Does Schoolhouseteachers.com really have everything you need to successfully homeschool all of your kids for just $15 a month, or is it a big waste of time? Is this an online homeschooling program or just a print curriculum that you print at home? We’re going to answer these questions and more in this review of the Schoolhouseteachers.com homeschool program. And if you want to know how to get access for your whole family for less than $15 a month, keep reading to find out!
What is Schoolhouseteachers.com?
So what exactly is Schoolhouseteachers.com? Well, it’s a website for homeschoolers that promises to give you everything you need to successfully homeschool all of your kids from PreK through high school. But at first glance, this website looks very confusing. Is it a print curriculum? Are they going to ship materials to you? It is online? What a mess! But don’t worry, I’m going to explain it all to you. Because how can you make an informed decision about whether or not this is a good homeschooling program for your family if you don’t even know what it is?
Schoolhouseteachers.com is not an online homeschooling program. It’s also not a print curriculum, meaning, even though they have pictures of books and “school boxes” on their website, it’s mostly all just digital downloads of curriculum. But don’t let that scare you away! When I show you how you can get all this for less than $15 for your whole family, you may decide you actually like it. As long as you have a good printer!
Basically, you pay a membership fee to their website and included with your membership is everything you need to homeschool. They have planning resources, curriculum guides, complete curriculums in all the core subjects plus electives, video lessons and even free access to the World Book online resource library. They also include free access to Applecore online recordkeeping, so you can track your child’s grades and create a portfolio and transcripts. And I just want to mention, this is a Christian curriculum. So if that’s not something you’re interested in, this may not be the right homeschool program for you.
Schoolhouseteachers.com Membership Options
The first thing you’ll need if you want to use Schoolhouseteachers.com for homeschooling is a membership. Unfortunately they do not offer a free trial, so hopefully this blog post will give you enough information to decide if it’s worth paying for. Their membership options depend on whether you want just PreK through 8th grade, or PreK through 12th grade. One membership covers your whole family, so choose your plan based on your kids age ranges.
Both plans offer yearly, quarterly or monthly payment options. There’s also a buy one get one two year special where you can get two full years for just $269.97, which is a really good value. But if you’re like me, you might prefer to pay monthly, at least to start, so you can make sure it’s something you plan to use long term before you fully commit to it. And I promised to tell you how you can do this for less than $15 a month. So here’s how.
Choose the PreK through 12th grade option, choose the monthly payment option, and then use code MONTHLY at checkout. Instead of paying $29.97 a month, you’ll pay just $14.98 a month. I’ve got the link for you here, because it can be hard to find on their website. This is what I signed up for, so I know it definitely works!
You might also notice the Bright Beginnings starter kit. This is the only time something might actually come to you in the mail. It includes everything that you would get in a regular membership, plus some extras like mentor mom time, a tote bag, and some print issues of their magazine. Honestly, unless you’ve got a lot of extra money to throw around, I don’t recommend this.
Getting Started
Ok so now that you’ve signed up for Schoolhouseteachers.com, how do you get started? Well, you could go to their “start here” section for more information, but it’s not really necessary, especially if you watch my full review video on YouTube. The first thing I would do is figure out which courses you’re going to use, and which grade level you want to use for each course. There are several different ways to view the courses. If you go to “schoolboxes”, you can get access to a ready-made curriculum plan for each grade level. So it’s the simplest way to start if you just want to pick a grade level and go for it.
For example, if you’re looking for a complete 4th grade curriculum, you could choose that from the menu, and you’ll get all the lesson plans and materials you need to homeschool 4th grade, all planned out week by week for the entire school year. So you don’t have to do any lesson planning. You can just follow along and go through all the lessons exactly as they have them mapped out for you.
You can of course use different grade levels for different subjects. If you want to search for a particular subject, you can view their courses by grade, by subject, by unit studies, and more. They also have the scope and sequence for all of their courses which can help you decide which grade level to start with.
If you prefer to pick and choose which courses you want to use in your homeschool, you can look through all of their courses and then if you find one you like you can bookmark it for later.
