Moving Beyond the Page: Home School Curriculum Review
Moving Beyond the Page curriculum forces thought. I have tried products before that claim to reinforce either creative or critical thinking, only to be disappointed in their awkward approach and overall failure. This program approaches thinking in a logical way, and forces the children to bend their mind in different directions. My creative kids love the assignments that are open-ended and the student must figure out the details. My not-as-creative kids don’t like these type of assignments much, but it really helps them exercise a weakness that would not get much practice inside most boxed curriculum. These assignments do not come up so often that is becomes too frustrating for the kids who struggle with it.
Moving Beyond the Page covers topics in depth. Depth inspires the desire for further knowledge and teaches us how much we do not know. Many boxed programs copy the school based curriculum and skim over many subjects. Kids don’t like skimming, they want to dive, and I want to dive with them. I want them learning so much about every topic, I am also learning a new thing or two, this helps me love teaching, which is an important ingredient in every successful home school.
Moving Beyond the Page covers multiple learning styles. I love the variety of projects, I feel this curriculum does justice to the different pathways of learning. Kinesthetic, auditory, and visual kids, will all come across assignments they love, while also having to work on learning in their less preferred pathways. I believe this only adds to the synapse action going on in the brain and is a holistic approach that I have had trouble finding before Moving Beyond the Page.
The curriculum is full of fun projects. I have always felt fun is an important ingredient in learning. Reading about the brain and learning has only reinforced this long held belief. Dopamine is created when you are having fun and dopamine increases attentive focus and memory function.
The creators of Moving Beyond the Page really understand how children are wired to learn, and design lessons in a way that keeps their enthusiasm up while they work on progressing in skills. They also understand that kids learn at their own pace and they provide two options for many assignments, so you can choose the correct difficulty for your child.
The biggest con for this curriculum is the price of the complete package. You can work around this by buying many of the books used, or checking them out at your local library. The curriculum can be purchased in a variety of different pieces, so you can try out just one unit, or use it for just one subject.
Occasionally they have crafts or projects that seem a bit too complicated for the age the curriculum is written for, I see this more often in the younger age groups. There are also occasionally projects with rather odd assumptions about what supplies you have laying around the house. Because of this we occasionally skip a project.
The company responds very quickly when you need customer service and is always very appreciative of feedback.
Have you heard of Moving Beyond the Page? Do you use Moving Beyond the Page? I am happy to answer questions in the comments.
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[…] This is a review of an online Christian curriculum resource, Schoolhouse Teachers. If you are secular you can skip this and stay tuned for my upcoming review of Moving Beyond the Page. […]