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Does everyone HS online nowadays?

1K views 19 replies 19 participants last post by  One_Girl 
#1 ·
I haven't lurked here yet, but I have on other boards looking for info on homeschooling. Seems everyone does virtual online curriculum instead of purchasing or borrowing materials and doing it the "old fashioned" way. Does anyone here do it the old way where actual text books and work books are used? If so, is there any place to trade/buy used or borrow/lend out materials?

I am probably a hypocrite for saying this, but I really do not want my child to sit in front of a computer to read and do homework. I want to use real books and pens and paper as much as possible. I know a lot of the tests will be on the computer, but the enormous amount of screen time is kind of scary to me when I look at some of the virtual academies.
 
#2 ·
#3 ·
Well, I'm using a virtual academy this school year, and for K and 1st grade there's almost no screen time at all in the lessons. We sit at the computer desk to do assignments purely because its an L shaped desk and I like having the computer handy to read stuff off or look up something to supplement. We use a k12 school. But I know of other academies that use a LOT more computer time for teaching.

Now that said, when we are done with this school year by the calendar I plan on switching to "traditional" homeschooling. I did the k12 school this year to transition us from public, and it worked perfectly for that. Now I'm ready to move on with life and get to the FUN stuff. I have all our materials ready or ordered (waiting on a shipment from amazon with the last of my books) and we are *hoping* to start up in June with everything. I'm ready to set my own timeline and not worry about logging enough hours or having to do lessons on Saturdays to keep up. I'm ready to CHOOSE what history and science we do this year instead of being told what to do. And not a single bit of it will be on the computer unless we look up something, at least not until dd1 gets where she needs to be to start Teaching Textbooks for her math program.
 
#4 ·
We use books for our curriculum. We use Sing, Spell, Read & Write for language arts, Singapore for math, and then the general California stuff for Social Science and Science (mind is blanking right now and im too tired to go grab it from the school room). We bought most of it on Amazon, the rest from a local homeschool store here. But we went through a charter, as we couldn't afford the curriculum on our measly budget. The charter covered all the costs of it and then some.
 
#6 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiteHorse View Post
I haven't lurked here yet, but I have on other boards looking for info on homeschooling. Seems everyone does virtual online curriculum instead of purchasing or borrowing materials and doing it the "old fashioned" way. Does anyone here do it the old way where actual text books and work books are used? If so, is there any place to trade/buy used or borrow/lend out materials?

I am probably a hypocrite for saying this, but I really do not want my child to sit in front of a computer to read and do homework. I want to use real books and pens and paper as much as possible. I know a lot of the tests will be on the computer, but the enormous amount of screen time is kind of scary to me when I look at some of the virtual academies.
I use small amounts of online resources (meaning those that the kids interact with directly) Connor does maybe 15minutes 3 times a week of reading eggs.. and the boys do very occasionally use mathletics, for practice though, not 'teaching. We DO use Math U See though, which has a dvd lesson component and the boys watcht hat with me


Other than that though, we are at the dining table, breakfast bar, outside on the veranda doing science.. and everywhere but at the computer
 
#7 ·
We just use the computer to view educational videos, either from Discovery or a DVD. We don't have a TV, and DD does not have any curriculum online nor do we use any online-based learning for her.

(I'm not a total luddite--I work in high tech and I develop training videos as part of my job. I just think she has a whole lot of living in the real world to do before she has to use the computer. Using a computer isn't rocket science; she figured out how to use a mouse and type email to me and DH just by watching us. So, I have no worries about her being "behind" her peers regarding computer skills.)

Holli
 
#8 ·
I don't use the computer for much direct learning with the kids. I use it a lot to communicate with other homeschoolers, share ideas and recommendations, etc. The vast majority of our learning takes place through conversations and experiments around the house and through classes and activities outside the house. I don't even use textbooks much yet, though that may change as we hit the more advanced subjects. Right now topical books and experiential learning are meeting our needs.
 
#9 ·
The only online work our DS1 uses is Click'n Spell. Everything else is either written work at the kitchen table, or listening to me and discussing things. The Click'n Spell lessons become written work as well when there are words he has trouble with.

You are not alone in doing it the "old fashioned" way.
 
#10 ·
We report to our umbrella school on-line but 95% the kids' learning is done through life, books, conversation and other old-fashioned resources. Two of mine do some second-language learning using a computer program installed on our computer -- that's really the only exception. My contact with homeschoolers leads me to believe that on-line curriculum users are very much in the minority.

Miranda
 
#11 ·
That is good to know. I guess my area is the exception rather than the rule. Everyone who answered my queries on my local board said they use K12 because it was inexpensive and everything was online so they were not buying materials.

