LiftEd (K-8) More Info >
LiftEd is our new student-facilitated product for families who want or need their children to be more self-directed in their learning. LiftEd includes access to teacher video instruction and other learning experiences that students participate in with other students and learning coaches.
Family School is our parent-facilitated product for parents who want to be the primary teacher for multiple children of various ages for subjects like history, science, geography, literature, art, and music. This coming 2022–23 school year, Family School will also provide access to the pilot K-8 math and language arts on a free opt-in basis.
Most fundamentally, purchasing LiftEd this year includes access to two services—1) access to a live study group to explore and learn with other students from home or in groups (LiftEd), and 2) access to a live zoom class experience where students of similar ages discuss, apply, and dive deeper into the concepts that were previously learned within their study group.
You can view the entire scope and sequence for the 2022–23 LiftEd pilot here: https://ahsworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/LIftED-22-23-Scope-and-Sequence.pdf
Currently, we plan to pilot the parent-led, K–8 math (I Master Math) and language arts (I Love Language) resources during the 2022–23 school year. This will give us several hundred feedback points from which to further refine and improve the resource prior to adapting and producing it in a student-facilitated, video-based format for self-directed learning. Our plan is to then add these two student-facilitated K–8 math and language arts resources as a pilot during the 2023–24 school year.
Every week, Monday through Thursday, students will meet online for our LiftEd live study group (approximately 30–45 minutes depending on the level) followed by a live zoom class (approximately 50 minutes). Classes begin the third week of August and go through the end of the third week in May of each year. The entire school year calendar can be found here: https://ahsworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/LIftED-22-23-Scope-and-Sequence.pdf
During the 2022-23 pilot year we will rotate through four general subject areas—one unit every two weeks. Subject areas include history, science, world studies, and a combination of other elective courses (a.k.a. growth courses). The unit approach allow students to cover material with much greater depth and breadth, while also allowing us to implement the new “production-based” learning experiences and activities to reinforce and demonstrate learning in more meaningful and “productive” ways.
As part of the new cross-curricular approach to teaching the humanities, art, music, and literature will not be taught as separate subjects in LiftEd. Rather, these subjects will be infused throughout all subjects. Each LiftEd lesson provides explore modules where students are encourage (even incentivized) to go “exploring.” These optional learning modules will include much of what is currently provided in our Family School art, music, and literature curriculum. Children will experience and learn art, music, and literature in context of periods of history, world studies, and various sciences. Learning humanities in context of these primary subjects and learning experiences encourages a love of learning and provides “hooks” from which information is more meaningful, connected, and retained.
LiftEd courses are being produced at three different levels—Level 1 is for early elementary, Level 2 for upper elementary, and Level 3 for middle school students. Importantly, parents decide what level is right for each child each year. Parents know when their children are ready to advance to a new level. Study groups and live classes are provided within these same three levels, so once the school year begins, parents must request administrative support to change to a student’s level. Changing a student’s level during the school year will result in a change to the student’s study group and class.
LiftEd supplemental and supporting resources include printables, supplies, and literature. Printables will be available for self-download and print during the 2022–23 pilot year. A supplies and literature list will be provided as part of each unit of each course that parents can use to prepare every two weeks for the next respective unit. Most commonly, supplies will be used for the production-based learning activities students will be doing throughout each unit, and literature is used optionally during the explore modules of the lesson.
All course content will be archived in your account library for future review and access. Due to the cost of storage and hosting for videos, it is likely the coursework videos submitted by students throughout the year will be available for download and removed after some period of time (to be determined). In all cases, these videos will be organized and available for download by course, unit, lesson, etc.
LiftEd is being developed for all platforms (mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop). The experience from a desktop or laptop is preferred for this first year, but newer model tablets also work very well.
Digital and online safety is a very important part of the LiftEd experience. We are doing everything in our control to ensure that students have a positive experience while using the LiftEd platform to access content and connect with other students. These safety measures include a way for adults to audit the daily volunteer class, to assigning parents a few times a year to be “on-duty” during study group sessions, to various artificial intelligence technologies to trigger and alert parents of suspicious or questionable behavior or communication. We will be hosting a live webinar in August to help parents set-up and use various tools and content filters to further secure devices.
