If you are looking for online curriculum to supplement your homeschool experience, then you may be interested in checking out Standard Deviants Accelerate. Homeschool Courses from Standa rd Deviants Accelerate is an excellent resource for all homeschoolers. We were given the opportunity to review a one-year access membership to all the courses offered by Standard Deviants Accelerate.
Standard Deviants Accelerate offers a variety of courses to use to supplement your curriculum. Currently, they offer the following Homeschool Courses (suggested grade levels included):
- Arithmetic – grades 3+, focuses on numbers – types of numbers, how to represent numbers, and simple number operations
- Fundamental Math – grades 4+, focuses on the world of mathematics
- Earth Science – grades 6+, a study of the earth.
- Nutrition – grades 6+, all about food and how our bodies use it
- Biology – grades 7+, a study of life
- Algebra – grades 7+
- Chemistry – grades 9+
- English Composition – grades 9+
- U.S. History – grades 9+
- AP Biology – grades 11+
- AP Chemistry – grades 11+
- AP U.S. Government and Politics – grades 11+
- AP English Composition – grades 11+
We chose to begin with the Nutrition class. This is a class that my 5th grade daughter has been interested in for a while. Though I feel that a “class” in nutrition was not something we really needed, she had an interest and it certainly couldn’t hurt.
We are a pretty healthy family and discuss nutrition regularly but since she was interested I thought it would be a good one to start with. She was excited that she was able to begin the course.
Additionally, since we are studying Earth Science this year, we decided to give that one a try too.
The courses are online, they are setup in a very user-friendly dashboard. The parent/teacher is provided a username and password to assign classes to the student and work within their dashboard to check on assignments and monitor study progress. The student has their own username and password and can only see their courses then have been assigned.
The courses are self-paced and easy to navigate. The tabs across lead the student through video, vocab, diagram, quiz, and written answer sections. As the student completes the sections and subsequently completes the unit, they are checked off at the bottom of the page to show progress through the course.
The student can also check their progress through a course on progress report section in their “locker.” Parents can view the progress in their dashboard as well.
The videos were engaging, a manageable length, and interesting. My daughter enjoyed the videos. She would then go through the vocab, which will pronounce the words for her if needed, then go to the diagram, which is an interactive review activity of what has been learned. This was her favorite part. Then the quiz, which is typically 5 or so questions, is given. The quiz lets you know what you missed and gives you a link to review the section to understand the answer. The written answer section gives a couple of questions that the student can write out the answer to. They can do this on screen, allowing all notes to be stored in the program.
At the end of the chapter or section, there are additional tabs with more activities. There is an Act it Out, Post Test, and Critical Thinking section. The “Act it Out” section was another one of my daughter’s favorite activities.. This section gave suggestions on how to apply what was learned in the chapter. In the example, the student is to prepare a 5-15 minute presentation on a topic about nutrition that they just learned about. There are suggestions for homeschooler and for co-ops or classrooms with more people. It was nice that they had activities that took the specific needs or requirements of homeschooler (i.e. did not only suggest games that require 4 players, which not all homeschools have).
Overall, we thought that the classes were easy to use. The videos were interesting and engaging. My daughter enjoyed her Nutrition class, which we used 3 times a week during the review period. The lessons took approximately 30 minutes to complete.
Check out Standard Deviants Accelerate Homeschool Courses on their website. And be sure to visit them on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SDAccelerate
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SDAccelerate
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Sdaccelerate/posts
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/SDAccelerate/
You can see what the res of the Crew thought about the Homeschool Courses by clicking the banner below. You will find reviews of several of the courses that are offered by Standard Deviants Accelerate. Though my daughter is only in 5th grade, I think that it is exciting that they have high school level, advanced placement course available. I look forward to reading what TOS Crew members that used these courses had to say.
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