My Tech High
The My Tech High (MTH) program has been such a blessing to us during our homeschool experience. We’ve been apart of this Utah based resource for almost two years now. By the time this year is over we’ll have received $6800 in reimbursements and I have almost all good things to say about it. If you aren’t in Utah - do your research, but you may find this link helpful if you’re in Idaho, Indiana, Tennessee, Wyoming, Arizona, or Colorado. And, families in Oregon - there is a new pilot program going on right now!
Right off the bat, one of the challenges of the program is that there is a lot to wrap your head around - especially when you’re first introduced to it. Initially, people may shy away from it because there is a lot to learn about the program. However, once you have a good understanding of how it all works, it becomes a pretty smooth and easy process with very little time required each week. The majority of the time is spent upfront learning how the program works.
Why My Tech High?
The financial support MTH offers to families is probably the most popular benefit of the program. This year we’ll have two children enrolled with MTH and will receive $3250. For reference, the first year we enrolled in the program mid-year and received $750 for two children. The second year the program’s financial budget increased and it was our first full-year so we recieved $2600. (This year we’re receiving more because we are doing two custom built classes which we haven’t previously done in the past.) This money can be spent on almost anything educationally related - anything from books, secular curriculum, games, toys, electronics, museum tickets … to third party classes like tutoring or sport, art, and music classes.
As you look into MTH - I once read on their website where it says - the educational personalization “possibilities are endless” and that’s feels pretty accurate. There are so many ways to utilize the program (from K-12) I don’t hardly understand all of the resources available so I suggest two things to help you learn more about it. First, read over their FAQs and second, get on one of their live webinars and ask lots of questions! I did this and it was so so helpful.
Three Additional Benefits of the Program
MTH can be as structured or as flexible as you’d like. I feel like those who participate in the program come from a variety of educational expectations. Personally, we follow a somewhat similar path to public education in that we utilize grade levels and I review Utah state standards every year to make sure we’re aligning close enough to the school districts. But, on the other hand, I know multiple families who have very little desire to follow a structured path and prefer an unschooling approach to education that still use this program. Overall, I think it’s flexible enough you can make it whatever you want and it’s such a great opportunity to utilize resources available to you. Either way, I’d encourage really looking into the program for your child’s benefit before judging it one way or the other - the biggest pitfall I see parents make is coming in with pre-conceived notions… From one opposite end of the spectrum to another - “I need something rigorous and challenging.” to “I don’t want the government involved in anything that has to do with my child’s education.” - this is a middle ground program that can be personalized to various educational routes. There is no one size fits all solution here. Remember, one of the huge benefits I see of the program is that we all pay into the public school taxes and it is an opportunity to receive some of those funds back and help provide more opportunities for your children - how you utilize these funds and structure your days is up to you. It can be spent on fancy curriculums or high dollar tutors or simply games or fun family filled days at the museums.
You can utilize their class resources or bring your own curriculum. We’ve used three of their technology classes over the years (lego education, drawing and animation, and circuits and electricity). We’ve loved all of them. But, for all other subjects, we bring all our own curriculum and I still am completely in charge of what I use to teach my kids which was a huge must-have for me. I don’t know anyone who has used the suggestions MTH has for classes (I think this is a feature more appealing to secondary education grades), but there are multiple Facebook groups that you can pop into and ask if that is something you’d be looking for. (And, again, there is a weekly webinar available on this.) We do use The Good and The Beautiful for math and language arts. Since it is Christian based we do not get the funds back spent on curriculum. However, TGTB does have a popular list of reimbursable items that do not contain religious content which you can view here.
There is very little time involved each week. Once you’re in the program and understand how it works - you submit weekly learning logs. These take less than 5 minutes to submit and it is very easy. There is a simple checklist and then you report on one highlight of your child’s week in 3-5 sentences. There is some time involved in either purchasing the items you’d like or submitting for reimbursements on materials you’ve purchased. It takes me a good couple of hours each year to organize our costs, reciepts and submit. I HIGHLY recommend using THIS spreadsheet from Hai Tech Mama. She has an amazing video and organization system that I would be lost without!!!
FAQS
One of the questions I get asked a lot about is the teacher that is assigned to your child. The kind of relationship you establish with the teacher is completely up to you. If you want to utilize the teacher as support - they are there to help guide you to resources. We’ve had great experiences with all the teachers we’ve worked with. I’ve never felt like they tried to take over. They have all been very kind people who make a genuine effort to ask questions and get to know my kids. This year our teacher sent us a great video of her and her family that we could all watch and get to know her better. Last year, in one of our submissions, I mentioned how we’d been learning about our ancestors on the Mayflower. Our teacher went above and beyond and sent us a picture of HIS ancestor on the Mayflower which was so fun. He sent us fun little extra YouTube videos to extend our learning (if we wanted) and just did a great job working with us.
I also get asked a lot about the schedule you submit. No, you do not need to have a daily schedule you attend to each day - again - this is something personal to you in your home. The schedule is simply there to be submitted at the beginning of the year with a rough idea of what you’ll study that year. I open up the table of contents in my kid’s math and LA books and pull out the key topics we’ll be covering and it’s as simple as that. The technology class can sometimes throw people off, but it’s just a STEAM class which MTH has a lot of speciality in. So, you can utilize their courses or, again, build your own. This year we’re doing a digital art class with Procreate on our iPad. We're using classes from Pippi Post and Skill Share which have already been going great.
Another common concern people sometimes have is utilizing all of their educational funds. I think a lot of people walk into the program thinking - how can I spent $1000+ on school items each year? If you don’t use all your funds that is totally fine. But, know there are a lot of great tools and resources out there to utilize your funds with. We’ve used a chunk of our funds in extra curricular activities and family passes. But, we’ve also collected some wonderful items to use (like a great color printer). While it’s certainly not necessary, having good educational materials in the home can be very helpful. This is a compilation of some of my favorite homeschool items if you need some ideas.
If you get stuck and have any questions - feel free to shoot me a message. Again, if you’re not in Utah, check out Tech Trep because it is a sister program to MTH. Harmony is another similar program you can look into. And, if can’t find these resources in your state, I would encourage you to get involved and see what you can do to bring programs like this to your areas.