All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

aka "Homeschool in a Box." Some of these have the option to purchase subjects separately, some sell only the full package. It's fine to post either. The idea is if someone is looking to purchase everything from one publisher, they can look here. Some of these may also fit in the Multi-Disciplinary thread. Feel free to post them in both threads if you think they fit in both.

I'll update this OP as people post. Feel free to leave a personal review, ask questions, etc. Even if you see a program already listed, feel free to add your own personal review in the thread.

This listing is not an endorsement by GCM.

Monarch (online)

Switched on Schoolhouse (flash drive)

LifePac

Power Homeschool (online)

Oak Meadow (Waldorf style)

My Father's World

Sonlight

Houghton Mifflin Homeschool https://www.hmhco.com/search/shop/homeschool

Pearson Homeschool https://www.pearsonhomeschool.com/

Tapestry of Grace http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/index.php

Memoria Press https://www.memoriapress.com/

Time4Learning (online) [admin note-- posting affiliate links for Time4Learning is not allowed at GCM]

Easy Peasy Homeschool, FREE (online) https://allinonehomeschool.com/

SAS Curriculum Pathways, FREE (online https://www.curriculumpathways.com/p...ewPopularScore

Ambleside Online, FREE https://www.amblesideonline.org/

An Old Fashioned Education, FREE http://oldfashionededucation.com/

Khan Academy, FREE (online) https://www.khanacademy.org/

CK-12, FREE (online) https://www.ck12.org/student/

Hippo Campus, FREE (online) https://www.hippocampus.org/?user=jojo98

How to Homeschool for Free, a blog with regularly updated resources http://howtohomeschoolforfree.com/

Classical Conversations https://www.classicalconversations.com/

Book Shark. https://www.bookshark.com/

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

My Father's World- K

I used this for my daughter for kindergarten. They have a newer version now, but I think it's similar.

Pros- I loved the recommended books that went along with each weekly theme. It covered all subjects well and gave my daughter a good foundation in math and reading. I loved the classical music CD. It had many good art projects that weren't too involved.

Cons- Too much writing for my daughter, may be fine for someone else. I thought the instructor's guide was a bit "preachy" for me. It did a bit too much of "this is what you should believe if you're a good Christian" for my liking.

---------- Post added at 05:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:21 PM ----------

Sonlight

It's a great program if you and your children love to read a lot. Each Core provides literature and history and then you can select the specific math program you want. Sonlight also has their own science program but we didn't use it.

Both of my children really enjoyed all the books for Core A. I followed Core B and C a lot more loosely, making it work better for us. We got stuck on Core D. The reading was too much for my daughter who enjoys being read to, but doesn't like to read herself.

It's expensive if you buy new. I bought Core A new, purchased some books for B and C and got the majority from the library, and then purchased D and E used, locally for good prices.

It can be overwhelming, but you can pick and choose what you want to do and make it work for you.

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

My Father's Word - Exploring Countries and Cultures through Senior year

We have used My Father's World from Exploring Countries and Cultures clear through the senior year. The elementary through eighth grade provides curriculum for Bible, history, science. Music, art, and extra literature are extra in the deluxe package which we selected different things from depending on our interest and budget. They have recommendations for math, language arts, reading, and foreign language. The high school curriculum includes Bible, History, and English, but depending on the year includes Government, Economics, Geography, Speech. They offer general electives but I don't think we took advantage of any of them and instead created or found our own. We added science, math, and electives.

I liked that with the first five years that I could teach my children the core subjects together even though they were four years a part and then they each did math, English, spelling, reading on their own levels. I appreciated the Godly perspective of the curriculum and learning all subjects from that point of view. I now have one in college and I feel like it prepared him pretty well in conjunction with taking a few classes from a local community college.

The MFW writing recommendation of Writing Strands did not work for our family, and I felt like the Primary and Secondary English Lessons (by Serl) recommended for early elementary English by MFW were pretty basic. Also neither of my kids liked the Rosetta Stone MFW suggests for foreign language. They felt like it was too vague to be able to give them a good grasp of the language.

In the Freshman and Sophomore years, students and parents read through the Old Testament and New Testament and while that is challenging at times, I love that component of the high school curriculum.

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

A little discussion about Power Homeschool is here. http://gentlechristianmothers.com/co...64#post6177564

I'll try to write my review of Monarch later.

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

Added a bunch of free resources.

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

We've been using Monarch for a little over 6 weeks. My understanding is that Switched on Schoolhouse is almost identical but is on a Flash Drive, no internet required. There is a book version of the same curriculum, LifePac. The price includes 5 math, science, social studies, language arts, and Bible. Subjects can be purchased individually. We aren't doing Bible because we do Bible study as a family and because the only choices are KJV or NASB. My younger kids especially would be very frustrated by that.

Pros:

It has freed up so much of my time! Instead of spending time planning and figuring out what we're going to do during the week, and then having my toddler climb all over me or screech while I'm trying to work with my younger kids, they can login and get the basics done with only a little help from me. It is super quick and easy for me to see what's on their schedules for the week. My time is free to set up and plan the "real life" experiences that are so important. It may not be this way for all kids but my elementary and middle students can get their assignments done in less than an hour a day (excluding projects). Most days, it's only 30ish minutes. My 9th grader takes longer as her assignments are much longer, as expected.

