PJ S.

If you are looking for obscure book, etc, this is the site for you. I found a book that I loved as a child here. Great resource for hard to find books, records etc. Check it out!

I have been reading the reviews here and frankly I'm confused. My children attend the Ripon online site and they and I Love, Love, Love it! They began as first and second graders and plan to continue thru high school. The program IS rigorous, one of the things we like. They get exposure to an amazing curriculum and for the most part go at their own pace. There is a scheduler which allows me to schedule their lesson according to their needs. For example, I have one child who really enjoys Language Arts, so I schedule those classes to be done the most, 3 to 4 times per week. My child breezes through those and has more time to work on math, which is more troublesome for them. My other child is very strong in math, but dosen't like Language Arts very much. So, I schedule math heavy, and Language Arts light. As long as all of the lessons are completed in a reasonable time, all is well. I have found the teachers to be very responsive to any challenges we have had. When we have had to travel, it was wonderful that the children didn't miss any "school", because we had it with us, via the computer. One year my children were able to take classes from Julliard. They thought that it was "cool" to take music classes from such a great, well renowned institution, for free and from the comfort of their own room! I'm so sorry to find that a number of other people have not had the experience that we have had. Prior to enrolling my children in Connections Academy, I was "home schooling' them. I am college educated, but didn't feel that I was giving them all of the information and structure, that they would need to have long term success. So, I went looking for another resource. I looked at "K-12", but it didn't seem right for us. I, figuratively, stumbled upon Connections Academy, during a web search. Perhaps each region is different, but I can tell you at the Ripon "site", our experience has been Awesome. My children began in different grades owing to one being a stronger reader. My other child became better at reading and wanted to be in classes with their sibling. Connections allowed my child to do class work in two grades, concurrently, in order to "catch up" with their sibling. Now both are in the same grade. I could go on and on about their and my positive experiences. As to the negatives, in the years my children have attended Connections, we have only had 2 incidents which were handled immediately. One was with an instructor who seemed not to understand that my children are twins and had an issue. I contacted the teacher in charge of that grade and received an apology and my children were transferred to another teacher in 1 day. Also, there was an incident where one child said something inappropriate in LiveLesson to one my children, again it was addressed right away and the child was reprimanded (the proof was documented, as most communication is done in written form. Any actual "speaking" is heard by the instructor in each room as microphone privileges must be granted by the in room instructor.). In our experience, bullying of any type in simply not tolerated. During the field trips, my children spend "face time" with the other students in their grade as well as other, younger and older students. The children all seem to have a fun time together without out bigotry or any other problems. Differently abled children as well as those from cultures outside of the United States, join together and are just children having fun with their friends. As you can tell our experiences have left me beyond pleased with Connections Academy. I am very sorry everyone hasn't had our experiences. I tell everyone that I know, who has young children, to check it out. When my children and I are out and about, we discuss their classes or other interests. I have been asked by other parents who have heard our exchanges, in the doctor's office as well as grocery stores, etc., what school my children attend, I proudly tell them "Connections Academy". If things change when my children are in high school, I will look elsewhere, but so far, so great.

I have been shopping with Amazon for over 10 years. When my kids were young it made getting diapers and such very easy. Now we have pets and again, getting their supplies is very simple. Unfortunately, there are so many cool things to buy from Amazon, sometimes I spend more than I should.:-o