Elise's Elected Education
Program & Grades

What Your Child Actually Learns

No mystery boxes. Here's the program, grade band by grade band. The samples for grades 5-8 and high school below aren't marketing mockups; they're pulled straight from real lessons on our learning platform.

What's Included in Tuition ($7,000 per academic year)

Tuition covers the complete core program:

Learning devices are a separate purchase, priced on their own. A learning device (chosen by the program for your student) is available as its own item — it is not bundled into tuition and it is not given away as an enrollment perk. For Steamboat Legacy families: computer hardware primarily used to meet a student's educational needs is a qualified expense under W.S. 21-2-904, so ESA funds may be used for it as its own purchase. You'll see the exact price before you buy. Shopping for a device on your own? See our recommended devices below.

Beyond core K-12 academics, extras like one-on-one tutoring, test-prep help, or specialty electives (baking, fashion, design, and more) may carry additional fees depending on the request. We'll always tell you the cost before anything is added. No surprises.

Kindergarten – 4th Grade: Learn Through Play

Little ones don't learn from lectures. They learn from doing, touching, singing, clicking, and playing. Our K-4 track brings the same platform approach down to little-kid level: interactive, playful, colorful, with a full core curriculum underneath it. The K-4 track is onboarding now for the 2026-27 year. Contact us to get your little one on the list.

Sample Math Problem (2nd grade level — sample of the K-4 style)

Mia has 7 apples. She gives 2 apples to her brother.
How many apples does Mia have left?
(Answer: 7 − 2 = 5 apples. Kids count it out with pictures of apples on screen.)

Sample Reading Exercise (1st–2nd grade level — sample of the K-4 style)

Read the story:
"Sam has a red hat. The wind blows the hat off his head! Sam runs and runs. His dog Max catches the hat. Sam laughs and hugs Max."

Now answer:

  1. What color is Sam's hat?
  2. Who catches the hat?
  3. How does Sam feel at the end? How do you know?

K-4 Year at a Glance

Grades 5 – 8: Stepping Up

This is where structure kicks in. Middle schoolers get an intermediate, junior-high-style program: real subjects on a real schedule, with the support to handle it. We build study habits here on purpose, because high school is coming. By 8th grade, strong math students step into Algebra I, the same course our high schoolers take.

Sample Math Lesson (8th grade level — real excerpt from our Algebra I course)

This is how our platform actually teaches solving an equation. Story first, then the method:

Imagine a backpack with some books inside. You don't know how many, so call that number x. You also have 3 books sitting on the desk. Altogether you count 10 books.

x + 3 = 10. How many books are in the backpack?

An equation is a balance scale. Whatever you do to one side, you do to the other. Take 3 off the left, take 3 off the right, and the scale stays balanced: x = 7. Check it: 7 + 3 = 10. Done.

Then students practice with 5 problems, no grading ("wrong answers are how brains learn"), before showing mastery on 3 problems with unlimited tries.

Sample Reading Exercise (6th–8th grade level — real excerpt from our short-stories unit)

Students read Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day" (1954): children on Venus, where the sun comes out for two hours once every seven years, and one girl, Margot, who still remembers the sun from Earth.

Answer in complete sentences:

  1. Why don't the other children believe Margot when she describes the sun?
  2. Right before the sun comes out, the children lock Margot in a closet. What does this moment show about jealousy? Use evidence from the story.
  3. Margot says the sun is "like a penny." Why does the author give her that small, specific memory?

Grades 5-8 Year at a Glance

High School: Read This Part First. Please.

We're going to be straight with you, because your teenager's future is on the line and you deserve the truth.

Homeschool works very differently for high schoolers. High school is about credits, transcripts, and graduation requirements. How those credits are recognized, and what your student needs to graduate or return to a district school later, depends on your local school district and your student's goals (college, trade school, military, workforce).

Before you enroll a high schooler, contact your school district and confirm this path is the right fit for your student. We'd rather you ask that question now than discover a problem junior year.

If it IS the right fit: our high school track is live on the platform now, with complete courses in Algebra I, English 9, US History, and Physical Science (6 units each, every unit tagged to Wyoming's academic standards), plus optional electives including Bible study. The platform keeps complete transcript records as your student works, so the credits story stays clean from day one.

