A large family, homeschooling, adoption, special needs, whatever strikes my fancy, sort of blog.

A large family, homeschooling, adoption, special needs, whatever strikes my fancy, sort of blog.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Alpha Omega Lifepac curriculum review


Our family was so blessed to be able to review for Alpha Omega Publications!  This was literally an answer to prayer, as I was needing a math program for Jack when this opportunity came up.

Math?!

Alpha Omega offers curriculum in 4 different lines:  Monarch, Switched on Schoolhouse, Lifepac, and Horizons.  We received 5th grade math from their Lifepac line.  This retails for $61.95.


There are 10 workbooks or Lifepacs to a school year.  It took Jack 4 weeks to get through the first Lifepac, but that was partially due to a slow start with school the first week.  I had him do 2 pages per day so we could ease back in to schoolwork.  By week 4, we were up to 4 pages per day.


In addition to the 10 student workbooks, the boxed set comes with a Teacher's Guide.  This is a really nicely done resource!  It's the score key for the workbooks, and it also includes an overview of all the math concepts taught in each Lifepac, for each grade, K-12.  This is really helpful, because if your child missed learning a key math concept in another program, you know just what Lifepac to order to teach that concept.  (Lifepacs are available individually, as well as in sets, for your convenience.)

In addition (no pun intended!) the Teacher Guide has a section of record keeping pages that you can duplicate for personal use.  If you have more than one child that is going to use this program, the Teacher Guide can be reused with a set of 10 Lifepacs purchased without the guide for $52.99.

The Teacher Guide contains a section of math term definitions, for those of us who might be a little rusty at what an ordinal number is.  It also includes additional activities for taking math off the page in fun and engaging ways.


Before you give a fresh, new Lifepac to your child, you remove the end test from the center of the workbook.  After they complete all the learning sections in the Lifepac, there is a pretest at the end of the workbook.  When you score this, you can see if there's anything they need to go back and brush up on prior to taking the final test.


Here's Jack, taking the final test for Math 501.  He got an 82%.


One of the features I really appreciate about this program is that the Teacher Guide includes Alternate Tests, for when a student bombs a Lifepac Test.  The standard in our house is 80%.  If you get lower than 80%, you haven't mastered the material, or you weren't being careful.  Either way, you need to retest, or possibly repeat the workbook.  (We used a workbook based program several years ago.)  If you have an advanced student who looks through a Lifepac and says, "I already know all this stuff!" you could have them take the Alternate Test from the Teacher Guide as a Pretest and then allow them to skip to the next Lifepac if they truly have mastered the material.  I recommend having your child take the placement test online prior to ordering so you know exactly which Lifepacs they need.

In summary, Alpha Omega Lifepacs are an economical, easy to administrate program.  Besides Math, they offer Bible, History & Geography, Language Arts, Science, and several electives.  Because the student can work in Lifepacs on their own, they are great for large families with students working at several different levels.  They're also a good option for students who like to work independently.

Military Families:  Alpha Omega offers you a special discount as a thank you for your service.

Don't forget we have a fabulous GIVEAWAY for Alpha Omega products and a bonus Amazon gift card!


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2 comments:

  1. I always wondered what LifePacs was. So basically its workbook 'paces' based curriculum? How does the child learn a new skill?

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    1. Yes, they're very similar to paces. The new skills are printed in the workbook, so this is a good method for a strong reader. Because Jack is not yet a strong reader, I went over directions with him, making sure he understood the concepts as they were introduced.

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