Question 1

Is it complete?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Many Gather 'Round families use this curriculum on its own for all their children and all their subjects—right through high school! We have testimonies of many grad students who have successfully made the leap to college or university, fully equipped to think for themselves and read the subtext of what is being presented.

That being said, we also have some families who choose to supplement based on their student's needs or because they have a curriculum that they just love and don't want to give up.

While there are some reviews online that question whether we are enough, it is important to note that those were often done in the early years when we were still a startup. We have created many more resources to help close gaps, beef up our content, and find the elusive balance between "enough" and "too much".

Our style is different, we focus on less quantity and more contextual learning—which can feel too simple especially if you are coming from a more traditional curriculum. However, many of our parents say that their students actually remember what they are learning and the results speak for themselves over time.

Question 2

What do I need?

Accepted Answer

Choose a unit/topic that either interests you or meets a need (such as if you are working toward certain credits).Purchase either the digital full family bundle (which includes both the Teacher's Guide and all levels of student books), the one student bundle (which includes the Teacher's Guide and one level of your choice), or the printed books. If you decide to go with our beautiful, high-end printed books . . . you will need the Teacher's Guide and one book for each student.

Question 3

What do I need to add?

Accepted Answer

The units cover all of your subjects but math. Our Modular Math program is available to cover K-grade 9 math, but high school math is not yet available on our site (though we do have plans to create it).

Currently, you will need to get about 8 units per year along with about 8 math units per student in order to create a full curriculum year. Some families choose to add seatwork or our other Language Arts add-ons, fun holiday mini-units, and more . . . but these are not required.

Question 4

How do I choose levels for multiple kids?

Accepted Answer

Our main units are designed to be used with the whole family. We have individual student books available in the following levels.

Pre-Reader: recommended for younger students who are not ready to read/write (preschool/kindergarten age)
Early Reader: recommended for emerging readers/writers (6-8 years old)
Early Elementary: recommended for students who are comfortable using a word bank to write some of their answers (8-10 years old)
Upper Elementary: recommended for students who are ready to write a sentence response (10-13 years old)
Middle School: recommended for students who are ready for paragraph responses and more personal application/light research (13-16 years old)
High School: prepares students to ask big questions, think for themselves, and apply topics to their own lives. This level is recommended for 16-18 years old and includes papers, essays, and more research.

Some of our units are shorter or more simplified into levels 1, 2, and 3. For these, Level 3 is designed for Middle and High, level 2 for Early Elementary and Upper Elementary, and Level 1 for Pre-Reader and Early Reader.

Question 5

How Long does it take?

Accepted Answer

Each unit is designed to take about a month—which means you will never get bored! You get to create your year based on your students' interests, covering all your subjects for all your grades, through one cohesive program that all points to Jesus! Each lesson is designed to take about 2-4 hours (depending on how many students you have, their ages, and whether you are completing the option rabbit trails or watching the resource videos available on our app). You will read the Teacher's Guide first to all students (which takes about 40 minutes to an hour depending on how many videos you show or the discussions you have) and then students will move to their student workbooks and complete their pages there. Units that have 20 lessons can be done 5 days a week and therefore being completed in 4 weeks. Or they can be done 4 days a week and take a bit longer. Because of this, most families work through about 8 units in a year with breaks and co-op days mixed in.

Question 6

How do you grade?

Accepted Answer

All of our units come with answer keys to help you mark your student's work. We have tried a bit of everything: including the answers in the Teacher's Guide, having them in the back of student notebooks, and eventually settling on including them in your downloads immediately after your order. You can use the answer key to help assign grades, but we recommend using a rubric for more accurate grading. To do this, you would assign points based on things like understanding (30%), completion (50%), effort (15%), and neatness (5%).

Question 7

What is Modular Math?

Accepted Answer

Modular Math is our brand new math curriculum that covers K-grade 9 math—taking students all the way through Algebra 1. The units are topical and each step takes about 1 month. This means they can be used in either a mastery approach (staying on a topic and working on it through multiple levels) or spiral approach (completing one step of each topic throughout the year).

This program was created with steps instead of grades, allowing you to custom-tailor the program to your student without discouraging them with where they are at. It can be used as a remedial program or for gifted students who want to move faster.

Each day includes 2 pages. Day 1 teaches a new concept (and includes a devotional) and day 2 has practice that builds throughout the unit in a spiral approach.

All you have to do is take a placement test on a topic and jump in! It is open and go with no teacher's guide, no manipulatives or resources required, and written directly to the student so that they can work independently.

Yes, math can be this easy!

Question 8

Is this accredited?

Accepted Answer

Curriculum itself cannot be accredited, only schools can. Accreditation means a school with qualified teachers, reporting, and grading that is following the government requirements for each grade.

That being said, Gather 'Round Homeschool curriculum can absolutely be used all the way through High School by you, the parent! Most schools use the Carnegie method to assign credits, this means that 120 hours of instruction in a topic = 1 credit.

We've made it super easy to you by training our very own Gather bot! All of our units cover such a wide variety of subjects that you can use the bot to help figure out how many credits have been covered (or will be covered) based on the units you have done or are planning on. We also have access to full high school plans, transcripts, and unit credit breakdowns on our high school page here.

Question 9

What is the Online Academy?

Accepted Answer

The Online Academy is our new online school. We have about 600 students who tune in online to watch a lesson being taught live—complete with live polls, comments, reactions, and resources. Replays are also available for families who miss a class. Homework is assigned and families complete their student notebooks together—we are even looking at adding in grading and report cards!

There are currently three frequency options available (or three different levels of homeschool support):

One day a week (join us every Tuesday at 10am EST)
Two days a week (join us every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am EST)
Four days a week (join us Monday-Thursday for every single lesson!)

Currently, these lessons are being taught by the founder, Rebecca Spooner, though we hope to expand to hire more teachers and offer more class times and options in the future.

Learn more

Question 10

Can I use it in a group?

Accepted Answer

Gather 'Round is licensed for individual family use only (which means to a parent/guardian and the children they are legal guardians of).

If you want to use this in a small group (with your sister, friend, or a few friends), you will need to make sure that each person owns their own materials, as file sharing and copying (or teaching to student's outside your home) is not allowed.

If you want to use this in a co-op or hybrid model to a large group of students, we do require that you purchase print and sign an agreement stating that you will not photocopy or share. With this option, we also do have a group discount available. Learn more here.

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