I’m not sure how old your kids are. Perhaps that makes a difference. I don’t have experience with Fisher More, but the fact that the older grades do so much online stuff is intriguing. Personally, I don’t want to be tied down to online classes, as I like the flexibility to do the work when I want to do the work, and to take breaks when they are convenient for me and our family, so I am not particularly interested in online stuff at this point. If my kids work ever gets to a point where teacher’s manuals and dvd’s aren’t enough to help me help them, or when it becomes apparent that class-interaction would be very helpful to a subject and it isn’t available at home, then I will look into online. That said, for some people, the benefits of having someone else do the teaching, and having that class-interaction, is worth the drawbacks that I mentioned. Also if you are pulling your kids out of school, they are accustomed to that way of working, and you are accustomed to being held to the school schedule.
This will be my 8th year registered with Kolbe, and I like it quite a bit. I don’t think it is the BEST program, or the BEST for every person, but I think it is very good. In my opinion, it’s greatest assets are its rigor and its flexibility. You can make as many substitutions as you want, and they will still advise you and keep records for you. They also offer what I believe to be the best science option of all of the Catholic homeschool providers (I haven’t really looked into the online providers like Fisher More though), and they offer strong math as well, especially now that they are offering Singapore Math as one of their options. While you can pay Kolbe to grade papers and provide more intensive feedback for you, in general, the Kolbe parent is the one in charge. You are the one providing the instruction (when it is not independent work), and you are the one evaluating and grading the work. Some parents want it exactly that way, and others would rather have someone else doing those things. Kolbe gives priority to the principal of subsidiarity, which means in this case, that the parent is in charge of the education, and they are there to help and support you as you wish.
