So, one of the big reasons homeschooling isn't more prevalent is that increasingly both parents have to work. Maybe a new, not before seen alternative is some sort of a quasi-daycare institution which has authority figures not teaching but just making sure the kids are focusing on their online courses and not horsing around! And only so occasionally answering questions the kids ask. Because you're still in an environment with other similar-aged peers, you can still have recesses to bond and mingle and have chances for having healthy socializing practices.
Basically some guy decided to home school his kid, but let other kids join in.The result was a curriculum in which kids learn formal logic in middle school.
I just wonder how effective that would be. I think kids would have a hard time focusing in front of a computer, and being lectured to. I think a large part of the elementary school education is working on activities and worksheets, especially in groups. I'm not sure you can replicate that in an online course, and I just wonder how effective an online course could be for younger kids. I'd actually be interested in seeing if there have been any studies done on this.
CAVA is the CA Virtual Academy using the K12 curriculum, and despite having a higher-than-normal number of "special needs" students, does better on standardized tests than the other public schools in CA. (CAVA is a charter school, and thus part of the public school system. Anyone with kids in CA can sign up for it, and everything is paid for -- they even pay for Internet and give you a computer.)
In my experience, CAVA is very effective in all the areas you've mentioned. And they do weekly in person group activities as well, plus field trips, etc.
I honestly don't know anyone in CAVA who's wanted to go back to sending their kids to day care^HHHHHHHHpublic school.
