Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
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This year I am so excited to be given a new opportunity for our family, and my blog, by joining the Homeschool Review Crew through TOS! Throughout the year I will be reviewing a variety of different Homeschool Resources. For my first review I get to tell you about our experience using Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership at SchoolhouseTeachers.com. There are hundreds of courses and resources available and my boys and I have enjoyed adding several of them to our homeschool curriculum this year.
What is SchoolhouseTeachers.com?
The Ultimate Prek-12 Annual Membership at SchoolhouseTeachers.com gives you access to a complete flexible PreK-12 curriculum. But it is so much more than that! There are hundreds of courses to choose that can form a complete curriculum at every grade level. All courses can be completed online from the computer or by printing easy to open pdf files. There are no textbooks or workbooks that need to be purchased for any of the courses! Every course includes everything you need to get started right away, including lesson plans to guide you. Some hands-on courses have materials required, but from what I have seen they are usually household items, and these are listed in the lessons.
However, it is so more than just a curriculum! With the Ultimate Prek-12 Annual Membership you get access to an entire support system for homeschool families. There are so many videos, articles, planners, and even a community of fellow homeschoolers to assist and support you during your homeschool journey. In the month that I have had a membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com I haven’t even come close to being able to use everything that is offered!
A Complete, but Flexible Curriculum!
One thing you need to know about SchoolhouseTeachers.com is that it is not your typical boxed curriculum! You have the ability to build the curriculum that suits your family. You can pick and choose what courses will meet your children’s needs. If you are having trouble figuring out where to start you can check out their scope and sequence charts. These charts show you clearly what are typical skills and expectations for students to learn at each grade level. Then it gives you course suggestions at each level to go along with each skill/area.
You do not have to use it as your complete curriculum if you already have some resources that your family already uses and loves. There are so many elective courses, unit studies, literature kits, videos, and the world book encyclopedia online to help you supplement things you are already working on in your homeschool.
Focused Learning Centers and Literacy Centers
Another feature of SchoolhouseTeachers.com that was particularly helpful was the Focus Learning Centers Resource Page. There are always areas that our kids may be struggling with or skills we are working to try and figure out how to teach to our kids. Also, we often have questions about the process of homeschooling. This page gives you quick access to courses, resources and help in so many different areas. There are focused learning centers for Math, Science, Literacy, High School, Special Needs, Physical Education, and more.
My favorite was the Literacy Center. There in one place you can see an outline of all the steps to teaching children to read. You can easily find the reading skills you are working on, and then click and see a drop down list of resources available to help you as you teach your child to read. Also, I was excited to see that there is a whole library of downloadable books and leveled readers you can access through the Literacy Center.
A Full Video Library
My preschoolers favorite resource we found on SchoolhouseTeachers was definitely the Video Library. I found several video series that he has been enjoying regularly! When my older kids are doing their Personal Bible study times, I have been allowing my Preschooler to watch the Carlos the Caterpillar Bible Video course. He is loving it and is able to have is own personal “Bible Study” at the same time as his brothers. There are also several other preschool video courses and series I am excited to let him try.
There are video courses available at all levels for all ages, preschoolers-through adults. I look forward to being able to explore the video library more! I have seen several that I am excited to watch, especially the video history course, Drive thru History . It is definitely on “my future curriculum to use” list, as soon as we finish the history course we are currently working through.
The courses we are currently using!
When I started looking through the l00s of courses available on SchoolhouseTeachers I found so many I knew my kids and I would love. To start with I let each of my older kids pick an elective course that they would try out and add to their curriculum.
Hands-on Architechure
My 10 year old, loves to draw and build things. He has been saying for several years now that he wants to be an architect. He went crazy when he saw that there was a “Hands-on Architecture” elective course for his grade level. He is learning basic concepts of architecture and loves that he is being allowed to “play” and build things out of objects around the house for school!
Discovering Disgusting Creatures
My 8 year old went for an extra science course for his elective! He saw the course called “Discovering Disgusting Creatures” and he couldn’t wait to dive in. It is a course using an online World Book Reader. It is colorful, with a lot of pictures and fun for him to read! Since he went through a few of these lessons, he has had so much fun telling all of us about the weird animal facts he is learning. His favorite is “Did you know that their is a kind of bird that throws up to scare its enemies when he feels threatened?” He is so excited to learn more!
Navigating the World of Research and Daily Grammar
I also picked a few courses that I knew would be good for my Elementary-aged boys to work on. We started using “Navigating the World of Research” and the “Daily Grammar” courses (3rd, and 5th grade) as soon as we started back to school after taking a Christmas break.
Navigating the World of Research is a great fit for what we need right now. It is an excellent course that we can go through together. It is just what I was looking for to help teach my kids to use a variety of sources to research topics. This week we completed the lessons on using a dictionary. A lot of the vocabulary was a bit challenging for my 8 year old but it worked perfectly for us all to complete together.
I love the Daily grammar course. It is a complete printable grammar curriculum! It teaches a rule, or skill, gives practice exercises each day, and then reviews regularly and continues to build throughout the curriculum. We have tried several different grammar resources and most of them have either been too easy or too complicated. This one so far has been just right! My boys seem very satisfied with it as well. Grammar is definitely not their favorite subject but, the length of the daily lessons and practice exercises has had a perfect balance, so far. There is enough repetition that they are learning and remembering the skills, but, not so much repetition that it feels like busy work to them. This course looks to be one we will be able to continue at each grade level!
Lesson Plans with Each course
Another great feature of SchoolhouseTeachers.com is that with each course you immediately have daily lesson plans done for the entire course. Of course, if you want or need to move through a course slower or quicker you can. So far the lesson plans and the pacing for the courses we are using are just right for how we work.
The Custom Schedule Builder
I also enjoyed using SchoolhouseTeachers.com’s Custom Schedule Builder Resource. This gives you an editable pdf form so you can create weekly lesson plans for your kids. I created a basic schedule that I can simply edit as needed each week. My weekly lesson planning will now be easier than ever. I printed the Schedules, and e-mailed the pdf to my oldest! He can open a view all his lessons for the entire week. It also gives you a page to put links to the online courses your child is working on. You or your kids can then quickly access the courses they are taking.
Why I recommend investing in SchoolhouseTeachers.com
The Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a perfect choice for anyone looking for an affordable option for Homeschool curriculum from a Christian perspective. It has curriculum options for grades Pre-K through 12. You have access to everything, therefore, you don’t have to pay for separate curriculum for each of your children. Right now it is even more affordable than ever. The membership is on sale until the end of the January for only $99/year or $12/month. Most complete curriculum sets are much more than $99 for just 1 grade level!
My boys and I have really enjoyed looking through all the courses. We can’t wait to try out some new things in our homeschool this year! I am looking forward to using SchoolhouseTeachers for a long time and trying out more courses with my kids! If you are looking for one resource that will provide you with a full curriculum, and also, help guide you through your homeschooling journey with your family, then I highly recommend checking out SchoolhouseTeachers.com.
This product is being reviewed by the entire Homeschool Review Crew. Be sure to check out some of the other reviews to read what other Homeschooling families have to say about using the Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com.
Read More Reviews Of SchoolhouseTeachers.com Here!
Have you used SchoolhouseTeachers.com? What are your families’ favorite resources? Comment below and share with us what you have used with your family and what you liked about it!
