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amyable
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| Posted: Feb 23 2013 at 1:20pm | IP Logged
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Has anyone used both Regina Coeli/Fisher More Academy and Homeschool Connections and can compare them for me? (or say anything at all about either?  )
Now that the girls have gotten their waitlist letters  for the high school they were trying to get into, I need to think about next year. It doesn't look promising that they will get OFF the waitlist and be accepted. In fact, my oldest asked to be taken off the waitlist, she just wants to get back to the life she is used to and homeschool.
I was thinking that it might be a good idea to get my 8th grader into an online academy/classes to see if she would even LIKE a classroom setting...one that meets at the same time, requires lots of work every week, etc. She is very shy and tends to do the least amount of work possible but will rise to the occasion when pushed.
Then there is my dyslexic 9th grader. She is smart, but might struggle in a class that is TOO hard/demanding. She needs her time to think. I'd also love a place for her that would take into account her LDs if there is written work. I was thinking the Homeschool Connections archives for her, but for ease of use I'd love them both doing the same place, if possible...so I'm looking for that "best fit." I'm so burnt out and tired of creating my own curriculum for her and teaching it/learning it/grading it. I need something taken off my shoulders.
Any thoughts on either of these sites would be great!
Thanks!!
ETA: I forgot to ask about social aspects - I would love a place where the students interact more with each other and/or the teacher. My kids are lonely. 
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Feb 23 2013 at 3:28pm | IP Logged
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Idk, Amy, but I have a friend who used Regina Coeli this year, but she's not here on 4 Real. PM me if you'd like her contact 
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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TracyFD
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No first hand knowledge here either, but just want to share my sympathy! My eldest is entering 8th, is shy, and not too ambitious when it comes to academics, though she always scores well on the Peabody. I am carefully considering her curriculum for 8th, to prepare for high school at home or away (an hour away). Looking forward to gleaning from any responses to this query!
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Tracy
Mom to 3 girly girls,
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mwittlans
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I don't have personal experience with Regina Coeli, but I have friends who use take their classes and absolutely love them. They are academically rigorous and provide a full program.
On the other hand, I have a lot of experience with Homeschool Connections since I'm the co-founder and also my own children take the classes.
First, it's not a home study school like Regina Coeli, Seton, Kolbe, etc. There aren't transcripts, record keeping, special needs counselors, etc.
HSC provides individual, online courses. You have two choices. First are the live, interactive classes. This is a virtual classroom where you see and hear the teacher. (I believe Regina Coeli's classes are audio.) Students communicate with the teacher and other students by either speaking with their microphone or typing in chat. Most of these courses provide grading by the teacher.
Second are the recorded courses. These are independent learning courses. They require more participation by the parent but are much more economical. They come with all the same support materials as the live courses. Answer keys are provided where possible (the exception is when homework is a composition and an answer key will not apply).
Feel free to email or call me if you have more questions. I'll message my cell number to you.
Either way you go, both are good Catholic programs.
Blessings,
Maureen :)
Maureen Wittmann
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Angel
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| Posted: Feb 26 2013 at 8:01am | IP Logged
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Amy, were you going to sign up your girls for the full cohort classes with Regina Coeli or were you just going to sign them up for a couple of individual classes?
I think that would make a difference.
If you didn't want the full enrollment, you could patch together your own online experience from various places: a course at Regina Coeli, some from Homeschool Connections, Memoria Press, or wherever. I think we may be leaning in that direction (patching together) but I don't know. I have my moments when I think high school would be much easier if somebody else would just handle most of it.
I don't have any experience with either at the moment, but I can tell you that I am looking for online classes that have a virtual classroom environment where the kids can actually participate. For the past two years we've used Memoria Press Online Academy for Latin with good results, but I think part of the success is that it feels more like an actual class than it would if it were just the recorded version or a chat board. (I've seen at least one online option that just seems to use forums.)
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Angela
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ElizLeone
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| Posted: Feb 26 2013 at 10:22am | IP Logged
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We used Regina Coeli for two years. I can provide some pros and cons. I'm strapped for time at the moment, but will try to type up my thoughts a little later today. Stay tuned. ;)
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Elizabeth in Wisconsin
7 kids, 1 little saint
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Our Adoption
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amyable
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| Posted: Feb 26 2013 at 3:22pm | IP Logged
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Thank you everyone for your replies (and Maureen, I cleared out a little room in my inbox ... being a 4real member for 8(!) years has generated a few messages I want to keep )
I wish I knew what I wanted or needed.  Angela, part of me says picking and choosing for 5 tremendously different kids is more than I can handle. I really just wanted them to go to school, LOL!
Anyway, I'm sure I'm just being whiny and it might be in their best interests to have one class from here, another from there, etc. Although I did want some consistent "friends/classmates." My rising 8th grader said to me yesterday "Mom, I just want to be NORMAL. I want to go to school like everyone else." I get it. I was hoping if she interacted with kids doing this online every few days, she'll see she's not alone.
