This thread is to brainstorm about the pros and cons of, and the choice between, home school and virtual school (having already decided B&M school won't work.)
Disclosure: We have been virtual schooling, but I have made my mind up that I want to switch to home schooling. What I really want from this thread are ideas to convince DW we should do this, otherwise the virtual schooling status quo will continue. I particularly need concrete suggestions of home schooling materials to replace what the virtual school feeds us.
We initially chose virtual schooling because we were unsure how to go about home schooling, it is free (public virtual charter school), they chose and supplied the materials and online courses (k12.com in our case), there was structure, a school staff/teachers, report cards, and so on. DS8's been doing it 3 years, DD5 is due to start and DD3 will later.
However compared to home schooling, the virtual school has less freedom/choice, more time wasting, more annoying school nonsense, mediocre (not great, not terrible) course materials. Acceleration is easy, but they don't have real gifted materials, you just get to go faster through the standard coursework.
I'm sure we can do better with home schooling, but we need good materials. We want structured courses (preferably some interactive computer part, together with books/materials) for Mathematics and ELA (English/Language Arts) at least. Other subjects we can improvise in elementary school, as there's not much that must be covered. Cost is definitely a factor. DS8 is PG in math, and ready for AoPS, so that decision is easy. DS8 is MG in ELA. Not sure about DD5 or DD3, but they'll be some level of gifted. So we want proper academic materials that don't waste time or money. Apart from AoPS with its class time slots, we do not want any scheduled activities. Complete time freedom is essential.
How do I convince DW that we can jump ship from a known virtual schooling to an unknown home schooling?
Any ideas for putting a home schooling plan together? (Any other suitable forums for really getting into the details?)
