Homeschool parents are blessed to be able to design their kids education as they see best. They pull the educational resources from a variety of places such as books, videos, library resources, local community programs, coops, field trips, life skills, etc.  Sometimes the parents create their own curriculum and sometimes they buy it pre-made, and sometimes they do a blend of both.  Homeschooling is such a blessing to be able to customize your children’s education to fit each child’s individual interests and the priorities and goals of your family.

If you are looking for a pre-made online course that has everything your student needs to complete the subject of study, then you might want to try Homeschool Courses from Standard Deviants Accelerate.  They offer a variety of affordable classes for 3rd Greade through Adult, including some college prep classes.

Homeschool Courses

Arithmetic (grades 3+)
Fundamental Math (grades 4+)
Earth Science (grades 6+)
Nutrition (grades 6+)
Biology (grades 7+)
Algebra (grades 7+)
Chemistry (grades 9+)
English Comp (grades 9+)
U. S. History (grades 9+)
AP Biology (grades 11+)
AP Chemistry (grades 11+)
AP History (11+)
AP U. S. Gov. & Politics (grades 11+)
AP Eng. Composition (grades 11+)

Each Course is $9.99 per month and can be used with up to 5 students per family.  So you can have 5 of your kids all studying the same subject for only $9.99!!!  That is a deal!   If you want to study two subjects that month, such as: nutrition, and history at the same time, then 5 kids in the same house can learn 2 subjects and it would cost you $9.99 x 2 = $19.98 per month for the two classes!  You can buy a lifetime membership for up to 10 students for all of the SDA classes available (currently 14 courses) for one low discounted price of $795 (forever access).

Hello!

HIGHSCHOOL CREDIT CLASSES!!

That is a deal!

Each course offers a full year of curriculum, but your student (s) may finish the class as quick or as slow as they desire.  Each child has their own dash board that they log into and it keeps track of their individual progress.

The classes are always open 24/7 so it is flexible for your schedule, and you can work on it as much as you want to.   It contains a variety of videos, note taking, interactive quizzes, writing, reviews, exams, and you can access the courses through your desktop computer, mobile laptop, and smart device like a tablet too.  This greatly increases your options of where and when you can find flexible time to work on your school work.  These classes can be used as your main course work or used as a supplemental program.  Some kids may finish a course quicker in a semester, and some will need the whole school year, depending on the subject being studied and how quick your kids go through the program.  For example, we found it takes longer to learn Chemistry or Algebra than it takes to finish the class in American History or Nutrition.

SDA has been producing digital education videos and resources for 20+ years, when two friends got the bright idea to record full length courses and make them funny.  The idea took off and they have won numerous awards for their high quality educational video courses.

Though SDA has a variety of complete core subjects for middle and highschool students, these are not your usual boring classes.   Instead, they are funny and filled with silly skits that help kids learn and retain the information.

Homeschool Courses through SDA are a great option for when you need a course instructor, pre-made lessons, quizzes that keeps track of all of the answers and grades and everything all in one.  Basically all you do is turn it on and your child can work through it independently and you can keep track of what they are doing through the parent / teacher dashboard.

How We Used SDA Homeschool Courses In Our Home:

We have been using SDA for an entire year now.  I feel confident in sharing my experience with you.  We had a 1 year subscription last school year, and we have a 1 year subscription for this year too, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to review this homeschool program for a second time.

Three of my sons are using at least one or more of the classes offered.  We decided to choose classes based on their skill level and interest level.  Last year I just put them in the class even if they were not very interested because I want to expose them to something new and different that we hadn’t done before.  But this year, it is all about what they are interested in.  We are currently using Nutrtion, US History, Mathematics, Biology, Earth Science, and Algebra.

My kids and I each have our own seperate dashboards on the SDA website.   Each day I have the kids log in and view the video assignment, take notes as they watch the video and save their notes on the computer program.  You can watch this short video about how kids use their dashboard.

After the video and vocabulary learning, they complete any related written work and take the quiz. The notes they type are stored in their “locker” which is a filing system they can keep track of all of their notes for classes.

On my dashboard, I can view their progress, what areas need more practice or review to improve their understanding.  You can check out this short video on how to set up a teacher account and get your kids set up with with their classes on your dashboard.

Check out this short Teacher Account Video that explains more how this works.

Two of my middle boys are on similar learning levels, and they have enjoyed learning with the Nutrition, US History, and Mathematics courses this past year and have carried them over into this year too.  They have also recently started the Biology course too.  The biology course is a little advanced for my 5th and 7th grade sons, but I want them to take advantage of exploring this opportunity and get familiar with the learning materials.

Here is a short video clip of one of the topics discussed in nutrition and you can see the humor that is in every video in this example.

Our oldest son is in 9th grade, and he is taking the SDA Homeschool Courses: Nutrition, US History, Biology and Algebra.   I am thankful for a second opportunity to review SDA because this has been very beneficial to retake a class he started last year.  He did great in all but one class last year. Algebra was tougher than he thought it would be.

He started the Algebra class last year, and had to stop after a couple of months because it was beyond his understanding.   He wasn’t ready for it yet.  So we stopped part way through and he took a pre-Algebra class that he did wonderful in.  Now he is ready for Algebra and has restarted this class and was able to pick up where he left off.   That is another great thing about this program is that it keeps track of your progress and you can go as fast or as slow as you need too.

