Intro and question about K12, etc.

[Northernmom]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum. I'm not presently homeschooling but am researching for the near future. What brings me here are my two sons. The 11 year old has been skipped twice and is starting 8th grade this fall, the 9 year old has been skipped once and will be starting 5th. They are both further subject accelerated in math one year. Finishing this year in school is still in question, but most likely next year we will do some form of homeschooling. My husband's job package includes an educational allowance. They will pay for homeschooling materials as long as it is from an accredited "complete" curricula, like K12, no piecemealing from various sources. So basically I'm looking for any other complete curricula source companies that are out there! I'd prefer non-religious and obviously would like one that is flexible for accelerated learners. The 11 year old is pretty much globally gifted and is still underplaced at the 8th grade. The 9 year old is pretty well placed in 5th grade except for math and science, which could be higher.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

[EKS]

I know a homeschooled boy who was doing Keystone High School http://www.keystonehighschool.com/ classes at 11. His mom was pleased with them.

I have used K12 middle school science and was not thrilled with the rigor of it (they are now offering advanced middle school science courses which may be better). However, the K12 elementary courses I've used have been first rate. What I like about K12 for gifted learners is that you can do different levels for different subjects (though you can't do different levels within a subject).

[LisaK in VA]

K12 has been an incredible "gift" to my family -- so much flexibility, and relatively easy to implement. The other curricula I looked at (with an accredited program), couldn't or wouldn't be as flexible. I was told (about 2 years ago) that a middle schooler could take a mixture of classes, including high school level ones without an issue.

Since you may be considering something different for next year, your oldest would be in high school -- and these programs might be worth considering:

Laureate School for the Gifted and Talented http://www.laureateschool.com/index.asp

Stanford EPGY http://epgy.stanford.edu/ohs/

Lastly, Johns Hopkins offers accelerated courses on-line as well -- but I do not believe this is a full curriculm program.

When you get into high school level courses, they seem to run about $400-500 a semester -- or between $7k - $12k for a full load :w00t: (as you can see, those numbers concern me greatly!)

HTH! (and so jealous of the education spending money your dh job provides... man, could I use it!):D

Lisa

[newbie]

We use independent K12, but Apexlearning.com is quite rigorous, they are accredited but dont give diplomas. My dd loved the challenge.

They run about 350 a course.

Jet

[Northernmom]

Thanks! This gives me somewhere to start my research.