• Oct. 17, 2008
What I wish I had known and done in the first two years using K12.
Last post someone asked for some guidance. I'm not sure that I'm a pro at all this but I will tell you what I know and what I wish I had known. These are numbered but not in any order as far as topics.
1. Not all lessons have to be done. If you child can pass the assessment right off, then let them do the assessment, enter the results and if the score is good enough the lesson will be marked complete.
2. For Kindergarten (which I hate, not just K12, just Kindergarten in general LOL) I do it two or three times a week and get it all done. I skip over whatever my daughter has been through and move on. Where she did two years of pre-school, a lot of this just feels like busy work. Sometimes she is really into it but sometimes her heart isn't in it. I want her to enjoy learning first and foremost so if I know she is getting in what she should know, then I don't stress.
3. You should set up the schedule in the OLS to suit your needs instead of trying to meet the demands of the preset schedule. K12 has the OLS to help us, not to dictate every moment that we homeschool. We have days where we just focus on two subjects and then the next day we do several lessons in other subjects. Make it work for you and your kids. When I started I didn't realize that it was so flexible.
4. Attendance. Need I say more. Mark it regularly or you will end up like I did, months behind with a teacher kindly prodding me to get it done. Not a fun chore for several children. Also, I used to let my lessons that I needed to mark complete stack up and it always made me feel like there was a cloud hanging over my head.
5. Don't forget that you can do some subjects together. Even a Kindergartner can have fun with the science that a fifth grader is doing.
6. I still do not have my children log in on their own and take charge or things as much as I should. I wish that I had helped them along from about third grade on. I wish they would log in, get their lesson stuff together and then get going on the work. I have felt like I had to do too much with them and it really doesn't have to be that way. They can be quite independent.
7. Print off a schedule for the week. This is an option in your OLS under weekly plan. This is handy for your children and you. It is really handy on the off chance that you can't log in for some reason. There were plenty of system glitches at the beginning of this year when it was helpful to have this weekly plan printed. K12 generally does not have much down time so this is just for in case.
8. Rely on your teacher. When your children get stuck on a concept and you are out of ways to teach it the child do not under estimate the value of your teacher! Our teacher has helped us in every subject at one time or another.
9. Don't resist some structure. I went from putting our own curriculum together to all of a sudden having a boxed curriculum for the first time in years. I wasn't used to marking attendance and lessons everyday and I went through a few months (years) or resenting the OLS for seeming to lurk there and prod at me. I am now glad that it is there. When I do what I know we are supposed to during a school day I know that my children are getting the fundamentals that they should be being taught and I know that I have really done my job. I know that for some "unschooling" is what pleases them and works for their family but that is not what K12 is about. I have now learned to embrace the OLS and see it as my friend and a guide rather than a dictator.
10. Don't forget to have fun. My kids love all the extra curricular things that we are involved in but they also love a whole day of science and exploring some of the extra online activities offered in the OLS. Take advantage of it all.
Most of all, know that you are not alone in using K12. For the first few years that I used it I kind of kept to myself and that was a big mistake for me personally as well as for my children.
I hope that this has helped someone. If you have more specific questions I would be glad to try to help.
Last, I'm not proof reading this tonight as I am in a bit of a hurry, please forgive any errors.