Can be done anywhere there's a tablet/laptop and internet.

Very flexible. I can look through all the upcoming lessons and unassign any that I choose. Whether I think they're just a waste of time or I know my kids don't need a review of times tables, or whatever, I can unassign a lesson. I can change due dates, I can unassign individual questions within a lesson. Each unit also has a "special assignment" that is unassigned by default. It is blank and I can fill it in myself. You can customize the curriculum for a student. 5th grade math but 8th grade social studies, for example. My 9th grader is taking 9th grade science and 10th grade science at once.

The projects are pretty fun. All 4 subjects have projects, science having the most. For the science projects, there's always a video in case you can't do the lab yourself. Ideally you'll be doing them all but, if a parent is sick or not home, the student can watch the video and complete the assignment. Complete lab kits are available for each grade.

There is very little grading. Most of the questions are multiple choice, short answer, matching, true/false. Those are graded automatically. Sentences, paragraphs, and essays are graded by a parent. It takes hardly any time at all, though.

Reports are generated easily.

Subjects can be rescheduled easily. If you are sick, taking time off, want to finish sooner, you can change the end date or mark certain days "non school days" and all the lessons will be re-scheduled.

Students can skip a question they don't understand. You have the choice to leave it or reassign that question. Students and parents can write back and forth to each other within that question or in the general messaging area. Parents can also look at questions that were marked wrong. You can re-assign that question OR you can mark it correct. I've done that where my student's answer made sense but it wasn't the answer the software was looking for.

Ease of generating reports and transcripts. I has taken a huge load off of my mind to know that my high schooler will have transcripts, with details if needed, for the core subjects.

Cons:

Whenever Bible verses are quoted, it's always KJV or NASB. We never use KJV so my kids aren't used to the language and find it a little annoying.

It seems like some days they have more assignments than normal and some days they have fewer. If the complain it's more than usual, I let them stop for the day and they finish another day.

We are rather disappointed in French I (an elective and an extra charge). We are definitely using something else for French next year. This makes me hesitant to purchase any of their other electives.

There are writing assignments but I don't think Monarch does a good job of teaching writing. We're going to supplement writing instruction.

My 9th grader told me that some of their lessons in math don't make sense to her at all. She looks up the lesson in Life of Fred, Khan Academy, SAS, etc if she doesn't understand the way Monarch explains it.

I think there are too many tests in the younger grades. So I unassigned many of the tests.

I can go and find out which lessons are overdue but there's not an automatically generated list. This is especially important with my 9th grader as she tends to procrastinate. I can sign up for email alerts (grades below a certain threshold, late assignments, etc) but I don't check my email often. To find out if assignments are overdue, I need to go to the calendar/planner and see what lessons are red. I wish I could generate a report of all overdue lessons. Not a big deal but mildly annoying.

I wish there was a parent list at the beginning of each unit with a list of supplies for the projects. I have to open each project and look at the lists. Seems pretty simple, to me, to just have a list at the start of each unit.

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

I just found a new site that offers literature based packages with a 4-day per week yearly plan. It looks nice, they use HWOT, MUS, Singapore, Usborne. I think they publish their own science and history. I couldn't tell but I didn't look very hard.

Book Shark. https://www.bookshark.com/

ETA it looks like they use Real Science 4 Kids and SOTW, also. RS4K is what I'm trying next fall.

I've read a few reviews and Book Shark is called the secular Sonlight. I think they might have the same parent company but I'm not sure.

Here's a review https://www.notsoformulaic.com/books...e-gifted-kids/

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

Yes, book shark is from sonlight.

Update on Monarch?

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

Monarch is OK.

It makes my life SO much easier with older kids at different levels. When they were younger and we could do unschoolish unit studies, it worked to have them all together. They aren't willing to do that anymore and I don't have the time anymore, either. So it's wonderful that they can do so much of it independently. We find errors from time to time and some concepts are explained so poorly it's ridiculous. But, overall, it's fine. Not outstanding or exciting, but fine.

My kids did not like their math program. We have been using CTC Math, instead, and they like it SO much better.

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

TY! My next door neighbor is looking for recommendations. She wants a break. She actually enrolled them for fall but isn’t sending them if distancing and masks are required. But she still wants a break from doing all the lessons.

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

They have a 30-day free trial. That should be enough time to let her know if it will work. In my opinion, there are too many quizzes and tests in the younger grades. But it's easy enough to un-assign them but it does have to be done one-by-one. There are also too many projects in each unit to actually do, unless you have lots of free time. Almost all Monarch users go through the units ahead of time and unassign all but one project per unit.

If she's not homeschooled before, she might see all those quizzes, tests, and projects and think she has to do them. An experienced homeschooler will probably know to pick and choose.

Re: All-in-One Homeschool packages -- share what you've used
 

Bob Jones has one too?