Improved Review Schedule

We made an important change to HomeSchoolAdvantage this morning. We improved the review schedule for when to quiz a student on a fact.

We found that as facts moved into higher mastery levels students were forgetting them too frequently. So, we added more reviews into our review schedule and we adjusted the spacing between reviews.

We added more boxes to the Rate A Fact widget to reflect the additional reviews in the new schedule. We also changed the popup microhelp strings for the Rate A Fact widget.

Hopefully, students will not notice the change at all. They will simply find it easier to learn new facts over time.

Logging In Bug Report

We made some changes last night to HomeSchoolAdvantage and unfortunately the STUDENTS login button currently incorretly leads to the PARENTS login page.

Your students can still login from the parents page, so have them login with their student account from the parents page until we get the button fixed.

They will see their normal student account once they login.

Problems with Slow Networks

Some of our users with satellite networks or slow networks in remote locations were experiencing strange problems with HomeSchoolAdvantage. These problems were caused because your network providers were not actually displaying to you the web pages we were sending you. We have made a few changes to trick your network providers into actually displaying to you the web pages we have been sending you. The net result, those of you with satellite or otherwise slow networks should now have a better experience operating HomeSchoolAdvantage.

Please let us know whenever you have problems with HomeSchoolAdvantage. It was two users working closely with us that allowed us to figure out that some of your internet service providers were not actually displaying the web pages we were sending you. :-( Those who had this problem with us, likely experience bad behavior on many other websites as well.

Two New User Features

We have released two new features in HomeSchool Advantage today. These are important changes that homeschool parents have specifically requested.

Parents now have two new settings for each student:

Setting #1: Worksheet Size Limit
Setting #2: Allow Fill-in-the-Blank Questions

Worksheet Size Limit

Up until today, we allowed a student's daily worksheets to grow to an unlimited size. This can be a problem if the student has been on vacation or only uses the system occasionally. You may now set a maximum size for the daily worksheet to be as small as 25 questions. This limits the size of the worksheet for each subject.

If you set the limit to 25 questions, the Spelling Worksheet could be up to 25 questions, the History Worksheet could be up to 25 questions, the Vocabulary Worksheet could be up to 25 questions, and so forth. No worksheet could be, say, 30 questions.

Consider limiting worksheet sizes for younger students and for students who have issues focusing for longer periods of time.

Allow Fill-in-the-Blank Questions

This option turns on fill-in-the-blank questions. If this option is not turned on, then we will not display a fill-in-the-blank question as long as there is an alternative available (True/False or Multiple Choice).

Spelling and some Math Drill courses will always use fill-in-the-blank questions because True/False or Multiple Choice display options are not available on these courses.

Turn on this option for students who can type and spell well, and who thus can quickly answer fill-in-the-blank questions.

Your Children's Settings

These new features have a default value which we automatically selected based on your students' ages. We suggest that you log in using your parent username and look at your students' settings to ensure they are what you desire. Click on "Edit" by each student to see and change these settings.

Making Memories Stronger

Dear HomeSchoolAdvantage,

My son John has a lot of trouble with retention of facts. He is doing very well with HomeSchoolAdvantage so far, however, history seems to be a real problem for him.

Concerned Parent

---

Dear Concerned,

Here are a few practical tips to help John create stronger memories when he studies history. Imagine that we show him the history fact “The Second President of the United States is John Adams.”

Tip#1: Have him write the fact down on paper.

Keep a notebook or journal by the computer. As we introduce a new history fact have him write it into the journal. While he is writing the fact down he should repeat it out loud three times.Writing the fact down and repeating it out loud helps make the memory stronger.

Tip #2: Have him research the fact.

After he writes the fact down, John should try to find out a little bit more about President John Adams. He could read a short one page biography of President John Adams in an age appropriate encyclopedia or even from the whitehouse.gov website. For the presidents you may wish to purchase a poster listing all of the presidents and have him find John Adams on the poster. Another fun way to research is to enter the phrase “President John Adams” in GoogleNews and read a current article that mentions the president.

Tip #3: Have him create his own questions about President John Adams.

Ask John to think of two or three additional questions about a new fact he is learning. What other questions does the fact inspire him to ask? Have him write his questions down in the journal too.

For example, questions I might ask aboout President John Adams include:

“Who what his vice president?”

“Where was he born?”

“What did he do after he was president?“

“Did he have any children?”

John's questions will be different, but they will be his questions. Sometime over the next few days John should try to find the answers to a few of his questions. He should write any answers he finds in his journal.

Make Memories Stronger

All three of these memory strengthening tips can be applied to everything John learns in HomeSchoolAdvantage. He can use these techniques all of the time, or just on subjects he finds especially interesting or difficult. If John starts doing all three of these techniques for a few weeks I think you will both be very happy with the results.

-Tom

A Question about Adding Courses

Here is a question some of you may have as well.

-------------

Hi There,

I am a mother of one of the HomeSchool Advantage students. I've been trying to add Dividing, as well as Muliplication to my son's Addition Math Course but it isn't adding it. Can you look into it for me?

