Switched On Schoolhouse Review:

Overview,  Strengths, Content, Weaknesses,

Video Links,  More Reviews, Improvements,  Cost

Alpha Omega’s Switched-On Schoolhouse  has won numerous awards. To learn more about the SOS awards, see our article on Switched on Schoolhouse Awards.

Overview

Alpha Omega first developed a workbook style homeschool curriculum called LifePac. Then in response to the upcoming need for a computer based homeschool curriculum, Alpha Omega built a software program based on the LifePac curriculum, but with additional interactive features that make such a curriculum desireable. Just as the LifePac workbooks are self-instructional, to a large extent Switched-On Schoolhouse, is also self teaching.

Switched-On Schoolhouse is available for grades 3 through 12 and is completely digitized with full-color graphics, videos, sound, a text-to-speech option,internet excursions, and many other features. Web links for more information are supplemental to the curriculum, so an internet connection is optional. The linked sites may be interesting and offer more learning. One note though, if you have an internet connection the curriculum can be automatically updated which is very helpful.

Strengths of Switched on Schoolhouse:

Independence: The most often stated strength is that SOS allows children to work on their own. Many children thrive with this independence, but some children will not. If your child is not prone to independence, you will need to “sit in” on part of each lesson and be involved. Once your child gets going on certain parts, you might leave and come back later to check and encourage. You could try working for more and more independence over time.

Make no mistake about it though, for most students, parents must be intimately involved with their children’s education. Using a self-teaching curriculum like Switched on Schoolhouse does not supplant parents. For accountability, parents must see how the curriculum works and daily checkup on your students multiple times to make sure they are engaged and learning. The amount of time involved for the parent will certainly vary from family to family, but many of the problems that people have with the curriculum may be non-existent if parents are more involved.

Many parents love SOS because it really allows students to work independently. I know that some parents choose this curriculum thinking that it will do the whole job of homeschooling their child. This is simply not possible unless you have a student that is extremely mature and serious about his/her studies. A student like that may not even like the definitive structure of SOS, and would likely be a good independent student no matter which curriculum they use.

Parental Controls-

Every parent will need to initially set up the program, customize lesson plans where needed, check on the progress of the student,which can be viewed in the teacher section, and evaluate the writing assignments. Additionally, parents can add supplemental lessons where needed within the SOS software program. Some of the highly acclaimed parental controls include:

  • Control over which lessons are to be assigned in which order
  • Controls how lenient or tough to be with spelling of answers
  • Control of grading format
  • Controls access to the internet
  • Parents can also set up their school calendar which allows the system to schedule each child’s progress rate. The computer will alert students when they are behind schedule.

Getting your first student’s  first course set up takes a little longer since you have to learn how it is done. But once you have set up one child and one course  on the program, it is so very easy to add more courses and students. Most parents like to stick to the basics in the beginning while getting used to the program. After using it for a while, you’ll be ready to try some of the  flexible features such as the ability to customizable calendar,  assignment options for students,  grading choices, or editing and creating subjects.

Covers Subject Material-
Focused: The lessons in each subject progress at a good pace. Time is not wasted  though games are used for reinforcement.
Immediate Feedback-
Answers given by the student are  followed by a verbal affirmation so the child knows how he is doing. (Some students dislack this audio response, so the program allows this to be turned off if you wish.)

Dictionary and Calculator available through the “resource center” …just a click away.

Placement Tests are available for core subjects on the AOP website.

Quality Design-
SOS is a professionally designed and has been greatly improved since the first editions of Switched-On Schoolhouse.

User Help Provided-
SOS includes a context-sensitive HELP file which is accessible by clicking F1.  Specific tutorials are available in the Teacher Mode.
Free technical support is available for SOS users for help either to set up or use.

Curriculum Content

SOS core subjects are Bible, Math, Language Arts, Science, and History/Geography. These courses can be purchased individually or as complete grade level sets.

Each subject follows the same general format. A topic is introduced. Students are given vocabulary words to learn. Activities and/or games help students to effectively master the vocabulary words. This is excellent because it makes a boring task fairly easily accomplish. If needed, you can print out the Vocabulary words with or without definitions for practice. Games for practicing and reinforcing material are built into the SOS lessons for math, geography, and vocabulary drill. If the games are not needed, a student can skip the game.

Students read each section of the lesson on screen. Then the student hits “Show problems” at the bottom to work through the comprehension activities. Question formats include: multiple-choice, sorting, fill-in-the-blanks,  and matching. Answers get immediate feedback, but students can not correct them until later. An important part of the program is that is goes back to the missed questions in order to give students another chance to get the right answer.

