That is a very good question Dee. We were drawn in with that promise as well. They use exampmes of child athletes and child actors (at least they did when we were going through their website looking for schooling options) as examples of how flexible their program is but we found it to be a very different experience.

Work at your own pace means you can choose the days and hours of the day you work. It doesn't mean work one day and then do nothing for several days. You need to be prepared to put in a full 6 hour school day 5 days a week, which is legally required by all public schools. These schools are all public schools. You can turn in a portfolio very late and not be penalized, but if you do not complete the curriculum by semester's end you are likely to receive 0's for all undone work and could fail the course. The marketing aspect of this could be better. This is NOT a school where you aren't required to put in a regular school day. You just put it in at home.

If there isn't deadlines, then some kids wouldn't get their work done. For my daughter, for subjects that she excels in, she will spend the majority of her day on that subject which means she will be ahead. She will get behind on some subjects but with being ahead on her best subjects, it gives her time to concentrate on those she doesn't get as quickly. Flexibility is wonderful, some days she will get many hours in and then other days, she doesn't work as much, gives her a little break. On nights when she can't sleep, she will get up and do a lesson or two. When going to brick schooling, you have to go at the pace the teacher tells you to, classes are a certain amount long, and you must take the test when teacher says, you get docked for being late and so on. It is easy to get behind but we have learned that it is OK to be behind, it is nothing to stress about, just pace your self, take your time and get a head on subjects that you are good at. It's nice when at the end of the year with a week or two left of school and you get to plan your own school day because your work is all done. Also, you can work through the scheduled vacation days and take those days off at a later time. I think some people make this school harder than it is. School isn't suppose to be easy... For my daughter, a day might look like doing three language arts and two science lessons in one day, she usually logs in about 6-8 hours for that day depending on what is involved. She doesn't click on every link, she knows what works and doesn't work for her. The next day, she can concentrate on subjects that she struggles with such as math. Her schedule will post over due subjects, but it really isn't that big of a deal since she is ahead on her good subjects. A lot of lessons are recorded as a two day lesson so she won; t be behind on those. You just have to figure out what works and doesn't work. Her first year was a bit of a struggle but between the two of us, we figured it out and now as a freshmen, she know what to expect. This will be her 5th year with Ohio Connections and we will see what happens with high school...

The own pace thing is BS. I'm not complaining about learning so much, but I AM however complaining about the time given. You get ONE day for everything. ONE. DAY. Good luck superman.

It doesn't mean that there is less to learn or that it takes less time. That would make it less of an education. What it means is that you are not locked into 8-3 Monday through Friday. You can work evenings, weekends, longer hours 3 days a week so you can take a shorter day later, etc. Also, you can take the majority of your vacation days when you want rather than when the school tells you to. Another component is the ability to move through lessons faster if your student "gets it" or take extra time on ones that they struggle with. It allows you to work ahead on other lessons if you need to wait on a teacher or an experiment to finish (or whatever) and then come back to it later in place of the lessons you worked ahead in. Also, the child can pick and choose. Maybe he/she learns best from reading the text, or maybe doing a worksheet. Maybe a video or interactive activity. Teachers are great at giving websites or activity suggestions to tailor the program to your child's likes and dislikes. The beauty of this school is that your child will learn everything the state requires while still taking the different needs of individual students into account.

You can, actually, go at your own pace. For example I find Biology to be my hardest class, so I dedicate an entire day to it. In normal schools you wouldn't be able to do that, you have to keep up with taking it everyday at a set hour. Deadlines do depend, though. In my CCA everything isn't due until the end of the semester.