Planning Tools
Now that you hopefully understand how the courses and lessons on Schoolhouseteachers.com work, let’s talk about the planning tools. You can go to planning and there are a bunch of different options. If you’re interested in viewing the scope and sequence for each of the courses, you can do that there as well. Custom schedule builder is where you can find all the different printable resources to help you plan your school year. You can view sample schedules, create a custom schedule, and more. No matter which of these options you choose, when you open it up, you can type right in the PDF form. So you can save it to your computer and use it digitally, or print it out. The choice is yours.
They also have something called the schoolhouse planner. From the pictures, you’d think it was a digital online homeschool planning app. But it’s actually just another PDF file. You have to go through a whole process to get access to it. Click to add it to your cart, then enter the code at checkout that you’ll find in your member dashboard. Then you’ll be able to download the planner. But it’s just another PDF that you can edit on your computer. It’s nice enough, but I can’t imagine anyone paying extra for it! If you’re looking for an actual online homeschool planning app, check out my review of 10 of the best online homeschool planners. There are some really great and affordable options out there!
You can also find other printable resources such as calendars and info charts, as well as the Applecore record keeping tool. You will need to sign up and provide the discount code that comes with your Schoolhouseteachers.com subscription to get access to Applecore. Applecore does have a scheduling component to it, but that isn’t included with basic membership. You will still have access to the attendance tracker, courses and grading, and portfolio sections. So you can use this to track your child’s courses that they’re taking, grades, and attendance. But if you want to use the schedule planner, you’ll need to upgrade (although it is included with the yearly plans). And if you’re planning to pay $10 a month for this just to get access to the online planner, I suggest you read my review of the 10 best online homeschool planners, because there are some more affordable options out there.
Additional Features of Schoolhouseteachers.com
Schoolhouseteachers.com also has an extensive library of streaming videos. They have over 25,000 videos, so there’s a lot to choose from. If a video is part of a lesson, there will be a link to the video in the lesson pdf. But you can also search for a specific video to watch whenever you want. You’re going to have to sign up for yet another account, this time with Right Now media. Don’t worry, it’s free with your membership.
There’s also the World Book. This is an online resource library that is also included in your subscription. Just like with the video library, there will be lessons that link to resources on World Book. So you’ll need to sign up for access to this as well. You can browse the eBooks and resources on World Book whenever you like, or just use it when needed as part of a lesson.
What I Like About Schoolhouseteachers.com
I think that’s everything I wanted to tell you about the Schoolhouseteachers.com online homeschooling program. So now comes the part where I tell you what I like and what I don’t like about it. We’ll start with what I like. Well first I like that they include every course and lesson plan that you could want in a full homeschool curriculum, and it can all be accessed online. So you don’t need to buy expensive books and courses and wait for them to be shipped. You can just get started right away.
I also like that because you have access to everything at once, you can pick and choose your courses and grade levels. So you aren’t stuck with just one grade level. You can really customize your child’s schedule however you want. I also love that you can get all this for your entire family for less than $15 a month. Don’t forget to use this link and code MONTHLY to get the Prek – 12th grade monthly subscription for just $14.98 a month. To be able to homeschool your entire family for that price is amazing.
What I Don’t Like About It
But of course there are some things that I don’t like so much about Schoolhouseteachers.com, and I have to share that with you as well! The first thing I don’t like is that their website is a little confusing to navigate. Almost like they have TOO much going on. Hopefully this post helped you understand it better, but it can definitely be overwhelming.
I also didn’t like having to sign up for so many different memberships. Even though everything is included and I didn’t have to pay anything extra, I still found it bothersome to have to do. Make sure to bookmark all those other websites for easy access later on! I also don’t like that they don’t include the actual books you need for the language arts courses. There are many free eBooks online, and it would be nice if they could link to these in the lessons.
Overall, if you’re looking for an affordable Christian homeschool curriculum that can be accessed online, I think Schoolhouseteachers.com is a great option for you. It takes the hard work of lesson planning away and allows you to focus on teaching and learning with your kids. And they’ll definitely learn a lot with this curriculum. Have you tried schoolhoueteachers.com with your family? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments. And if you have any questions, let me know and I’d be happy to help.