-A HomeSchool Mom

------------

Thank you for your question.

For courses in the same subject (the same row in the assignments table) only one course will we presented to the student at a time. Once a student completes a course, they will progress to the next course in that subject.

For math courses, the lowest numbered assigned course will be presented to the student first. Then, when all of the facts in that course have been presented to the student once, the system will progress on to the next highest numbered course.

In any given subject, like Math, new facts are only presented to the student from one course at a time - the lowest numbered course. You may watch this video for a description: http://www.vimeo.com/14885600

Older students who are simply reviewing material they already may know can use the "Rate a Fact" feature to rate how well they know a more simple fact, like 2+8=10.

"Rate a Fact" is described in this video: http://www.vimeo.com/14880346

If they rate this fact highly, because they already know it quite well, then they can rapidly progress onto new course like subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Older student who are simply reviewing math facts they already know are encouraged to use the "Add More Facts" feature to quickly review and rate the facts (for example facts they may already know in addition), so the system can rapidly move forward to subtraction, and then to multiplication, and then to division.

New Course! Common Latin Phrases

We have added a new course on common Latin phrases.

Subject: Vocabulary Building

Course: 450 - Latin Phrases

Do you know what the following Latin phrases mean? ante bellum, carpe diem, caveat emptor, cum laude, ex post facto, habeas corpus

In our new course students will learn thirty-nine Latin phrases that are still in common usage. Even adults will be surprised by what some of these phrases actually mean.

This new course is Free to Members.

Time to Play?

I am continually reminded by the researchers about how our brains develop and change: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827844.700-children-really-do-see-things-differently.html

One of our biggest concerns about the pressure to push younger and younger children into more and more formal academic activities is that perhaps we don't leave enough time for play.

Children need to spend hours and hours observing and interacting with the physical environment.

Playing outside and seeing the light reflect off of the trees, houses, ground and water. Playing with blocks and seeing shapes from different angles, seeing how the shapes stack, seeing how they interact. Playing with water and watching how it flows, how it carries a stick, and how it erodes the sand.

These are important activities for a young mind. I think we are only beginning to understand just how important they may be.

How Many Days a Week?

A user recently asked if using the system 5 days a week, for every subject, was using it too much? Could the students get frustrated?

They asked the question because some of our marketing material describes benefits that can be received just using the system 5 minutes a day, 3 days a week. This type of minimal use is really for a student studying a single subject, like geography or spelling.

Using HomeSchool Advantage 5 days a week for every subject may be fine,
but it really depends on the student.

Ideally, for your own personal memory, it is best to use the system 5 days a week!

Frustration is the measure, however, that your students are trying to do too much.

If you have a lot of subjects introducing new facts all at once, the best strategy
would be to have the student use the system at multiple times during the day, so they do not get too many facts in one setting.

If a student is getting frustrated, try not to assign more than three new courses in different subjects at a time.

Assign, for example, North American Countries and Capitals, and the Greek Alphabet, and Spelling

Only assign a course in another subject, like US History, only after they have earned a trophy in North American Countries Capitals or the Greek Alphabet.

Another way to combat frustration is to have the student write each new fact
into a Journal the first time it is seen.

Then find a simply way to reinforce that fact. For example, in the case of Geography,
look the fact up on a globe and on a map.

Writing the fact down, and finding the country on a globe and on a map is great reinforcement. And it will help ward off overload and frustration.

I will be posting some more suggestions soon.

Daily Student Status Report

Several of our parent users have requested a special email report of their students' daily HomeSchoolAdvantage activities.

The new "Daily Student Status Report" is ready!

We have just released an automated report that summarizes the daily worksheets your students have started and completed. You have the ability to turn this report off if you do not wish to receive it.

This new report was specifically requested by homeschool parents! Thank you for the suggestions and special thanks to the homeschool moms who helped us design this simple and easy to read report.

Here is an example of what you will see:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello, Hank Hill.

This is the 10/17/2010 HomeSchool Advantage status report for your 2 students.

Bobby Hill
-is assigned 4 worksheets.
-started 3 worksheets.
-completed 2 worksheets.
-answered 15 questions.

Peggy Hill
-is assigned 7 worksheets.
-started 7 worksheets.
-completed 7 worksheets.
-answered 120 questions.

Click on the following URL and login with your parent username (hankHill)
to see more details:
http://www.homeschooladvantage.com/users/progress_rpt

If you would like to unsubscribe from these daily status reports, please go
to http://www.homeschooladvantage.com/users/edit_admin and login with your
parent username. Uncheck the option named 'Email daily Student Progress
Reports' and click the Save button.

Restarting a Student

We received the following question today about restarting. If you want to restart one of your students please read the question and answer below.

----- User Question -----

Hello Support,

My kids are still enjoying HSA.

I do have a request though.

I have a six year old signed up

who has some learning difficulties

and she dropped out of doing HSA for this year.

Is there a way to clear her account so we can start over?

Thank you!

