Educational discount software

Grades K-7. More grades to come. Individual courses, $150-300 each. Core subjects, $995/grade. Core subjects plus Art and Music, $1,295/grade. $100 discount/additional student from the same family. Win 95-NT/Mac OS 8.1 and up.

K12, VA, 888-968-7512, wwwK12.com.

When it comes to homeschooling, most parents desire three things from their curriculum: 1) quality material that will provide children a working understanding of cure subjects, 2) case of use, and 3) material that inspires children to be excited about learning. This is also the goal of K12.

Many homeschooling families are familiar with K12 because of its founder and spokesman, former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett. Bennett based this on-line, for-profit school on the traditional philosophy he first shared in his book, The Educated Child. But while many homeschoolers appreciate this book, and other works by Bennett, many are not pleased with Bennett's involvement in K12 an online curriculum that in some states directs students' schooling in their homes at the taxpayers' expense.

K12 believes in sticking to the basics of phonics/reading and math skills, cultural literacy, history, geography, and the arts. This curriculum foundation is also based on the ideas of E.D. Hirsch and his "Cure Knowledge" Curriculum. Hirsch is better known from his books What Your First Grader Needs to Know, What Your Second Grader Needs to Know, etc.

In case you're wondering, "cultural literacy" can also be referred to as "multiculturalism'--placing the knowledge of all cultures on an equal plane. (No, Bennett is not the "western civilization" guru, as some believe.) This is another red flag for some homeschoolers.

In creating this program, Bennett married his efforts with his belief that the best way to reform the public school system is to gel parents involved in education. "Children are more likely to get a sound, complete, lasting education if parents take ah active rule in the teaching process," Bennett says.

The "Classical Core" subjects taught are: Art, Language Arts, Music, Science, History, and Math (with the addition of Phonics for grades K-1.) Before starting K12, students must have their math and language skills evaluated for placement. Placement tests for Language Arts and Math are free when you visit the K12 wehsite. These tests take from 20-30 minutes to complete. There are also sample lessons on the website to give you an idea of K12's layout and content.

Once the placement tests are complete, the parents have the flexibility of registering their children for just a few, of all, of the classes. The time required by a student to complete the course is also adaptable. Students can zoom through the work in a few months, or take up to 1 1/2 years to complete it.

When beginning the program, which you can do al any time of the year, parents are provided with two sets of learning tools. The first set is a large box of materials for "off-line" work. To your children, it may seem like Christmas has arrived! Included are items such as phonics tiles, videos (some of which are created by K12 themselves), CDs, read-aloud books, science supplies, seed packets, art prints, musical instruments, workbooks, and more.

For parents, K12 provides a three-ring teacher's guide. This tells you bow to start the online program. This guide also gives ah overview of what is taught in each subject for each specific grade. In its pages, common questions are answered, methods for teaching are discussed, and the additional required materials are listed. (Additional materials may include books to be checked out or purchased for Language and craft supplies for Art.)

The second set of "tools" is access to the Internet-based website that serves as the foundation for the education experience. Even though this framework is computer-based, elementary students should only be online 20 to 30 percent of the time. (Note: the Language segments for upper grades include no online work. All work is completed though textbooks, printable worksheets, or read-alouds. Answer keys are found on the K12 website.)

The other subjects include both online work and work to be printed from PDF files and completed. A fast Internet connection is best if you plan on using K12 since along with the online work there are also many downloads that would take more time on a slow connection

When the student is finished with the online materials, the rest of the school day is spent working with pencil and paper, drawing, listening to music, conducting experiments, and (in the early grades) working with phonics tiles and math blocks. (A lot of emphasis is placed on "hands on" work, which may be surprising to some K12 critics.) This is not a curriculum you can turn on and leave your child unattended. You are the teacher. And ... if you have trouble fulfilling this role in any way, access to advice from an experienced K12 teacher is available.

All the essential skills are covered: reading, writing, measuring, calculating, thinking logically, questioning, and analyzing. K12 children learn by exploring the world around them. For example, my children thoroughly enjoyed "playing" with their new measuring instruments for hours after one day's assignment.

Online Layout

Once registered, parents are provided with a user name and password for the site. This gives you entrance into the virtual school. Once online, the layout of K12 is simple. From a master screen, parents can maneuver through lessons, course instructions, helps, and charts for plans and progress.

One of the first things a parent sees when logging onto the website is a "reminder" screen. This screen warns parents of future lessons that are in need of preparation. For example in Science 2 (Grade 2), the teacher must create "metric shuffle cards" for a future lesson. (Okay, I can do that.)

When this screen is closed, parents now find themselves on the Plans sections. Lesson plans can be displayed in two ways--with daily or weekly work shown. Items are marked "done" when completed, and parents can look ahead to see what projects are coming up. Or you can even look back weeks of months to check on something that's been completed.

In the Plans section, there are three additional helps. First is the Materials section, where all the items needed for the day (or week) are listed. Next is the Advance Preparation screen that tells you (again) what things need to be prepared for upcoming lessons--in case you forgot to print it out the first time! Finally, there is the Schedule Setup screen that allows you to take off the school days you need. You can even change the number of courses per subject per day. (Are you getting the idea that this program is very flexible?)

On the Progress section, the student's progress is reported by an easy-to-read graph, so you know exactly how much work your child has accomplished in relation to the lessons for the year. It's an easy way to know what your students have finished, started, or have not yet started.

In addition, there's an Attendance section in which you can record the number of minutes your student has worked that day per subject. This is a good feature for homeschoolers who live in states that require a daily log of hours completed.

The best part of the K12 organizational structure is that any of the tools, subjects, and even grades your children are enrolled in can be accessed with only a click of the mouse.

Overview of Lesson Structure

When you begin a lesson, the first screen you see is the Lesson Overview. This screen provides information on:

* Unit Objectives & Lesson Titles--an overview of what the student will be learning

* Lesson Objectives--what the student should be able to accomplish by the end of the lesson

* Pronunciation for words like meniscus (muh-NIS-kuh)

* Keywords--important terms used in the lesson, with definitions

* Materials--a list of everything needed

* Resource Links/Media Files--additional material found on the web

* Advance Preparation/Material--yet again

Throughout the lesson, teachers will also find Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files to open and print, answers keys, and teacher tips. The PDF files can be worksheets for the students to fill out and/or pages for the teacher to use (such as in making flashcards).

Finally, each lesson concludes with assessments to check students' progress. These are not tests students fill out online. Instead they are assessments you must answer in order to check whether your child is retaining important concepts and skills from the lessons.