How to Evaluate an Online Homeschool Program

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By JoAnnKuhn
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There are advantages and disadvantages with enrolling in an online homeschool program. There are many things to consider when deciding to enroll in one of these programs. You'll want to ensure that the benefits of enrolling are worth it for your family. Are you willing to comply with the online program's requirements? This article will address the issues you will want to consider before enrolling your children into the online homeschool program?

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

The first step to determining if an online homeschool program will work for your family is to evaluate the curriculum requirements. Some online programs require that you school exclusively through their online classes. This means your child will spend a lot of time on the computer. Others will provide you with their approved curriculum in book form. Still others give you the freedom to chose your own curricula, usually within the limits of being nonreligious in nature, and will reimburse you all or part of the costs. Find out the online homeschool program's requirements and decide if you are willing to work within those requirements.
Step 2

The next big thing to consider when evaluating an online homeschool program is the requirements for reporting progress in school work. Does the program require you to send in all completed work for grading? Or does the program simply ask the parent to write a monthly report of the topics covered in each subject?
Step 3

Next, you'll want to consider the teacher-child contact requirements. Does the program you are evaluating require you to bring the child to the school for face-to-face meetings with the teacher or will email and phone calls be sufficient contact?
Step 4

One great thing about homeschooling is the ability to be flexible with school hours so you will want to evaluate the attendance requirements for the online homeschool program. Some programs require you to school a certain number of hours every day and if you choose to skip a day in favor of going on a field trip, the child is considered absent from school. Other programs are more flexible with attendance, expecting you to meet a minimum number of weekly hours on average. The more flexible programs don't care if you school day, evening, weekends, 10 hours this week and 30 hours next, so long as you get the average number of weekly hours accomplished by the end of the month. You'll also want to consider how attendance is reported. Some require you to get online every day to report how much school you completed that day. Others will ask you each month if you met your time requirements for the month.
Step 5

Flexibility is another big consideration when evaluating an online homeschool program. Does the school have specific, set requirements that control much of what you do when it comes to schooling or do they leave most of the decisions up to you? Some people like the structure of being told what to do. Other people like flexibility to teach their children how ever they want.
Step 6

Consider the testing requirements of the program. How often and what kind of assessment tests are required? Is there alternative tests that can be used? What happens if your child doesn't score well on the test? These are important aspects to know because the curriculum and reporting requirements may change if your child does not do well on the test.
Step 7

Now evaluate what's in it for you? Why do you want to enroll in the program? How will it benefit you? Are you looking for structure and accountability? Or are you looking for financial help in buying curriculum and paying for classes in the community that you choose?
Step 8

Finally, try to locate other parents who currently use the program or have used the program in the past. What do they have to say about the program? Are you finding a lot of drop outs or are parents raving about how great the program is? The program I use is full of drop outs from another program, making it easy to determine which program is more popular with homeschool parents in our state.
Step 9

Finally, decide if the benefits of your particular online homeschool program outweigh the hassles that come with their reporting requirements. Maybe the online program controls too many aspects of homeschooling and isn't worth it. Perhaps the benefits are worth the hassle of writing a monthly report. If you aren't sure, see if there is a way you can try the program for half a year rather than committing to a full year.