Student Accomplishments & Pictures

Our family's K12 story begins 14 years ago when I was a senior Biology major in college. That year I had been asked to teach a Biology class to a group of homeschoolers. Every Friday, I witnessed these children of all ages being given the opportunity to explore, dissect, discuss, and learn in a way that I knew children in a traditional school would not be given. More than that, I observed how exceptionally kind, respectful, and eager to learn they all were. They were more spiritually and emotionally mature than most children their ages. I thought, if I ever have children I want them to be just like these kids. I was convinced that home schooling was the key.

Fast forward 13 years later to 2011. I was married and had been homeschooling my two boys since they were born. Curriculum choices were expensive and confusing, and though I had a Master's degree in Education and 4 years of teaching experience, it was a challenge for me to plan every subject for two different levels every day. I remained convinced that homeschooling was the right choice for my children, but I needed the burden of lesson planning to lighten, I needed support from other professional educators, and I needed reprieve from the financial burden that buying curriculum was putting on our family's finances. A lot of prayer and an online search brought me to the K12 website. It seemed to have all the solutions to what I needed. A month and half later, we were enrolled.

I admit, it took quite a while to get used to the online learning system. So many passwords and procedures. I was not used to logging attendance, making contacts, and spending time fulfilling all that the charter school required. I missed all the freedom and flexibility of traditional homeschooling, but the many pros of K12 tipped the scales and we signed up again the next year.

We are now in our second year with K12 and I am more grateful than ever for it. My children are working more independently. They love the colorful and engaging online lessons. We have access to educational outings, booster club events, a wide selection of online classes and clubs, access to Reading Eggs, and I cannot say enough good things about the curriculum. History is taught with a chronological, big world conception. The U.S. is not the center of history! And it's like Christmas when receive the boxes of so many beautiful books we get to read for Literature, History, and Science. It's like a complete school in a box.

I absolutely love that I can have access to the resources that come with being a part of a public charter school while still schooling my children at home where my husband and I get to be the major influences in their lives. We get to be the ones to train them to be kind, respectful, eager to learn, spiritually and emotionally mature children, like the ones that inspired me to become an educator 14 years ago.

This is what my eight year old son says about K12: "Last year I thought my work was hard, but when I heard about K12 it encouraged me to think that school was easy. So I tried K12 and it was awesome!!! I understand the math better. This is something I can solve now: 1,000,000,000 + 1,000,000,100,150 = 1,001,000,100,150. K12 is awesome!"

This is what my five year old son says about K12: "I like the Science and Math. Our other school Science wasn't very fun. I get to look at cool rocks. I used to want to make a potato pie when I grow up but now I want to be a scientist."

K12 has heightened my five year old's aspirations. What more can I say?