I was a little nervous to try Power Homeschool for a few reasons. There is no free trial period. You must purchase the program (monthly or annual) to try it, but there is a 7 day trial period with a full refund. You can see from sample lessons on their website that the content is a bit dated. This is definitely not a deal-breaker, as good content and good teachers are timeless, but the videos are a bit lacking in technology. For some who want an accredited program, they will find that they must upgrade to the more expensive Acellus Academy, because Power Homeschool is not accredited.
My experience is Power Homeschool is with their 3rd and 7th grade levels. With Power Homeschool, a parent can pick up to seven courses for a student to take (with their $25/month program). Power Homeschool is self-paced, which is wonderful for homeschool parents and students. The lessons in a video format with friendly teachers giving lessons that range from 5-15 minutes and subsequent additional practice and quizzes. There are reviews, exams, and memorization drills to help them with concepts such as spelling words and multiplication facts.
Power Homeschool is that it tracks progress amazingly, simply, and straight-forward. I can jump online and in less than a minute, I know my sons progress and what he has/has not been up to, where his strengths are, and what he needs more practice with. Power Homeschool tracks classes, grades, and scores on assignments. While we do not have homeschool reporting in Texas, you could use the attendance reports that Power Homeschool provides to print out and satisfy requirements for states that require attendance records. You can register your student at any time. There is also a "pause" feature on the parent dashboard, so you can take the summer off or a long vacation and not pay the monthly subscription fee.
I did find the sign-up a bit confusing. You are assigned a log-in and given a password (via an email that will be sent to you), you must download an app on your computer, and then assign your child a "Gold Key Login." There was definitely little information given on the sign-up process and I just kind of pieced it all together to solve the mystery. Honestly, that was a major turn off and I was very concerned that the rest of the program was going to be equally Byzantine and confusing. But I am very glad I stuck it out.
While I do not use this for my high school age student (he mostly takes dual credit college classes at home), there is an abundant amount of classes for high school age students as well as some very interesting electives, including:
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Computer Science A
Business Management
Electrical Technology I
Electrical Technology II
HVAC-R I
HVAC-R II
Info Management I
Info Management II
Medical Terminology
Plumbing Technology I
Plumbing Technology II
Intro to Accounting
Principles of Business, Marketing, and Finance
Investigating Careers
College & Career Readiness
Instructional Standards in Education and Training
Mastering Microsoft Excel
Agriculture I
They also offer AP classes for all of the core class offerings and have every class that you would find in a traditional school setting.
Elementary and Middle school class selections are a bit more limited to the "Core classes" but you will still find a lot of electives and plenty to fill your child's schedule (remember, they can choose up to 7 classes, and with the $25 per month option, you are free to change classes or drop/add classes as many times as you would like).
Here is a sample list of some primary school electives:
STEM 1: Intro to Coding
STEM 2: JavaScript
STEM 3: Electronics and Coding
Elementary Ecology
Elementary Engineering
Foundations of Music
Social Emotional Learning – Elementary School
Discover Spanish
Overall, I am thrilled with my choice to free up some of my time and put a few of my children online for their classes. They are content and happy and typically finish up their lessons and work in less than 3 hours per day, which frees their time to enjoy their childhood and do the things that interest them. My only regret is not doing this sooner!
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