Learning on the Go Made Easy – SchoolhouseTeachers.com Yearly Membership Review

Our family is constantly on the go to somewhere, so we need a curriculum that can easily come with us. SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a Yearly Membership that provides us with the much needed freedom to do school anywhere.  I am a mom to seven, with four of them at home.  We have been doing school at home for five years now, and we love the freedom it provides.  I have found it can be difficult to find curriculum and resources that don’t keep us tied to a desk.  When I found SchoolhouseTeachers.com, I was thrilled to see resources that apply learning anywhere and everywhere.

For those of you who have not heard of SchoolhouseTeachers.com, it is an online, self-paced resource with more than 360 courses covering preschool to twelfth grade.  Everything can be downloaded or viewed directly from the site, so there is no need for textbooks unless you want to add them.  This is not a school-based program, so it does not follow Common Core.  It also allows for the freedom to grab what you need and leave what you don’t.  I personally like the mix and match ability of this site, as I have not found a single curriculum that works for my children.  Having the ability to pull already created lessons for what my children are learning at the time is priceless!

Travel Binders and Activity Boxes

We began our home school journey because of the special needs dynamic within our family.  We travel sometimes five and six times per month for all day medical appointments.  Rather than lose those days and have to push school into the summer, we take school with us.  Most of the time this is through travel games and activity binders that we throw into a book bag.  SchoolhouseTeachers.com has numerous resources that can be made into travel games or organized into a travel binder.

Currently, my daughter is learning about word families.  I was able to find a wonderful course called Teaching Reading Through Play.  It is a thirty-six week course designed to teach early reading concepts.  I printed the activities, laminated them for sturdiness, and put them in her travel binder.  When we are on the go, she simply takes out an activity, and like magic the learning begins.

Economical and Easy to Use

Each week’s lesson plan is downloadable and can be used for multiple children.  Since the membership fee applies to the whole family, this is a huge savings when you have a big family like I do.  The Yearly Membership is only $179 per year, which in my family equates to less than $4 per month per child!  For a limited time, it is on sale for only $90 per year.

Using SchoolhouseTeachers.com has also cut down on the amount of time it takes me to find and develop lesson plans.  The lessons are already created.  I simply need to download the necessary items and get going.  The time I spend printing, laminating and organizing lessons has gone down too.  Once I have finished the work for the older children, the lessons are ready for when the younger children need them.  No extra work required.

Two of our children attend the local public school due to the severity of their needs.  With SchoolhouseTeachers.com, I can supplement what they are learning at home.  When I see what my children bring home from school, I quickly go online and find something that will compliment what they are learning.  Since I can usually find something hands-on, they really feel like they are just having fun.

Quality and Engaging Resources Right In Your Home

One of the things that is difficult for our family is getting to the library.  With two children in wheelchairs, winter can be unfriendly, and a quick trip to the local library can become a long, arduous ordeal.  So on days when the weather is frightful and quality research materials are needed, we have somewhere to turn.  With SchoolhouseTeachers.com, the library literally comes to us.  They have an online library quality resource called the World Book.  It is complete with online encyclopedias, eBooks, and my daughters favorite thing, books that will read themselves.  I have to admit that on busy days, this is also my favorite!

When I was a student my least favorite subject was Social Studies.  This was partly because of all the boring dates, times and places that I could not visualize from the illustrations provided in my textbook.  Luckily my children will not have to endure this same torture with SchoolhouseTeachers.com.  They have a large video library full of courses that your family will grow to love.  My son’s favorite video course is Drive Through History.  The viewer is taken on a virtual drive through history.  This is not the mind numbing, black and white videos I was subjected to years ago.  Instead, this series is engaging and very much mimics the videos our children watch in their free time.

Learning for Parents too!

I have to admit that sometimes I can feel like schooling at home is too much.  Sometimes I feel inadequate and I wonder if I am truly capable of providing the necessary tools my children will need to carry into adulthood.  SchoohouseTeachers.com has a resource called Just for Parents who might need a helping hand in all of this.  There is an entire course section for special needs parents that I personally have found to be very beneficial.  The courses cover subjects where my confidence is lacking like assistive technology and modifying instruction.  I have only scratched the surface in these courses, but I have already learned some strategies that are helping my confidence.

If you are like me and would like more information before making a decision on whether a resource will work for your family, there is the Review Crew.  This is a group of parents who are where you are now, and they can provide  sound advice and bring you piece of mind.

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If you have been looking for an economical and easy to use resource to use with your family, check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com.  You will not be disappointed!