U.S. Military

U.S. Military Active Guard Reserves

Check out how the OpenEd program helps families serving in the U.S. Military Active Guard Reserves and other related civilian roles!

Thank YOU!

We really love the OpenEd program. It was been a positive experience for our family especially last year that my husband was deployed.

I love OpenEd and how I know it is so needed in the military community!

In the last 6 years we have moved 6 times- including a trip overseas to South Korea and moving again within the country to a different part. One of my daughters struggled with jumping around- she had never gone to the same elementary school twice in a row. One school would be great, then one would be horrible and set her back, and then she continued to struggle as her confidence fell. Last year she can home crying a lot from school and staying up until late hours trying to do her work she couldn’t finish during the day. I wanted to homeschool but worried about the cost of quality learning materials- and then I heard about OpenEd! We have had an amazing experience being able to customize my daughters education to her needs and learning styles! I do custom built classes and I love the accountability of turning in logs every week because it helps us both stay motivated and on track. Because of struggles of bouncing around schools, it has made us want to get out of the military, which I know is a common feelings among so many military families.

My daughter who was struggling so much and set behind because of all our moves, is now flourishing with confidence and cruising through her amazing curriculum! I can’t say enough about how amazing I think this program is and I know it would help military families not only build consistency for their children, but help them to want to stay in the military so they don’t have to choose between their children’s education and their career.

My spouse is active duty in the US Air Force. We are exceedingly grateful to have our daughter enrolled in OpenEd. She is in 7th grade, and she has lived in 4 states. Including homeschooling, she has attended 6 different schools since Kindergarten.

While we could homeschool without a distance learning program, the benefits of OpenEd are huge. I really value the community and advice of the other OpenEd parents. She enjoys corresponding her assigned teacher, and I have access to expert advice when I need it. Homeschooling is going to allow us some finally needed consistency in my daughter’s education, as well as time for her to pursue her passions.

OpenEd has been an amazing benefit and help to our family! OpenEd has created the perfect balance of structure and flexibility that has allowed me to personalize my children’s education to fit their specific learning styles, needs, and interests. Through this opportunity and the ability to personalize and provide more resources and experiences, our kids have learned to love learning!

Through this program I, as a parent, have been supported by the consistent feedback from my children’s online teacher, the message boards to ask questions and interact with other parents and OpenEd support, and through knowledge that with the funding I receive I can provide quality resources and experiences for our children. This program helps me to be consistent as a parent educating my children, knowing what classes and subjects we need to cover on a daily basis helps us to consistently move forward with our educational goals and I see amazing progress in my children!

During a recent move, OpenEd was a needed tool which kept the stability going with our children’s education when everything else seemed to be chaos. As my husband progresses in his career as a chaplain, and not knowing where we might be stationed, this type of program will help us to continue to provide a quality and stable education for our children.

As a military family, moving from place to place, we felt homeschooling was the best fit for our family. Educational curriculum and resources vary from state to state, and we wanted our children to maintain as much consistency within their education as possible. OpenEd has been a great resource for our family because it has allowed us to be able to offer classes and opportunities that they might be lacking in, being out of the public arena. It also helps offset the costs of classes and equipment that we can’t access and need to purchase for our schooling.

OpenEd has been very easy to work with, and my daughter is able to navigate the system herself which makes my life much easier.

We are military family in a unique situation. Currently we are stationed in Korea and my husband is what is called Active Duty Reservist, and on orders that are only funded yearly (as all active duty reservists are overseas a.k.a. ADOS.) Why I mention this, is that this status basically means that we HAVE to homeschool. The DOD Education Agency (which runs all schools on bases) has deemed it unnecessary to allow children of Non-Command Sponsored Soldiers to go to school – they are put on a Space Available status, but so far No one in this status has EVER been approved to attend school here on this base.

We are put in this category simply because we are funded on a yearly basis instead of ‘orders based’ like active duty. What they don’t seem to get, is that many times Active Duty Reservists are at a location for more than 1 year – as we will also most likely be. That is slightly beside the point. What this leads to though, is a situation in which we actually HAVE to homeschool if we want to be here with my husband.

Also we were NOT allowed to take any of our goods or items from home. We literally came here with a few suitcases. So if you can imagine this scenario – it was to my great relief that I could order and be reimbursed for schooling supplies and curriculum via OpenEd. We DO NOT make much money, especially with me not being able to work as my time is now devoted to homeschooling. So this program has literally been a life saver for us.

My daughter is in high school and we also found out about the College for America program that is a partner with OpenEd. This opportunity has made a significant and observable difference in my daughters attitude in having to be here in Korea whilst essentially being cut off from High School. She is now motivated and excited that she is earning an Associates degree which she intuitively understands as something that has real world value and importance. It has taken some of the sting out of our circumstances.

I hope this is a small glimpse of how much potential this program has in helping military families and their varying circumstances, none of which is easy. We have moved a lot and honestly my younger 2 sons were tired of all the stressors of attending a new school every year (My husband has been working active duty and as a contractor but this is our first time on a base). Many military families I know though end up homeschooling for this very reason.

My husband is active army in the Utah National Guard. This past year he deployed to Afghanistan. It was his first deployment. My children also lost a grandfather that they were extremely close to during my husbands deployment.

Being able to have a homeschooling program that allows us some structure by providing opportunities for the kids to invest subjects that they desired that are not always available at a brick and mortar school has been instrumental in wading through the grief process of having a father leave for deployment and a grandfather die.

Being able to tailor our schooling has allowed us to travel and seek the support that my children needed from extended family without interrupting the learning process. Also being able to tailor this program to my kids allows us to be flexible on our school hours.

Being a military family requires lots of change from my family. We have to learn to adapt to new events at the blink of an eye. Being enrolled in OpenEd has allowed our schooling to “roll with the punches.”