By Kevin

When we were researching this sabbatical and the homeschooling options available, two programs kept rising above the rest, at least for our needs.

The first program was K12. Though we felt the program was strong, and the online student community impressive, it wouldn’t work for us. Unfortunately, the bulk of the curriculum is conducted online. We will have spotty access to the internet–sometimes going a week or more without high-speed access.

As we read homeschooling experiences of past and present cruisers, Calvert Academy‘s program was frequently mentioned as a high-quality, complete, curriculum-in-a-box. We had several conference calls with Calvert’s educational counselors, teachers who advise parents, answer pedagogical questions and grade student assignments. Besides publishing a homeschool curriculum for decades, Calvert also runs a highly-regarded in-person private school. 

We were quickly sold on Calvert. Not only do they ship an entire curriculum-in-a-box for each student’s school year, they offer accredidation, an online student community, accessibe advisors and high-quality multimedia and online content. The key for us was that the core curriculum is made up of printed lesson manuals, textbooks, workbooks and tests. This means that we are able to use the multimedia resources when we have internet access but we are not tied to the internet. We can go a week or more without access and lessons can continue uninterrupted.

Besides the core Calvert curriclum, we’ve purchase the Rosetta Stone Spanish Level 1 Home School Edition (Latin America). Madeline is using the Rosetta Stone program to get a head start on next year’s eighth grade Spanish. To reinforce her lessons, we’ll try hard to make it to a Spanish speaking island or two on our trip. The Dominican Repubic or Puerto Rico and the Spanish Virgin Islands would be fantastic cruising grounds and would give both Madeline and Jen a chance to practice their skills.