Quite some time ago I wrote about my decision to place my two older children in an online school. I explained that I was not deluded to believe online schooling was homeschooling but schooling at home. However, during that time my family needed the support of an online school due to personal reasons. The decision was difficult as online schooling or traditional schooling does not appeal to me. Yet, I looked forward to the new change as it was an answer to prayer (for the time). We just finished our first semester which really was the second half of the year with our online school.
What did we think?
We are grateful for the experience and see the value in this type of education if it is needed by a family. However, this method is not for my family and we will not be registering for this type of education in the fall. I will admit I am secretly doing the happy dance since I missed homeschooling and my children expressed that being educated by me was superior to the online school. Once the decision was made I relinquished my role as primary teacher and it hurt my heart. If this method of education suited my children and my family situation I was willing to sacrifice my role for their sakes. I was ready for that change no matter how it made me cringe. Please understand that my assessment is not a criticism of online schooling in general. Online schooling is a real option for parents in the education of their children. For some, this option is a perfect fit like Cinderella’s glass slipper. For my family the fit was not right.
My view:
The format was organized beautifully. My son’s teacher was a gem. She was very communicative, friendly, conducted her virtual classes with grace and truly cared about her students. The junior high department on the other hand seemed distant and hard to communicate with.
Of course an online school will demand your student spends most of his learning time on a computer. I found this method to eventually lose its novelty and make my students feel unengaged and distant from the learning process.
Both of my children felt as if they did not learn very much. Keep in mind we entered midway through the year and a few courses were repeated from what we already did in homeschool. My children are also used to hands on learning and plenty of literature studies, narration, nature studies, art studies, etc., and not gaining learning through a computer as a primary tool.
Tune in for part two and more details on our experience…