Ultimately, however, it is the parent’s continued modeling and communication with children that will have the greatest impact in helping children to be successful as they develop in the digital world in which they live. LiftEd will provide just one tool and experience that can help children to develop the tools and skills to thrive in an online world at a young age, so that when choices and challenges increase, they are prepared.
A common day for a LiftEd student during this 2022–23 school year will be as follows.
- Morning routine (breakfast, exercise, personal/family spiritual study time, etc).
- Join daily study group with approximately 20 other students at their same level (Level 1, 2, or 3) at 9:00 AM (ET, CT, MT, and PT).
- Finish their study group learning experience around 9:30 AM.
- Take a break and/or work on one of the assignments, activities, or projects until class begins at 10:00 AM.
- Join the live zoom class at 10:00 AM (ET, CT, MT, and PT) with a group of approximately 50 students their same level (Level 1, 2, or 3).
- Finish live zoom class experience around 10:50.
- Break for lunch and other personal/family duties/chores/activities.
- Work on their math and language arts lesson for the day from Family School (or any other preferred math and language arts provider).
- Work on any assignments, activities, or projects related to their LiftEd lesson or unit that they are learning or discussing.
The new lesson of the day will go live at 9:00 AM for all students in all four continental US time zones. This method for releasing content will encourage students to join their age-leveled “study group” to experience learning in a virtual environment together. There are many experiences on the LiftEd learning path that allow students to connect with each other as they explore, learn, share, and complete assignments, problems, and projects.
Yes, we can manually adjust your lesson time, but this functionality will not likely be available by the beginning of the 2022–23 pilot, but certainly within a couple months (by October).
Your LiftEd tuition includes access to a live study group and the live zoom class ($88/month/student; $1056 annually). The regular cost for both is $88.00 per month per student (when paying over 12 months). The price adjusts throughout the year based on how many days are remaining in your membership. For example, if signing up for second semester, half of the tuition ($528) is paid over the remaining five months (January – May) , so the monthly is adjusted to $105.60/student.
However, all families participating in the 2022–23 LiftEd pilot receive a 50% discount by using the “LiftEd50” promo code. This discount remains on their account and applies to all student enrollments for the life of the account, or in other words, until an account doesn’t have an active student enrollment. Additional discounts were provided to our current monthly and lifetime Family School member prior to the 2022/23. Those offers are no longer available.
Because coaches are contracted annually to support the live zoom class, all members agree to pay for student enrollments for the entire school year, regardless of participation levels. The per-student monthly LiftEd price is based on this 12-month enrollment agreement.
The LiftEd service is priced to be billed monthly for 12 consecutive months beginning on May 1st and running through April 1st of the following year. For example, the billing schedule for the 2022–23 school year begins May 2022 and continues through April 2023. The re-enrollment period for LiftEd begins each May during the Spring Open Enrollment period (May through June). Enrollments that happen after May will be charged from May 1 to through their enrollment date. For example, if a family enrolls on June 15, they will be charged for the May 1 and June 1 billing periods during checkout.
Because LiftEd includes a live class with a Learning Coach, a 12-month enrollment agreement is required to ensure that this teaching cost is evenly covered by all students enrolled. This cost is spread out over 12 months in order to make the service more affordable for families and to simplify multi-year participation. Pre-billing is preferred over post-billing for most families, especially when the family chooses not to re-enroll—thus ensuring that families aren’t required to continue to pay for a service they have decided not to participate in for the following school year.
No. PowerHour+ has now turned into the live zoom class experience that goes with the LiftEd curriculum, which is slightly different than the family school curriculum. The deeper dive, questions, activities, and projects during the live zoom class will all come out of the videos and explore time learning modules of the LiftEd content. Consequently, students would not be prepared for this live class experience if they are unfamiliar with the LiftEd content.
Power Hour is moving from Family School to LiftEd beginning this fall 2022. Also, all LiftEd members will receive a complimentary Family School membership. Therefore, all Power Hour memberships from FamilySchoolOnline.org will be automatically cancelled on June 1, 2022. Additionally, if you have a monthly Family School membership and you have enrolled in LiftEd, your Family School membership will also be reduced to $0.00. You will still have full access, but your membership will be complimentary with your LiftEd membership. If you are not a LiftEd member, your monthly Family School membership will continue as is.
