Seeking top-notch virtual schooling curriculum!

[Anonymous]

We did Apex for summer physics one year. There was a teacher assigned to my daughter but I believe the actual content was not live—watch a video and do some reading and take a quiz sort of thing. The teacher was a real teacher in a brick and mortar school. He was nice.

[Anonymous]

https://www.wayland.org/admission/apply-now

They offered virtual last year, and they may be doing so again this year. It's worth reaching out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re at Laurel Springs in their Academy program. It’s been a positive experience. Regardless of whether a student is in the traditional or AP program they have a full slate of AP courses.

OP here. I called them today and apparently most classes are not live, apart from a few AP ones. I'm a bit concerned about that, although it certainly takes care of the time difference issue once we're in Europe! How did your child manage to stay motivated despite the absence of live instruction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re at Laurel Springs in their Academy program. It’s been a positive experience. Regardless of whether a student is in the traditional or AP program they have a full slate of AP courses.

OP here. I called them today and apparently most classes are not live, apart from a few AP ones. I'm a bit concerned about that, although it certainly takes care of the time difference issue once we're in Europe! How did your child manage to stay motivated despite the absence of live instruction?

Our child is generally a very motivated self-starter. When COVID initially shut down school, she was at an in-person school that pivoted to distance. She really disliked the “replicate the traditional school day schedule online”. She wanted to just get her work done and get on with the day. Thus, the asynchronous program at Laurel Springs works really well for her (she also has a really time consuming extra curricular). Asynchronous doesn’t work for everyone (our son would not be a good fit) but it can work really well for some. As an aside, the school has a lot of interactive opportunities among students and teachers which our daughter appreciated.

[Anonymous]

My friends’d kid did BYU homeschool. I think it’s generally a good program ( our friends are not Mormon) but their kid didn’t do well in a virtual setting.

[Anonymous]

University of Nebraska has an online high school. I looked into it. Ultimately, the vaccine became avail & Im sending my kid back to school.

[Anonymous]

Are you sure homeschooling is legal in whatever European country you will be living in? Just because you’re a foreigner doesn’t mean you get to circumvent the law any more than non-U.S. residents get to here. I would either stay behind with the student or have the child enroll in school overseas with the condition it not transfer over. If you’re aiming for a top university, have the child come back to the US and take those classes in a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I’d roll my dice and have him stay here and enroll in his classes in his regular school. He’s vaccinated, yes? The likelihood of high schools shutting down is so much lower because kids can get vaccinated.

And the other thing I’d strongly consider is sending one spouse on out of the country while the other stays behind with the kid attending school here. You said it’s possibly 6-12 months. Families in the military do this all the time.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure homeschooling is legal in whatever European country you will be living in? Just because you’re a foreigner doesn’t mean you get to circumvent the law any more than non-U.S. residents get to here. I would either stay behind with the student or have the child enroll in school overseas with the condition it not transfer over. If you’re aiming for a top university, have the child come back to the US and take those classes in a year.

+1

Unless you’re a diplomat living at the embassy or military living on base, you have to abide by local laws. For example, Germany never allows homeschooling and removes children from parents who are doing it.

[Anonymous]

You can check out this virtual school: https://www.saintisidorevs.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We might have to leave the US for 6-12 months. I have a rising 11th grader slated to take a handful of AP courses, and don't want to derail his academic path. Because of possible pandemic restrictions, I also don't want to leave him in the US with friends. The only American school at our destination is $50K baseline tuition (plus other fees I'm sure), and doesn't even have two of the courses he planned to take.

Is there an excellent virtual school you can recommend where we can select all the courses he wanted to take?

Thank you!

We have an 11th grader and if we were in this situation, I would skip a virtual homeschool and instead go with community college course online.

[Anonymous]

I don't know what their AP options are (my kids were younger when we enrolled through middle school) but Well-Trained Mind classes are amazing. Almost all of our teachers had PhDs, kids were motivated and highly engaged (in middle school!)--the only schooling my kids have had that approximated my very rigorous prep school in New England. Highly recommend.