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School Districts Begin to Roll Out Reopening Plans—Parents Turn to Homeschooling

The Old Schoolhouse® sees a significant spike in the number of homeschooling families they serve.

GRAY, TN, USA, June 16, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ — Now that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has posted guidelines for the reopening of schools in the fall, school districts have begun to present parents with options, most of which are met with opposition. Parents in the Webster Central School District in New York are fuming as the Reopening Schools Task Force meetings are happening without the input of parents. Now that they have had a taste of what it’s like to have more control over their children’s education, they are not willing to give it up so easily. Though several states such as North Carolina, Virginia, and New Jersey have begun to outline reopening plans, many are vague and include phases or several possible options dependent upon certain factors. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom is unsure whether or not schools will meet in-person or virtually even though many parents are not satisfied with the virtual schooling that has been taking place over the past few months. In Maryland, virtual schooling caused an uproar when mother Courtney Lancaster shared that her 11-year-old son was met by the police for a weapons search in his room due to a concerned viewer of his Google Meet class. The weapon in question? A BB gun.

“Privacy and parental control are serious concerns for families at this time,” Gena Suarez, publisher of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine comments. “Additionally, the increase of regulations and new restrictions that are being put into place will be too overwhelming and stressful for many children.”

The regulations Suarez is referring to are the ones planning to be enforced in places such as New Albany, Ohio, where students will be forced to wear electronic beacons to track their location throughout the upcoming school year. Rather than waiting for definitive plans to be laid out in their home states or complying with these overreaching measures, parents are reaching out to the homeschooling community. In fact, a RealClear Opinion poll states that some 40 percent of parents are considering schooling from home even after the schools open back up.

It is no surprise then that Suarez has seen an uptick in subscribers to The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine during the COVID-19 pandemic. “There is a 57 percent increase in our magazine subscriptions compared to this same time last year,” Suarez confirms. The popular homeschooling magazine provides insight, support, and content relevant to homeschooling. This sudden spike in sales is in addition to a 17 percent increase on their homeschool curriculum platform, SchoolhouseTeachers.com.

Rather than waiting to see if their children will be allowed in the classrooms or on buses or to be a part of sports teams this fall, parents are considering taking the education of their children into their own hands by joining the 2.5 million students already homeschooling in the United States (NHERI.org). Parents seeking resources may visit TryHomeschooling.com which is available to any parent, regardless of educational background, to assist in homeschooling needs for children in grades PreK–12.

About The Old Schoolhouse®
The Old Schoolhouse® (www.theoldschoolhouse.com) is a privately held corporation that publishes the industry-leading homeschool education print magazine, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, as well as hundreds of books and planning support tools for homeschooling families. SchoolhouseTeachers.com, a division of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, supports over 9,000 member families, with more than 400 courses for preschool through high school, as well as educational videos, World Book Online, and planning and recordkeeping tools. Established in 2001, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is focused on providing high-quality, encouraging, affordable solutions for homeschooling families.

Paul and Gena Suarez
The Old Schoolhouse®
+1 888-718-4663
email us here
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Ninja Warrior Competitors Are Fighting the Negative Effects Covid-19 is Having on Our Kids

PRESS RELEASE  UPDATED: MAY 22, 2020

Kid Ninja Adventure Club Sneak Peak

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., May 22, 2020 (Newswire.com) – These are unprecedented times, and one resilient Alabama based business is going global and spreading love, fitness, and Ninja Warrior. Ninja Obstacle Academy Kids’ team of Ninja Warrior Coaches and past American Ninja Warrior TV Show contestants are now teaching kids, ages 3-7 & 8-12, how to be Ninjas &  stay in-shape online.

Ninja Obstacle Academy Kids’ new “Kid Ninja Adventure Club” is designed to help fight the negative effects that COVID-19 is having on our children. Much of the current public anxiety revolves around parents juggling working from home & homeschooling their children. There is also an absence of social interaction between children that normally comes from going to school. This is leaving many kids bored, acting out, and absorbing way too much non-beneficial screen time.

Couple this with the financial crisis hitting families hard and you have a lot of stress and unease in the typical American household.

“The decision to take our highly successful Ninja Obstacle Academy Training Program online was an easy one to make,” Co-Owner Justin Moore says. “Our mission is to enrich the lives of kids by introducing a fun way to exercise and get in great shape.  Expanding our footprint to the entire nation is just another way we can give back and impact as many children’s lives as possible.”

This online program enables kids and parents all across the world to stay active at home and train to become Ninja Warriors without leaving their living rooms.

It only costs $9 a month for entire families to join and they can cancel at any time. Justin Moore, Co-Owner explains, “The price is intentionally low because we want any family who wants to participate to be able to afford it. Our mission is to empower kids and impact lives, not to pad our pockets.” 