We consider Founding Families as development partners of a new service or product of AHS Worldwide. Founding Families receive a significant discount to participate during an inaugural year of a new service or product in exchange for their willingness to share feedback through focus groups, webinars, and surveys. Founding Families provide an essential role in supporting a learn fast, improve fast development strategy for all new products and services.
Founding Families of LiftEd who enroll at least one student for the 2022–23 school year will receive a Founding Family discount of 50%. Current Family School members who are Lifetime members qualify for an additional 25% discount (total of 75%). Families may purchase a Lifetime membership in Family School to qualify for the corresponding discount.
Yes, there are two, specifically. First, all Founding Families will receive access to all future courses that are developed by AHS Worldwide for LiftEd members. Second, Founding Families will receive all feature updates on the LiftEd platform for the life of their account.
Yes, the additional discount for Lifetime members is simply to extend our appreciation to them and their commitment to the AHS Worldwide cause. If you’d like to make a similar investment in AHS Worldwide by purchasing a lifetime membership to Family School (as they have), then we’d like to extend to you this same benefit. Please contact support@ahsworldwide.org to request this discount code after purchasing a lifetime membership at familyschoolonline.org.
Your discount is an account level discount, which means that once used to enroll even a single child for the 2022–23 pilot, it will remain on your account until canceled. As long as your account is active with at least one student enrollment, you will be able to add additional students at the same discount level that you received during the pilot year.
Yes, all discount codes for the LiftEd pilot will expire when the maximum student enrollment has been met (1000 students) for this school year.
Yes, all LiftEd members receive full-access to all parent-led resources at FamilySchoolOnine.org.
Absolutely, but each student participating needs to have their own account (within the parent account) to access content on the LiftEd platform. LiftEd is a student-centered learning platform that has been designed to allow students of various ages to connect with other students of similar age and geography. The entire learning experience from study group sessions to class discussions are leveled and student-specific.
Families can use LiftEd content AND class in any way they feel is supportive of their family or learning community objectives and goals. LiftEd content can be used by mothers to share with children together, co-op leaders to provide to students to learn before they gather locally for projects and activities, academies, and schools to teach concepts prior to or during class time, and any other way that you can see ready-made lessons and recorded teaching can be used. There is not a predefined application.
The preferred option of middle school students is LiftEd. This experience will be similar to last year’s Audit program and it is better suited for middle school students. We are still evaluating other options for high school students to participate in audit courses.
Yes. In fact, LiftEd will eventually (2024–25 school year) become the credit-bearing path to graduation for all AHS Worldwide students. Additionally, the same for-credit services including grading, feedback, 1-on-1 consultations, tutoring, labs, grade cards, and transcripts will become available for all grades—kindergarten through high school. These services will always be optional add-ons to the non-credit-bearing experience.
Yes. The for-credit services like grading, feedback, 1-on-1 consultations, grade cards, transcripts, and tutoring that are currently offered only through AHS Online will eventually make their way to our K–8 LiftEd students—even as soon as the 2023–24 school year. These kinds of teacher supported services will be an add-on to LiftEd, and your “Founding Family” discount will not apply.
Developing a network of supportive Family Education Centers is the most important objective for AHS Worldwide. Supporting these learning communities will become a focus of our LiftEd platform in the near future. That said, software and content—as good as they can be at simplifying the job, increasing engagement, and connecting students with other students and parents—will never replace or surpass the effectiveness and outcomes of in-person learning. LiftEd is being uniquely designed to facilitate the organization of Family Education Centers to increase the likelihood of success for families seeking faith-filled, character-focused learning through home-centered, school-supported learning communities that offer friendship, support, motivation, and accountability for students and parents.
Family Education Centers will come in all shapes and sizes, but most fundamentally, they begin with one family who is passionate about this kind of education and experience—a family who will gather with other families to do in-person “class” rather than the live zoom classes. Many exciting and supportive resources are forthcoming to support these learning communities. If interested in learning more about founding a FEC in your area, please email Peter Knecht at pknecht@ahsworldwide.org.
