I am doing a live Teleseminar Tuesday on Seven Secrets for Successful Homeschools. I believe this presentation will change your life for the better, as well as the lives of all of your students! So signup below. Your homeschool world is about to change for the better, forever.
We will also be answering your questions. To register for the seminar just submit a question. It only takes about 30 seconds.
Register to attend and submit a question for the seminar!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
New and Improved HomeSchool Advantage!
One of the benefits of a service like HomeSchoolAdvantage is that it runs on our servers. You automatically get new releases, improvements, enhancements, and bug fixes!
Over the holidays we have been working hard to improve and enhance the HomeSchoolAdvantage experience based on your feedback. Several of you requested new features and others reported problems and errors. We appreciate your feedback!
Here is just some of what we have been up to!
1. Ending a worksheet early and not completing it that day will no longer produce incorrect fact counts and weird worksheets on the following day.
2. Leading and trailing spaces on FIB answers are now ignored. They were counting against your answer being marked as correct.
3. No new facts will be added to your worksheet if you have not seen the facts that were in the worksheet from a previous day.
4. The No Cram Zone is now a warning. You can still add more facts.
5. We now display a message to the student if the parent needs to assign more courses.
6. The error where a user might not be able to see a question if there was an image on the left hand side of the screen, has been resolved. This also caused text in the IE and Opera browsers to wrap poorly.
7. If you add more facts to a worksheet they are now added to the end of the worksheet and all you review is the new facts.
8. If you review a worksheet more than one time in a day, you will not see the presentations on the second time through the worksheet only the questions.
We have just a few more features to work on to get totally caught up to the requests from our users, so please keep those requests coming.
-Tom
Over the holidays we have been working hard to improve and enhance the HomeSchoolAdvantage experience based on your feedback. Several of you requested new features and others reported problems and errors. We appreciate your feedback!
Here is just some of what we have been up to!
1. Ending a worksheet early and not completing it that day will no longer produce incorrect fact counts and weird worksheets on the following day.
2. Leading and trailing spaces on FIB answers are now ignored. They were counting against your answer being marked as correct.
3. No new facts will be added to your worksheet if you have not seen the facts that were in the worksheet from a previous day.
4. The No Cram Zone is now a warning. You can still add more facts.
5. We now display a message to the student if the parent needs to assign more courses.
6. The error where a user might not be able to see a question if there was an image on the left hand side of the screen, has been resolved. This also caused text in the IE and Opera browsers to wrap poorly.
7. If you add more facts to a worksheet they are now added to the end of the worksheet and all you review is the new facts.
8. If you review a worksheet more than one time in a day, you will not see the presentations on the second time through the worksheet only the questions.
We have just a few more features to work on to get totally caught up to the requests from our users, so please keep those requests coming.
-Tom
Friday, November 13, 2009
Can you pick the winning strategy?
Can you pick the winning strategy when it comes to learning? Say you would like your students to learn the names and the flags of all of the countries in South America.
Which strategy is a better way to learn this material?
Strategy A: Spend three minutes studying over 30 days?
Strategy B: Spend three hours right now cramming in the countries?
You don't have to guess. Researchers have done studies and have proven that these strategies are not equivalent. In fact, one of them is dramatically better than the other at supporting long-term memory of the material.
Did you guess the correct strategy? Strategy A.
A few minutes of focused study followed by a period of rest is the better strategy to create lasting long-term memory. Not to mention it takes less time, and is much easier for the student.
Easier and more productive is a winning combination.
A child's natural study rhythms are less than seven minutes long when it comes to learning new material like the names of countries. Go longer than that and you are probably not being productive.
Slow down information acquisition. Spread it over time. At the end of a year of learning just a few things every day, you will be absolutely amazed at what your children know, especially if they do not forget what was learned nine months ago.
At the end of ten years of learning just a few things every day, but actually remembering what was learned, your students will be absolutely brilliant.
