TOS Review - Standard Deviants Accelerate Learning Site

I was thrilled to get a chance to review the Homeschool Courses from Standard Deviants Accelerate.

The name alone is enough to excite me - When you're talking about stocks and bonds, the Standard Deviant has to do with risk of return. When you're talking, in general about statistics, the standard deviant is the measure of dispersion from the mean. When you're talking about kids learning, I have at least one student who probably fits into being defined as a standard deviant. He doesn't learn from textbooks or from any curriculum that tells him "This is what you need to know" with no explanation as to why he needs to know it yet he is brilliant!

What is Standard Deviants Accelerate Homeschool Courses?

This is an online learning site but takes each lesson and makes it interesting...really! Educational videos is how SDA got their start more than 20 years ago. The founders knew how to take information and create funny videos. The result was that students were learning. The information stuck. So, they took this learning tool and turned it into a supplemental education site for middle and high schoolers.

The site allows parents to have access to red flag alerts, progress indicators, grade reports, and editable rubrics. The student views short video lessons, assignments, automatic grading of tests and quizzes, a note taking feature, a printing function, and the ability to message a parent for help on specific lessons.

While video instruction is at the heart of what SDA is all about, it's the chapter review projects that sets it apart as well. The student has the choice of presenting what he or she has learned to various imagined audiences. These chapter review sections really approach all styles of learners and interests.

The available courses I had to choose from include: Grade 3+: Arithmetic Grades 4+: Fundamental Math Grades 6+: Earth Science  Nutrition Grades 7+: Biology Algebra Grades 9+: Chemistry English Comp. U.S. History Grades 11+: AP Biology AP Chemistry AP U.S. Gov. and Politics AP Eng. Composition
I received access to all of their Homeschool Courses for one full year. I was asked to use the Homeschool Courses with one or more of my children for the course of the review.

How Did We Use It?

After I set up the classes, I pretty much turned it over to my son to complete the lessons on his own. There was really no teacher-interaction from me needed other than at the end of each section and to monitor progress.

The first classes he completed were the AP courses which basically covered how to take AP tests. He then began with the higher level English, Science, and Algebra classes.

I initially set up both my son and one of my daughter's for use on the site, but then ended up only using it with my son who accessed it through his desktop. I accessed it through my laptop, but apparently it can be viewed and used from any device, making it extremely versatile and great for on-the-go schooling.

It's homeschooling on the go!

What Did We Think?

This program is great, captivating, and easy-to-use. Honestly, the hardest part of the whole program is assigning the classes to the student. It's a bit tricky with figuring it all out but boils down to getting the class course number to the student for signing up. Once you get it all set up, it's easy to access for both the student to learn through the lessons and for the parent instructor to view progress reports and assign additional courses as needed. My son loves this program so much that the only thing we wish is that the courses included a full high school curriculum so he could do just SDA. He would be a happy student.

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Read what other members of the TOS Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below:

Review of Time 4 Learning

"Really?  This counts as school?"  "It looks like fun!"  "I really like it!"  These are the quotes I heard from my children as they discovered all that the Time4Learning.com teaching site has to offer.

I had the recent privilege of reviewing the teaching website, Time4Learning.com.  I should say, my children had the enjoyment of the review.  I have seen the site advertised, and it looked interesting to me.  However, I did not know how well my children would receive it.  See, we have a history of mom (me) getting extremely excited about curriculum, until I present it to my kids.  Suddenly, my enthusiasm is drained like a flat balloon.  Fully anticipating this could be the case with Time4Learning, as it has been with other curriculum packages we have tried, I presented it to my children.  Here's what happened: 

My 11 year old son is a computer fanatic.  He is very bright (I don't just say this as his mother), his SAT test scores were falling into the post-high school level, in 5th grade.  However, this child absolutely hates using text books to learn.  I knew he would like the idea of the lessons being on the computer, but I was not prepared for his response.  The first day of school, which he dreaded with a passion, I told him to turn on his computer and go to the Time4Learning.com website.  Then, I told him that I wanted him to complete at least one lesson in each subject, set up his home page, and spend some time getting to know the site.  All I wanted in return was his honest opinion.  His reaction? 

"You're kidding!  This counts as school?"

The rest of the school day was a breeze.  He thoroughly enjoyed learning, using Time4Learning as a teaching tool.  He discovered games, interactive teaching, and some reading/instructional segments.

I was curious to see what he thought of the level of teaching.  At first, he described it as mostly review lessons.  However, after a few days of use, he began to say that they are right on par - not too hard, not too easy.

I am definitely considering using Time4Learning as his core curriculum base, for the rest of the year.

My 9 year old daughter -  My oldest daughter loves using workbooks, so I was not surprised when she examined Time4Learning and gave me her response.  She told me that it was really fun, and she enjoyed it a lot.   However, she would prefer to stick with the workbooks for daily learning - using Time4Learning as a supplement, for fun!  She found the first lessons to be review of information she already knew.  As she dove deeper into the lessons, she found them to be challenging.


My Kindergartner - My 4 year old, turns 5 in September.  According to her birthday cutoff, she would not be in Kindergarten until next school year (if she went to public school).  However, she is begging me to teach her how to read, and can already count above 100.  So, I decided to start her in Kindergarten this year.  She loved the games on Time4Learning.  She said, "I think it's going to be really fun!"  As I watched her work through the site, I noticed that it seemed to present the lessons in a preschool manner.  Being a Dora The Explorer fanatic, it reminded us all of how Dora talks - slow, and precise.  It was asking her questions about stripes, etc. which she was working through with ease.

All in all, I found Time4Learning to be a helpful site, which I am considering using for my son.  I think it is definitely a good supplemental learning site, possibly fills in the blanks to form a complete year-long curriculum as well.

I was given one month to check out the site, and then describe what my family thought of it, giving our honest opinion - whether good or bad!  I did not receive payment for this review, other than the 30-day free review trial.  Everything in the above review is 100% my opinion.