Example of Homeschool Algebra:

Homeschool Alegebra curriculum has several benefits for the student and the teacher. Here are just a few:

220 minutes of video (with scrolling transcripts)
54 vocab words (with audio playback)
Note-taking
38 critical thinking questions
205 multiple choice questions
14 drag n’ drop graphic organizers
Re-teaching
Automatic grading
Progress reporting
Meets State and National Standards
RTI alerts
Differentiated Instruction
Editable rubrics
Student-to-teacher messaging

Every class includes the written transcript of the video lessons. This makes it very handy to go back through and read what has been said, take notes etc.

Over all my oldest says he likes the curriculum.  He is self motivated to work on it each day. He strives to get good scores on his work and I am proud of his progress.

Homeschool U.S. History:

Another class I will share a little about is the Homeschool U.S. History course for grades 9 and up.  Some of the great features of this curriculum include:

149 minutes of video (with scrolling transcripts)
144 vocab words (with audio playback)
160 multiple choice questions
Note-taking
29 critical thinking questions
14 drag n’ drop graphic organizers
Meets State and National Standards
Progress reporting, Editable rubrics, Re-teaching
Automatic grading, and Student-to-teacher messaging

My 13 year old is taking US History, Nutrition, and Biology.  He began the US History curriculum last year while in 6th grade and after he struggled though for about three months or so, I came to the realization it was too early for him.  I let him off the hook with it and allowed him to just work through the class as an observer and he worked on it 1 day a week after the initial review period was over.  We typically work on review products 3 to 5 days a week for six weeks to write our honest reviews based on our experience.  But once the review was done last year, the only SDA classes this son was enthused about was the arithmetic and mathematics classes and he did well and he recently finished one of them.  However, I saw that his response to the US History class was different.  When his interest level dropped last year, we decided to take do it once a week.

The problem was two fold. One problem he had was deciphering through some of the immaturity in the funny skits that wasn’t really needed to learn the materials.   The second problem was my fault that I put him in a class he wasn’t yet ready for.

SDA Homeschool US History is for grades 9 and up, and he was only in 6th grade at the time. Though a slower pace worked for him, he felt discouraged about the quizzes and writing things out.   He was able to get about half way through last year and I told him I was proud of him for trying and we would try again when he was a little older.   When the review of SDA was offered again for this year, I knew for sure he wanted to retake this class and improve his score. He is currently taking the class 5 days a week, and completes one lesson a day that takes him about 20 minutes or so.  NO prodding or pushing from me.  This time he is ready and wants to do it.

He likes audio visual methods of learning and excels when school work is presented in a combined audio video format.  He does not like to read a lot, or write a lot of verbiage, so he doesn’t use the SDA course transcripts (his older brother prefers reading everything including the transcripts). Where he got hung up last year was the writing part of the course.  He didn’t want to write out notes and didn’t like the written parts of the quizzes and the essay answer on the exam last year.  These are wonderful tools to gauge learning, but it is hard to gauge learning when someone is reluctant to do those areas.  But things are much better this time around.

He has gone through a lot of maturing this past year, especially over the summer.   He practiced two writing curriculums this past spring and all through summer.  One writing curriculum was practicing in print and one in cursive, and to my surprise he loved them.  I could not believe it. He could not believe it either.  Suddenly it was easy instead of hard.  Since then he has excelled in his writing skills and is no longer reluctant.  This was just the boost he needed and an answer to my prayer to light a fire inside and desire to learn.   He has greatly improved in reading and writing and motivation!  He desires to get his school work done each day and is working on the SDA courses independently, self motivated, and is enjoying them.  I am thankful for SDAccelerate’s fun video style learning program for him to use.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really like the format of these classes, and how easy and flexible they are to use with homeschooling.  They are great for getting your highschool credits for your transcript too.

However,  as a Christian homeschool parent, there is a word of caution too.  These courses are written from a secular world view and to meet public school core standards.   We do not agree with everything the classes teach and when we come across specific issues, we stop and talk about them.  For example, we disagree with teaching evolution, or that people are related to monkeys, for example.  We believe the earth and all of creation was created by God and our faith plays a big role in our education.  Also sometimes the silliness of the skits take a liberal cultural direction, and imposes a cultural viewpoint rather than an unbiased view.  This can cross over boundaries in many areas of beliefs.   The course work is not written from a Christian perspective and that is something to consider when making curriculum choices.

Pre-made courses can be a good choice in different seasons of life.   As your kids get older, and more independent, or as your life gets busier, this kind of curriculum is very handy.   It also comes in handy when you have a new baby in the house, if you are moving, or if you have little time for prepping a certain course.  Now need to honestly say that I love being creative and making my own curriculum for my younger kids, or tweaking pre-made curriculums for the older kids to fit our family’s needs, but there are times in homeschool life, when having it all done for you is the best option.  The best advice I can give is to weigh out all your priorities, beliefs, and what time you have available to devote to curriculum, and see if SDA Homeschool Courses could work out for you.

Standard Deviants Accelerate on Social Media

Be sure to follow Standard Deviants Accelerate on their social media links for all the latest news, courses, updates, and teaching ideas, and more:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SDAccelerate
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Google+: google.com/+Sdaccelerate
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CerebellumCorp/videos

Check out what other homeschool families on the TOS Review Crew had to say about using Standard Deviants Accelerate with their family.