For those who have pre-K through say grade 4, what is the average cost for materials? I just have one child (he's only 2.5 now so I have a while to research)
 
#12 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiteHorse View Post
That is good to know. I guess my area is the exception rather than the rule. Everyone who answered my queries on my local board said they use K12 because it was inexpensive and everything was online so they were not buying materials.

For those who have pre-K through say grade 4, what is the average cost for materials? I just have one child (he's only 2.5 now so I have a while to research)
It can honestly be as cheap or as expensive as you want it. There is pretty much free curriculum available for all subject (printer paper would cost) Or you could use the library. I know our library carries the math books and the SS books the local public school uses, plus an actual home school curriculum. The name is escaping me right now tho. We mostly just purchase math workbooks and books that we want to keep for our personal library (the thrift store has been really good for this) Otherwise, we check out tons from the library, but then again, we are extremely relaxed hsers


eta: we do have a subscription to Brain Pop, but that is more for fun than anything
 
#13 ·
We don't use an online school either. In fact, my daughter's curriculum involves no computer time whatsoever. My son has some phonics games online though. As for where to buy, my favorite places are:

www.homeschoolclassifieds.com
www.amazon.com
www.vegsource.com

If I'm looking for something specific (i.e. CLE, FIAR, Sonlight), then I join a yahoo group that allows selling & buying. I get what I need and usually leave the group. HTH.
 
#14 ·
We've done nothing online for schooling so far. My son will be starting his math curriculum on the computer (it's a CD Rom curriculum called Teaching Textbooks), but that's the only subject I can see him doing on the computer for a long while. We're just finishing up grade 2 for my oldest (who turned 8 this week) and until this year we have done no formal curriculum, just stuff I've pulled together from online printables, library resources and kids books. I taught him phonics and we went from there, I'd have him read a kids book and then underline all the adjectives on a certain page, circle the verbs, etc. We'd write stories to teach him writing, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. Science is easy at that age, we'd explore nature and learn about our bodies and plant seeds, grow a garden, etc. There's so much you can do yourself with just a bit of creativity. I focused mainly on reading to him and having him practice his writing and some math, I followed his lead. This year we bought some "real" curriculum- a math workbook, history- Story of the World, think that's it. Just doing it myself and flying by the seat of my pants my ds is reading several grade levels ahead and is a year or so advanced in math, so it's working for us- and w/o having to spend lots of time every day or spending lots of $. We're gradually adding in more curriculum - though I don't buy a packaged school in a box set, I prefer to get my math from one place, language arts from another, etc, just pick what works best for me and them and go from there.

You should really go to a curriculum sale. So many books under one roof, so many ideas, so EXCITING! I went to my first homeschool conference last year and I was just blown away, there were over 1,000 homeschool parents there, thousands of books, dozens of companies represented and dozens of seminars. It was hard to limit myself and not overspend. This year I dragged my hubby along and we had a great time.
 
#16 ·
Well, we did k12 for two years (collectively did curriculum from K all the way through 5th) and we actually spent very little time on the computer. There were plenty of real books and work books. So if the idea of too much computer time is the only thing putting you off from k12, that might not really be something to be worried about. (Obviously, k12 isn't for everyone, and we're not continuing this year ourselves, but computer time isn't one of the issues). We will be doing a mixture of books, real life, discussion, movies, computer resources, etc.
 
#17 ·
I definitely do not homeschool online. It seems most mamas on here don't, either. I'm the same as you-- I do not want my children sitting in front of a computer all day long!!!

(Too easy for me to do that, plus my son would quickly find his way to You Tube.)
 
#19 ·
We are traditional hsers in the sense that we don't use a virtual school. We use paper, books, crafts, food, outdoors, experiences, ect to learn. I have recently allowed my kids to use starfall for phonics and am regretting that since now all they want is to be online--even my 3 yr old--"I wanna do ABCs!" I got rid of the tv when they began begging for movies all day long, but "I" cannot live without MDC, lol.

It's totally doable and fun to HS offline. I checkout amazon, rainbow resources and Sonlight for ideas and come to a few hs forums for support.
 
#20 ·
I don't use a computer, but I don't use traditional textbooks either. We do some math and some language arts stuff with worksheets I get online or in workbooks I get at WalMart. For reading I have dd read books she finds at the library and I read to her. We do history and science with books from the library with content that interests dd. I use our school districts standards to get ideas for some subjects. I don't like the idea of dd do everything with a computer and I don't want to be boxed in to a curricullum that doesn't fit my dd.
 
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