During the 2022–23 school year, we will be working with a small number of micro-schools to develop the Family Education Center resource and support system. We will have much more information to share by spring of 2023 regarding requirements and qualifications that we feel will allow Family Education Centers to effectively come together and support one another around the mission, philosophy, methods, and accreditation of American Heritage School.
That said, any group of families can organize around a common philosophy and curriculum. Many already do. Although they don’t carry the name “Family Education Center,” they are operating in a way that is supported by each family to provide in-person support, learning experiences, and connection. We will begin offering a monthly webinar in June 2022 for families who want to begin establishing their own learning communities. If you’d like to be aware of these please email Angie Blad at ablad@ahsworldwide.org.
LiftEd Zoom Calls
The LiftEd Zoom Calls are 50 minutes long for level 2 and 3 and 40 minutes long for level 1 and will follow the format below.
- Seize The Day Kahoot
- Daily Announcements
- Time to greet each other and catch up.
- Prayer
- Review & Share LiftEd take-aways
- Dive Deeper Activities
- Reasoning Together
- Relating Together
- Coaches Challenge
- Prayer
- 5 minute Work Out
- Close
Every week, Monday through Thursday, students will meet online for a live study group (LiftEd). This will be approximately 30–45 minutes depending on the level. It will be followed by a live zoom class (approximately 50 minutes). Classes begins the third week of August and goes through the end of the third week in May of each year. The entire school year calendar can be found here: https://ahsworldwide.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/LIftED-22-23-Scope-and-Sequence.pdf
All children will join their respective groups at 9:00 AM, your continental US time zone Monday through Thursday.
Although students will not be required to complete LiftEd assignments and projects to join their live zoom class, we strongly encourage and incentivize this behavior. During this pilot year of LiftEd, we are adding a very exciting element to the live zoom classes that focuses squarely on production/project-based learning experiences that we we’ll be working on and sharing during this live class. Parents will have access to all the videos their students create of their personal work and will have the ability to give feedback, reactions, record videos back to students, and post grades (some of this functionality will not be available until after the beginning of the school year).
Currently the vast majority of our students live in the continental US, so we will be supporting access to LiftEd live zoom classes at a convenient time (9:00 and 10:00 AM, respectively) for each of these four continental US time zones. As LiftEd enrollment grows internationally, we will continue to add additional times that are equally or more convenient for these families.
When enrolling in the live zoom classes through LiftEd, you agree to pay for the entire school year (12-month billing). We hire, train, and commit to coaches for the full school year based on the initial enrollment demand for this service. The cost of a coach doesn’t change based on fluctuating enrollment, so to mitigate this risk, we require a 12-month (or annual beginning in 2023–24) agreement for the live zoom class enrollment.
LiftEd live zoom classes are not designed for “fly-on-the-wall” viewing and participation. During these classes we are discussing, sharing, playing games, competing, and celebrating learning in highly participatory ways. Therefore, we don’t post recordings. The LiftEd instructional videos and learning modules are available for students to watch at any time after the lesson of the day goes live.
No. This would be disruptive to the coach and class. If students miss their class they will not fall behind, because theses classes are not the primary academic experience of LiftEd. The primary academic learning is achieved by completing coursework inside LiftEd, either with their study group, or independently. Keeping up with this content will allow a student to miss class but stay on track and pacing with their classmates.
That’s the plan, and even as early as the 2023–24 school year. We will likely add a Spanish and Portuguese offering first, with other languages following. If you are interested in joining in another language, please email Nate Clark (nclark@ahsworldwide.org).
It is very important that we keep each group to approximately 100. Therefore, families will choose an hour that works best for them for the duration of the school year. Changes from one session to another may be possible (not guaranteed) throughout the year for unusual circumstances, but switching from one class to the next each week is not possible. Furthermore, the relationship classmates form is a very important component of what the live zoom classes provide to students. Moving through the year with a specific class encourages stronger student sharing and participation, as well as, stronger relationships developed between students and their Learning Coaches.
LiftEd live zoom class enrollments are student-specific. Each students fills a “seat” and therefore each needs to have their own enrollment.
