And then we had to consider the cost. Was this something that we could afford? Private schools I had looked at were anywhere from $6000.00 to $30,000.00 per year.

This person that obtained more and more beauty as I listened explained the costs. We were already paying it through our school taxes.

Now, in fact, I knew what I paid in taxes that went to the schools. My house taxes were $4,600.00 per year, and I saw on the city budgets that $3,500.00 of that went to the schools. So I was already paying $3,500.00 per year to the school.

I also knew that the schools budget was $4,000.00 per year per student.

If a person were to purchase the schooling from k12.com the cost would be $2,500.00 per year. They were doing it for $1,500.00 per year cheaper than the public schools were, except of course I was not getting paid so I am sure that made up some of the difference.

K12 does have teachers on staff. We were to be assigned one that would monitor our student's progress and would hold a weekly meeting on the telephone with the parents and then with the student. The average K12 teacher handles 30 children.

Since this school was chartered in Ohio, and this was their first year here, $2,500.00 of the budget from the school would go toward my student to pay for the K12 course. This of course leaves $1,500.00 for the public schools to do with as they wish. I am sure that many of them used it to hire lobbyists to stop charter schools and home schooling parents.

This was the last day to join for the year so I called Barbara quickly. She was expecting to go to the next meeting as she was watching our child. The next meeting I would watch the child and let her go. I did not know before I arrived to this meeting that it was in fact the last meeting.

I told her I felt this was perfect, explained what I had learned, and upon her agreement I signed the papers to enroll the student that was banned from Kindergarten.

K12 shipped books and materials including a computer to use just for the student. The materials were top notch. The curriculum was amazing.

The Kindergarten year included art history, mathmatics, history, language, literature, science, it was amazing!! When I was in Kindergarten I just played with blocks, took naps, and watched for the door to be left open a crack so I could run back home.

Even our other children did not have such an advanced curriculum for Kindergarten.

And so we started the classes. But something was wrong. Very wrong.

After about 2 hours we completed what was scheduled for each days schooling.

Barbara and I could not understand why we were finishing in such a little bit of time. After we thought about it and talked together we realized what we were doing was just pure concentrated school time.

If our son was not ready to concentrate we waited to start lessons later. When he was ready then we set down and worked with him. If he got tired of it we gave him a break. If he got hungry we gave him a snack.

But we assumed that Kindergarten was just easy.

Barbara and I also started to realize another benefit of home schooling. We knew what our child was learning. During the day we could review lessons and classes as we went about our normal activities with our child without him even realizing it.

If in science we were learning of the different types of clouds we could point them out on a car trip or picnic. "Look I believe that is a cumulus cloud, what do you think?" Everywhere and everyday became school. The reviews had to be worth more than he would have received at public school.

So we schooled when the child was ready to learn. Schooling reviews were performed during every day activities. Schooling became part of our life. And the part where we had to sit down away from our normal life took no more than 2 hours daily.

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This is a 5 part series. This is the end of part 4.

Authored by Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. August, 2008.

Copyright 2008 Timothy L. Drobnick Sr.

No part of this story may be replicated without express written consent of Timothy L. Drobnick Sr.

Call Tim at these numbers:

1(800) 313-0377 24 hour recorded for Portal Directors & connect with Tim on his cell phone

1(866)571-1602 24 hour recorded for Avalanche Money System & connect with Tim on his cell phone

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