Online/homeschool

[confusedks]

It is a long story, but I am in High School in my junior year. I am having a lot of very serious and complicated health issues. I am not able to make it through a school day. Someone suggested online school for me. They said it's great for people with health problems because there are almost no due dates. I know quite a few parents on this board homeschool. I was wondering if anybody knows of a good online school? I appreciate any advice.

Kassandra

[CarlaB]

Kassandra, check out www.k12.com. It was just starting back when I was quitting homeschooling. I homeschooled for 10 years ...

We're Catholic ... I used Kolbe Academy for my high school students, but you wouldn't like it if you're not Catholic.

[EBsMom]

Laurel Springs is one that I've heard a lot of good things about. They will personalize your curriculum (vs a "one size fits all" approach.) I had looked into it last year, but for several reasons, decided to stick to our more traditional homeschool approach this year. I know that LS is used by young athletes and actors, in lieu of attending school, when they're training or working. HTH!

Open Original Shared Link

Rho

[hathor]

I can't recommend a particular school. If you google, I'm sure you can find a list for there are many, many programs. Here is one link: Open Original Shared Link

There are also discussion groups for high school homeschooling (check Yahoo, for instance).

I homeschooled my daughter in high school and didn't use a school. She had some correspondence courses & courses at a university during the summer, but most was me.

It really isn't necessary to use someone outside unless you want to. I used mostly college textbooks that had study guides to go along with them. My daughter is at an Ivy League school now so it didn't hurt her. (I'm not saying such places are better for everyone; they are just harder to get into.)

Have you and your parents discussed the issue with your school? Sometimes they will make available home tutoring or the state itself has an online school. Check also on the web sites of your major state university. At number of state universities have correspondence/online high school programs available. This has the added benefit that your local school district will accept it.

This brings up the first issue. You need to find out what the homeschooling requirements are in your state. They may affect what you choose to do. Here is a link to a site that has the laws for each state, and also contact information for local homeschooling organizations and other useful information. Open Original Shared Link

[CarlaB]

I put together my own curriculum, too, until HS, and even then, I supplemented and did much of my own thing. My oldest went to public hs her junior and senior year (my health was declining), and graduated in the top 10 students in her class. She's doing great in college. She adjusted both to public school and college very easily.

In fact ... thinking back, we used Kolbe her freshman year, then did our own thing her sophomore year because we saw little benefit in a "canned" curriculum. We kept binders with all her work for each class. When she went to HS, they looked at the binders, had her do a speech for one class and take a test for another and gave her full credit for all her home school classwork.

Here's another good website for information. www.hslda.org.

You might even look into community colleges and see if they have correspodence courses ... that way you can get both hs and college credit.

Kassandra, if you want to talk, PM me and I'll send you my cell phone number ... you might even want to talk to my daughter.

[Nutmegger]

I primarily unschooled for high school, but when I did do more traditional homeschooling, it was through the American School. I had a good experience and was able to complete their assignments very quickly. They have a good reputation and are one of the few secular correspondence schools, which is a lot easier for college admissions, so I'd look into them. They didn't have on-line schooling available when I did it (several years ago), but mailing an envelope once a week certainly wasn't a big deal.

[confusedks]

Thank you for all the suggestions. It needs to be done by me...my mom works and is a single mom, so she wouldn't be able to homeschool me. We have talked at length to my teachers and even have a 504, but all of the teachers are being very uncooperative.

I am in a very rigorous program and it is really difficult for them to make exceptions because their curriculum isn't based out of a textbook...it is all based on things the teachers have written themselves (ie, packets, photocopies out of college textbooks, etc.)

I will look into all of the schools. The thing is for right now I am only going to start with online school for math because I want to continue with English/History at school. I may also do Spanish 3 online actually. We will call some of these places and see what they say as far as their courses they offer.

Kassandra

[Nutmegger]

If you're going to be doing it on your own, I would definitely suggest going the correspondence route, whether it be on-line or via postal mail. You don't need any instruction for that and can teach yourself using the textbooks provided.

Best wishes! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I'm in college now, but I remember all of this pretty well.