The section questions in all subjects except math allow students to scan the “text” material to figure out what the correct answer should be most of the time, but often students must read maps, make inferences, or interpret data to come up with the correct answers. Math programs require students to solve problems. If students miss questions, those that were answered incorrectly are presented again. Occasionally, hints are given such as revealing that the mistake was in the spelling or pointing out a map that can help.

The Quiz-When a student has answered the questions correctly for batch of lessons, they are ready to take the quiz. Parents can set the program so that the student cannot see the lesson material while taking a quiz. The “lesson in view” option enables students to leave or enter the quiz as often as they wish. This, of course gives them a chance to look for info that they do not know. Parents must decide whether to make quizes “open book” or not. Not all quiz responses are on computer. Some are to be written. Parents must score these written sections themselves. Parents are alerted to exercises needing their attention while in “teacher mode.” Normal exercises & quizzes are computer-scored although the parent can override the grading if needed (there is wonderful flexibility in this!).

The SOS curriculum is written with a non-denominational Protestant view and biblical concepts are found throughout all subjects, but less apparent in math.

Some features of each subject are..

Bible-
Good content
Scripture memorization
KJB or NASB version- You can choose either one
Geography -Map identification is part of questions/answers.

Language-
Reading skills
Grammar & Composition
Spelling and vocabulary
Writing projects (Give practice in more in depth writing since the other subjects only require short answers.)
Book reports (In grades 3-8)

History and Geography
The geography and map work are interspersed with the history lessons. Students can view an historical timeline through a link in their history studies.  Essays, reports, and special projects offer learning opportunities beyond the computer.

Science

Science Lessons
Experiments- many can be viewed on computer if you want to skip the activity. There is a great advantage though for students to participatein  scientific experiments which are an important part of the scientific method.
Essays
Observations (much of this is completed off computer.)

Math

(this section is still under contruction)

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Weaknesses or Problems:

Question and Answers deficiency-  We hope that as SOS is continually improved that each question and answer set will be examined and improved if needed. Many times, the requested answers  are highly debatable.  The parent can override any misunderstandings, but that means the parent has to spend more time checking up on the SOS grading. The automatic grading is of little value if you are having to correct it fairly often.  Also, some questions have little importance or may be deemed wrong by some students. All this to say, Alpha Omega needs to make a conscious effort to improve the question and quiz sections.  This would be a substantial improvement. Writing good test questions is not easy.
SOS runs only on Windows (minimum- Windows XP,Vista,or Windows 7).
Limits who can buy without investing in more computer equipment. Also, requires computer equipment to be current for the program to run well like for smooth viewing of videos and sound.

Overall-a non creative curriculum- Any computer curriculum is going to have this weakness to an extent. It must be highly structured to be a computer program. If having a highly creative curriculum is not particularly important to you,. Instead you want a curriculum with structure that enables you and your children to get school done at home, SOS may be choice to consider.

Videos  of  Switched on Schoolhouse-

Many videos that demonstrate Switched on Schoolhouse lessons and features are available for viewing on this website – Homeschool Software Curriculum

More Switched on Schoolhouse Reviews

Switched-On Schoolhouse Review at Best Homeschool Buys

Switched On Schoolhouse (SOS) Math Curriculum Review

SOS Opinions Reviews

Switched On Schoolhouse Review

Switched-on Schoolhouse Users Opinion

You can read SOS reviews from parents at homeschoolreviews.com. I’ll warn you now that some users love it and some hate it.  Overall, more positive than negative reviews. You must consider your own families learning styles,  needs, likes and dislikes, etc. as you read what families that use SOS have to say about it.

Improvements:

With each new edition, SOS continues to improve with each new edition that is released. This let’s us know that Alpha Omega cares about this homeschool program and wants to make it better. Users of the SOS curriculum should continue to point out glitches, mistakes, or any other problems with the curriculum and give AOP work out all the kinks. It is a better program today than it has ever been. Some of the old reviews on Switched on Schoolhouse bear criticisms that no longer applies, since the newer versions have corrected it. It is still not perfect and it will never be a creative curriculum since it is so very structured.

Recent Edition Improvements

Graphics

Games

Weblinks

Teacher search tool

Customizable subject reports

Ability to zero out a lesson

Print cabability for lessons, problems, assignments, and records (Alpha Omega is trying to provide parents with what they need for homeschooling. )

Text-to-speech – choose from various electronic voices to hear the passage read aloud

Highlighting text capability

Attendance tracking and reporting

Transcript template

Cost:

Core Set of 5 subjects:                      $419.95  or (15% off in May $356.96 )

Each Course bought separately:  $89.95    or   (15% off in May$76.46)

We hope to continue to update this review of this popular home school curriculum that will help homeschooling families determine if the Switched-on Schoolhouse curriculum is a good fit for their family.

This page is still under construction.