Homeschoolers Going K12?

There are homeschoolers who would never consider a charter school program. Then there are parents who wouldn't have it any other way. Homeschoolers are as diverse as non-homeschoolers in their thoughts on education, but I did want to share our experience last Fall with K12. For just one semester my children were enrolled in a public school charter program through K12.com. With the exception of a few glitches created from record-setting enrollment, we had nothing but positive experiences using this program.

K12, like public school is completely secular, but as teacher you can add anything you choose to the curriculum. Most of the coursework is provided online for the parent-teacher, depending on the age of your child they may or may not have a significant amount of computer time directly, but you're often given the computer (in our case a laptop), some schools even provide a printer, and you're given all workbooks, study aids and tools for a very minimal fee... actually where we live all you pay is the registration fee, which is around $100 per student for the entire school year.

My sister-in-law has been homeschooling with K12.com through a virtual public school program going on 3 years now and she just received all her boxes of books and supplies for the Fall semester. What she likes about the program is that all lessons are prepared for her in advance, all scores and progress are stored in that program, and she only has a couple meetings a month with the teacher aid assigned to her children (via telephone). They talk about progress and help her answer questions or manage struggles she might be having at the time.

In any case, I'm curious to know how you all feel about charter programs in general. Do you like them or do you fear the success and popularity of such programs will only result in the government stepping in and declaring charter programs as the only option for homeschooling? I've heard this concern before and in fact have had that concern myself. The package that K12 offers is so polished and near perfect, often times saving you considerably (monetarily) over pre-packaged homeschooling curriculum, I have to wonder if I fell victim last Fall to the flash of it all or if I really did change my thinking on the matter! lol In any case... wanted to share the information and let my reader's share their thoughts.

If you'd like to visit the site for more information... K12.com.