Brilliant Students Secret #1 - Learn A Little Every Day
Brilliant students learn a little every day; this strategy is dramatically better than cramming at supporting long-term retention and recall. If you want to have brilliant students, learn a little every day.
There is a second part to this secret, it is to learn a little at a time. Specifically, learn about four new facts from a single subject at a time, and no more than five. Let that knowledge sink in for at least six minutes before learning more.
- Tom
Which strategy is a better way to learn this material?
Strategy A: Spend three minutes studying over 30 days?
Strategy B: Spend three hours right now cramming in the countries?
You don't have to guess. Researchers have done studies and have proven that these strategies are not equivalent. In fact, one of them is dramatically better than the other at supporting long-term memory of the material.
Did you guess the correct strategy? Strategy A.
A few minutes of focused study followed by a period of rest is the better strategy to create lasting long-term memory. Not to mention it takes less time, and is much easier for the student.
Easier and more productive is a winning combination.
A child's natural study rhythms are less than seven minutes long when it comes to learning new material like the names of countries. Go longer than that and you are probably not being productive.
Slow down information acquisition. Spread it over time. At the end of a year of learning just a few things every day, you will be absolutely amazed at what your children know, especially if they do not forget what was learned nine months ago.
At the end of ten years of learning just a few things every day, but actually remembering what was learned, your students will be absolutely brilliant.
Brilliant Students Secret #1 - Learn A Little Every Day
Brilliant students learn a little every day; this strategy is dramatically better than cramming at supporting long-term retention and recall. If you want to have brilliant students, learn a little every day.
There is a second part to this secret, it is to learn a little at a time. Specifically, learn about four new facts from a single subject at a time, and no more than five. Let that knowledge sink in for at least six minutes before learning more.
- Tom
Friday, September 18, 2009
New Parental Features
You may see a few changes to several of the parent's pages. The My Student page now shows '# Assignments' (e.g., the number of assigned courses) instead of the 'Expected Number of Worksheets Per Week'. We think that the new information will be much more useful.
Likewise, when you add a new student or edit an existing one, you will no longer see the 'Expected Number of Worksheets Per Week' value.
There were a couple of other changes, but they should be invisible to either you or your students. If you notice any problem, please let us know ASAP.
Likewise, when you add a new student or edit an existing one, you will no longer see the 'Expected Number of Worksheets Per Week' value.
There were a couple of other changes, but they should be invisible to either you or your students. If you notice any problem, please let us know ASAP.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Country Flags of the World
Do you know what the flag of Canada looks like? Great Britain, Mexico, Japan? How about Cameroon? A great way to reinforce knowledge of countries and capitals is to learn country flags. Once you learn the flags, they will become great additions to your knowledge nets. We have posted a complete set of courses on Country Flags of the world. Of course, all new courses are FREE to members.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Be a Student Too
If you would like to know what HomeSchool Advantage is really providing your students, may we gently suggest that you also become a student yourself? There is simply no better way to understand what HomeSchoolAdvantage is about than to signup as a student and take a course yourself. Since HomeSchoolAdvantage is licensed per family, you can take courses yourself without any additional cost!
All of us have something we wish we knew better, perhaps World Geography or American History. And why should our children be the only geniuses in the family. So pick one subject from the currently existing list and assign a course too yourself. Spend a few minutes each day studying your lessons, remembering that learning is best accomplished as a life-long marathon, and not as a sprint. Within 30 days, you will know exactly what HomeSchoolAdvantage can do, and perhaps you'll know all the countries in Africa too!
To sign up:
Simply add yourself as a student with a new user name!
Then logout as a parent and login as a student!
You will experience the environment exactly as your students experience it. You never know, you just may develop a life-long learning habit yourself.
-Tom
All of us have something we wish we knew better, perhaps World Geography or American History. And why should our children be the only geniuses in the family. So pick one subject from the currently existing list and assign a course too yourself. Spend a few minutes each day studying your lessons, remembering that learning is best accomplished as a life-long marathon, and not as a sprint. Within 30 days, you will know exactly what HomeSchoolAdvantage can do, and perhaps you'll know all the countries in Africa too!