----- Support Answer -----

Dear User,

We have a new feature that lets you do exactly

what you want to do. Bill added this feature

just a few weeks ago.

When you unassign a course, it is removed from the student's worksheets

To achieve your desired goal of restarting a student.

1. Log-in as a parent

2. Edit the student's assignments.

3. Unassign all courses.

4. Press save.

5. Edit the student's assignements.

6. Add the desired courses back.

7. Press save.

This will clear out the student and let them start over!

Vocabulary Building - Roots of English Words

We have created a new course category called 'Roots of English Words.'

Many words in English are made up of parts which come from other languages. These parts, called morphemes, still carry some of the meaning of the original words from which they come. Learning to recognize and remember morphemes helps us understand and remember the words in which they appear.

This curriculum may we used beginning in elementary school age. All students, especially those preparing for standardized tests with a vocabulary component, will benefit from the Roots of English Words curriculum.

Assign these courses if your students will be taking the SAT, ACT, GRE, MCAT, etc.

Course Content Preview

We've added preview links to each course in the Assignments page.

A parent can now preview the facts in each course by clicking on the course name.

This is especially helpful when assigning a new Spelling courses to young students. The parents can quickly preview the words in each course to see if they are at an appropriate level for the student.

500 Level Spelling

The 500 level spelling words have been released.

All new recordings!

100% human voices!

They can be assigned to any grade level student. The are targeted to middle school to high school level students.

The words are randomly distributed across all 11 courses.

200 Level Geography Reordered

The 200 Level Geography Curriculum has been reordered to more accurately reflect the difficulty inherent in the courses. Capitals have been moved to higher course numbers since learning capitals is, for most students, more difficult than learning country names.

One reason learning capitals is more difficult is that capitals don't have a nice shape on a map. The shape of a country helps the student remember the country. For example, almost all students find it easy to remember Italy. We've moved capitals to the end of the 200 level curriculum to better reflect their difficulty level.

400 Level Spelling

400 LEVEL SPELLING
(25 New Intermediate Spelling Courses)

The 400 level spelling words have been released.

All new recordings!

100% human voices!

They can be assigned to any grade level student. The are targeted to children in higher elementary through middle school.

A few 3 letter words remained in 300 level spelling, but they are all gone at the 400 level. The words are getting harder and are randomly distributed across all 25 courses.

Daily Ribbons

DAILY RIBBONS

We encourage students to visit HomeSchoolAdvantage daily.

Visiting daily ensures the facts in the review queue are reviewed in a timely manner.

Daily ribbons are provided to reward students for completing all of their worksheets in a day. Each day a student completes all of their worksheets they earn another daily ribbon.

The Daily Ribbons are displayed in the TROPHY ROOM.

We would love for all students to earn at least 150 to 200 daily ribbons a year!

WARNING - DON'T STOP REVIEWING OVER THE SUMMER

For over one hundred years researchers have noticed a dangerous effect of our public education system. Specifically, students forget way too much of what they have learned during extended summer breaks. All children lose academic skills during the summer months, but what we now know about memory loss tells us that going sixty to ninety days without academic reinforcement puts a child in an unnecessary position of having to relearn large amounts of information that need never have been forgotten.

Tip - Don't Stop Reviewing Old Information During Summer Vacation

It is O.K. to give the children a break and to stop acquiring new information over the summer months. However, it is a seriously bad idea to go more than one or two weeks without reviewing and reinforcing prior information that has been learned. A lot of parents drop their academic review programs during the summer months. PLEASE DON'T. Drop acquisition but maintain review. Just 15 minutes a day, three to 4 days a week, can make a tremendous difference in your child's lifelong academic achievement.

Trophies

We have added a fun way for students to track their progress.

TROPHIES

A student earns a trophy if all of the facts in a course have been reviewed at least once.

The trophy is put on display in the student's personal Trophy Room.

A trophy signifies that the student has seen all of the facts in the course at least once and that they are now working to retain and recall them forever.

As we add hundreds of courses, the student may earn hundreds of trophies.

Start collecting them today!

Spelling Level 200 Released

We have released a complete set of 200 Level Spelling Courses. These fourteen courses contain over one thousand spelling words sorted by word length.

All of these words and sentences are recorded with a 100% human voice!

New Spelling Voice For All 100 Level Spelling Words

All of the HomeSchool Advantage spelling words have been rerecorded with a human voice. Riana, our new voice talent, has recorded over 6500 English words and sentences for our spelling curriculum. We will be releasing all 6500 spelling words soon in a complete set of courses across all levels. We will announce each new set of spelling courses as they are released.

Spelling Level 100 (Complete) - All 5 Existing Courses Have Been Updated With New Recordings!

Thanks to everyone who encouraged us to improve the quality of our recordings. We listen closely to feedback from the community, and would love to hear what you think of the new high quality sound.

Have a Date With History

We created a new course in US History that contains 60 dates every US student should know.

History 400 - Key Dates in U. S. History

We encourage students to learn dates. Dates create a timeline in a student's mind. The timeline equips the student to understand the historical context of what was studied. As students learn more dates, it becomes easier for them to learn history, and to discuss history intelligently in context.

