Calvert Homeschool Online

Today we get to review for you a new online homeschool program called Calvert Homeschool Online by Calvert Homeschool. I am excited to be able to review a full online program for homeschool students, which isn't always the easiest to find.

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Getting Registered

Getting registered was very straight forward. I was able to get registered and the only part that was a little confusing was the user name being where you go to access everything instead of just using account log in-- but it was also clear to be able to see since they wrote it but not intuitive.

I love that when you go log in, you can take the free training sessions so you best know how to use their program.

The Training Sessions

Did I mention the training sessions were free? Not only that but it's just good practice so you get set up for success using the program.

SCHOOL'S SET UP

Sometimes getting started on online schools can be tough. Mainly because most of the online systems you use are set up in a way that you can't edit certain settings as if you are a teacher-- at least the ones that I have used. What does that mean?

You can edit quiz options, such as if you allow open-book quizzes, allowing skipping of problems, Immediate answer feedback, or even allowing them access to answer keys.


ASSIGNING COURSES

A very simple set up and very intuitive. It's a mix of old & new school looks to make it feel more official while at the same time being simple and easy to use.

The difference between the 3rd grade and the 8th grade, since I have both levels for my students.

In the third grade, they have spelling, history/geography, language arts, mathematics, & science.
In the eighth grade, they don't have spelling, just history, language arts, mathematics & science.

I think it's unfortunate to not have spelling at eighth grade because you can always practice spelling and if anything they should start swapping out spelling for either grammar or P SAT prep, which would include all the weird questions you get when you are doing taking the SAT.

In looking forward, I can see at the 11th grade, Junior in High School year, they have US History Reconstruction to Present. And that has me intrigued. What is even better, is that if my son comes to show that he can do that level of work, (my 8th grader, not my 3rd grader, of course), then we can do that.

DEEPER IN THE STUDENT COURSES

Which you click each student in the overall dashboard, you can see what their units are and just by looking, I am excited. There are things in there that we learned in school that have been taken out of the public school system.

For example, look at this picture.



I don't remember seeing in my kids' school plan to be able to learn and memorise both State Capitals and World Capitals. And it's something that is super important and practical in the real world. I will say that I didn't have to memorise them in the same way a cousin of mine did-- we just learned about them. They actually had to memorise them. That being said, super excited to be able to put this back in the plan for my students.

GRADING

You can also assume and imagine that you can do get report cards made for the courses, both individually and also as a whole. I guess you can email yourself and call a parent/teacher conference, which would be you and your partner/spouse, or I guess in my case, looking like I am going to be sitting in front of the mirror or just talking to myself. Ha ha.



For grade percentages- of course, you use the classical alpha system used in the public system. "A", "B", "C" or "D". You can adjust the percentages in which classifies each of the grades that you can use. They have 94% for the A, 86% for the B, 77% for the C, and 70% for D as the default but I am editing this since that is not the scoring system I am used to. I am used to 90% or above is an A, 80%-89% to be for B, and 70%-79% for a C, and 69% below as a D. Interestingly enough, they don't have the "F" as an alpha grading number.

You can also be adjusting the assignment weighting-- which is SUPER important.  The reason for this is that EVERY STUDENT LEARNS & SHOWS MASTERY DIFFERENTLY! So this personally, has to be one of my favourite features on the online teacher's hub!

They have the default for the set up for the assignment weight as such:
Lessons- 5%
Projects - 20%
Quizzes - 25%
Tests - 50%

See, I was never that great at tests, and again it depends on the tests, but that is not where my strongest suit was. I personally believe that Projects and Lessons having MORE weight is better because it encourages the student to do the work and focuses more on the process than just the end result. So, therefore, I am going to be adjusting those numbers a little bit.

You can see by the image, where I show my son's 8th-grade history grading hub, that I can edit EACH CLASS's grading structure. THIS IS HUGE! Because again, each student's strength in each course is different and needs to be adjusted accordingly to challenge them.

I went in and changed the default for the set up for the assignment weight to more even weight as such:
Lessons- 25%
Projects - 25%
Quizzes - 25%
Tests - 25%

LESSON PLANS 

You can see the break down of the courses under lesson plans. I love this because you can see the long-range goals of the school year. And you can see what you can do long term. If I wanted to do a field trip for a lesson or two, I can see in it well in advance. Which I love!

STUDENT LOG IN 

When a student logs in, one of the first screens they get is the one below where they encourage them to read the student guide for tips on the homeschool online program. I love this because it shows students that they are in some control of their own education and gives them tips as well. That is a very important message to send to students.



When the student logs in, they have a simple set up. From the picture below, you can see that they can send a message to their teacher, they can take a month look at their lessons- even a year ahead of time, and or even go into their lessons by subject and see a whole semester view.

This is super important for both my sons -- my 3rd grader and my 8th grader -- who both have ADHD and sometimes can't see the long-range picture. So this is a great resource to be able to give them a long-range view of what they are going to be learning. This is also great because it gives them surety of what they are going to do and they don't worry about having the unexpected, as it's all laid out for them.




THE COURSES: 

I love that it has options to read the text (and highlight while being read) in a real voice to the student so that way it's not just for those that have the skill to read and learn but also have the need for the auditory aspect of learning. This tends to be something that can be hard when being homeschooled and using online programmes. And they do a great job of addressing that!

At beginning of each lesson there is a showing of the objectives, experiences, projects, goals, of the lesson. I love this because it's important for kids to know what to expect.

They have videos, interactive games within the lessons, like spelling words for the unit itself-- which I am HUGE proponent of. Remember how I said there wasn't a specific spelling course for 8th grade? Well, they put spelling in the lesson itself which I highly love and appreciate.

The lessons are so well laid out, that it's virtually (pun intended) foolproof. It's EASY and fast for kids to learn. It doesn't draw lessons out unnecessarily, which is important when it comes to keeping kids engaged in the learning process.

I will say that my kids likely will be moving out of the grades they are currently in and doing the next grade up in no time.

WHAT I THINK: 

I absolutely love this curriculum. I had to pull my son out of a brick and mortar public school lately because there are health issues going on and the school was not set up to be a success for him and they were not following through with challenging him where he needed to be. So, when I was able to review this, I got very excited. I really needed something especially coming off a divorce, becoming Cubmaster for a cub scout pack that seems to be growing faster than mating rabbits, finding out that both my 8th grader and my 3rd grader both have more special needs and trying to tend to them, and well life.

So to have a WELL ROUNDED STRONG curriculum for both my children is super important. This has to be a Godsend for me as both a mum & a teacher. I am looking forward to the year with my kids because this takes so much guesswork out of it.

My kids use this with ease and really enjoy it. It has been the better program in a very long time that we have used and they absolutely are getting a lot out of it. They are able to work at their own pace and be able to get things they want to do done in their school day with this program. For that, I am very grateful.

WHAT CAN IMPROVE:

Even though I give this an A, I always say there is room to improve.

I am going to say that I wish that I could skip one of my students out of a lesson without having to sign into my own account separately --- like if there a button on the side or the bottom that would say "Teacher ByPass" or something like that & I can click it and then enter my own password and user name to be able to skip a lesson or part of a lesson for the child because I know they are masters of that section(s).

I also think that it would be nice to have more advanced options for kids who are well ahead and yet in their grade level so they were challenged more.

Other than that, I don't have too many more critiques.



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