Monday, August 30, 2010

K12 Advertising Heavily

You may have noticed that K12 has been using a lot of advertising lately. Almost all websites I visit seem to have banner ads of some sort and I have seen a ton of television advertising for them. Why is this?

Not only is K12 great homeschool curriculum but it offers your child the chance to be part of the school district that you live in. My children have been using K12 for about four years now. We love it but as with all programs it has its pros and cons.

We love being part of the public school system but it is on our terms. Our teachers put together fabulous activities, field trips and other programs like a science club, technology class and more. We can pick and choose what we are a part of and none of it is pushed on us.

We love having the contact with a certified teacher. She has so many ideas and so much to offer but she is never pushy, she is just a resource should we need one. This helps me know that there is someone who truly cares about my children and me.

Things we don't care for are the math program which I believe has been redone since we switched math programs. The good thing is that we can pick and choose which subjects we use from K12, it isn't an all or nothing curriculum. It is tailor made for my child so that makes me feel better.

I also do not like having to record every bit of attendance and every lesson completed, etc. This has given me a new level of compassion for public school teachers as I see that "the system" requires so much mindless busy work for teachers and I don't like them requiring it of me. I do it because I figure the curriculum is publicly funded and it is my job if I choose to use it but that doesn't mean I like it.

Over all we love this curriculum or we wouldn't keep using it. It comes with much more in the way of supplies compared to say Calvert Schools. I liked Calvert but this seems more inclusive and is much easier for me as a teacher at home.

One other thing you should know is that through the publicly funded version of K12 you do have to return your materials that are not deemed "consumables". This is not a problem for me as I have limited storage space and am glad they reuse things rather than waste them but it is a challenge to gather everything up and ship it back at times so if you do use this just try to stay organized so you are not hunting for objects at the end of the year.