We will enroll an average of 60 students in each live zoom class. Conversely, study groups consist of approximately 20 student per group. The live class is a lively discussion and experience that lends itself to much larger groups. Even in groups of 100 (what we’ve done for the past three years), Coaches are able to effectively engage students in sharing and discussing. However, we will experiment with significantly smaller classes during the 2022–23 LitfEd pilot responding to feedback from parents who have requested smaller class sizes.
LiftEd live zoom classes will be grouped using the same grade ranges as LiftEd—Level 1 (early elementary); Level 2 (upper elementary); Level 3 (middle school). Importantly, parents will choose what level is right for each child.
There are a few rules we have put in place for these classes so that they’ll be safe, orderly, educational and fun!
- Every student needs to use a device with a camera to join the class and must have their video on for the entire class. This helps us make sure only registered students attend class and helps facilitate participation and new friendships.
- In general we do not allow students to turn on virtual backgrounds or foregrounds (virtual hats, sunglass, facial hair etc.) The only exception is if the coach invites students to use them for a special occasion.
- Student may only unmute themselves when they’ve raised their virtual zoom hand and their coach calls on them, or gives them permission to unmute without raising their hand. There may be needed exceptions to this, such as when the coach is talking but doesn’t realize he or she is muted.
- In order to maintain an uplifting atmosphere we require students to follow the For Strength of Youth pamphlet.
- Bullying, swearing, or other disrespectful or inappropriate language is not tolerated in LiftEd.
When a student chooses not to follow any of these rules they will likely be removed from the zoom call for the day.
HS INDEPENDENT STUDY (9-12)More Info >
- The name AHS Online will be retired. High school courses are now offered as part of AHS Worldwide’s High School Program.
- All courses are a la carte, with “For-Credit” and “Non-Credit” options.
- All courses are independent study. Families who want live class experiences with the courses can arrange for their own coach (organize a group, facilitate their own live class, or sign up with a vetted coach). AHS Worldwide will publish live-class offerings from vetted coaches, and families who want to join those classes will pay these coaches directly. Grading is separate from coaching. All grading is handled by AHS Worldwide for all for-credit courses, regardless of whether the student is attending a live class or not.
- Middle School math and language arts will be available. For history and science, students are recommended to our Level 3 courses in the LiftEd platform.
- High School courses will still be offered through Canvas until we have transitioned them to the LiftEd platform.
AHS Online (7-12) (Old 2022-2023) |
HS Independent Study (9-12) (2023+) |
|
|---|---|---|
| For-Credit Cost (per course/semester) | $330 | $195 |
| Non-Credit Cost (per course/semester) | $100 | $49 |
| Cost full time | $4,290 | |
| Grading/Feedback | ||
| Accredited | ||
| A-la-carte | ||
| Full Time | ||
| Tech Support | ||
| High School | ||
| Middle School | ||
| Coach Support | ||
| Diploma |
- All courses in the 2022-2023 school year will remain the same.
- The final enrollment for current MyPace classes is February 28th, 2023.
- Enrollment in AHSW Independent Study courses begins early summer.
- Yes. The following courses will no longer be offered:
- Foreign Languages
- Pre-Calculus
- Computer Science: Python
- Computer Science Discoveries
- Middle School courses (except for math and language arts)
- All our courses are accredited and can be taken for credit, which can then be transferred with an official AHS transcript.
- Yes! Our courses are based on curriculum developed over years of success. We use the same methods as our brick-and-mortar campuses.
- Additional high school and middle school courses are in development which utilize the capabilities of the LiftEd platform to create an experience designed specifically to connect students with family, expert teachers, and a network of peer learners.
- AHS includes teachings of the restored gospel throughout our academic curriculum.
- We provide a transcript showing all credit received.
- If you are an enrolled AHSO student planning to graduate in the 2023-2024 school year, you can still graduate with an AHS diploma. We will meet further to discuss the details and review your special offerings.
- Announcements of graduation requirements and diploma services for students graduating in 2025 and beyond are forthcoming.
- New students must fill out a brief application online and sign a commitment to our honor code.
- There will be an application fee of $25.
- AHS Worldwide offers middle school courses (including Math and Language Arts starting in fall 2023) in parent-led format through The Family School, and student-directed courses through the LiftEd and Canvas platforms.
- In the 2023-2024 year, student-directed Math and Language Arts will be offered on Canvas, while Humanities and Science will be offered on the LiftEd platform.
