PROGRAM Q&A

Through our Homeschool Solutions online learning program, we aim to offer an educational resource that can truly benefit the homeschooling community. The curriculum content is made up of reliable online resources, compiled by expert educators. These resources support the learning goals for each unit of study. Unit goals are created by considering the essential content students need to thrive as well-educated, culturally-literate adults in today’s society.

However, education means so much more than simply acquiring information. In addition to sharing essential, foundational knowledge, we strive to support the development of key character traits and critical thinking skills that lead to lifelong success. All of our learning activities are designed with these goals in mind. Our activities encourage and support traits such as self-awareness, empathy, and creativity. They also heavily emphasize the development of key critical thinking skills including problem solving, forming and communicating opinions, and considering the perspectives of others. Throughout their experience with the Homeschool Solutions program, students are expected to summarize their learning, as well as reflect on their own thoughts and feelings about information, take the perspective of others, and produce creative works that reflect their learning. We’ve poured our hearts into creating a learning program that is meaningful, flexible, and fun for homeschooling students and parents alike!

Lighthouse Homeschool Solutions is an online learning program that is designed specifically for homeschooling families. This program can offer a great fit for families who enjoy engaging in learning activities together, benefit from some structure and guidance, but also require or appreciate flexibility in their learning program! This program provides specific learning goals for each unit of study, consolidates helpful online resources, and suggests activities that are designed to support the learning goals.

Families who can most benefit from this program are those who homeschool students in grades K through 12, and have an adult (parent or caregiver) who both oversees the homeschooling program and enjoys engaging in learning activities with the student!

Homeschooling can encompass a beautifully flexible range of content and learning modalities, and our Homeschool Solutions program design takes this into consideration. It is important to be aware that the recommended activities and learning resources available through our website are not based on meeting specific state standards or rooted in a particular curricular design. Rather, with the input of expert educators, we have consolidated readily available resources into units of study that lay out learning goals, recommended materials, learning activities with links to the recommended resources, and a final unit assessment. These units are conveniently formatted into early, intermediate, and advanced learning levels. While a learning path is provided, parents have the flexibility to choose the learning level, skim a topic by skipping activities, or delve more deeply by utilizing additional resources of their choosing, from the optional resources provided or from those of their own discovery! 

The format of the Homeschool Solutions program is intentionally consistent and predictable. Our units of study have been designed by educators who consider the essential content and skills needed to thrive as well-educated, culturally-literate adults in our society. Our units are not filled with unnecessary facts and figures, but rather they are designed around core knowledge and skills. Before engaging with the content found within the unit, students are asked to complete a pre-learning activity where they have an opportunity to share what they already know about a topic and identify what they hope to learn.

While engaging with the learning material, students will regularly summarize what they’ve learned and, even more importantly, they will think critically about what they’ve learned. With each activity, students will be asked to connect new information to past learning, develop and express opinions, and consider different perspectives. By consistently engaging in this process, with encouragement and support from their parents, students will become habitual critical-thinkers who can easily evaluate information as well as develop and express their own opinions. Additionally, at the close of each unit, student learning can be assessed through written and verbal explanation as well as visual and creative demonstration. This format of assessment allows students to express their knowledge in the most comfortable modality, or challenge themselves with something new! For example, to share what they’ve learned, students can pair an oral presentation with a painting they’ve created, or present an analytical essay along with a recording of a song they’ve written!

Our recommended resources and activities are composed of webpages, websites, articles, readers, and videos from trusted educational sources. Most frequently, parents and students will find that we provide links to resources from:

• Core Knowledge Foundation
• Khan Academy
• Crash Course
• Britannica School
• TedEd
• National Geographic
• PBS
• BBC
• Ancient History
• History for Kids
• History Channel
• Government Websites

Additionally, vetted resources from lesser known providers such as individual teachers, local magazines, and small filmmakers, will be included if they are considered to add particular value to meeting the learning goals of a unit. While we make an effort to provide honest and unbiased resources that are appropriate for each learning level, parents should consider sources and preview material to determine if the information provided aligns well with their own values and is appropriate for their child to read, hear, or view. Parents should also be prepared to pause an activity to discuss the ways in which the material provided does or does not align with the values and beliefs of their family, while hopefully also teaching their students to embrace diversity of thought and respect for the beliefs of others!

In the Homeschool Solutions program, there are no grades, nor requirements, and recommended activities and resources are loosely based on a student’s or parent’s selected level for that specific unit. Each unit contains three learning levels.

