Spotlight Story: The Miller Family — Homeschooling Four K¹² Kids

After my older children had been in school for a few years, I began to realize that they were not being sufficiently challenged. I spent nearly a year reading about education, trying to decide how to offer them a more stimulating and demanding program of study. Around this time, K¹² was announced in the Washington Post, and I sensed that this was what I was seeking. What I was looking for—and found in K¹²—was an educational approach that would provide individualized instruction (mastery-driven); rich content, including a chronological approach to history and presentation of classical literature of western civilization and other cultures; a math program that would teach students to “think mathematically” rather than to simply “do problems;” intensive instruction in written communication; and cross-referencing of instruction across domains. I felt that incorporating study of the literature, art, and music of a culture or time period being studied would bring it all to life and increase retention of the material across all of the domains.

In addition to these academic considerations, I also wanted to have more time together as a family, to be able to visit family overseas more often, and to incorporate educational travel into our approach. Having met many wonderful homeschooling families, I was eager to cultivate the warm interpersonal relationships I observed in them, and to be able to teach our children our own values and belief system independent of the social structure of the school environment.

After I saw the original article announcing K¹², I kept up with the progress of development of the company and the curriculum over the next two years, until K¹² offered all of the grades that my children would need. During my research period I had read William Bennett’s book The Educated Child and E.D. Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy , along with Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well-Trained Mind, and believed that K¹² would incorporate all that I was looking for. While we were waiting for K¹² to “catch up” to our family’s grade span, we used materials that I felt would dovetail with K¹² when it would be available to us.

I relied heavily on The Well-Trained Mind while we waited to use K¹². K12 is based on research in cognitive science and education that supports everything from the development of the scope and sequence of study down to the way individual lesson material is presented. The other big difference is that nearly all of the preparation has been done for each lesson, and I spend much less time grading, planning, and in preparing lessons.

My best experiences happen on a daily basis as I enjoy sharing the history of the world, the most beloved and important literature, the most significant art and music, the elegance of math, and the wonder of science with each of my children. I am also noticing on a daily basis that my children are becoming far more educated than I. And we all have to laugh at their superior mental math skills—my husband and I did everything on paper “back in the day!”

K¹² has benefited our family in so many ways. My daughters, who are in high school, have such a strong educational foundation and have developed a true love of learning. My sons each have learning differences—ADD and mild dyslexia—and K¹² has again provided the tools to engage them in learning and to overcome their challenges.

We love to travel, and plan an “adventure” each year to another country or another part of our country. For each trip, we study the history, architecture, culture (current and past, including art, literature, music, food), flora and fauna, geology, and climate, as applicable, and make an educational trip of the adventure. If the trip is to a national park or major museum, we take advantage of the educational programs they offer, like the Junior Ranger program and the “museum trails” of Europe (a sequential guide to the museum for children). We read historical fiction or other age-appropriate literature as we drive along in the car, or watch documentaries or movies pertaining to the area on DVDs and listen to relevant music as we travel by car. So far we have explored the southwest, the northwest, Texas and the Gulf Coast, Florida, Boston, San Francisco and northern California (including Yosemite), New York, Washington, London, southern England, and parts of Europe.

Both of my daughters are serious about ballet, and will be dancing this summer in New York with the American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensive program. My second daughter also plays first violin in the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestras. My 11-year-old son is serious about tennis, and travels frequently for tournaments in our state and the southeast. These activities keep us busy, and we are grateful for the flexibility that K¹² provides to allow our children to pursue these interests with the level of intensity that they choose. The opportunity to weave in piano or violin practice, tennis practice or tournaments, ballet workouts and extra rehearsals has given our children a tremendous opportunity to learn valuable lessons in time management and the rewards of working hard to achieve a goal, as well to experience the activities they enjoy at state and national levels.