Sample Math Lesson (Algebra I — real excerpt from our platform)

Solve: 2x + 1 < 9
Step 1: subtract 1 from both sides → 2x < 8.
Step 2: divide both sides by 2 → x < 4.
The answer isn't one number, it's a whole range: any number less than 4.

And the one twist students learn here: multiply or divide by a negative, and the inequality sign flips. The lesson proves WHY (2 > 1, but multiply both by −1 and suddenly −2 < −1), because "just memorize it" isn't teaching.

Sample Reading Lesson (English 9 — real excerpt from our platform)

Students open the year with a close reading of Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the thing with feathers" (c. 1861), studied from three angles they choose between: personal, literary, historical.

From the literary angle: this poem is one of the most-taught examples of extended metaphor in American literature. Dickinson never says "hope is like a bird." She says hope IS the bird, then stretches the comparison across every stanza: it "perches" (rests, stays), it sings "sweetest in the Gale" (loudest in the storm), and it "never asked a crumb" (it costs nothing).

Write a paragraph (5-7 sentences): What is Dickinson claiming about hope through this extended metaphor? Use at least two quotes from the poem as evidence.

High School Year at a Glance (9th grade — the actual live course list)

Our platform runs on just about anything with a screen and Wi-Fi. But if you're shopping for a device anyway, here's what we'd buy for our own kids — no fluff, no upsell, just the three things a K-12 student actually needs.

One thing first, and it matters: devices are always a separate purchase, priced on their own. We never bundle a device with tuition and we never give one away as an incentive to enroll. That's not just our policy — it keeps everything clean and honest.

ESA families (Steamboat Legacy Scholarship): device purchases run through the state's Odyssey platform — talk to us before you buy anything. We'll walk you through it so your funds are used the right way. Email us at hello@lyrashaai.com.

Disclosure: the Amazon links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases made through them, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend what we'd put in front of our own kids. Prices shown are approximate and change often — always check the current price on the listing.

1. The everyday laptop: Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (~$330–$350)

If your student is in 5th grade or up, this is the one. It's a Chromebook, which means no viruses to fight, nothing to install, and it boots in seconds — your kid opens the lid and they're learning. The 514 has a real full-HD screen, 8GB of memory so twenty open tabs don't kill it, a battery that gets through a full school day, and a build that survives being shoved in a backpack. Chromebooks also get years of free automatic updates, so this isn't a buy-it-again-next-year purchase. If the budget is tight, Amazon Renewed (certified refurbished) versions of this class of Chromebook run noticeably less — a renewed unit with a warranty beats a brand-new bargain-bin laptop every time.

Check the price on Amazon

2. The K-4 learner tablet: Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro (~$105–$190, watch for sales)

For the little ones, a tablet beats a laptop — bigger buttons, touchscreen, and it survives the floor. The Fire HD 10 Kids Pro has the best parental controls we've used: you set screen-time limits, approve every app, and filter the browser right from your own phone. It comes with a slim case, a 13-hour battery, and Amazon's 2-year "worry-free" guarantee — if your kid breaks it, Amazon replaces it. Free. That guarantee alone is why we don't recommend a cheaper no-name tablet. It lists around $190 but goes on sale constantly, often near $105 — never pay full price for this one.

Check the price on Amazon

3. The printer that won't nickel-and-dime you: Epson EcoTank ET-2800 (~$150–$200)

Homeschool families print a LOT — worksheets, copywork, certificates, that map your kid needs in ten minutes. A cheap $80 cartridge printer will eat you alive at $40+ per ink refill. Tank printers cost more up front and then printing is basically free: the ET-2800 ships with enough ink in the bottles for roughly two years of schoolwork, and refill bottles cost about what one cartridge does. It prints, scans, and copies, and it's the one we'd trust to still be working in 4th grade when you bought it in 1st. It lists around $199 and dips to about $149 on sale — worth waiting a week for.

Check the price on Amazon

Not sure which one fits your student? Email hello@lyrashaai.com — we answer every message ourselves.

Want to see how the program would fit YOUR child specifically?

Tell us their grade and how they learn best: . We'll write back with a plain-English answer, not a sales pitch.

Ask About My Child's Grade