So much to think about!
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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mwittlans
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Dear Amy,
I wonder if the discussion, just for now, should be Burnout. If you own The Catholic Homeschool Companion (Sophia Institute Press), there is an essay in there just on February. The author says that you should never, ever make homeschool decisions/changes in February (officially Burnout Month!). So, perhaps wait a few days and make a trip or two to the Blessed Sacrament before addressing this again.
Also, HSC is hosting a whole series of webinars throughout the month of February and into March free for Catholic homeschooling parents. I think it would help you to check them out.
I especially recommend Rita Munn's talk that will be live tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 8 PM Eastern. If you can't make it, everything is recorded so you can watch it later on your own time.
Also, it'll give you an idea of what an online class looks like. We'll be using the same technology that we use in our classes. It's also very similar to what Memoria Press uses. Just keep in mind that students can talk in class -- mics are muted for the parent webinars.
Here is the website,
http://homeschoolconnectionsonline.com/webinar-catalog/refre sh-midwinter-homeschool-conference/
I am praying for you and your homeschool!
Blessings,
Maureen
PS On making friends, that does in fact happen. I've seen a number of online friendships develop through our classes. My own daughter met up with a fellow online student at the March for Life. Other students have written to me and told me how excited they were to go to college and already have a friend there from online classes. (Of course, you always need to be diligent when kids are online!)
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amyable
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mwittlans wrote:
I wonder if the discussion, just for now, should be Burnout. If you own The Catholic Homeschool Companion (Sophia Institute Press), there is an essay in there just on February. |
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I would definitely think that, if I haven't been burnt out for most of this year and most of last year too! I've been holding on by a thread for way too long, but I don't have help or support (except you wonderful ladies online!) and so I just keep plugging along!
I have missed each and every night of the wonderful webinars this month (best laid plans and all ) but I do remember watching some archived ones from last year and they were wonderful. I still need homeschooling help though.  *Someone* has to have my back, and I guess I just have to pay much moola to get it. 
I think it's just a coincidence that I posted in February, because my girls got their rejection letters two weeks ago so I'm in scramble mode to try to get some ducks in a row for next year. I guess I don't NEED to hurry, but we often take time off in good weather (soon) and start work again when it gets hot so I like to have something in place and ready to go by early summer.
Thank you again for all your ideas!
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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ElizLeone
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| Posted: Feb 27 2013 at 8:06pm | IP Logged
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Okay, here is my two cents, based on my family’s experience with Regina Coeli and other programs. Be prepared; this post is lengthy. ;)
I would note first that I don’t know much at all about Regina Coeli’s new incarnation as Fisher More. Just glancing at the site, it seems to be a different set-up than the old Regina Coeli.
As Maureen indicates, Regina Coeli is (or at least has been) a full-service online curriculum provider with grading, transcripts, etc. For us, that was part of what didn’t work for us. More on that below.
My oldest daughter, now a junior, did most of her 8th grade coursework with Regina Coeli, and did all of her 9th grade coursework with Regina Coeli. In my opinion, Regina Coeli was academically excellent, academically challenging, and spiritually solid. I was completely satisfied with course content, the teaching ability, and approach of the professors. It’s a solid program that I would recommend from an academic and spiritual standpoint—but only for the right type of student... not for my daughter. ☺
A full-service online provider can be a good fit for a student who is driven to excel, diligent, self-sufficient, and trustworthy. Unfortunately, our eldest has challenged us in many ways, and the full-time online provider format was not good for her. Potential downsides for any student in this kind of a full-time online environment are many:
- The need to be constantly online for all classes. Sometimes I just wanted so much for her to spend time looking at a textbook.
- Being constantly online for legitimate purposes means it is extremely easy to be online fooling around, all under the appearance of “doing school.” Yes, I kept an eye on her, but I cannot be looking over her shoulder every minute of the day with six younger siblings to teach. Invariably, I’d notice her clicking quickly off a page when she noticed me glancing at the computer. And if she had to take the laptop out of the room due to the inevitable noise coming from younger siblings, the temptation to surf the internet (within our filtered limitations) was even greater. We had strict filters on the laptop, but that was not enough. More on that below.
- During online classes, RCA's format allows for “private chats” to happen within the online class framework. So while a teacher is lecturing (audio and text chat – no video), any two or more students can open up a private chat window—a window that the instructor never sees. It is available only to the student who opened the window and anyone whom she privately invites. I found my daughter and several RCA students chatting about Star Wars one day during a class lecture, and found out this had been going on regularly during class lectures, completely diverting their attention from the lecture. So while it looks to the parent, glancing at the computer, that the student is in class—indeed, the audio of the teacher lecture is running—the kids’ minds are elsewhere if they have a private chat going during class. This is not a feature I've found with other online course providers who use a different sort of forum for class lectures.
