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.
We’re big fans of SchoolhouseTeachers.com around here – there are just so many great things that this website offers! We’re excited to continue with them for another year and to see the new things that they’re continually offering. Our favorite way to learn along with SchoolhouseTeachers.com is with a Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership.
My very favorite thing about SchoolhouseTeachers.com is the flexibility. With over 460 courses for students in pre-K through high school, there’s a huge amount of variety available. You can use the content available in a myriad of ways, too: there are full grade-level courses available, but you can also pick and choose which classes or resources work best for you. I love that my kids can hop in and use specific lessons within classes to learn pieces of information or skills that they want to learn. When we were studying Solomon’s Temple at church last year, my daughter popped into an architecture class and learned all sorts of great information about that structure. She learned a ton and ended up sharing it with all the other kids in her group – it was fantastic!
My Big Helper is now in high school and is interested in ASL, and SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a class for that! It’s a really rigorous class with printable lesson plans and videos to watch, which is perfect for ASL, which requires a visual element so that you can properly learn the signs. The instructor goes into depth about the culture of ASL, too, and it’s very well done.
I took several classes with ASL in college, and so I can help My Big Helper if she needs it – but the class is set up so that she can work very independently. We can easily print the lesson plans and printed work, and then she can get busy, with me only needed should extra help be necessary. Everything is included so that she can complete the class on her own, and while I love teaching my kids, it’s nice to watch them learn to manage on their own!
The lesson plans can help your students be independent. These plans take different forms for different classes, but many of them break down the work for the entire course by week and day, basically making a giant checklist for you or your student to employ. Whether you choose to stick with that kind of schedule or not is up to you, but it is handy to see everything all listed clearly.
The video library is another great feature. On this page, all videos referenced and/or available for viewing are linked up so that you can easily browse through them. Many of these videos are held by RightNow Media, and you can access everything in the library with your SchoolhouseTeachers.com account. There are really fantastic videos there, and you’re sure to find something for everyone in the family. There’s a variety of cartoons, Bible studies, and other kinds of Christian documentaries. There’s one called Alaskan Adventure that my Little Man and my dad are sure to love, and My Big Helper will love J. Warner Wallace’s studies. There are also programs by Tim Tebow, Francis Chan, Ann Voskamp, and many others. A few of the cartoons that I looked at had only the first few episodes available, instead of the whole series, but the studies seem to be complete. The video library also includes several Drive Thru History programs. It doesn’t get any better than that!
I often hear people debating and questioning the best way to teach kids to read. It’s not as easy as one might think – how do you actually go about it? If this is something that you’ve struggled with, SchoolhouseTeachers.com is there to help! The Literacy Center has books you can download and strategies to use based on your child’s reading developmental stage. If you’re trying to teach your student to read, this is definitely the place to go!
I love being able to use SchoolhouseTeachers.com as a resource. My Little Man loves to read the books and watch the online videos, and My Big Helper uses elective classes and foreign language options to learn on her own. I also find it helpful to consider these courses when doing my own planning to help me determine scope, sequence, and to find additional resources – which are often these classes themselves. We do things this way because it works for us and because I love planning – but if that’s not your thing, SchoolhouseTeachers.com makes it easy to use their full curriculum elements – or to find and use just the pieces that you want planned for you. I love that aspect of this resource!
With one price to pay and then full access to the hundreds of resources on this website, you couldn’t get a better deal. You don’t have to worry which child has access or if there are enough materials for everyone, because SchoolhouseTeachers.com has something for everyone – parents included! If you’re new to this site, check it out here – but don’t take my word for it; visit this post to read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.
