HomeSchool Advantage

Music In Your Home School?

2011-10-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

Music training dramatically improves the verbal intelligence of young children. Does this surprise you?

"Children between the ages of 4-6 ... showed significant cognitive gains after only 20 days of training on interactive, music-based cognitive training cartoons. These results were confirmed by imaging data which indicated that brain changes had taken place following the exercises."

If you are not incorporating music education into your homeschool, you may want to give it a try.

http://news.yorku.ca/2011/10/04/music-based-training-improves-preschoolers-verbal-iq-york-u-study/

Can students who attend public school use HomeSchool Advantage?

2011-09-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

We received the following question today:

"Can students that attend public school do this? And how would they get started for say 9th grade?"

First, thanks for asking about HomeSchool Advantage!

Yes, our system should be valuable to almost any grade school or high school student, regardless of whether they homeschool or attend private schools or public schools. Moreover, in our experience, any given student could benefit from at least a couple of our subject areas.

To get an idea of the courses we have available, take a look at the course listing, which is available from our home page. For a really detailed look at the facts in all of those courses, we would encourage you to sign up for one of our free trial subscriptions. Once you have done so, you can see not only all of the courses, but all of the facts, images and sound clips which go into those courses.

Regarding what to assign for a ninth grade student, I can make a few recommendations. First, I would suggest assigning some courses from Geography. Many students are woefully ignorant of the names and places covered in those courses. Quiz your student a little and see if he or she knows the names of the U.S. States and Canadian provinces. If not, you should assign the courses for those topics. And I would be very surprised if your student knew the names of more than a handful of countries on any of the continents. Assign some more courses based on what you find.

In History, I would recommend at least the U.S Presidents course (if you are American) or the Canadian Prime Ministers course (if you are Canadian). These courses, together with the other history courses, provide a very useful foundation for learning more history.

In Social Studies, I would recommend the courses on the U.S. government (if you are American) or the Canadian government (if you are Canadian).

Unless your student is an unusually strong speller, you might consider whether some of the upper level Spelling courses might be helpful.

Finally, I would strongly recommend the Vocabulary Building and SAT/GRE Prep subjects to improve your student's vocabulary, which is an absolutely critical part of one's education, regardless of what one is going to do.

Depending on your other goals, some of the other courses may also be valuable.

We are continually adding more subjects to our catalog, so it's always a good idea to take a look at what is available every so often.

Do You Still Need To Learn Things?

2011-07-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

Occasionally we read an article that says we no longer need to learn things because we can quickly and easily look them up on Google. Scientists are now studying the impact of tools like Google on human knowledge. They are now talking about how people learn to optimize their intellectual energy expenditures in the presence of Google, i.e., adapting their behavior to make better use of a situation.

If I no longer need to remember as many things because they are so easy to look up, it is important to note that my brain and time resources that are freed-up are not necessarily being put to better use.

It may be true that I technically don't need to be able to do long-division because I have a calculator now, and I don't need to remember dates because my iPhone calendar does, and I don't need to remember anything else because Google can find it for me. What this argument doesn't address is the time-cost. Using a calculator clearly saves time over long-division by hand, because machines will always be faster at arithmetic. However, actually remembering how to approach solving a complex equation, knowing the meaning of a word, or the relationship of two historical figures, or the difference between Canada's and the U.S.'s government structures, saves a lot of time compared to the effort of 1) getting to a computer, 2) formulating a query, 3) sifting the results for the answer, 4) repeating steps 2 and 3 until you get the answer.

While research will sort this all out sometime this century, we suggest you still focus your home school students on actually learning things.

New HomePage Design Coming This Weekend

2011-04-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

We hope to launch a new homepage design this weekend. We have:

made it easier for parents to see the Price, Support, and FAQs pages.
placed our feature video on the front page
generated the course catalog automatically
provide detailed views of some courses in the course catalog

The Parent and Student Login buttons are now in the upper right corner of the page.

We hope this new design makes it easier for parents and students to learn about our system and to find answers to their questions. Let us know what you think.

Make Mistakes Faster -- Bad Advice?

2011-02-10T05:57:00.000-08:00

We received a message today from a very proficient drummer who got that way by practicing very hard. He has found that for drumming if he goes as slow as he needs to, in order to do it right, that eventually he will do it real well and, in time, the speed will come!

He totally disagreed with our "Make Mistakes Faster" advice for students learning using HomeSchoolAdvantage.

I fully appreciate where he is coming from, but we are talking about practicing two different skills. Going slow with a musical instrument (or in many sports) is about trying to find the correct answer that is a function of your own personal muscle control, nerve speed, and cognitive control. In playing the drums, you go slow to find the correct answer to begin with, the correct answer cannot be told to you, you must discover it. Then you work to increase speed. You don't want to practice the wrong thing. We have no problem with that approach.