[buffettbride]

Wow! I just have to say way to go on taking care of yourself educationally at a relatively young age. Whichever program you choose, you are bound to do well.

[hathor]

For math, I've heard good things about www.teachingtextbooks.com. (This doesn't go through calculus; if you need that, I've other suggestions.) This is certainly cheaper than the math programs we used

My daughter really taught herself a lot of the time. It wasn't as if I were right there lecturing or something. If the correct answers are in the program, that usually is enough.

I don't know about Spanish 3. If you get linked to your local homeschool group, you may find courses put together by groups of parents. They may be taught by a parent with a particular area of expertise, or the parents may find a teacher who can cover a particular topic. I would think you would want to have some opportunity to listen to and engage in conversation. I'm not sure how that would work with online or correspondence courses. I suppose you could press your school district to send out a tutor once a week to talk with you in Spanish. There also may be a local adult education Spanish program that meets once a week that you could handle. (I know many homeschooled high schoolers who go to the local community college for courses where interaction, equipment, or special expertise is required. But I don't know if this is practical for you.)

I can't help more than that because my daughter took three "dead" languages in high school and didn't have to speak in any of them. One I knew, one I learned along with her, and one I thought was beyond me and was taught by an expert.

I wish you luck to find what will work for you. If I can offer one more word of advice, it would be not to panic. It seems the most common error for new homeschoolers is to think they have to have something in place immediately and they spend a lot of money for something they end up not liking. It isn't necessary to rush. Heck, your school year isn't confined to the usual one. If you finish up a course in the summer or the beginning of the next regular school year, it doesn't make any difference. I always tried to go with the cheaper alternatives. If that didn't work, then I was willing to spring for the costlier ones. Usually at that point, I would have gathered reviews from different people.

If you want to know how people are or have handled particular courses, a few good places to find out:

2 Yahoo groups -- hs2coll and homeschool2college

the high school board on The Well-Trained Mind web site

[Glutenfreefamily]

Another option might be tutor through your school. My mom paid a certain amount out each year and I had a tutor from the school come twice a week for a few hours and give me homework, tests and I would turn in my homework. It was easy and I could do it at my own pace and most homeschooling companies charge also per year about the same amount. You also need to look at the laws in your state regarding homeschooling as each state requires different things.

I will be homeschooling my daughter next year and using this company Open Original Shared Link

They are accredited so that way it will be an easy transistion into public schools in the future if she chooses.

[Mom23boys]

I will be homeschooling my daughter next year and using this company Open Original Shared Link

They are accredited so that way it will be an easy transistion into public schools in the future if she chooses.

I was in a School of Tomorrow school from 6-12 grade. It was a good education. IMO it would be good in your situation.

Something else to look into is Switched on Schoolhouse (SOS). It is computer based but not online. It is similar to School of Tomorrow in its setup. I like it because it because the computer does the grading, record keeping, etc...It also has video clips (both education and fun). It is also more affordable.

[Daughter-of-TheLight]

There's always Virtual School. I think they have a Virtual School for almost every state. Some of my friends do Florida Virtual School. There is also something called SOS or Switched on Schoolhouse. It is a Christian program, so that's a problem for a lot of people. I am a more traditional homechooler. You can just buy the curriculum and do it. Like, I do Teaching Textbooks for math, Notgrass for History, grammar, literature, and Bible, Rosetta Stone for Spanish, SOS for science and Health... You get it. For a while I did Sonlight. Sonlight is not a completely Christian Curriculem. It looks at all sides of the issues, including Christian. So... There are a lot of options. PM me for more info.

[confusedks]

Thank you all for your replies. I am actually not looking for a religious school. I have found called Keystone, but I am just trying to make sure they are properly accredited through the proper accreditation boards. I don't want to spend the next 1.5 years schooling and then apply to college just find out that they won't transfer my HS credits.

Kassandra

[Mom23boys]

Thank you all for your replies. I am actually not looking for a religious school. I have found called Keystone, but I am just trying to make sure they are properly accredited through the proper accreditation boards. I don't want to spend the next 1.5 years schooling and then apply to college just find out that they won't transfer my HS credits.

