Homeschooling - SOS curriculum question?

Question

I am wondering if anyone uses or has used Switched On Schoolhouse.
If so, how does it compare to other CD/DVD curriculums?

In past years, I've used the structured text approach, but this year, both the children and I have gotten kind of "burned out" and are looking to try something different that will still be in-depth with a one-on-one feel, but keep them interested as well.

Any pros/cons would be helpful.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I have not used other softwares, but we used SOS for 3rd this year. Last year we used Abeka for 1st, but there was just to much review and WAY to many worksheets for my son. He is ADD and a little dysgraphic so sitting and writing all day was a challenge, and there was nothing fun to give us a break.

So we decided to try SOS this year. Originally I had planned on only using part, but really didn't know enough about it to decide which subjects to do and which to not so I just bought the whole thing. (I found several places online selling it for $210 with free shipping...a GREAT deal, but we ended up getting it at the local homeschool store because I could turn in my old Abeka stuff and get a credit, the deal was a little better and I felt like the things I had bought would find a good home and be useful).

So now we are at the end of the year and I can tell you what I think.

PROS:
1 Very user friendly

2 Very easy to customize. If my son had mastered a skill and was ready to move on or just review a few problems and not do 20 problems, I could chose for him to skip some. Also, since we homeschool and we don't have to keep grades I was able to make the rule that he try again until he got a 100. This had him trying harder the first time and fully getting the most from his lessons before moving on. It was very easy to reassign these questions and have him redo.

3 Bible, math, science, and most parts of language arts were well explained and had great web links or games that my son enjoys learning with. He loves doing the work on the computer.

4 Great projects for science and language arts. There is usually at least 2 projects a week and they were a great break from the same old same old

5 Advanced lesson planning allows me to set a calendar and decide which days are school days and which are not but still stay on track to finish by the end of the year.

CONS

1 I hated the social studies. This is something that is personal preference. The lessons were very well written and informative, I just didn't think the subjects for this year were the best. It was all about different communities (farming, logging, mining) in the begining and there was a lot of unneeded detail (when to farmers in MN plant lettuce) that was part of the tests and quizzes and I really felt there was other things I wanted to cover as history and geography. We have studied communities and community helpers for a few years now and while this subject matter was certainly a step up in difficulty I was just ready to move on.

As much as this is a con it was very easy to customize this out and do our own thing for this subject and since we bought the whole curriculum the pricing was pretty much buy 4 get one free, so I did not feel cheated in any way. I would use this curriculum for history in the future, I would just check the subject matter better and only use it if it was something I wanted to cover.

2 I hate the spelling part of Language Arts They introduce a list (it is poorly introduced and not a good list as it does not really teach a spelling rule effectively and since the list is in alphabetical order already this was not something I could assign without rewriting it. Also by grouping the list alphabetically it did not seperate which words followed which rule or which did not.) then there is an assignment at the end of the list that has you reffering to the list to fill in sentences, the next day there is no spelling in the language arts lesson, and the next day is a spelling quiz. They never reviewed the spelling and really I did not feel like there was time for us to do the normal week long spelling activities. Also because spelling is lumped in with all the other Lang Arts if I posponed the quiz to allow time for those activities it posponed the whole Lang Arts section (the program does not allow you to skip ahead) and we would have been drastically behind for the year.

3 While the teaching is great and using this software has been enjoyable for my son and a great help to me since I have a little one I am chasing, I kind of feel left out of the teaching/learning process. I miss the time we had learning together.

So what are we doing next year? Next year I am going to use SOS for math and bible and go classical for history and science. I would have used the Language Arts as well if not for the spelling so we are looking into the curriculums reccomended by the classical approach laid out in a Well Trained Mind. I think the classical approach will work best for us once I am teaching 2 kids because they will be learning the same history and science topics and I just have to make assignments harder for my older son. I feel like if my older son has a project to make a diorama or a science experiment to do my younger son can still enjoy the experience. But since they will be on drastically different levels for math, language arts and bible we will make that a more independent time. SOS will help keep my older one challenged and on task and give me time to work with my younger son.

Hope some of this helps. Good luck!

Answer 2

I have used SOS for several of my children.
Pros: I love that you can customize the curriculum.
If you don't have the time to administer each subject yourself, this is definitely a better option than a lot of other CD schools. Students can get a decent education from the material. The spelling and vocabulary games are a great reinforcement tool for learning. English is presented in a strong format with a lot of reinforcement with the games. It is probably the best of the SOS subjects and I haven't found better. But---- check the cons for the writing pitfalls. I work almost full-time from my home and SOS makes sure that some sort of semblance of a school day happens. Getting grades and assignments is helpful to my students for getting through their school day. There is an SOS egroup you can join for support, information and advice.
Cons: The curriculum is not very rigorous -- and the organization of the lessons do not lend themselves to being remembered. Because the curriculum is designed to be used ala carte, each subject does not integrate the others. This makes learning disjointed and time consuming. The lesson questions are confusing and I often need to spend extra time helping my student go back in the lesson to find the answer. Sometimes I don't even understand the question or can't find the answer. There are no reviews offered for tests or quizzes --- so there is nothing comprehensive to study. A student is expected to study back over every lesson in order to do decently on the tests. Students doing poorly on tests leads to a lot of homeschooling teachers to delete the tests off of the curriculum so as to not frustrate their students. Math is probably the poorest subject. The Saxon Math with their instructional DVD called D.I.V.E. is far superior at teaching mathmatics ---- I have also used Math U See and have liked it just fine (both of them were considered BORING by all my students) ....but math with SOS was just plain confusing and frustrating. SOS is also not very strong in the area of writing --- part of the problem is that it is easy for the parent to "check out " of the teaching department when the curriculum does so much of the work --- without the parent being involved in the writing process, it is doomed to failure. I would suggest a parent taught writing program --- or some other class for the student. Students need constant feedback on their writing progress and a computer program cannot make that happen.
I hope this info is helpful ---- my final advice is, teach all the subjects you can teach, use SOS to supplement. If you use all of the SOS subjects, stay as involved as possible daily in their progress. Be prepared for Math to be a problem. I really suggest using a different Math program altogether --- especially by fourth grade.

Answer 3

I have been homeschooled my entire life and I would highly suggest the Sonlight curriculum. If you are willing to spend a bit more money, you could try The Potter's School which is an online school specifically for homeschoolers and is one of many great ways your daughter could get a very high-quality education while still having a social life (signing up for classes entitles her to a huge online discussion forum {monitored} and online chat rooms {also monitored}) If you don't want to spend that much money, and you go ahead with pulling her out, I would suggest first of all joining a homeschool group at least and preferably one with a co-op where she can have one day of social and educational time to meet with other homeschoolers her age.

Answer 4

Sorry, never used it, we used SonLight this year. It's a literature based (and faith based) curriculum, lots of reading.

I do have a friend that used A Beka this year and is going to Alpha Omega (SOS) next year.. there are a few reviews here.. http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/reviews/curriculum/reviews.aspx?id=339

Answer 5

I used s.o.s. for one subject a couple of years ago for my older daughter. She didn't care for it and preferred not to have to be in front of the computer. That's not to say your child wouldn't like it.
We use a variety of curriculum's for school in our home. I use Math U See or Saxon for math, Apologia for Science (highly recommend that!), we make notebooks for History using a variety of materials (Charlotte Mason approach?) and Abeka for grammar. We will be using Life Pac for a 10th grade World History Course because my older daughter needs it for HS credit and I want it to be thoroughly documented. We are also in a co op that covers things like Literature, Public speaking, ect.

Good Luck!

Answer 6

A Beka is a good curriculum