SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review → Royal Baloo

I love having a place to go where I know I will find quality materials for many different topics. I have my own little collections of favorites and we always check them when starting a new unit study, or approaching a new topic. Life is just so much easier when you already know where to look!

I’ve had the opportunity to review the Yearly Membership Option at SchoolhouseTeachers.com and I’m definitely adding it to my list. There are multitudes of different topics covered by expert teachers from toddlers all the way through high school, and also including some material meant to be used as self-directed family education! Some topics covered are “must-haves” like math while others are more fun, like guitar. No matter what you’re looking for – there is something for everyone.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is an online, distance-learning based website with materials for a wide range of topics from toddler through high school. Aside from printing materials, and a few craft ideas, there are no extra costs or materials needed. The website is designed to be logged into regularly to access the materials that are added on a daily or weekly basis.

Some highlights I’d like to point out:
The guitar course is amazing. It’s a beginner’s online course, and I can already tell that it’s going to work for us. The instructor, Jerry Jennings, goes into detail explaining the concepts in a way that makes sense.

Dailies: These are courses that are updated daily, hence the name. Dailies include history, math, explorers, writing, grammar, and a few other topics. Instead of figuring out what to do each day, these topics are spelled out for you. It’s great for those of us (ahem, me) who love to just pick up and go. I’m not a consistent planner, so the materials that we have that don’t need excessive planning are used much more regularly.

Charlotte Mason Homeschooling. We fall into a relatively eclectic style of homeschooling, but I find that learning about the different styles is fascinating. There is a lot of useful info in each style! The series on the Charlotte Mason is no exception and had been a great read. I’ve made it about 1/3 of the way through and already picked up so many little ways to change our day around to make learning easier and more in depth!

Since Baloo is just 7, I haven’t looked at the middle/high school materials in depth. I can tell you that a few interesting topics have caught my eye though – French, mock trial, video making, photography, and a lot more! You can look at all the topics at the middle/high school section.

The PreK/Elementary section is where I’ve spent most of my time. There is something in there for each of the boys. For Baloo we’ve looked into the reading. He’s not a struggling reader, but I love to find different materials for him to improve his reading skills. The reading includes a lot of news articles that are age appropriate. Reading news articles is a great skill to pick up!
The Art lessons are by Brenda Ellis of ARTistic Pursuits – a curriculum I’ve been dying to try out! I’m so excited to get a taste of her materials!

We haven’t been using SchoolhouseTeachers.com as our primary curriculum, at least not yet. I’ve picked out a few different sections that I thought would interest Baloo the most, and tried those out as an addition to what we’re already using. The elementary reading has really been a favorite and is a perfect compliment to the reading curriculum we already have!

PROS

The yearly cost is $139 which comes out to $11.58 a month. There are not many websites that you can pay $11 a month and have materials for all of the topics you need for all of your kids. One family, one fee!
Expert teachers and high quality materials.
Many many hands on resources. All of my boys prefer hands on learning to worksheets. So many of the topics, especially for the elementary age, are hands on projects.
Online learning – a lot of the material is also online which is great for saving space and cost of printing. And it’s portable. We’ve been know to pull materials up on the iPad and cuddle up on the bed or on a picnic blanket outside.
Ask A Question – you can send your questions directly to the teachers and get answers to your specific questions. I haven’t had to use this yet, but I love knowing that if I have a question about the material, there is a place to ask!

CONS

Not all of the lessons will be left on the website permanently. It depends on the teacher, and most lessons are archived, but some are only offered for a period of time.
The archives are listed reverse chronologically, which for some topics was a bit difficult. For lessons that build upon each other, it would be easier if there were links to the begin to follow. However, this isn’t that difficult to overcome.

THINGS TO NOTE
This is Christian curriculum and as such, much of the material takes on a Christian point of view. For those looking for secular materials, there are many materials on SchoolhouseTeachers.com that are perfect. But you’ll want to check each section out beforehand.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com
Cost: $139/years or $12.95 a month
Age Range – PreK to High School

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I’d definitely recommend looking at the samples and the topics offered and see if they interest you!