K12 vs own curriculum

The decision to home school is huge! I read at least a dozen books before making the decision.* Now that I decided to do it, the next huge decision has been HOW?

How would I teach my child? What would I use? What did I expect him to learn?

I felt overwhelmed and questioned my ability to do this. So I applied for K12. If you haven't heard of K12 then you aren't on the internet much. :)  Their ads are everywhere!!  It's an online school curriculum that many online charter schools use. The bonus: you get all your curriculum (and sometimes a computer and printer) FREE and already put together. Mom (or dad) is free to just teach.

I like it because you're child takes a placement test so if they're in 2nd grade and reading at a 5th grade level and doing 3rd grade math then that's what they'll do! I also liked that it was free. Because home schooling can get expensive!!! There's also major discounted trips to local museums and the zoo so the kids can "get socialized", whatever THAT means. I'd like to undo all the "socialization" my kid got at school this year, thanks!

Anyway, I figured this was a good way to get my feet wet. To find out if I was really ready to home school. However, now that my son was accepted I'm beginning to have misgivings. That's putting it lightly. I've decided we're not going to use it at all. Because I know others are debating this system I will tell you why.

It's still public school, it's just at home. You're still expected to do 5 hours a day and from the reviews I read you'll definitely do it. It's very intensive. You also have a teacher assigned to you that you are supposed to talk to every other day. It has no overlapping of subjects. So more time is spent doing school. And if the curriculum doesn't really fit your child, tough.

So I took some time to really plan out what I wanted my child to learn and what he needed to learn) and now I feel totally confident that creating the curriculum myself is what's right for us.

And now I am SO EXCITED!!!

I can't wait to start!! We're going to begin the second week of June so I'll be blogging about how it's going, our mistakes, our successes and how I've planned the curriculum.

*I recommend: Why Gender Matters (Sax), The Well Trained Mind (Bauer), Endangered Minds (Healy) and In Defense of Childhood (Mercogliano).