Kassandra

Double check with homeschool legal (great info there too) but I believe most do recognize homeschool diplomas now.

[hathor]

I never saw any particular advantage to accredited versus not. I can see it might help if transferring back to a regular high school is possible. But colleges, by and large, don't care. If there is a nonaccredited school involved, or regular homeschooling, they look at test scores, recommendations, outside courses, curricula descriptions, work product, and the like in making admission decisions. I don't know of any major school that doesn't accept regular homeschoolers, who obviously aren't accredited.

The subject of college admissions is frequently discussed on those homeschooling boards I mentioned. There is also a book on the subject.

We figured out which colleges my daughter was interested in fairly early in high school. Then we found out what they wanted to see from homeschooled students. None of them required accreditation. With one exception, they all took a "provide us what you want to provide" attitude. Actually, I think my daughter had an advantage because she didn't provide the "same old, same old" application to competitive places, that is, a transcript with the usual courses and the usual high grades. She had unusual courses and no grades, but rather course descriptions, with some outside courses yielding recommendations and some reviewed work in her prospective field.

Of course, there are thousands of schools out there and I haven't checked them all. I just wanted to make the point that high school accreditation isn't that critical. My daughter got admitted to Brown, U Chicago, UNC-Chapel Hill (as an out of state student), as well as a safety state school.

The only wrinkle was with getting the NCAA Clearinghouse to approve her for intercollegiate athletics. But that got fixed. If you go with a school rather than straight homeschooling and may wish to participate in Division I or II athletics, it is important that your school and the core courses you are relying upon be approved by the Clearinghouse. I remember one popular correspondence program that didn't satisfy them and its graduates were to be barred from competition. For homeschooling, they look at the transcript, the textbooks used, and standardized text scores.

Your situation may be different if you are in New York or planning on going to a New York public college. They have peculiar rules. So does the entire U Cal system. Of course, my daughter is now a college junior, so my information may be out of date.

So my recommendation is to go with the best education you can find for you, doublechecking with potential colleges that this will be acceptable. If Division I or II athletics is a possibility, be sure to check out any potential school and its course offerings on the NCAA Clearinghouse approved list.

[Daughter-of-TheLight]

I also do something called umbrella school. What that is is you send in work and they give you highschool credits, and when all is over and done, they give you a REAL highschool diploma. There are a few to choose from. The big one is NARS in Massechusets. (Sp?) There are more in every state, but you'd have to find them.

[Glutenfreefamily]

I dont think you will have a hard time with colleges accepting it either. My only concern is going back into mainstream schooling with my daughter but if we knew for sure she was staying homeschooled I would just use a.c.e. and not worry about the lighthouse accreditation (much cheaper if it wasnt).Its also a very good idea if you dont have a scholarship to get some basic courses at a community college and transfer them. It will save your parents quite a bit of money for the first 1 or 2 years.

mom23boys- I love a.c.e. too, I took it myself throughout high school at a one room christian school.

[confusedks]

Just a quick update...I am officially enrolled in Keystone National High School. It *is* fully accredited and meets CA state standards, so that won't be a problem. I am very excited about the decision we have made, I feel good about everything. Thank you for all your help.

Hathor, I am in LA and the UC's are tricky. But even they will accept Keystone because they are accredited through the NAAS which is recognized nationally.

Again, thanks for all the input!

Kassandra

[EBsMom]

Congrats, Kassandra! I'm glad you found a good fit. I'm very impressed with your maturity and motivation to find a good educational fit for yourself. I hope my kids have something similar when they're your age! Good luck!

Rhonda (Rho)

[hathor]

I'm glad you found your answer.

I ran across this book about California homeschooling. I don't know what all is in it, but it may be worth your while:

Open Original Shared Link

In the description, it mentions the California Homeschool Network & its email list. This might be worth looking into also.

Good luck!

[Daughter-of-TheLight]

Congradulations! So i'm not the only Homeschooled teenager on this whole forum anymore...