HomeSchoolAdvantage is not about playing a musical instrument or a sport, it is about academics. We are not practicing muscle control as a function of our own nerve speed and cognitive programming. HomeSchoolAdvantage is entirely about what is going on inside your head, specifically when the student is accumulating new facts. We can tell you the right answer to a fact, is does not have to be personally discovered.

HomeSchoolAdvantage as a system is the equivalent of fact flash cards, we prompt the students' memory to recall the facts, and then move on. If we use the drumming approach to teach the fact "7 + 5 = 12" we would be doing the student a terrible disservice. We would never advise you to ask the student during drilling on basic math skills to go slowly and "figure it out."

If the student has fingers, they will be able to figure it out.

The very purpose of going fast is to try to prevent them from figuring the answer out, it is a core fact, we want them to know it instantly. Our friend may believe he is having success with his drumming approach to academics because the student will be able to produce the correct answer, 12.

"Ah ha, you say. I knew Tom was wrong. Look, by giving them more time and going slowly they got the correct answer."

The problem is, and you only discover this by interviewing the students, is that you are teaching them to practice doing extra steps inside their head to get that answer. And practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent. The same reason you only want to practice going slowly with drums is you want them to practice only the right things, not the wrong things. We want the same thing academically, the right thing is to instantly know (without additional thought) that 7 + 5 = 12.

If a student is encouraged to go really slow learning a fact like "7 + 5 = 12" it will probably work! Because they are able to answer it correctly by counting on their fingers or doing the equivalent of counting on their fingers mentally (counting points around the 5 or the 7). Their technique will work! You will be proven correct! At least you think you will. But in fact, they have simply developed bad cognitive habits that will follow them the rest of their lives. They will get the correct answer, but they will actually lose the ability to know that "7 + 5 = 12" instantly. Going slow answering "7 + 5 = 12" is like practicing incorrect drum technique. Perhaps we really agree with the drummer after all. We are interested in practicing "instant recall."

This is just one reason why I do not encourage students to follow the drummer's advice while learning new facts. There is another reason. A researcher who has studied these techniques for almost 30 years computationally has tracked tens of thousands of students learning millions and millions of facts. He publishes his results. He has found that a recall failure rate as high as 20% may be optimal for learning more material. Try to recall everything at or near 100% and your dramatically decrease the overall learning rate. My advice on how to learn more facts-- better and faster--is backed up by millions and millions of data points. The era of opinion in these matters is now over. Long live research. If the student's goal is to accumulate basic core knowledge then mistakes (forgetting) are to be encourage and not punished. Forgetting is the core of being human. Embrace it, do not resist it. Eventually the student will learn that "7 + 5 = 12." When they do, they will know it instantly and innately. Note, I am not talking about the concept of addition, I am talking about the fact "7 + 5 = 12."

The drummer's approach may be absolutely 100% correct for learning drums, and piano, and probably even baseball. We do not claim to be experts on these techniques, although we invite those experts to join the conversation. Those skills are fundamentally different from learning and remembering the multiplication tables, or any of tens of thousands of facts a student may wish to learn and instantly recall.

If you want to do everything slowly and perfectly the first time, our system is probably not for you. Although it probably could work. If you want to be able to recall instantly thousands and thousands of fact and be absolutely brilliant compared to most students graduating from High School today, then join us and learn. Oh, and make lots and lots of mistakes.

Periodic Table Comment

2011-02-09T07:24:00.000-08:00

Homeschool advantage contains the following fact:

In the Periodic Table the elements are placed in increasing order of their Atomic Number.

One of our older students submitted the following comment:

"I wrote atomic weight on this answer. I believe I am
correct. If I am not please let me know but I will check it
out myself."

The statement "The atomic weight increases with the atomic number" is not universally true. In fact the history of chemistry shows a great deal of argument about the proper order of elements in the periodic table. The situation is greatly complicated by the existence of isotopes, which are versions of the same element (i.e. atoms having same number of protons but varying numbers of neutrons). The isotopes have the same atomic number, but different atomic weights. Also, the different isotopes have different abundances so that one isotope might be more abundant than another. The accepted atomic weight shown in the periodic table is basically a weighted average of the atomic weights of the various naturally-occurring isotopes times their respective abundances.

The result is that sometimes, order by atomic weights is not the same as the order by atomic number. For example, if you look on this periodic table of the elements, you will see that Argon (Ar) and Potassium are in order according to atomic number but backwards according to atomic weight:

Element Symbol Atomic # Atomic Wt.
Argon Ar 18 39.948
Potassium K 19 39.098

Atomic number can be exactly measured using several different techniques and always comes out the same. Atomic weight, on the other hand, is a function of the purity of the sample and sometimes even where it came from in the world.

Reality is always so much messier than we would like it to be.