To sign up:
Simply add yourself as a student with a new user name!
Then logout as a parent and login as a student!
You will experience the environment exactly as your students experience it. You never know, you just may develop a life-long learning habit yourself.
-Tom
Monday, August 3, 2009
The Knowledge Sprint
Can you name the longest Olympic outdoor running event? The shortest?
One is called a sprint, the other a marathon.
There are other important differences between the two races:
One is 100 meters long and the other is almost 42,195 meters long.
One takes the world's best runner 9.69 seconds, the other 7,566 seconds.
One is about moving as fast as possible in a short period of time and the other about pacing oneself to finish the race.
The acquisition of knowledge is frequently treated like a sprint, in reality it is a marathon, a marathon that lasts a life time. If you try to run a marathon like a sprint guess how it turns out? You give up, collapse, and fall out of the race. It's the same with knowledge. If you approach acquiring knowledge like a sprint you will burn up and drop out.
So what does this mean practically?
Imagine if you spent several hours today cramming to memorize 212 countries of the world until you could accurately identify them on a map. Now, without any more studying, how many of those countries do you think you will remember in 10 days? In 30 days? 90 days? A year? The truth is you probably have forgotten over 1/3 of them in 10 days, a half in 30 days, and almost all of them in 90 days. You see, learning all the countries in one day was a knowledge sprint. You learned them fast, but you also forgot them fast. At the end of a year, you most likely will only be able to remember a few of the new countries you learned.
The studying equivalent of sprinting is cramming. Cramming may help you pass an exam, but it does not promote long-term knowledge retention. So is cramming a good strategy? Is the time well spent? Well, not if the goal was to provide long-term knowledge. And even if the goal was just passing a test, wouldn't it be great if we could invest those same hours more effectively? Wouldn't it be great if we could learn the information in time for a test, and still remember the information long after? Wouldn't it be cool if we approached our training as if it was a knowledge marathon, and not a sprint?
HomeSchoolAdvantage.com provides a marathon view of knowledge acquisition. For example, we provide a method to learn the countries of the world with minimal study time while simultaneously achieving maximum recall. We want to maximize our return on invested study time and, if possible, to remember over 200 countries for years to come.
Imagine spending dramatically less time studying and getting dramatically better results. Is this possible? You bet it is - HomeSchoolAdvantage makes it possible.
Understand the difference between a sprint and a marathon, and it may change forever how you think about studying.
One is called a sprint, the other a marathon.
There are other important differences between the two races:
One is 100 meters long and the other is almost 42,195 meters long.
One takes the world's best runner 9.69 seconds, the other 7,566 seconds.
One is about moving as fast as possible in a short period of time and the other about pacing oneself to finish the race.
The acquisition of knowledge is frequently treated like a sprint, in reality it is a marathon, a marathon that lasts a life time. If you try to run a marathon like a sprint guess how it turns out? You give up, collapse, and fall out of the race. It's the same with knowledge. If you approach acquiring knowledge like a sprint you will burn up and drop out.
So what does this mean practically?
Imagine if you spent several hours today cramming to memorize 212 countries of the world until you could accurately identify them on a map. Now, without any more studying, how many of those countries do you think you will remember in 10 days? In 30 days? 90 days? A year? The truth is you probably have forgotten over 1/3 of them in 10 days, a half in 30 days, and almost all of them in 90 days. You see, learning all the countries in one day was a knowledge sprint. You learned them fast, but you also forgot them fast. At the end of a year, you most likely will only be able to remember a few of the new countries you learned.
The studying equivalent of sprinting is cramming. Cramming may help you pass an exam, but it does not promote long-term knowledge retention. So is cramming a good strategy? Is the time well spent? Well, not if the goal was to provide long-term knowledge. And even if the goal was just passing a test, wouldn't it be great if we could invest those same hours more effectively? Wouldn't it be great if we could learn the information in time for a test, and still remember the information long after? Wouldn't it be cool if we approached our training as if it was a knowledge marathon, and not a sprint?
