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Old 04-16-2019, 10:26 AM   #6
Soliloquy
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Default 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.

Last edited by Soliloquy; 04-16-2019 at 10:29 AM.
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