Schoolhouse Teachers [TOS Review]
SchoolHouseTeachers.com is a membership site for homeschoolers that you will definitely want to check out. Are you struggling with trying to fit everything in or are you homeschooling around a job or family medical issues and wish for another pair of hands? Or have you found yourself spending hours on YouTube and searching blogs for supplements to your curriculum? Do you struggle with some subjects and dread teaching them? SchoolhouseTeachers.com provides the flexibility that you are looking for. I was given a Yearly Membership Option for this review.
I’ve been homeschooling since 1996. When my kids were younger, we delighted infrequent trips to the library, field trips and other supplemental activities. Our circumstances have changed and it’s not so easy for me to get out and about. The digital revolution has brought many supplemental resources to the homeschooling community and while there are many free sites out there, Schoolhouse Teachers is definitely worth a look.
I was given a year’s subscription as part of my review. The first area I checked out was science which is one of my least favorite subjects to teach. I read a lesson about the scientific method to my non-science daughter and she actually smiled. The lesson was scripted and I simply read it aloud to her and did the experiments.
She struggles with auditory processing problems and often has trouble understanding passages but this was not a problem for her. Other science topics covered for elementary/middle school are Weekly Science Experiments with Jason Lindsey of Hooked on Science. High School offerings include Chemistry and Physics. Please note that the Chemistry and Physics courses are not complete high school science courses.
Have you ever wanted to move beyond the automatic settings on your camera, or do you own a DSLR that you don’t know how to use? You’ll be excited to find a photography unit to expand your skills. I was pretty excited to see this myself since my camera skills are pretty rudimentary. My daughter wants to try it as well. Lessons on advanced photography features include white balance, aperture, shutter speed, iso, manual mode, and composition.
There is much to explore at SchoolhouseTeachers.com The website is clean and easy to navigate. Offerings for preschool and elementary include Animated Books, Art Techniques, Math, Geography, Lapbooking, Literature kits and much more. Middle/High School has many offerings including College Prep, Art, Computer Science, Film making, Logic and Writing.
One of the included extras are the Schoolhouse planners. As a special needs mom, I checked the Special Learners planner and really liked it as one of my goals for 2014 is to organize my kids’ paperwork. This will save me hours of hunting around the Internet. There are forms for lesson planning, therapies and appointments, calendars and even a homeschool IEP. The other planners are Primary, Intermediate, and High School. I will also look through these and see what I can incorporate into my daughter’s binder.
Other extras include back issues of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for 2012 and 2013, TOS Supplements, Schoolhouse Expo video recordings, and bonus e-books.
Another great feature is the “Schoolhouse Dailies.” You’ll find daily lessons in language arts, math, art, cooking and other hands-on learning. Don’t forget to check out the archives. All coursework from the site’s launch in 2012 is accessible here.
If you need help with recordkeeping, membership includes a free bonus membership to AppleCore, an online recordkeeping system that will help you track courses, report grades and everything you need for your homeschool portfolio.
I’m not one to subscribe to fee-based sites unless I really think they are worth the money but I highly recommend SchoolhouseTeachers.com to any family (homeschool, public or private) of kids K-12. who might be looking for supplemental lessons for their children. There is much more on the site than I’ve been able to list here. It’s most definitely worth a look!
The yearly membership is $139. Alternatively, you can access SchoolhouseTeachers.com for one month for just $3. to see if it’s a good fit for your family. Thereafter the monthly membership is $12.95 and it’s one family, one fee.
However, there a great special running for the month of December 2013!