HomeSchoolAdvantage.com provides a marathon view of knowledge acquisition. For example, we provide a method to learn the countries of the world with minimal study time while simultaneously achieving maximum recall. We want to maximize our return on invested study time and, if possible, to remember over 200 countries for years to come.
Imagine spending dramatically less time studying and getting dramatically better results. Is this possible? You bet it is - HomeSchoolAdvantage makes it possible.
Understand the difference between a sprint and a marathon, and it may change forever how you think about studying.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Amazing Beta Test Discount! Call for Beta Testers
Are you a parent who is homeschooling your child? Are you a parent who knows it is essential to supplement public or private education in the home? We are looking for a few select individuals who will commit to use our system with their families, and provide feedback.
In our white paper, the "Seven Secrets to Creating Brilliant Students", we have described key concepts detailing how students can become truly exceptional. These secrets work! However, it is impossible to fully implement the secrets without an automated system. Procuit Inc., a company dedicated to creating brilliant students has created such a system. We are seeking homeschool and other interested parents to be beta testers for our new product HomeSchoolAdvantage.
Procuit offers several benefits to parents who are willing to participate in our Beta program including:
1. A significant discount off the regular monthly subscription price of $19.95.
2. A license for parents to use HomeSchoolAdvantage.com themselves, at no additional cost.
3. Free support throughout the duration of the beta test period.
4. Free training sessions via conference calls.
5. The opportunity to directly influence the direction of current and future content and features.
To sign up for our beta program enter the BetaTest Promotion Code: M5E322L and sign up here:
http://www.homeschooladvantage.com/users/register
FAQS
1. Give it to me straight, how much will this cost me?
Our service is currently priced at $19.95 per family. The Beta Test promotion code M5E322L provides you the service for $9.95 per month for at least 18 months.
2. How old should the students be who use HomeSchoolAdvantage.com?
We suggest that the child be at least 8 years old. Some content may be used with younger children but it is important that they have the required typing skills necessary to operate the system or it may take too long to review the material.
3. Why are you charging us for a beta test?
First: We need the money! Developing software is expensive and we have bills to pay. We think we are delivering features that are worth what we are charging per month and we will not increase the price for our beta users for at least 18 months.
Second: We need to know if you think the service is valuable and that you are willing to pay for it. The only way to test this is to actually ask you to pay for it. If you are not willing to pay for it, we want to know why. The fact that you are willing to pay for this service is some of the best feedback we can receive.
4. How much content is in the system?
There are over 2,000 facts currently in the system that will keep you engaged for at least six months. We have a catalog of content and continue to add more on a regular basis. However, we ask that beta users be willing to focus first on two sets of content, Geography and U.S. History - specifically learn the countries and capitals of the world and the U.S. Presidents. Try the features, experience a spaced-repetition reinforcement environment and let us know what new content you would most like to see next.
Our goal is to build a collection of at least 50,000 foundational facts across all subjects that will be included for the base price. However, that takes time, and we need feedback to know how well the system works today. So, focus on Geography and U.S. History. These are facts every student should know, create great knowledge nets, and will provide us with the feedback we need to keep building you the world's greatest system for creating brilliant students.
5. What Browsers are supported?
This system is still in Beta, so we are still fixing a problem with Internet Explorer 7, but it is now possible for use it so go ahead. IE 6.x is not supported. If you are using IE 6, you will need to upgrade. Firefox 3.0 and Chrome both work fine. If you don't know how to upgrade your IE, here is a link to the specific instructions. THIS SHOULD BE DONE ANYWAY TO KEEP YOUR COMPUTER MORE SECURE AND TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx
6. How do I start?
Just register at http://HomeSchoolAdvantage.com/users/registerand follow the directions. Get a feel over 30 days of what it is like to learn a little every day. The system will automatically make sure you to retain what you have learned. It really is cool!!!!