Seriously, we really mean it becomes easier. Once you have established a strong history date knowledge net, sometimes you will remember new dates after hearing them only one time!

As always, this new course is FREE TO MEMBERS!

O Canada - Four New Courses

Our friends in Canada requested more Canadian facts and we have responded with several courses dedicated to all things Canadian. Today we released four new courses, with over sixty facts, on the Canadian Government:

Social Studies

460 - Canadian Monarchy

461 - Canadian Executive

462 - Canadian Legislature

463 - Canadian Judiciary

We strongly encourage our US students to also learn these facts. Of course, as always, these new courses are Free to Members.

2014 More SAT Vocabulary Words

We have added 2014 more SAT Vocabulary words to HomeSchool Advantage this week in FOUR NEW COURSES! For students who have mastered all of the SAT Vocabulary words and still want to learn more before the SAT, they will also benefit from our GRE Vocabulary words that will be released soon. Of course, students preparing for the GRE can begin by reviewing the SAT vocabulary!

The Canadian Flag - February 15, 1965

We have released the second of four new courses on Canada based on requests from Canadian home schoolers. The course is:

160 - Canadian Flag Facts

This is the smallest of the four new courses. It provides a few fun facts on the Canadian flag and is similar to the US Flags course in content. We strongly encourage students in the US to take the Canadian Flag course too, impress your Canadian friends with your knowledge about what happened on February 15, 1965.

Knowledge Net on Canadian Prime Ministers

We have released the first of four new knowledge net course on Canada based on requests from Canadian home schoolers. The course is:

320 - Canadian Prime Ministers

This course provides a history knowledge net for Canadian students in a manner similar to the US Presidents course for US students. Because of the strong historical connection, we encourage students in both countries to take the British History course, 420 - British Monarchs.

US students may wish to learn the Canadian Prime Ministers as well, if only to impress your Canadian friends.

2000 More SAT Vocabulary Words

HomeSchool Advantage has added 2000 more SAT vocabulary words to our Language Curriculum in four additional courses. If your student begins studying these words around 9th grade and continues through all of the SAT and GRE words they will have a true power vocabulary by the time they are in college.

It is important when studying SAT vocabulary to use the "Rate Yourself" feature so the student does not waste time reviewing words that they already know.

Of course, as always, this new content is Free to Members!

Yes There Will Be More Canadian Content

Canadian HomeSchool Advantage users have been asking us if we plan to add more Canadian content to HomeSchoolAdvantage.

The answer is YES.

And we encourage our students in the United States to take the Canadian Courses too! All US citizens should learn more about our most important neighbor, friend, and trading partner to the North.... well, to the North and to the South East.

We have assigned one of our volunteers to create Canadian content on Prime Ministers, Canadian Government, Key Dates in Canadian Political History, and the Canadian Flag.

We have already created courses on Canadian Provinces, Capitals, and Borders.

Please post here additional ideas for new Canadian Courses. If there is content or a table in wikipedia (or another on-line source) you would like us to include, please send us a link to that specific content.

Go Canada!

24 Additional Geography Terms

We have added 24 additional terms to the Geography curriculum in a new 350 level course on Earth Basics. By the time the student gets to this point in the curriculum they will know hundreds of states and capitals and around 70 geography terms.

Sample terms to learn include: Archipelago, Estuary, Fjord, Geyser, and Isthmus.

Parents - To assign these and other terms to your student goto the student assignments page and select 350 - Earth Basics. This course will appear in your students curriculum plan after they have completed all of the lower number Geography courses that you have assigned.

1500 SAT Vocabulary Words and Counting

The SAT Vocabulary Curriculum is now up to 1500 words. These words are also important to learn for those studying for the GRE. Math Problem: If a student adds 4 SAT words a day to their vocabulary starting at 12 years old, how many word will have been learned by the time they are 18?

Answer: Over 8760 (perhaps 8,766 depending on leap years). Interestingly enough, this is the number of vocabulary words we plan to have in our SAT and GRE courses combined.

New Spelling Contractions Course

I can not wait to turn can not into can't.

HomeSchoolAdvantage turned on a new course today, "Spelling - 230 Spelling Contractions." This new course contains spelling contractions that every speller should know such as can't, didn't, shouldn't, we've, they've, and you've. The course contains over 40 contractions.

An essential addition to any spelling curriculum, this new course is FREE TO MEMBERS! Now, are there any spelling errors in this post?

NEW SAT Vocabulary Course

SAT Vocabulary curriculum is now here! We have uploaded today the first of a series of SAT Vocabulary Words courses. The most frequently used words are in this first course. We suggest for advanced students that they start reviewing these words while in middle school.

The list of words to review will ultimately be over 5000 words. We introduce 5 new words at a time in this course. If the student already knows a word well they should rate it as being well know the very first time they see it in a question, or they should suppress the fact altogether.

We are delighted to provide this tool to help raise your child's SAT score by 100 points or more, while equipping them with a rich vocabulary they can carry into adulthood.