- We had very strict filters where we actually only had a white list of approved sites. We felt this would limit time on the computer doing things that were not schoolwork. However, one thing we didn’t anticipate is that the "Vyew" program that hosts the RCA online classes (allowed, of course, on our filter white list) can be used to set up private chat rooms for students. All a student has to do is sign up for a free membership to this site’s service, and then invite friends to a newly-created chat room. In fact, there are options to post photos in these chat rooms. My daughter and some Regina Coeli friends whom she knew from her daily online classes created a room that was secret. They had a pact that no one would tell parents about this room, and it became a place where boys and girls could have conversations. When we found out about this, we realized that all this could take place while appearing through the filter report that she was on the RCA classroom site, presumably in lectures or turning in school work. Instead, she had access to a virtual world where there were conversations that made this Catholic mom cringe. In fact, in this room, she learned how to hack our computer filters and was encouraged by RCA “friends” to run away from home! Not a wholesome environment. And all using the same platform that hosted the online classes, giving the appearance that she was “in class” or accessing class archives during this time. Of course, not all RCA students participated in these side rooms, but there were a large number, and it's a temptation that exists.
- Students who take all or most of their classes through RCA in any given year naturally develop a sort of class bond, as they are with one another online every day for several hours. This can be a very good thing for a child who needs more socialization. But for a child who is not trustworthy, the online nature of this all-day, every day peer contact can be a dangerous thing for the reasons stated above. It can be very difficult for a parent to know who these other students are and to monitor whether the influence is a good one. Socialization through the computer can become a huge draw, eclipsing everything else.
- Finally, the full-service aspect of the program is great for a busy parent who has a diligent child. But I found it very hard to track what my daughter was supposed to be doing, what she was (or wasn’t) turning in, and how she was doing grade-wise. There is a system in RCA for the parent to oversee this, but it’s a bit different for each class and each teacher, and with younger siblings, it became very difficult for me to keep up on where she was on her materials. They weren’t my materials or policies, and I didn’t have instructor policies at my fingertips. It often looked like she was doing school (and she reported that she was), but then I would find out well into the semester that work wasn’t being turned in. It was just a very hard format for me to monitor. And because it's more difficult to monitor and it's supposed to be full-service, it's very tempting for a busy mom to hand it all off for weeks at a time (ask me how I know ;), which only leads to a less-than-diligent student's temptations to fool around doing computer work that looks like school work.
Having said all this (and after airing our dirty laundry ;) , I would say again that a full-service online environment could be a very good fit for a trustworthy, diligent, and self-motivated student who does not have too much trouble with academics. Experiencing what we did, however, we have decided not to go down the full-service online school route again. Too many pitfalls for us, given my kids' personalities, with this sort of immersion in all-online classes all school year long.
Now that we are putting together our own high school curriculum (a hybrid of some Kolbe materials, some a la carte things that I like, and some online classes with Homeschool Connections), we are all much happier. My oldest still procrastinates and tries to do other things during school time, but I can easily glance at my lesson plans and determine exactly where she is vis-à-vis where she should be. I know exactly where she has to catch up if she slips behind and how much work she has in front of her over the summer if she’s slacked off during the school year. Using a la carte online classes from services like Homeschool Connections has not presented the same problems that the full-service provider arrangement did for us. It does not involve the extensive amount of time online or the extensive amount of daily time with a “class” of peers that may or may not be positive. And it's much easier for me to monitor a class or two and know that she shouldn't be spending all her time on the computer - a much grayer line when she was with a full service provider. For these reasons, I really like Homeschool Connections or other more a la carte online providers. They have great classes and teachers, but the kids are not immersed in an all-day, all-year online environment.
I hope I don't sound anti-Regina Coeli in any way. I have always been impressed with their offerings. But for my family, a full-time online environment for school was not a good fit, and I much prefer the control, flexibility, and easier oversight I have with a la carte online classes like Homeschool Connections.
Hope this helps. Any questions, fire away!
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Elizabeth in Wisconsin
7 kids, 1 little saint
Munchkins on the Path
Our Adoption
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amyable
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| Posted: Feb 28 2013 at 7:16am | IP Logged
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Thank you Elizabeth! That was very informative and exactly what I needed to hear. Reading this lets me know that I can't use Regina Coeli the way I had intended for either of my top two kids, for different reasons each ... perhaps for one class, but not any sort of full time enrollment. I really appreciate you taking the time to spell all that out. It *does* sound like a great place for a particular type of student...maybe by the time my 5 year old grows up I'll have 'that type of student'. (he's my youngest)
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Amy
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The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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ElizLeone
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Yes, I'm hoping for that kind of a student some day too, Amy! 
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Elizabeth in Wisconsin
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Munchkins on the Path
Our Adoption
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: Regina Coeli vs. Homeschool Connections?