Thanks for your help!
Thomas Meloche
In our white paper, the "Seven Secrets to Creating Brilliant Students", we have described key concepts detailing how students can become truly exceptional. These secrets work! However, it is impossible to fully implement the secrets without an automated system. Procuit Inc., a company dedicated to creating brilliant students has created such a system. We are seeking homeschool and other interested parents to be beta testers for our new product HomeSchoolAdvantage.
Procuit offers several benefits to parents who are willing to participate in our Beta program including:
1. A significant discount off the regular monthly subscription price of $19.95.
2. A license for parents to use HomeSchoolAdvantage.com themselves, at no additional cost.
3. Free support throughout the duration of the beta test period.
4. Free training sessions via conference calls.
5. The opportunity to directly influence the direction of current and future content and features.
To sign up for our beta program enter the BetaTest Promotion Code: M5E322L and sign up here:
http://www.homeschooladvantage.com/users/register
FAQS
1. Give it to me straight, how much will this cost me?
Our service is currently priced at $19.95 per family. The Beta Test promotion code M5E322L provides you the service for $9.95 per month for at least 18 months.
2. How old should the students be who use HomeSchoolAdvantage.com?
We suggest that the child be at least 8 years old. Some content may be used with younger children but it is important that they have the required typing skills necessary to operate the system or it may take too long to review the material.
3. Why are you charging us for a beta test?
First: We need the money! Developing software is expensive and we have bills to pay. We think we are delivering features that are worth what we are charging per month and we will not increase the price for our beta users for at least 18 months.
Second: We need to know if you think the service is valuable and that you are willing to pay for it. The only way to test this is to actually ask you to pay for it. If you are not willing to pay for it, we want to know why. The fact that you are willing to pay for this service is some of the best feedback we can receive.
4. How much content is in the system?
There are over 2,000 facts currently in the system that will keep you engaged for at least six months. We have a catalog of content and continue to add more on a regular basis. However, we ask that beta users be willing to focus first on two sets of content, Geography and U.S. History - specifically learn the countries and capitals of the world and the U.S. Presidents. Try the features, experience a spaced-repetition reinforcement environment and let us know what new content you would most like to see next.
Our goal is to build a collection of at least 50,000 foundational facts across all subjects that will be included for the base price. However, that takes time, and we need feedback to know how well the system works today. So, focus on Geography and U.S. History. These are facts every student should know, create great knowledge nets, and will provide us with the feedback we need to keep building you the world's greatest system for creating brilliant students.
5. What Browsers are supported?
This system is still in Beta, so we are still fixing a problem with Internet Explorer 7, but it is now possible for use it so go ahead. IE 6.x is not supported. If you are using IE 6, you will need to upgrade. Firefox 3.0 and Chrome both work fine. If you don't know how to upgrade your IE, here is a link to the specific instructions. THIS SHOULD BE DONE ANYWAY TO KEEP YOUR COMPUTER MORE SECURE AND TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx
6. How do I start?
Just register at http://HomeSchoolAdvantage.com/users/registerand follow the directions. Get a feel over 30 days of what it is like to learn a little every day. The system will automatically make sure you to retain what you have learned. It really is cool!!!!
Thanks for your help!
Thomas Meloche
Friday, July 31, 2009
Summary: Seven Secrets to Creating Brilliant Students
Seven Secrets to Creating Brilliant Students:
1.Learn A Little Every Day
2.Reinforce Facts With Spaced Repetition
3.Actively Recall Facts
4.Build Knowledge Nets
5.Seek Associations
6.Share What Is Learned
7.Never Stop Learning
Secret #1: Learn A Little Every Day
If you want to have brilliant students, learn a little every day. There is a second part to this secret, learn a little at a time. Specifically, learn about four new facts from a single subject at a time and no more than five.
Secret #2: Reinforce Facts with Spaced Repetition
Spaced repetition is a learning system that uses regularly increasing intervals of time between reviews of a previously learned piece of information. With every successful review, the interval increases, but if the student makes a mistake at a review, the interval decreases.
