FAQs

This is very hard to articulate in writing, but it works! For starters, we don’t speak directly to children younger than 5 for the most part. Many join, freely, and you’d be surprised how much they pick-up. Watching middle school, upper elementary, and lower elementary ages contribute and share together is quite an incredible thing. Some share more than others, and that totally fine. This happens in every classroom. Most who have used Family School in their home understand this one-room schoolhouse concept quite well, but much of this is only appreciated and understood through the experience. Suffice it to say, it works well, and better for most children for subjects that are non-leveled, like history, science, geography, and so on. Older children modeling for younger—younger children looking up to older ones. You just have to see this one to believe it!

Our Power Hour start date will be Monday, August 23, and the end date will be Friday, May 20, 2022. For a detailed schedule, see the Calendar page. We will be following the American Heritage School calendar for the major holidays.

The schedule will be based on the number of enrolled students and what each family’s preferred time is. We will work hard to accommodate each families schedule as best we can with a sign-up sent each August to all families who have children who are enrolled. We anticipate an option during most, if not all, hours of the typical school day (9:00-9:50, 10:00-10:50, and so on). It is very possible we’ll have multiple classes at the same time if interest for a particular hour is especially popular.

Students will not be required to complete assignments for Power Hour. We will have several incentives and the format of the Power Hour will strongly encourage completing assignments or activities for each lesson. Students have a LOT of autonomy for if and how they demonstrate mastery of lesson concepts and principles prior to the Power Hour discussion. During Power Hour, the learning coach will not give assignments. They will allow students to share the assignments, and activities pertaining to the respective lesson that they completed and discuss their work as time permits, but will not make new assignments or give grades.

• History: Restoration, Expansion, and Civil War
• Science: Zoology
• Geography: South America
• Literature: Strengthening Character
• Art: The Reformation & Dutch Golden Age
• Music: Impossible to Silence

Please go to https://familyschoolonline.org/category/k-8 to view each course.

We will have several sessions for Power Hour and at various times throughout the day. Most will track a normal school day in the US, to accommodate all US time zones with a variety of options. However, as enrollment increases worldwide, we will add Power Hour sessions as soon as it is financially feasible.

We are producing comprehensive, leveled math and language arts curriculum for levels Pre-K through Grade 6.  We say “comprehensive” because few language arts programs are. Most are reading/writing or spelling/vocab or writing/grammar, but few combine all disciplines of language arts into one “comprehensive” curriculum. Also, importantly, these will include a LOT more than just curriculum, which is also not very common for homeschool math and language arts programs. For example, the math curriculum will not just include all the teacher and student resources, handouts, worksheets, and problem sets needed, but it will utilize the very best education technology to allow students to auto-assess for every lesson, unit, etc.; parents to track progress via online reporting, automated text/email messaging; schedule tutoring, if needed, and so on. Lastly, both resources will include the very best of many of the most popular programs currently available, blended with what American Heritage School has tested and refined for over 50 years on-campus.

We have not decided how much math and language arts will be as an add-on for existing members or for a la carte access. As always, our non-profit, for-impact focus allows us to provide very affordable and accessible resources. Whatever the price, it will represent a significant cost savings for families compared to other similar programs in the industry—stronger resources for less!

Yes! All existing monthly and lifetime members through summer 2021 can access Power Hour teacher videos. New members after August 2, 2021, will no longer receive this benefit included with their monthly or lifetime Family School membership. The videos will only be available as part of the expanded AHS Online elementary service.

Yes. Power Hour is a teacher-to-student, Live service. Many confuse Power Hour with teaching the Family School lesson plans. We do not do this during Power Hour. Student come prepared to learn having already been taught the lesson by their parent or through the viewing of our new video-based, master-teacher lessons. They will learn a LOT, but it will be much more focused on their learning outcomes and experiences, rather than following a specific lesson plan. Our purpose is to connect students with each other and with excellent Learning Coaches, and to give them a platform for sharing, diving deeper, asking questions, discussion, and so on. We cap each Power Hour group at around 100 students (about 30 families). That way, Power Hour is a positive experience for each student and a manageable class for the learning coach. Power Hour is $25/month per student (ages 5 and up).

Absolutely! We have no agreements or contracts with anything that we provide, except for our diploma-granting middle and high school that has a teacher and support staff built each year based on student enrollment. If it’s not working, just log in to your account and remove your Power Hour enrollment.

Power Hour itself is a live-only class where K–8 students discuss, share, and learn together. The instructional videos students watch before coming together are recorded and viewable at any time. But we strongly recommended viewing them before Power Hour so the children can contribute to the live experience.

No, their Power Hour will be chosen by the family at the beginning of each school year. They will have a specific learning coach for the year and classes will be divided evenly to accommodate all students and to create a positive experience for all (students and teachers). We do not record and post discussions, but all lessons are, of course, recorded and viewable prior or after the Power Hour discussion. If students miss a Power Hour, they can always view and complete the lesson content, assignments, and activities at any time prior to the next lesson in order to not fall behind. If for some reason you schedule changes more permanently and you need to move to a different class/hour, however, we will do everything possible to move you to another class.

That is our plan! We likely will not have enough interest in any specific language for this coming year, but we hope to add Spanish and Portuguese, at minimum, for the 2021/22 school year.

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 Power Hour provides 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 the Learning Coaches.