses available for a limited amount of time. Some courses available year-round.


Video Help
Discovery Education - all grades/subjects

Spanish
Online Free Spanish

Art
Google Art Project - Virtual tours through some of the the best Art Museums
Getty Museum - Lesson Plans, Videos, and Activities to do at home
Norman Rockwell Museum
National Gallery for America's Young Artists


Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) - One stop shop for animations, videos, photos and documents on all subjects.

Study Guides
Flashcard Exchange


Local Resources
Library
Museum
Craigslist
Co-op Swap
Friend with a different age group
Book Store/Library Discount Shelves
Amazon Used Textbooks - Low Cost
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About Me
Homeschooling mom of 3 wonderful children as well as accountant, gardener, housekeeper, personal chef, chauffeur, fashion coordinator, sports coach, personal assistant to my husband and life coach to my kids. Gamer Boy (19), Jibber-Jabber (13), and Hermione (11).

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Read Alouds

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Matilda
James and the Giant Peach
The BFG
The Magic Finger
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Fortunately, the Milk
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien, Zena Bernstein
The Cricket in Times Square
Gilgamesh the Hero
How to Train Your Dragon
How to Be a Pirate
How to Speak Dragonese
How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse
How to Twist a Dragon's Tale
Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes
The Red Pyramid


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