We advise that the student do a google article search on new words that they do not know, and that they read at least a sentence or two of the article that includes that new word. It is really fun to see a word that you are learning listed in an article in today's paper somewhere in the world. For example, searching boisterous today in google news produces:

Reading each new word in three or four articles will help ground that word and its usage for the student. Have fun growing your vocabulary!

What is the difference between a Mesa and a Cape?

Do you know the difference between a Mesa and a Cape? Do your students? Teach your students 24 geography terms that they should know by the time they graduate from homeschool.

Our new course, 250 - Earth Basics. makes it easy!

This course contains the following twenty-four terms - Atoll, Bay, Bog, Brook, Canal, Cape, Cave, Cove, Creek, Delta, Forest, Gulf, Hill, Lake, Marsh, Mesa, Moor, Plain, Pond, Reef, River, Sea, Swamp, Valley.

This course is free to members.

http://www.homeschooladvantage.com

Advanced Advantage

A powerful new feature is now available in HomeSchool Advantage. This feature allows students to declare how well they know a fact. The students' self evaluation directly alters their review schedules.

Student now have dramatically more control over their studies in HomeSchool Advantage. They can go much faster and reduce unnecessary repetition. This feature is especially valuable when students already know a large number of the facts in a new course, but they do not want to delete the facts, they just want to review them more sparingly.

How does it work? When a student answers a question correctly, a set of blue boxes appears showing how well the student knows the fact. The student has the opportunity to change this evaluation.

The better a student knows a fact, the more filled blue boxes. The more filled blue boxes, the more time will pass before the student is asked a question about that fact again. This time can be as long as a year if the student presses "I will Never Forget It."

Students can also decrease the rating of how well they know a fact. A student can set their level to zero by pressing "I Don't Know It At All." In this case, the student will be asked to review this fact again in one day.

Students should be careful when telling HomeSchool Advantage they know a fact very well, we take it very seriously. The highest levels should only be selected when the student know a fact exceptionally well and doesn't need to review it for over a year!

Let us know if you have any questions. And please, tell us what your think!

What do the Stripes on the US Flag Represent?

Yesterday, I received the following email,
-------------------
To Whom It May Concern:
I love your program so far - I just had a question/comment. In the course about "Flag Facts," it says that the 13 stripes stand for the original 13 states but I believe it should be the original 13 colonies. Am I correct?
Thank you so much for this wonderful tool!

-TV
----------------------

So, what do the stripes on the US flag represent?

HomeSchool Advantage used as our source for the US flag questions, the preparation material created by the US Department of Homeland Security for students who were taking the Naturalization Test, which gave our answer:
http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/Flashcard_questions.pdf.

However, a new version of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services exam gives TV's answer:
http://bit.ly/aDGsO8

Clearly, this is going to be a bit more difficult. To defend our answer, the flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner had 15 Stripes!
http://americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner

They added stripes when we added the states Kentucky and Vermont. Clearly, they were originally thinking that the stripes represented States. Although, for the Star Spangled Banner Flag, Tennessee, Ohio, and Louisiana are missing. Technically, they were states by the time of the assault on Fort McHenry in 1814.

Would the founders say the stripes represented the colonies? Did the original states intend to create a flag that reminded them of their time of colonial servitude or of their independent statehood! I, for one, say independent statehood.

However, the early Republic clearly had a problem. It is one thing to add a star to the flag every time a new state is added to the Union, and another to add a stripe. So they stopped adding stripes at 15. After the war of 1812 an Act of Congress created the basic structure of our current flag. Perhaps to not provide the British so large of a target in any future engagements. I looked up that act to see if it would say what the stripes were to represent, even HomeSchool Advantage is willing to defer to a definition that was an Act of Congress.

An Act to Establish a Flag of the United States

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=003/llsl003.db&recNum=0456

Unfortunately for us, the Act is silent on the matter of what the 13 stripes actually represent. So, it is left to interpretation.

Does anyone know of an original source document from a founder saying the stripes represent the colonies or the 13 states?

What do you believe the answer to the question should be?

Can you support your answer with documented evidence? (No, wikipedia will not count in this case).

The beauty of HomeSchool Advantage is that we can leverage our highly educated community to improve both our questions and our answers! We want to hear from you!!!

Hurried Memorization is a Hopeless Approach for Retaining Information

The title of this post is my favorite line from this interesting article about memorization and cramming:

At HomeSchool Advantage we have been saying for years that cramming (hurried memorization) is a terrible way to learn. We need a better way, and that way is Spaced Repetition. We used spaced repetition to:

• Ensure the students retain and recall information over the long term
• Save time and energy
• Engage the student without boring the student

Of course, we didn't make this up, we have been following for years and years active research in human cognition. We have incorporated this research into HomeSchoolAdvantage to help you supplement your homeschool curriculum and make your homeschool as effective as possible.

Visit HomeSchool Advantage today and try a 30 Day Free Trial. See what spaced repetition and many other advanced study techniques can do for you!

