My Review for Head Of The Class

Some of you may have remembered I posted about us beginning to use Head of the Class. Well we have been using it since January, and I thought I would share my thoughts so anyone else who has thought about using it, could get some feedback.

First off I am no way being paid for this, nor was I asked to do it. I found Head of the Class over Christmas break. Because it was free, I thought we would try it when we started back to school. Even though we were already halfway through our school year, and other curriculum lessons, we started it anyways. DJ stopped using it after about two months. Not because I didn't like the program, but because it was too much for him with his other lessons. So he won't be doing it at all anymore. Caitlin however, has finished 30% of the first grade lessons. Now that her regular school lessons are over, that were planned by me, she will focus on finishing first grade over the summer. She does about an hour a day, four days a week. At this pace she should have it done by the start of the second grade school year in September. That means she will have completed two full first grade curriculums this school year. Whew! She will be using Head of the Class second grade, as her main curriculum for next year. Head of the Class states that it is a six month program to complete, so she will have plenty of time.

Now for the meat of the program. At first it seemed too easy, and not a challenge at all. However, now I can say that is not true. The first grade math especially is a challenge, and I could even say hard. However, Caitlin and I are working through it, and she is doing quite well. They do not do sight words, which is OK, because you can copy them to flash cards from other sights, and do them with your child. Caitlin has already mastered first grade sight words. For first grade a lot of the lessons so far have covered spelling. Not sight word spelling though. Spelling of various phonics like blends, vowels, etc. This has expanded her reading vocabulary a lot, and I am very pleased with the results. They also cover Science, Reading, Social Studies, Art, Music, and even some Spanish. I am very very please so far with Head of the Class.

Not only is Head of the Class free, but there is a forum where you can make suggestions, or ask questions. There are links to the resources they use to make their lessons. Also of importance is the fact that the website works smoothly every time we use it, and has never been down even one day. Your child learns at their own pace, and you can repeat lessons, or skip lessons if you choose to do so. It has both printable lessons as well as online interactive lessons. There are skills assessments for your child to take and I believe you can print them for your records. I have not done that yet, because we have not completed all the lessons yet.

For those of you who want religious type lessons, this may not be for you, however I do not find any lessons thus far that would be offensive to any particular religion. So far their lessons cover up to fifth grade, but they are going to be releasing sixth grade soon. If you need an elementary homeschool curriculum, or even extra work to public school lessons, check out Head of the Class.