Cyber school vs homeschooling

Does anyone here do cyber school? I have a friend who is wanting to pull her child out of public school and is not sure if homeschooling or cyber school would be best for her child. I have never done cyber school so I am no help:). I was hoping someone here could give the pros and cons of cyber schooling. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

1 Like

It may boil down to a simple question - the family’s schedule and values or the on-line school’s requirement of schedule and secular values. Most cyber schools have scheduling that makes it “public school” at home, not “home school” where family has control of subject matter taught and schedule. She will need to look very carefully and weigh the merits of and issues with each format. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I started a thread back in 2015 - asking advice about leaving the K12 online school:

I am so glad we left, but that is just our opinion. This thread goes into the difficulties I faced with Cyber schooling. I hope it helps, but again, it is just 1 side to the story. :slight_smile: Others love online schooling.

1 Like

We did cyber school for 2 years. Here are my thoughts on it.
Pros:

  1. If you are feeling anxious about pulling a child out of school it is a good way to feel like you are still attached to a school but still have your child home. They keep all records for you.
  2. You have teacher back up if you need it.
  3. Keeps you accountable
  4. Pretty much all the supplies are given to you. For our school we were loaned a computer, given money towards internet, all the textbooks, reading books, math extras like counting blocks and play money, science extras like a magnifying glass, art supplies even envelopes for mailing in assignments.

cons:
1… It is very intimidating to figure the whole thing out for a bit although they do offer support but there are so many things to figure out like how all the computer pages work and what is where.
2. It is A LOT of work. Because you are required to do school (here in Michigan anyways) 31 hours a week I believe they give you that much work for those parents who need to stay right on track. I remember during orientation on line there were parents asking if they needed to stop the clock if their kid went to the bathroom. They aren’t keeping track of you. You take attendance and the way I feel about it I can make a school lesson out of just about anything and consider it school. There are assignments much only a percentage of them need to be turned in so you can decide yourself what to assign. I believe as they get into upper grades that is going to be more difficult because everything will build.

The first year I freaked out because we would get behind or didn’t get things done on the day it was suppose etc but then I learned you can work things around your schedule and get things done for the week not by the day. You can also go into their school schedule and adjust things how they work for you. My daughter was really struggling with a math concept and I just called the teacher and told her I wasn’t going to move her forward until she really had it down. Her teacher was just great about it. I would get a little freaked out because she would get an assignment every day that we were ignoring but her teacher just kept emailing me and encouraging me so it was great. You do have to check in with the teachers on a schedule like every other week with a phone call but it wasn’t bad. They ask your child questions about their school work as kind of a quiz to be sure they are on track and then just chat. For our two years our teachers were wonderful but it was just too much darn work for us. I don’t believe in busy work at all and if a student has grasped the topic I move in where school tends to beat it to death.