Kids and families can access the entire program online from any device, anywhere, and anytime. The video training is also designed so kids can participate without the need for any extra equipment.

Ninja Obstacle Academy’s physical location is in Huntsville, AL and was founded in 2016. The Academy coaches over 500 kids and adult Ninja Warrior enthusiasts every week and hosts an additional 5,000 kids per year with camps and parties.

Enrollment in the program is open now. For more information about the Kid Ninja Adventure Club, families can visit KidNinjaClub.com/press-release to learn more or to sign up.

For more information about the Kid Ninja Adventure Club or if you have any questions for the Ninja Obstacle Academy team, please contact Chris Moore, Co-Founder at chris@ninjaobstacleacademy.com.

Source: Ninja Obstacle Academy Kids

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Homeschool Buyers Co-op is set to revolutionize homeschooling with artificial intelligence

NEW YORK, April 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Homeschooling is set to be revolutionized by artificial intelligence, as US homeschoolers are offered use of the world’s leading AI learning engine for the first time.

Families can now access a low-cost AI teaching assistant that automatically grades, plans work and personalizes learning for children.

The world’s largest buying club for homeschoolers, Homeschool Buyers Co-op, has announced a new premium curriculum collection, Virtua. Teaming up with British AI pioneers CENTURY Tech, they have developed the program’s cornerstone curriculum Virtua School – a bespoke AI-powered learning platform for US homeschoolers. Having worked with thousands of families and schools across the world, CENTURY has used its educational expertise to develop a new AI platform tailored specifically to the needs of homeschooling families.

Available to try for just $1, Virtua School offers learners the latest in adaptive learning technology for learners from grades 2 to 10. It provides children with learning content most appropriate to their individual needs while equipping parents with data on their child’s learning to empower them to make the best educational choices for their learners.

Virtua School goes beyond meeting the needs of each child and supports the home educator with automated, real-time grading, recommended activities to identify gaps or challenges students and robust reporting. It allows home educators to agilely tailor to the needs of each child.

Jae Choi, CEO of Homeschool Buyers Co-op, said:

“Virtua School offers incredible educational content for students, but it goes so much further by serving as a virtual ‘teacher’s aid’ to home educating parents. The support it provides parents, who are often overlooked in the home homeschool ecosystem, is unparalleled. We are excited to offer a tool that enhances the homeschool experience for the entire family.”

Eugene Dapper, a parent using the platform, said:

“The AI that the learning platform provides is outstanding, it identifies gaps in my child’s learning and then targets those areas before they tackle future learning. My 8-year-old has found this both enjoyable and challenging, and it helps me to help her. This will definitely become part of our household learning for years to come.”

Priya Lakhani OBE, Founder CEO of CENTURY Tech, whose AI will power Virtua School, said:

“AI is proving a game-changer for children’s learning across the world. Homeschoolers can now reap the vast benefits of AI, from personalization to automated grading and planning.”

CENTURY Tech works with thousands of schools and families across the world, from world-leading independent schools to entire school systems. Founded in 2013 by Priya Lakhani OBE, CENTURY’s technology has won numerous educational awards, including the MIT Solve, CogX Innovation, EdtechX and Reimagine Education Awards. 

Notes to editors:

  1. What is Virtua School?
    Virtua School is a new learning platform powered by CENTURY, a unique, award-winning teaching and learning AI platform. The platform uses learning science, artificial intelligence and neuroscience to create constantly adapting pathways for students and powerful assessment data for parents.
  2. How does Virtua School work?
    Virtua School works in three ways:
    1.  The artificial intelligence engine creates personalized learning pathways that plug gaps in knowledge and remedy misconceptions.
    2.  Easy-to-use data dashboards help parents to guide their children through their learning. Areas where the child requires additional support or challenge are quickly identified.
    3.  Families are provided with thousands of high-quality resources for use in a variety of learning models.
  3. How does Virtua School’s AI work?
    Virtua School‘s artificial intelligence learns how students learn, adapts to their strengths and weaknesses and constantly adjusts to provide the support or challenge each learner requires. As children learn on the platform, every click, score, and interaction is recorded. This data feeds into artificially intelligent algorithms that learn how each individual student learns and plot the most effective route through learning material for each individual. Gaps in foundational knowledge are quickly identified and remedied, weaknesses are scaffolded, and strengths built upon, with automated, constructive feedback provided at the point of need. Differentiated material is provided, based on a learner’s focus, difficulty levels and pace of learning, among other factors.