- Student-directed courses in the LiftEd platform will have an expanded Middle School offering called Impact, which engages students in a hands-on, production-based experience of personal development, applied research, and entrepreneurship.
- Math and language arts are available as a parent-led option through the family school.
- Non-Credit independent study courses have a base cost of $49, with an additional cost of $35 for Math and $49 for science classes.
- This option includes student access to course materials for 6 months.
- For-Credit independent study courses have a base cost of $195, with an additional cost of $35 for Math and $49 for
- This option includes homework grading, feedback, and accredited transcript services.
- Depending on the classes, the cost will be approximately $1484 per semester.
- No, there is no designation for full-time vs. part-time students.
- All classes are now less expensive than in former years.
- All classes are now considered independent study and are offered on an à la carte basis.
- You will have the option to share your contact information with other families, either in your geographic area or more broadly, for the purpose of forming study groups, live class groups (groups arrange for their own coach), etc.
- You may join our Facebook group for the Independent Study program to interact with other parents.
- Students will communicate with and receive feedback from their graders through the course interface (Canvas).
- Course material is currently delivered through the Canvas Learning Management System. Homework submission and grading also take place on Canvas.
- No. You will have 6 months to complete an independent study course.
- They will need to pay for the course again and repeat the course.
- Courses will be available for enrollment in the summer.
English Writing
- Written Portfolio: Effective Essays
- Written Portfolio: Narrative’s Flow and Structure
- Written Portfolio: Persuasion with Style
- Written Portfolio: Technical Tools
- Senior Thesis (1 full credit)
English Literature
- Examining Conscience (Sem 1 & 2)
- Moral Aptitude (Sem 1 & 2)
History
- Contemporary to Modern (Sem 1 & 2)
- US History: The Founding Era (Sem 1 & 2)
- History: Ancient Rome, Christianity, and the Apostasy (Sem 1 & 2)
- US Government and Economics
- Constitutional Studies
Science
- Biology (Sem 1 & 2)
- Chemistry (Sem 1 & 2)
- Physics (Sem 1 & 2)
Math
- Pre-Algebra (Sem 1 & 2)
- Algebra 1 (Sem 1 & 2)
- Algebra 2 (Sem 1 & 2)
Electives
- Business Technology
- Financial Literacy
- Family Science (Sem 1 & 2)
- Health (Sem 1 & 2)
- Experiential Learning
Middle School
- Literature
- Math 7
- Not at this time.
- No. We will provide a list of tutors that you may contact privately if you would like to set up tutoring for your student, at your own cost. Like with other academic support services (live class, one-on-ones), we encourage families to seek these independently if desired.
- Yes. Information is forthcoming for those wishing to graduate in 2025 or after.
Parent-led is a term used to define homeschooling in the traditional sense of the word, where the parent is the teacher of all content. As the roles of home education are changing, AHS Worldwide seeks to meet parents who need to be the guide or simply be well-connected with the learning happening online and with AHS teachers and mentors—thus the addition of student- and teacher-led offerings now in development.
Go to FamilySchoolOnline.org to login to your personal dashboard, view your calendar, courses, update your account, and more!
Yes, by using the site search engine. You can search our entire site by keyword and you will find results including lessons, websites, videos, worksheets, articles, diagrams – anything that we have curated to our site.
Your Family School membership includes full access to our PreK–8 curriculum, which includes science, literature, art, music, geography, and history (math and language arts added for this year for opt-in pilot use, only)! It also includes the full HeartStart Preschool curriculum, daily “Seize the Day” mini-lesson, “In the Constitution” Bee course, and Foundations lessons that teach our methodology, and 1000’s of resources.
The Free membership gives you full access to three of our courses, one in each of our three age groups:
- HeartStart preschool – “I am a Child of God”
- Elementary (K-8) – “Zoology”
- High School – “U.S. History”
You will also have access to our daily “Seize the Day” mini-lesson, one free Family School lesson a week, plus free access to thousands of supporting resources from our Freely Learn search engine. The courses are available to you already loaded on your Dashboard under “My Courses”. You can see the other courses that are available with a paid membership under “Courses” on the left side of the page.