Secret #3: Actively Recall Facts
To make a memory as strong as possible, brilliant students actively recall the memory. Answering a direct question is one way to facilitate actively recall.
Secret #4: Build Knowledge Nets
A knowledge net is a set of carefully chosen facts a students has already learned with the goal of making it easier to rapidly learn and recall even more information on that subject. The net helps the student catch facts and hold them in memory - without studying.
Secret #5: Seek Associations
Brilliant students actively seek to make new associations with knowledge as soon as they acquire it. They do this by actively looking, reading, and researching to try to find knowledge they can associate with something they have learned.
Secret #6: Share What Is Learned
Sharing what is learned with other people (siblings, parents, friends) helps cement knowledge. It provides positive feedback to the student in the form of social bonding and requires that the student actively recall the information, thus further reinforcing the knowledge.
Secret #7: Never Stop Learning
Brilliant students develop a lifestyle of learning; they read books, look things up and visit museums. After you help your students implement the first six secrets, don't be surprised when they also start to develop a lifestyle of learning.
Beyond Secrets: The HomeSchool Advantage
HomeSchool Advantage was created to ensure that every homeschooled child can be a brilliant student. Our system provides an automated way to help students build knowledge nets. With our system, students learn a little every day using spaced repetition and active recall. This material comprises a set of basic knowledge nets that will help your students learn more and to do so more effectively. Our system can make your child a brilliant student.
-----------------
Read the foundational white paper "Seven Secrets to Creating Brilliant Students" has been published. To request a copy fill out the form at http://www.homeschooladvantage.com/users/about or leave me a message here.
1.Learn A Little Every Day
2.Reinforce Facts With Spaced Repetition
3.Actively Recall Facts
4.Build Knowledge Nets
5.Seek Associations
6.Share What Is Learned
7.Never Stop Learning
Secret #1: Learn A Little Every Day
If you want to have brilliant students, learn a little every day. There is a second part to this secret, learn a little at a time. Specifically, learn about four new facts from a single subject at a time and no more than five.
Secret #2: Reinforce Facts with Spaced Repetition
Spaced repetition is a learning system that uses regularly increasing intervals of time between reviews of a previously learned piece of information. With every successful review, the interval increases, but if the student makes a mistake at a review, the interval decreases.
Secret #3: Actively Recall Facts
To make a memory as strong as possible, brilliant students actively recall the memory. Answering a direct question is one way to facilitate actively recall.
Secret #4: Build Knowledge Nets
A knowledge net is a set of carefully chosen facts a students has already learned with the goal of making it easier to rapidly learn and recall even more information on that subject. The net helps the student catch facts and hold them in memory - without studying.
Secret #5: Seek Associations
Brilliant students actively seek to make new associations with knowledge as soon as they acquire it. They do this by actively looking, reading, and researching to try to find knowledge they can associate with something they have learned.
Secret #6: Share What Is Learned
Sharing what is learned with other people (siblings, parents, friends) helps cement knowledge. It provides positive feedback to the student in the form of social bonding and requires that the student actively recall the information, thus further reinforcing the knowledge.
Secret #7: Never Stop Learning
Brilliant students develop a lifestyle of learning; they read books, look things up and visit museums. After you help your students implement the first six secrets, don't be surprised when they also start to develop a lifestyle of learning.
Beyond Secrets: The HomeSchool Advantage
HomeSchool Advantage was created to ensure that every homeschooled child can be a brilliant student. Our system provides an automated way to help students build knowledge nets. With our system, students learn a little every day using spaced repetition and active recall. This material comprises a set of basic knowledge nets that will help your students learn more and to do so more effectively. Our system can make your child a brilliant student.
-----------------
Read the foundational white paper "Seven Secrets to Creating Brilliant Students" has been published. To request a copy fill out the form at http://www.homeschooladvantage.com/users/about or leave me a message here.
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