Any homeschooling moms here? Help me choose an online option

Connecticut doesn't have any free online options. The choices are between K-12 which has a daily online classroom and has lots of social interaction, Keystone which is more independent and student paced but lacks the social component, and one other which was more expensive than either of the other two.

We went with Keystone because we thought it would work better for DD and her needs (health issues), but the K-12 approach works very well for a lot of kids.

When we lived in Ohio, we went with Ohio Virtual Academy which is a free public school that uses K-12's system as a base component. 

In what state do you live, Tracie?

Another option is CLASS from Christian Liberty Academy. I think it's more correspondence then online, though my experience with it was 10 years ago, so possibly there is lots more online stuff now.

CLASS

4 of my kids did Northstar Christian Academy and Liberty Online Academy (which is part of Liberty University) for 9-12th. They had/have teachers for all of their subjects and both schools are accredited. Just like Patter's kids, mine graduated with honors and all received scholarships. Neither school is cheap (roughly $3,000 per year per student) but it was what worked best for us. Good luck!

We used K-12's online high school. It is now free in GA, but it wasn't at the time. There were a number of problems with the technology and that created some issues with the teachers. The tests had a habit of opening and closing on their own and it took a while to convince the teachers that DD wasn't doing it. Even when we proved to the administrators satisfaction that it was a software glitch specific to Macs, some of the teachers still gave us a hard time.

Material wise, the program was pretty basic. Some of the English teachers were awesome and really encouraged DD to spread her wings. She made a lot of classroom friends and is still in touch with a number of them.

We have friends who used James Madison High School and they liked it a lot. Again, the individual teachers make a big difference, but isn't that true in a brick and mortar school as well?

Our DD did one class in 8th grade to make sure she liked the format, then did full on high school thru them for 9th and 10th. She decided to go to a local high school for 11th and 12th and she transitioned there with no problems. Her courses and grades transferred with no real problems. the only question the school had was over the PE course; DD had been allowed to use her time as a kayaker to fulfill her course requirements for PE and the school wasn't sure they could accept it. Dd provided the school with a copy of a few pages of her training log and they happily accepted the course credit.

Whatever you decide, you may want to make sure your local school will accept the transfer credits. Some situations change and it's nice to have options.

Marcy

We used Laurel Springs School. We were happy with it initially. Pulled away from it to work in a more ala cart fashion. Switched to Keystone. Found Keystone to be quite similar with a better price tag. Both are accredited by nationally recognized organizations. I learned early on that you need to be careful about accreditation. You need to not only check and see if there is accreditation, but who is giving that accreditation and what does it take to get it! 

We did use LifePac for Biology but only in conjunction with the science courses from Laurel Springs. I think she did Environmental Science through them as well.  I thought some of the biology labs were unnecessarily long as far as time (not content). She did chemistry through Keystone. The labs were MUCH better in every way. If I had to do it over again, I would not have had her do biology before chemistry. I strongly feel that today's biology should be done after a good chemistry course. 

Dd was much happier once we left the world of on-line schools. She detests survey style courses which are the backbone of any high school curriculum. I also wanted her to be responsible to someone else in the early days and did not want to be responsible for designing an entire course. Kind of funny in hindsight as her best courses were those we designed together- Dystopian Literature, Gender, Race and Discrimination in Literature, American History (used a backbone of nonfiction supplemented with an AP US History book as needed), Anatomy and Kinesiology and even Physics!

I actually wish we had done even more on our own. She start asking near the end of the first year of on-line schooling. I still insisted it was better to use a curriculum developed by professionals in the field. It took a while for to break me! LOL. The fact that she was able to complete the entire Dystopian Lit course in a summer while dancing full time in 2 different away programs, including one in Russia, convinced me we could do it. That US History course is still in progress. Not sure when we will consider it done. I just keep picking books more books for her to read. Next up is "Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion." I figured with the Hobby Lobby case and others in the news lately, it was a good piece of history to cover!

It's been awhile but DS used a homeschooling curriculum called "Oak Meadow". You can find them at http://www.oakmeadow.com.  I think by now they might have an online option. We were very happy with this program and used them from grades 6-12 (before that I had him in a private school).  Because DS has severe ADHD we decided to have him do his first 2 years of college at our local community college and then transfer to a 4 year university.

He is due to graduate this December and is in the top 15% of his class. He refuses to use any of the accommodations that are provided for ADHD students.  His vocabulary and writing skills are excellent and I credit a lot of that to the curriculum. It's not free, we paid for it, but for us it was worth it. It's secular, not religious.

It is very hard to find and choose the curriculum to match your student, but you will find one. Just take a deep breath, have confidence in yourself and you'll get there.

Debbie in MD.