Simply click on “My Account” from your dashboard after logging in. Then click on the “Update to Full Access” button inside your current members box.
Heartstart Preschool
You decide! Have a look at the lessons and evaluate if your child is ready for HeartStart Preschool. All memberships to HeartStart are for life, so there is no risk if you purchase it and do not end up using it as much as you had planned initially.
We are not likely to produce teacher videos for HeartStart Preschool. At this age, a parent’s involvement is most necessary to facilitate the tactile experiences used throughout this resource.
I Master Math
It is a mastery-based program where students will master an essential skill in each lesson.
No, I Master Math is not based on a spiral review. Instead, student progress will be seen on a continuum. When one essential skill is mastered, the student will be taken to the next level or lesson where they work on mastery of the next skill within that unit/domain.
In the next version, or in LiftEd, if the student does not master the specific skill contained in the lesson, they will be direct to a previous lesson that reinforces/reteaches the concept they are missing.
I Master Math is not aligned with Saxon for several reasons:
- Saxon methods don’t always work well in an independent learning environment.
- The “drill and review” methods tend to burn out children, and parent can’t keep up with all that is required.
- Saxon was written for the classroom and not the individual student.
- With Saxon, the student can’t progress at their own pace. It will take them longer to master an entire concept due to the incremental approach.
- Saxon is highly repetitive. The student takes longer to progress due to all of the repetition.
- Saxon material is hard to find. They aren’t printing new materials anymore.
- Saxon has very specific copyright laws that are hard to work with.
We went through a specific process of finding a curriculum. First, we analyzed what has been taught at the American Fork campus. Next, we researched other homeschooling materials. In addition, we looked at what public schools are using. In our research we found that the state of Virginia did years of research before coming up with the standards of learning for math. Further in our research, we discovered that Virginia’s students consistently score highly in math when compared to other states in the nation and it was not a common core curriculum. The Virginia standards became the most instructive to us as we put together our scope and sequence.
This pilot version will be a parent-led program. In coming years, it will be student-facilitated—with the exception of younger grades who will always need parent guidance. We are encouraging parent feedback to make necessary changes to the next versions which will be on LiftEd.
Yes, all levels contain five domains or areas.
- Number Sense (quantities, comparing, ordering, relationships between numbers)
- Computation and Estimation (all operations +, –, ×, ÷, decimals, fractions, practical applications)
- Measurement and Geometry (money, calendar, time, US customary system, metric system, shapes, angles, perimeter, area, volume, surface)
- Probability and Statistics (probability, graphs, tables, charts, etc.)
- Algebraic Thinking (patterns, sorting, classifying, equality, equations, variables, expressions, linear functions and equations)
Yes, check out the I Master Math Scope and Sequence.
- K-8 Math curriculum will be available on Family School and accessed there.
- 7 practice problems per lesson
- Divided by rigor along Webb’s Depth of Knowledge.
- Level 1 problems: Recall and Reproduction
- Level 2 problems: Skills and Concepts
- Level 3 problems: Strategic Thinking
- Divided by rigor along Webb’s Depth of Knowledge.
- Interactive formative questions
- Enrichment Activities
- Placement tests not available for pilot year
I Master Math can be accessed on the Family School for 22-23. For 23-24, it will be on LiftEd.
We gathered a team of experts in the field of mathematics teaching from all over the country. Their qualifications are both education and experience in the classroom. Several of our writers are teachers from the state of Virginia who are well versed in the standards that guided our curriculum. We also have a team of PhD-educated advisors who have provided feedback on the content of every lesson.
- Title of the lesson is the “I can” statement which identifies the skill that will be mastered.
- Preparation: what specific materials will be needed,
- lesson resources including practice problems and handouts for parents to print
- vocabulary words specific to the lesson
- Math in my world: how this concept relates to the child’s real world.
- Lesson section: concept is taught using an example that “we work through together” then a “try it on your own” question with drop down answer.
- All answers include a detailed explanation of how to solve the problem. It is a “walk through” example outlining the student thinking—how to solve the problem and get the correct answer.
- Sum it up section: Summarizes the essential skill taught and leaves the student with a challenge to apply the essential skill.
- Practice Problems. Called DOK’s or Depth of Knowledge questions based on Blooms Taxonomy.