The Basics

The Basics are fundamental concepts and vocabulary in a subject that are referenced frequently in the continued study of that subject.

If a student does not know the basics then they may not really understand the meaning of more advanced concepts they are learning. If a student knows that Sudan is in the Northern Hemisphere but does not know the definition of the Northern Hemisphere then their knowledge is incomplete.

Many students fail to grasp a subject because they do not fully know the basics.

There are a lot of basics and most of us are missing thousands of them in each and every subject. HomeSchoolAdvantage was created to change that!

We have added two new basic courses today. The two new courses are:

110 - Earth Basics
Definitions of the Equator, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, and more!

450 - Periodic Table Basics
Definitions of Groups, Periods, and Atomic Number, and more!

We will continue to add more basics at each subject level.

Of course, if an older student is taking a 100 level basics course the student may already know many of them quite well. When this is the case, the student should simply delete the facts they already know. For example, if a student already knows that the convention for most maps is to put North at the top of the map the the student should delete that basics fact when it is encountered.

Deleting the 100 level basic fact a student already knows is preferable to skipping the 100 level basics entirely, because it is almost guaranteed that even advanced students will discover some lower level basics that they never learned or that they did not retain and cannot recall.

HomeSchool Advantage makes it possible to retain and recall it all.

-Tom

New Course: US Measures

How many feet in a mile? In a furlong?
How many cups in a gallon?
How many teaspoons in a tablespoon?
How many ounces in a pound?
How many pounds in a ton?

These are now almost uniquely United States questions as most of the rest of the world uses metric units of measure. Our new course introduces 19 common facts about US Units of Measure.

Subject: Science
Level: 200
Course Name: 210 - US Measures

It is listed as a 200 level course instead of a 100 level course mainly because of its use of larger numbers.

Of course, the course is free to members!

New Subject: Spanish

One of the most important tasks when mastering a new language is to learn vocabulary in that language. HomeSchoolAdvantage now helps you learn, retain, and recall Spanish vocabulary. We've added 300 Spanish words in a new Spanish subject. Because of our unique system, you can now learn, retain and recall the vocabulary for years to come!

This beats other systems hands down, where you learn new vocabulary and then promptly forget it!

We are a powerful supplement to your existing Spanish training.

There are new courses in the 100, 200, and 300 level and more will be added over the coming weeks. A second language is an advantage you should have. We provide it here to you at HomeSchoolAdvantage.

As always, these new courses are Free to Members.

Seas of the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean Sea is central to European, Middle East, and North Africian history.

Perhaps the names of gulfs, smaller seas, and straits in the Mediterranean might be worth learning? Knowing these names will certainly make reading other history a lot more interesting.

Our new course, 525 - Mediterranean Seas, contains 17 different names for Seas, Gulfs, and Straits in the Mediterranean. Of course, this new course is Free to Members.

Facts Matter

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
--Mark Twain

We have a feature in HomeSchool Advantage where a
student can send us a message about a fact. We hope
that students will use this feature if they ever believe a
fact we are reporting is in error. The students, of course,
are free to use the feature for other things, sometimes
just to say hello.

Yesterday, we received the following:

I thought that the Pacific ocean was the smallest ocean in the world. But I'm in 8th Grade and I thought I knew lots of things. Thank you for your efforts and teaching me things like the fact above.

Sincerely, AStudent.

Dear AStudent,

Thank you for letting us know that we are helping. We are excited to be a part of your education.

Our goal is to help you know, retain, and recall over 30,000 facts by the time you are graduated from HomeSchool.

Facts matter.

Knowing the difference between the world's largest and the world's smallest ocean matters.

In the future, when you hear of events, activities, and actions that occurred on these oceans you will be a better student. You will be a better student because you are bringing existing knowledge with you. This actually makes it easier to learn new things, it also makes it more fun.

I am not making this up.

Test me on it next year, the more facts you learn this year, the more fun it becomes to learn new facts next year!

Knowing facts helps you think. It helps you think creative new thoughts about what you are learning. Learning new facts, by reading and studying, is how you become a brilliant student.

No big secret really, but it is amazing how few people have learned this simple trick. Of course, you have to do more than just learn the new facts, you also have to be able to retain and recall them. That is where HomeSchool Advantage comes in, we help you retain and recall new facts for years.

Thank you for writing. And please feel free to drop us a note whenever you feel like it, we enjoy hearing from you.

-The HomeSchool Advantage Team

New Technical Support Phone Number

Do you want to reach us with a question, comment, or suggestion?

By email the best address is:

support@homeschooladvantage.com

To reach us by phone dial:

734.418.7111

This number routes to several differnt locations so let it ring up to twelve times! We look forward to hearing from you!

-Tom

NE Atlantic Gulfs, Seas, and Straits - New Course

Digging out again from another eight inches of snow. At least being shut in by the weather helps get new course out. Ive been adding new content on HomeSchool Advantage's premier subject - Geography. Our goal is to have 30,000 facts on all sorts of subjects, but to give you the idea of where we are going with the site we wanted to do at least one subject more fully from the start, and that subject is Geography.

