Why We Chose Braintree Academy for Homeschooling: My Full Review

My kids and I were at our county’s 4-H fair when I ran into the Braintree Academy booth. I had been on the fence about homeschooling all year. My husband and I frequently talked about if we would be sending our oldest child to Kindergarten in the fall. We both felt like kids that age shouldn’t be expected to sit at desks for as long as they do. We also felt like learning at the age of 5 should be more hands-on and play based. We questioned what agendas might be pushed on our kids to believe. We considered the fact that we feel all creativity and free thinking was squashed out of us through our traditional schooling experience. And we disliked how much time they would be spending with others compared to the amount of time home with family.

I received my degree in teaching, so it wasn’t something I was super nervous about. I did find myself wondering what it would look like financially for us to homeschool. I feel like Indiana is somewhat supportive of families choosing to homeschool, but not in a financial way. There are states, like Arkansas, where the government just gives you the money they would have allotted to the school you chose to attend for the purpose of funding your homeschool experience. Indiana didn’t have anything like that.

So as I walked by the booth, I noticed a sign that said “Receive $1900 a year for homeschool expenses.” I was curious and went to chat with the representative. She explained many of the things that could be covered, what couldn’t be covered, the support system Braintree provides, and local homeschool activities sponsored by Braintree. I was intrigued. I went home to discuss with my husband and we decided we would try it out for the semester. If we hated Braintree or homeschool, we would withdraw at Christmas and either homeschool on our own or enroll him in public school.

Below I hope to outline the things I have learned about Braintree, what has worked for us, what I dislike, and basic information one should know before enrolling.

Only Available in Certain States

Not every state currently supports Braintree. As of right now, those states include Indiana, Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. As I mentioned before, states like Arkansas will already just give you the money to homeschool. If your state isn’t supportive of Braintree, see what other programs they might have that are similar. How it works is this: Braintree partners with a specific school district in the state. For Indiana, it is the Cloverdale School District near Indianapolis. Think of this school as sort of a host. Your child is virtually enrolled in Cloverdale. Braintree then takes you on by assigning you a Braintree-hired virtual teacher. Cloverdale is simply a means to obtain the state funding. So the state gives Cloverdale the funding for you to attend there. I am sure they take a cut of the money to do this. The rest of the money is then passed on to Braintree. Who will also take a cut of the money. So the $6000 the state would give per child is down to $1900 by the time it gets to you.

You Must Report Reguarly

Many people homeschool for the feature of not having to report to anyone. If that is you, Braintree is not for you. Each week, something is due to report on. One week you report your attendance for the last 2 weeks by clicking a button saying how many days you have done school. This is an honor system. Braintree emphasizes that many things can be considered learning and it doesn’t have to be traditional, sit down and do this worksheet learning. The next week you have a progress report for 4 subjects: Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. For this you simply write at least 4 sentences for each subject detailing what you have been working on. Each student has grade level goals that they must check off by the end of the year. Below is my son’s Kindergarten Learning Goals as of right now.

One week you will do a portfolio submission. These are a little more time intensive as you must submit a picture or video of something you have been working on. They are a better gauge for Braintree as to what you are actually working on at home because you will need physical evidence to upload. Other than that, you report on two electives at some point as well as a semester reflection that is due.

What Braintree will/will not cover

I am not all knowing in this area, I can just explain my experience and what I have been told. This is my favorite feature of Braintree. We have been able to do so much more for my son in terms of learning opportunities than we otherwise could have. We have signed him up for Jiu-jitsu, bought our curriculum, bought learning manipulatives, a yoto player and a yearly subscription for it, and board/card games. Your funds are divided by semester, so we did all that with $950. After Christmas, the last $950 will be released. The money does carry over from semester to semester, but after a school year, any leftover money needs to be spent or it is gone. With our next semester funds we plan to buy a zoo membership and more board games. We have also discussed swimming lessons and T-ball. These count as electives.

Here is a more general list of things that Braintree will cover:

Classes (Art, music., horseback riding..)
Lessons (piano, swim, voice, art…)
Sports
YMCA membership (They will cover a family membership for you, although with the current price of that, it will take most of your funds. I currently teach a class once a month on Saturdays at the Y, so mine is paid for. I highly recommend that route.)
Internet Bill
Laptop/Ipad (I believe you get one every 3 years)
Musuem/Zoo memberships
School supplies (markers, paper, scissors, tape, googly eyes…)
SECULAR curriculum (You can use Christian curriculum, Braintree just won’t pay for it)
Science Kits (Kiwico, Crunch Labs…)
Legos and other educational toys
Tutoring
Board Games
Audiobook subscriptions

If you choose not to participate in State Testing (my child didn’t have to do this because of age, but at some point he will), or if you withdraw before the semester ends, you must pay Braintree back for all of the resources or return them. But you are responsible for the return shipping, so it might be cheaper to pay to keep them.

There is a long list of things they won’t cover, such as furniture, religious material, clothes, food, appliances, recreational equipment, gaming consoles, animals, therapy, phones…mainly just use your brain. If a school wouldn’t pay for it or have it, they probably won’t cover it.

Current Free Resources

Epic (during school hours)
Generation Genius
Khan Academy
Canva for Education
ClickView
Tangy Tuesday

There are also resources that you can pay for at a discount, like Beast Academy, Reading Eggs, Prodigy, or Adobe Creative Cloud. That is just a few, there are tons.

Braintree Education

Braintree itself offers quite a bit outside of the funding that they give you. You can use your funds to register your child for live classes and virtual clubs. They have so many options too. Many are just traditional type classes, but others are like building a map of the United States out of Legos or something. Super fun.

They also offer multiple local field trips every month. These seem to be geared a bit more for older kids in the area I live in. They have done a trampoline park, Laser tag, and trip to the movies. We haven’t gone to one yet, so I can’t vouch for it but they seem like a great opportunity to meet other homeschooling families.

You also get a homeroom teacher. This teacher will stay in contact with you throughout the year. He or she will be the one grading your students submissions and checking off their learning goals. They are there if you have any questions about homeschooling, teaching, or ways to target a learning goal. They can be as hands off or on as you would like.

I personally recommend Braintree to everyone. I don’t think the amount of time it takes to report a couple things each week is unreasonable. We have loved having the funds to pay for things we otherwise would not have done, like Jiujitsu. And our homeroom teacher has been there for us anytime we have had questions. I feel like the learning goals they have provided give me a better roadmap than I had before. It truly is just a great resource to have on your side! Give it a try for a semester!