- DOK 1 (3 of them) represent simple recall and reproduction. Fill in the blank, multiple choice
- DOK 2 (3 of them) represent higher level thinking. Compare/contrast, true/false with explanation, finding the error in an example problem.
- DOK 3 (1 of them) represent strategic thinking. Drawing conclusions, using the concept taught in their problem. These problems have more than one answer and allow for the student to draw upon skills learned in the lesson and apply to a situation.
- Each lesson has a practice key that provides detailed explanation for the answer to the problem. Parents do not have to know how the problem is solved. They can refer to the key and the detailed explanation for solving the problem.
- Activities: Engaging, fun activities where student can apply concept learned in an exciting way. (printable).
No, there will not be placement test for the first version. We will have a placement test for the coming version of LiftEd.
Your child can move as quickly as he/she wants after obtaining mastery of the skill listed in each lesson.
Yes, physical manipulatives will need to be purchased for the younger grades, i.e. Kindergarten and First grade. These manipulatives will include an abacus, linking cubes, and number cards. For all other grades, manipulatives are parent-friendly and easy to obtain (ruler, coins, etc.). In many lessons, there are printable manipulatives for ease of the parent.
Yes, the lessons have images to help teach the concepts. In younger levels, there are more images to help keep the student engaged. In the older levels, there are more math-type images (graphs, number lines, etc.)
This pilot version will not include unit or domain tests. Assessments will appear in the next version on LiftEd.
The main difference between Saxon and I Master Math is the teaching approach. Saxon takes an incremental approach where the concepts taught are divided into smaller chunks and scattered across the level. This approach can hinder the development of a unified view of a specific area and forces students to memorize rules without tying them together into a whole concept. I Master Math takes the student completely through a concept within the unit. Teaching is this way allows them to “tie together” whole concepts.
Other differences include the number of practice problems per lesson. In Saxon, among the 20 to 30 total problems per lesson, only 2 or 3 problems pertain to the lesson. The rest of the Saxon practice problems are a review of the previous 5+ lessons. I Master Math will have all 7 practice problems pertain to the essential skill being taught.
Saxon and I Master Math will align similarly. However, I Master Math will be more rigorous in that the concepts will be taught in earlier levels.
I Love Language
We are very excited to announce that our Language Arts program for Levels K-8 will be called “I Love Language.” We chose this because our program is fun and engaging and will make students walking away loving Language Arts.
We based our standards on the Virginia State Standards because they were higher level thinking. As a team, we are doing extensive research on the best methods to teach Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. We have an incredible team that has a lot of experience and education behind them to better enhance our Language Arts Program and make it better for the students.
There are 3 domains that we focus on in the daily lessons: Reading, Written Language, Speaking and Listening. Within each of these major domains, there are essential skills. Under our Reading Domain, we are including essential skills for Phonics/Phonemic Awareness, Fluency, and Comprehension. Under our Written Language Domain, we have Spelling, Grammar, and Writing. Finally, under the Speaking and Listening and we are focusing on Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary, and Memorizations.
Our Spelling is part of a Phonics Based Spelling program. All the phonics/phonemic awareness lessons will teach foundational concepts and skills that will help them with their spelling. The spelling practice in each lesson supports the phonics/phonemic awareness part of each lesson. Students will have weekly spelling assessments. The words will represent the phonics concept they are learning that week. This will help with student mastery of foundational phonic/phonemic skills they need to understand instead of memorizing a word list each week.
All lessons will be available on Family School. This pilot year will be Parent led. Our hopes are that you will give support if needed. Minimal prep is needed for each lesson.
Placement tests will not be available 2023-2024. We encourage you to place your child in the level that they would be for their age.
All materials are printable. We encourage you to keep a binder with the different subjects and store the practice sheets in it for reference in the future as well as a keepsake of all that your student learned that year. Levels K-1 will have printable readers that will support the daily lessons. Levels 2-3 will have passages that also support the lessons learned. Levels 4-8 will have a list of literature that can be purchased or checked out at a local library that goes with each of the units.
We will not offer a handwriting course this year for any levels. However, levels K and 1 will talk about letter formations at the beginning of the year and have practice sheets to help students learn those basic writing skills.