Your Private Tutor

2011-02-04T10:56:00.001-08:00

People frequently ask us if we are a complete curriculum. The answer is no. We are an automated private-tutor providing customized worksheets for your students. These worksheets are taken on-line, so we can record each student's results and predict his or her future performance. We are supplemental to your primary curriculum.

We are quick and to the point, so as not to waste the student's time. We have thousands of graphics and illustrations but they are not to entertain, but to inform. The goal is to get the core facts taught and reviewed as quickly as possible. We only provide our worksheets on-line in order to remember every correct and incorrect answer. We use this knowledge to predict what the student is most likely to forget next and to craft a highly personalized worksheet.

We do award trophies as students progress through the system in order to mark progress. These trophies are displayed in the student's trophy room and provide motivation and a little entertainment. We are not edutainment. We are more like an intelligent flash card.

Student forget 80% or more of what they learn in just 30 days, with us as their tutor they can retain and recall it all.

We tutor on tens of thousands of facts covering Geography, History, Math, Science, Social Studies, Spanish, Spelling, and Vocabulary. Worksheets are customized for each specific student on each specific day, customized based on what is assigned and on what the student is most likely to forget without immediate review.

A few very narrowly focused subjects such as spelling are covered so completely that no additional curriculum is required.

We provide detailed daily status reports to track progress, and even generate detailed transcripts listing everything the students have learned.

A white-paper called "Seven Secretes to Creating Brilliant Students" describes our research-supported approach to knowledge retention and recall, it is free: http://www.homeschooladvantage.com/info_pages/iview/About

A video on our service, what it is and what is does, may make things more clear. We offer a free trial: http://vimeo.com/15209592

See When a Trophy Was Awarded

2011-02-03T11:50:00.000-08:00

I received a call today from a Mother who wanted to award prizes when her students earned trophies. Her question was, "Is there a way to see when a trophy or ribbon was awarded?"

The answer is yes. Hover over a trophy with your mouse, and the course name and the date it was awarded will be displayed.

The most recently awarded award date will be displayed on the far right.

Transcripts

2011-02-03T05:53:00.000-08:00

Parents have asked us if HomeSchool Advantage offers transcripts.
Over the holidays we added a feature that we hope will meet your transcript needs.

The students' Trophy Room can now display a detailed transcript of everything the student has seen.

On the upper right corner of the Trophy Room the students can select to see the "details" of the Trophy Room.

The details provide a detailed transcript of every subject the student has seen and every fact in that subject, plus the facts' Mastery Level captured in stars.

We include the number of facts learned and the number of questions answered for each subject.

This transcript may be printed and placed in a binder to capture all of the work the student has done in HomeSchool Advantage. Creating a detailed and very exact transcript of everything that was learned.

Multiple Assignments in the Same Subject

2011-02-01T12:23:00.000-08:00

A user wrote the following question today:

Both of my students today, ran across a message that they didn't have any more questions and the parent needs to assign more lessons... if I go ahead and check several assignments, will that pull questions from all those assignments on any given day or does the computer generate questions only from the first assignment then when that's completed, moves on to the next assignment? If it's the latter, then I can go in and check all of the assignments so there won't be any down time/gaps.

Thanks, LB

Our answer:

It is the latter. You may assign several course at once from the same subject.
It will only give the students new facts from the lowest numbered course
you have assigned in a subject. So yes, you can go in and check all of the assignments
so there won't be any down time/gaps.

Database Cleanup Today

2011-01-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

A few of our students (about 30) had extra copies of some facts in their workbooks. Each fact should only be in a workbook once.

These duplicates were caused by two old bugs which we fixed a while ago. We doubt if anyone will notice, but it's possible that some of our high-end, power users may notice that the number of facts listed on the trophy statistics page will have gone down a few facts.

Improved Review Schedule

2010-12-09T06:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-24T06:58:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-23T05:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-15T06:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-11-03T05:29:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-11-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-10-28T07:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-25T06:21:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-15T04:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-08T06:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-17T12:08:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-04T05:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-30T06:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-04-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-03-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-24T05:42:00.000-08:00

"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

2010-02-23T06:47:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-23T06:13:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-18T05:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-12T07:39:00.001-08:00

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?

2010-02-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-02-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

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

Free Live Teleseminar - Seven Secrets

2009-12-31T13:08:00.000-08:00

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!

New and Improved HomeSchool Advantage!

2009-12-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

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

Can you pick the winning strategy?

2009-11-13T06:47:00.000-08:00

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

New Parental Features

2009-09-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Country Flags of the World

2009-09-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Be a Student Too

2009-08-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

The Knowledge Sprint

2009-08-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

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.

Amazing Beta Test Discount! Call for Beta Testers

2009-08-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

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

Summary: Seven Secrets to Creating Brilliant Students

2009-07-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

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.

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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.