SOURCE Homeschool Buyers Co-op

Related Links

Homeschool Curriculum and Affordable Homeschooling Programs

Why we’re here: School districts get huge discounts on their curriculum. Why not homeschoolers? The reason is simple: school districts have purchasing power and homeschoolers don’t because we purchase as individuals. The Homeschool Buyers Co-op changes that for homeschoolers everywhere. What we provide: We save you 20%-90% on your homeschool curriculum.

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Homeschool App Provided Free During COVID-19 Pandemic

Southern Pines, NC, March 19, 2020 –(PR.com)– The coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic has forced the closing of many of America’s 133,000 schools, leaving many parents searching for educational experiences for their children at home. Some schools are providing online classes, but others are just on an extended spring break at this point.

Classical Conversations, one of the largest homeschooling organizations in the world, emphasizes memorization for its elementary-age students. Young students quickly learn math facts, spelling, science and geography facts and organization, the timeline of history, etc. Classical Conversations is now making one of its key elementary-age resources available free of charge to parents trying to educate their kids at home for the first time.

“COVID-19 is a real concern for America as it has been for much of the rest of the world,” said Robert Bortins, CEO of Classical Conversations. “Our 50,000 families are used to doing school at home, and we want to offer some of our expertise and resources to our neighbors who are trying to do school at home for the first time.”

Classical Conversations is offering a free version of the Foundations Memory Work Cycle 2 app for Apple iOS, Google and Android this week, pending their approval by each app store. The free app, which normally costs $15.99, contains all of CC’s Foundations (elementary-aged) memory work for an entire year. This covers all of its subjects including history, geography, science, math, English grammar, Latin and timeline threads.

In order to find the free app in the app stores, search for “Free Cycle 2 Memory Work.”

For more information about CC, visit www.classicalconversations.com.

Classical Conversations now has more than 122,000 students enrolled in its tutoring programs, which are provided by 2,500 CC communities in all 50 states and 39 foreign countries. CC provides resources, guidance and a community for a Christian home school curriculum using a classical education model in three developmental stages: grammar, dialectic and rhetoric.

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Science Experiment Kit Helps People Understand How Virus Transmission Works

Billings, MT, March 26, 2020 –(PR.com)– In today’s world of adjusting to living with social distancing, business and school closures and the ever-present fears of contracting COVID-19, countries across the globe are struggling in various ways; while thousands of school children settle in at home, parents, youth and caregivers are adapting to a “new normal.”

This kit called the “Coronavirus Education Kit*” provides detailed, scientifically accurate information about viruses, epidemics, pandemics, explanations of contagion, immunity, and the role of treatments, isolation, and quarantine. Through 6 hands-on activities, individuals will gain an appreciation for virus transmission, better understand the importance of hygienic practices, and begin to understand the consequences and responses of spread through a community.

“In a time of uncertainty, all of us have many questions – about our safety, our health, and our future. In the new Coronavirus Education Kit, we don’t claim to have the answers. Rather, we hope to bring to life the science behind the recommendations of world health authorities; things like washing your hands, social distancing and quarantines. The hands-on activities in this kit allow students of all ages to understand and explore disease transmission and consider ways they can help reduce the spread. While uncertainty will remain, we hope this kit provides students and families a strong scientific foundation through which they can interpret current circumstances and that what they learn here inspires them to explore even more,” says Trevor Zuroff, Ph.D., HST Product Development Manager.

The kit includes six hands-on activities:

1. Testing hand-washing techniques for the removal of simulated viruses and germs on hands; practicing proper hand hygiene;
2. Exploring person-to-person virus transmission using simulated “germs”;
3. Assessing the possibility of surface-to-person transmission;
4. Demonstrating droplet-based transmission from a sneeze or cough;
5. Finding the source of a virus outbreak in a fictitious scenario; and
6. Creating a potential solution that could be implemented in the fictitious community to protect citizens, prevent the spread of infectious disease, and care for infected patients.

This Coronavirus Education Kit can be found here.

“Teaching science is one of the most challenging subjects for most of our homeschool families and many other customers. Finding the time, knowing what to do, and gathering the necessary materials are part of the challenge. Regardless of where you or your kids are in your/their science journey, Home Science Tools is here to fully support you. We provide the expertise, products, and services to save you time and make your life easier while bringing science to life,” says Frank Schaner, Founder/President.

Over its 25+ years in business, HST has created a strong collection of 500+ science projects, experiments and/or guides, which are accessible to anyone through its online “Learning Center.” “We deeply value being able to offer quality tools and tips to families who are actively looking for relevant learning to share at home,” says Frank. “That’s always been our company’s primary focus, and we are hopeful we’ll be able to share valuable resources to those looking for help now with social distancing and an increased need for in home learning.”