Review of SchoolhouseTeachers.com Membership

by Sally Matheny

In this post, I’m excited to share a review of something that helps my family in our homeschooling journey– the SchoolhouseTeachers.com Ultimate Annual Yearly Membership.

Whether you’re a newbie, or you’ve been homeschooling for years, there are always new things to learn—new subjects, new technology, new resources.

If you follow my blog, you know how much I love to find quality resources, especially those produced with a Christian worldview.  I was thrilled when SchoolhouseTeachers.com asked me to give an honest review of my online membership. Allow me to introduce them to you and tell you a few of the ways they’ve helped my family.

Who Owns SchoolhouseTeachers

Homeschooling parents, Paul and Gena Suauez, began The Old Schoolhouse® print magazine in 2001, and like the homeschool population, it’s been growing ever since.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is the online curriculum division of The Old Schoolhouse® magazine.

You can find statements about their faith, desire, and vision on the website. Those statements have been an honest reflection during my time of affiliation with them.

What It Is and Is Not

SchoolhouseTeachers.com devotes a special page describing what it is and what it is not. To put that in a nutshell for you, SchoolhouseTeachers is not an online school but rather it is a homeschool curriculum site which offers over 425 online courses for preschool through high school.

The lessons and other resources are not written by a single author or textbook company but are written by over 200 lesson designers.

The lessons are designed by people with various skills and certifications. Some lessons also come from various companies’ curriculum and product designers.

Some of the Ways We’ve Used SchoolhouseTeachers

Our typical homeschool day involves using books we’ve purchased from various curriculum companies. But several times a week we log on to SchoolhouseTeachers.com for additional instruction, reading materials, and printables.

I like that my membership includes access to the lesson plans and resources for ALL grade levels.

That comes in handy when introducing something new like a foreign language. Even though my son was older, we took advantage of the elementary Spanish lessons.

When he needed remedial help in a certain skill, I logged in and found just what he needed.

And SchoolhouseTeachers has been helpful when my son has an area of interest I’m not familiar with–like web game designing or drum lessons!

In addition to the lessons, my membership includes access to videos and e-books. I want to mention a few we are benefitting from in our homeschooling.

Video Library

It will take my family awhile to go through the 450+ videos offered in the video library!

However, some of the videos we’ve enjoyed so far have been the ones produced by Drive Thru History, City on a Hill, and RightNow Media.

In the past, my son has enjoyed videos with art tips by Jan Bower and soon, he will begin watching and learning through videos provided by ARTAchieve.

We’re excited about ARTAchieve because it incorporates history, world cultures, and other subjects into the art instruction.

I’m not a professional artist. I’m not even an amateur artist! But learning how to draw is something my son and I both enjoy. I usually watch the videos and try the techniques along with him.

Unlike my son, I’m not a big fan of electronic gaming. I don’t desire to spend an hour pressing “A”, “B”, and arrow keys! The time we spend together learning how to draw is a blessing. It’s something fun we can do together without driving me crazy.

My family also likes to watch videos together. The Ultimate Yearly Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com provides us access to not only instructional videos but also to videos on apologetics, parenting, homesteading, and more.

World Book

The membership includes access to World Books online, which has instructional videos as well. This is a vast portal to information, games, e-books and more.

I like using the interactive maps and the timelines in our studies of world cultures.

Another thing I want to check out at World Books is their advanced research tools for high school students.

Next year, our youngest child will begin high school. It’s been almost eight years since I’ve taught high school subjects.

Which brings me to another special feature at SchoolhouseTeachers.com

Focused Learning Centers

My online membership includes extra help in thirteen focused learning centers. The one I’ve been intensely researching is “High School Help.”

A friend of mine asked me last week how to assign academic weight for high school transcripts. It’s been so long since I’ve don’t that, I had to refresh my memory!

I found these topics at the focused learning center on High School Help:

Academic Weighting for Transcripts

Applecore Record Keeping Tool

College Help Resources

Career Exploration and How to Start a Micro Business

Scope and Sequence Suggestions

There is also a wonderful High School Planner with 380 pages of everything I could possibly need!

In addition, various templates and free printables for High School & College Prep are provided.

Also, several, helpful e-books are offered including: College Success Begins at Home; Homeschooling the High Schooler; and Career Training, Mentorship, and Parenthood.

I think the one I’ll read first though is Help, Lord, I’m Getting Ready to Start Homeschooling My High Schooler!

How Much It Costs

There is a choice of a monthly or a yearly membership. The price is usually less than $180 for an entire year because they are always having special promotions. Like right now, for the month of February, they’re running a special on membership for only $111. That covers the whole family. Everything is included. There are no other fees, and no textbooks to buy. Also, they typically have a one month trial run offer for five dollars or less.

Also, there are ways you can earn a free membership like I did. Twice, I wrote WWII history unit studies for them. Then, this year, I applied to serve on their Review Crew. Both avenues provide free membership to the online curriculum. You can find out more details about this on their website.

Recommendation

I highly recommend SchoolhouseTeachers.com. It offers a plethora of resources for children and their parents. I continually find tools there to help fill in the gap for areas in which I do not already have curriculum . It also provides opportunities for us to sample a wide variety of things in order to determine interest and ability levels. I like that!

What are your thoughts? Do you have any questions for me about SchoolhouseTeachers.com?

Click below if you’d like to read more review.

Note about affiliates.