Two reasons for this:

1. Geography is fun.
2. Americans are notoriously bad at Geography.

We are also using Geography to demonstrate that more you build your knowledge nets, the faster you retain new facts. A new geography knowledge net was added to HomeSchool Advantage today. If you have already learned your European countries these new facts will likely be learned very quickly. The new course is located in 500 level Geography.

520 - NE Atlantic
Gulfs, Seas and Straits

It contains wonderful color maps, making it easy to identify the gulfs, seas and straits of the region.

Can you find the Straits of Dover, the Baltic Sea, the Irish Sea? How about the Celtic Sea and the Bay of Biscay?

Fifteen different NE Atlantic bodies of water are included in this course. Time to round out your knowledge of the seas of the NE Atlantic. Learning them will make European history, world news, and current events more interesting and engaging.

Of course, as always, the course is Free to Members.

Australia States and Capitals - New Course

As I look out the window and see snow, I can't help but think that really we should move our HomeSchoolAdvantage headquarters to Australia for at least part of the year.

I have Australia in my mind, because we have just added a new course on Australian States, Territories, and Capitals. It is a relatively short course that does not contain the smaller Australian territorial islands. For the larger Australian States and Territories, native English speakers will find the names familiar and easy to , so we also encourage students in the United States to add this content to their existing Geography studies. It is located in the 400 level column under Oceania.

430 - Australia
States and Capitals

Of course, as always, the course is Free to Members. Australian residents (and others) may elect to assign this course at a younger age. For much of Geography that concerns itself entirely with the names of places and things, the distribution across levels is to distribute the work over time. It does not represent any inherent difficulty in the material.

Arabian Peninsula Gulfs and Seas - New Course

Can you name the Gulfs and Seas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula?

Do you know where the Arabian Sea is? The Gulf of Oman? The Persian Gulf? The Red Sea?

This is an incredibly important region because the Persian Gulf and its coastal areas are the world's largest single source of crude oil. As wars are fought in the lands that contain these precious resources, the least we can do is to learn and appreciate the lay of the land and the water.

Our 400 level Geography courses teach the names of the countries in this region. Our new 500 level Geography course (added today) teaches the names of 10 important bodies of water around the Arabian Peninsula. This is a course that even Mom and Dad should take.

Remember, all new courses are Free to Members!

A Free 30 Day Trial - Seriously No Obligation

HomeSchool Advantage encourages all homeschool parents everywhere to sign-up for a free 30 day trial.

If, at the end of the free trial, you do not want a paid membership, then YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CANCEL YOUR FREE TRIAL. WE CANCEL IT FOR YOU AUTOMATICALLY. There is no automatic billing at the end of the free trial (some free trial subscribers worry about this sort of thing). IT IS FREE. No Cost. No Obligation. We do not even collect your payment or credit card information until you specifically say you want to become a member.

If, at the end of the free trial, you want to become a member, simply sign into the parent account and you will be instructed in how to create a membership account.

So relax, enjoy using the free trial. We want you to get the full benefits of our service! We know our service works and that it creates brilliant students. We are actively seeking not just customers, but partners, home school parents who are interested in working with us to continue to enhance and improve one of the most powerful HomeSchool resources ever.

Thanks to all of you using a free trial, may I suggest you learn some Geography and American History. And thanks to all of our paid members, working together we will forever change the nature of education.

Sign-up for a Free Trial

When to Start?

What age is a good age to start using a supplemental tool like HomeSchool Advantage?

Using an on-line tool like HomeSchool Advantage requires fundamental skills such as basic reading, using a mouse, and using a keyboard. Many children are ready to do all of these by themselves at seven or eight. Others are not. However, our curriculum does include material for students that young.

HomeSchool Advantage incorporates basic testing concepts that may be new to young student such as how to answer Fill in the Blank Questions, True/False Questions, and Multiple Choice Questions. An adult working with a student can quickly explain these types of questions.

If a younger child is not ready to use the computer themselves, but they are capable of handling the curriculum, some parents operate the computer for the students. They read out loud the questions and enter in the student's answers. In these cases, the parent can still leverage HomeSchool Advantage's advanced spaced repetition, tracking, and scheduling capability.

A guided session with a parent is a great way for a student to learn the names of things, people, and places, before they can even spell! By the time most children are in the third to fourth grade, they can typically use the system without assistance.

The short answer: Our recommended age for starting HomeSchool Advantage is seven or eight, depending on the child. These students are typically assigned 100 level courses.

Of course, there is no maximum age, we want you learning too.

The Daily Worksheet - Too Little to Do?

The more courses you assign to a student in different subjects, the more daily worksheets the student will have in HomeSchool Advantage. Initially, we recommend that you assign courses in only two different subjects, such as Geography and History. We want you and your students to get a good feel for the system and how it works before adding additional subjects.

Each subject will introduce your students to just a few new facts each day, sometime only two or three. At first, only two or three new facts a day may seem too easy. Although it is possible to request additional facts, we encourage your students not to cram. Three new facts a day means the student will learn over 1000 new facts a year. If they are studying five subjects, then they will learn as many as 5,000 new facts a year.

