Welcome to a New School Year!

by Sarah Bennett

This is going to be a great year!  We had our teacher training week during the last week of August and I was so impressed by the amazing teachers we have working with us.  They have really embraced the HCOS philosophy of supporting and encouraging homeschool families.  At HCOS we firmly believe in Quality Educational Choices with Christian Values.  Offering choices and flexibility has been important to us from the very beginning.  We know that no two homeschool families look the same so we try our best to adapt to the needs of each and every individual family.  Our teachers are trained specifically to understand the differences between classroom teaching and home learning.  During training they learn about multi-age teaching, homeschooling curriculum, and various philosophies of home education.  Many of our teachers homeschool their own children and that has really made a huge difference in our training sessions.  We also have our teachers attend the BC Christian Home Educators’ Convention where they attend workshops and browse the vendor hall. 

Classmate Math – Yearly Subscription

• Are you still looking for a solid math curriculum for grades 7 to 10?
• Do you need a supplemental resource to have on hand to explain tough concepts or provide extra review?
• Would you like a math program with video instruction that your student can work through independently?
• Do you need a supplement to fill in some of the learning outcomes that your curriculum doesn’t cover?

Classmate is an online math alternative that offers video based lessons and interactive math work.  It also has tests, extra practice, and is correlated to the BC PLO’s.  Classmate lessons are complete and can be used as a stand-alone math curriculum or they could simply be used to supplement an existing program.  It’s useful to have something like Classmate on hand when the method your current curriculum is using to explain a concept isn’t getting through to your student or if your current curriculum doesn’t cover all of the learning outcomes.  Classmate is great for review, for filling in the gaps, or for use as your entire math program.  Best of all, the cost is extremely low for the value of the program.  Classmate is available for $22.40 per student for a year-long subscription.  This amount will come directly out of your student’s curriculum budget or can be paid through the office.  Classmate fits best with grades 7 to 10 but it would also be a good fit for grade 6 students, especially if they want to work ahead.  Comparative programs (like Teaching Textbooks, Chalkdust Math or Thinkwell) are over a hundred dollars for a single level.  I strongly suggest doing a trial run of Classmate.  You can sign up for a free trial on their website: www.classmatemath.com   Be sure to let them know that you’re from BC so that your trial will show you the lessons correlated to BC outcomes.  If you’re interested in using Classmate this year please email your teacher before October 5th. 

We’re also offering United Streaming for just $5 per enrolled family.  This is an incredible value because a subscription for a homeschooler is $150 US per year.  If you have a student enrolled with us (DL rather than homeschool registrant) then you can let your teacher know that you’d like a subscription.  United Streaming is a website that offers thousand of educational videos.   

We also have our library up and running.  Please be patient with our librarians as they catalogue items and get them online.  You can take a look at the library and browse the catalogue here: http://www.onlineschool.ca/rooms/library/  If you have any suggestions for items you’d like to see in the library please email Sarah Bennett: sbennett@onlineschool.ca  

We also have a huge selection of online courses for grades 5 to 12.  Any student in those grades can take one or more online courses.  We are continually striving to provide the best Christian online courses – they just keep getting better and better.  Many of our courses use the best in homeschool resources.  For example, our English 5 and 6 use the Excellence in Writing materials and three of our math courses use Saxon math.  You can take a look at our course selections here: http://www.onlineschool.ca/courses/course.php

I spent some time this summer developing Resource Packages for new homeschool families.  These packages are available through Cornerstone Learning Resources and they are an eclectic mix of easy to use, quality favourites.  I’ve included many resources that are used again and again by homeschool families.  It’s easy for a package to become “school-in-a-box” but what I really wanted was, “homeschool-in-a-box”.  I think I was able to do that.  The first year of homeschooling is an exciting time.  There’s so much to learn about your own teaching style and about your students’ learning styles.  Using a package will help to eliminate some of the guess work in choosing curriculum and will also allow you to figure out what types of resources work best for you.  Next year you’ll probably find that there are some resources you’ll stick with and others you’ll change to better fit your own needs.  I hope these packages make the first year of homeschooling happy, cozy, and stress free.

Have a great year, everyone!

Deus vobiscum,

Sarah Bennett sbennett@onlineschool.ca

HCOS Home Learning and Curriculum Consultant

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