• Early Learning Level is designed for students with skills at approximately grades K-4.
• Intermediate Level is designed for students with skills at approximately grades 4-8.
• Advanced Level is designed for students with skills that are approximately grades 8-12.

However, there is nothing to stop a young student from engaging in advanced level activities, or an older student from following an early learning trajectory. In fact, this flexibility is encouraged in order to appropriately engage and challenge students who have areas of specific skill or interest, who are advanced learners, or who experience specific learning challenges.

While the Homeschool Solutions program is designed to support learners of all ages and learning levels, from kindergarten through high school, parents are expected to be learning with and supporting younger students. Parents should expect to read aloud, discuss, and share their own thoughts and feelings as they learn alongside their students! Activities are often written at a level where the parent or caregiver will need to explain the task to the student and possibly modify expectations, depending on the student’s skill level and the parent’s learning goals. 

In addition to supporting younger students, parents should plan to support and challenge students at all learning levels. In the Homeschool Solutions program, any reading task can be either read or listened to, and any writing task can be either handwritten, typed, or dictated. The primary goal of our program is to engage students in acts of learning that are informative, engaging, and enjoyable! Parents have the discretion of deciding how and when to challenge their students in order to increase their skills. Increasing expectations may mean:

• encouraging more independent reading aloud or independent silent reading
• encouraging more writing versus dictating
• expecting larger amounts of written information
• expecting greater adherence to conventions of print when writing
• increasing the complexity and depth of discussion and critical thinking responses
• increasing the depth of analysis presented in writing activities
• increasing the level of learning resources being used

Again, when and how to challenge the student is at the discretion of the parent or caregiver!

With our Homeschool Solutions program, we’ve provided tools for tracking student learning activities. These activities can be tracked via online submission forms, with handwritten documentation, or by using a combination of the two. Most frequently used should be the Learning Activity Submission. While parents can select how often they wish for students to submit an assignment explaining what they’ve learned, this activity is recommended frequently throughout the program. Students may be expected to submit an assignment several times a day. With each submission the student is asked to summarize what has been learned, connect new information to past learning, and provide a personal reflection on the learning activity. On this form, students should indicate the amount of time spent on the activity and attach any work such as art, writing, or video/audio files.

As part of their homeschool record keeping, parents should plan to use the Learning Activity Time Log to document their student’s weekly learning time in each core subject area. Along with the student’s activity submissions, which are emailed to the parent or caregiver upon completion, this time log should be kept as verification of ongoing learning. 

Additionally, a Pre-Learning Activity Submission is requested prior to the start of each unit and an Assessment Activity Submission is expected after completing the unit. The Pre-Learning Activity helps the parent to determine the student’s learning path (Early, Intermediate, or Advanced), while the Assessment Activity Submission helps the parent to determine the extent to which the student has met the goals of the unit. Links to these submissions, as well as printable hard copies, are provided on the Homeschool Solutions website.

We love the Lighthouse homeschooling curriculum. It is easy to use and the content has been exceptional. I never thought I would homeschool, let alone enjoy it and I have to say I am truly enjoying working with my daughter on this program. As a busy, working mom of 3, I needed a program that we could do when it worked for us and a program that made learning fun, engaging, enjoyable and had thoughtful curriculum. Thank you Lighthouse for making this a smooth process and I am excited for how much my daughter will learn this year!

Lauren (homeschooling a fourth-grade student)

As a parent, I have enjoyed the Lighthouse Homeschool program. I’ve found it easy to navigate and understand. Working closely with my daughter has been fun and rewarding as we explore the curriculum together. The subject materials and tools that Lighthouse has available have been organized perfectly for my family’s learning style. As well, the clarity of the unit goals and the ease of the submission forms has helped my daughter retain and express what she learns during class.

Jon (homeschooling a second-grade student)

The program is designed by educators who are also parents and they created this with their own families in mind. As a working mom, I appreciate having everything organized in one place so we can just begin to learn instead of searching the internet for topics and materials. It provides us with a solid plan. Less stress for me and more fun for my daughter.

Lisa (homeschooling a fifth-grade student)

We have been blessed with this program, the girls love the course material and we are really discovering so much on our homeschooling adventure.

Jessica (homeschooling third-grade twins)

I think that it is amazing to do homeschooling with Lighthouse Homeschool Solutions. They have taught me so much with videos and other activities…. It’s amazing to see how organized I am. They keep their website neat.

Daisy (second-grade student)