HomeSchool Advantage is a revolutionary new way to approach knowledge. We treat knowledge acquisition as a marathon, not a sprint. We are delighted if your students only learn three new history facts a day, because we know that if they can actually remember these facts, your students will become brilliant history students. Is is not what you learn that makes you brilliant, it is what you remember.

If your students study several subjects a day, learning just two or three new facts, in a few years they will master tens of thousands of facts, making them, in any objective measure, brilliant students.

This is our goal for your students: for them to learn, retain, and recall tens of thousands of facts by the time they leave your homeschool. However, this goal will not be reached if the students get overwhelmed and give up.

Start slowly with just two courses. Don't add extra facts too quickly. But do have your students return almost every day, which is easy for them to do at home. This is the beauty of home schooling, and this is the beauty of HomeSchool Advantage.

Course Levels on the Assignments Page

The Assignments page is only visible to parents, and it is the most important page in HomeSchool Advantage. On this page you can see the courses that are available to your students arranged by subject. We are frequently releasing new courses and will keep you posted as they are made available. If you have suggestions for new courses, let us know!

The courses are listed in numerical order, the order we recommend that they be taken. The 100 level are the easiest courses and the 500 level the most difficult.

To assign a course in a subject simply click on the check box next to the course name. Make sure you press “save” to save your selections.

If you have a student in lower elementary start by assigning them only 100 level courses.

At middle elementary, 100 and 200 level courses.

In upper elementary 100, 200, and 300 level courses.

Older students are assigned course at ALL LEVELS.

For some subjects, like Geography, even adults should be assigned the 100 level course. The 100 level geography courses contain fundamentals that everyone should know. Older students will complete 100 level courses very quickly. However, it would be a mistake to skip these courses because most students DO NOT KNOW all of the facts covered at the lower levels.

In summary: Your student will have a daily worksheet for each subject where you have assigned courses. Facts are added to the daily worksheet from only one course at a time, the lowest number course you assigned in that subject. We automatically advance to the next highest course when the previous course is complete.

The Curriculum Order

HomeSchool Advantage provides curriculum in a specific order. We encourage parents to assign multiple courses in the same subject at a time, however, we present facts to your students from only one course at a time (for each subject). We start presenting facts first from the lowest numbered course, and when that course has no additional facts to present, we progress to the next higher numbered course.

You do not have to do the curriculum in the order we recommend, and you do not have to do all of the courses in a subject. You may skip any course you are not interested in studying - just do not check that course on the assignments page.

If you want your first course to be a 500 level course, simply select that course and do not select anything with a lower number.

The parent can always go back and select lower courses on another day. However, this should only be done after the higher level course is complete. You are free to skip any course you are not interested in studying.

Permanently Delete

We sometimes are asked, "Is there a way to delete some facts that are not important for us to remember?"

The answer is yes. We have a 'permanent delete' feature.

When a student sees a question they do not want to ever revew again, they can press the permanently delete button on the menu bar and that fact will no longer be reviewed.

Where is the permanently delete button? This button is the first button in the button bar above a question. It looks like a circle with the line though it.

This button is available whenever a question is asked.

Of course, we think all of the facts in HomeSchoolAdvantage are important to remember, but if you really don't want to ever see a fact again, we do support a permanent delete feature.

Deleting Facts and Changing Your Score

If you have been on HomeSchool Advantage you know that we have had a busy holiday season. The hundreds of new users have pushed us to continually enhance and improve our service. Every day you make the service better!

Last night we increased the size of the quiz button bar, making the buttons bigger and easier to press. We also removed unused buttons, and made other buttons easier to understand. Did you know you can permanently delete a fact and even change your score?

• To delete a fact you no longer want to see, press the delete button on the menu bar.
• To give yourself credit for a wrong answer, simply press the check button in the menu bar.
• To let us know you got an answer right just because you were lucky, press the X button on the menu bar.
• To peek at an answer you don't know and schedule it again for tomorrow, press the eye button in the menu bar.

These changes were inspired by user feedback and requests. Additional requests and reports have also led us to make the following improvements:

• We have fixed several display errors where text was wrapping poorly making it difficult to read in some browsers.
• We have fixed six troublesome images in the US Flags, British Isles, and Organic Chemistry courses that were not displaying as they should have.
• We have made it more difficult to accidentally cause an action to be performed multiple times (specifically adding more facts).

HomeSchool Advantage is getting better every day thanks to you. If you find a problem or have a request for a feature or some new course just press the message button (envelope icon) in HomeSchool Advantage and tell us what your saw or what you need. Sometimes little problems are resolved within the hour.

If you had a bug that stopped you from using the trial version please try us again! We will reset your trial version to 30 full days if you send us a message. The large influx of users in December pushed us to resolve every open issue we know of, so we believe you will have a good experience. If you are the first person to report a problem to us, we will give you an extra 30 days free, plus 30 free days for each and every bug you find first, even if it is just a typo!

Thanks,

-Tom