Next Level Homeschool

You are so welcome! Thank YOU for being such a great student!

Thank you so much! You hit the nail on the head with what I always want to do- make learning enjoyable and accessible while maintaining high academic standards. Those things are too often either one or the other. I always aim for both! Again, thank you for your kind review.

WOW! 8 years! Time flies! Thank you for the kind review. :)

So glad to hear your son excelled with the class, both in the content with marine zoology and building those executive functioning skills! Looking forward to having him in class in the fall!

YAY!! I love that Marine Zoology was her favorite class! I'm always sad, too, when the full year classes end, but there's always next fall to start a new one! :)

My goal has ALWAYS been to go deep with content in all of our classes. There is plenty of "surface skimming" junk curriculum out there and I never wanted to be that. Kids deserve and are capable of so much more than we give them credit for! I'm so happy to hear that your son excelled!

YAY! I'm so happy to hear that your kiddo enjoyed the class, and look forward to seeing both of your children this fall for Earth Science!

I'm so glad your son enjoyed High School Chemistry! I struggled in college chemistry because I never had it in high school, and my goal with this class was to give students a strong chemistry foundation so they could be confident and prepared for future chemistry classes! Thank you for your kind review!

It has been my absolute pleasure to watch Addie pursue her marine science passion over these last several years! That girl is going places! What she has accomplished at such a young age already is truly remarkable, and I am so happy that I could be one of the sparks that ignited her!

Thank you!

I'm so glad your daughter not only enjoyed chemistry, but truly thrived! Keeping kiddos engaged is the key, and is my goal with every class. Because a child that is truly engaged in the material is a child that is learning and will retain that knowledge! Thank you so much for the kind review. :)

We love our Potterheads here at Next Level, and are so happy that your children enjoyed the class and learned so much! And I love that your reluctant writer was inspired enough to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)! We really appreciate the review and feedback!

You nailed it with your last sentence! Our goal is to give students the structure and foundation, both academically and with executive functioning skills, so they excel in the future! Thank you so much for your review!

Thank you for the kind review! Presenting tough concepts in an approachable way is always my goal...and we definitely cover a lot of tough concepts! Honestly, way more than a full year of public school ever could. And you're spot on with the assignments. I don't believe in busy work, but in allowing students to choose a topic they are most interested in and go beyond the lesson plan with it. Getting engaged in an assignment and being able to apply the knowledge they've learned is so important.

Thank you for taking the time to leave a detailed review. I’d like to clarify a few points so prospective families have a clear understanding of how this course is structured. The High School Biology lessons are intentionally content-rich, with many lessons exceeding 100 slides. To help students stay engaged through challenging material, I include occasional humor and conversational commentary, the same way I did when I taught live classes. My goal when writing my curriculum is to make complex biology concepts a little more fun and approachable, rather than using a dry textbook format. However, I understand there is no one teaching style that works for everyone. I reviewed the entire class to see whether I was overusing “pet peeves” as you mentioned, since it’s been a while since I created the course. There is actually only one slide in the full 12-week, 800+ slide course where I reference a pet peeve. It’s directly relevant to the content. I mention that one of my pet peeves is when people say, “Evolution is just a theory,” and then use that statement to teach students what the word theory means in science, how it differs from everyday usage, and how that misunderstanding can lead to confusion. I want to clarify that parents do have full access to view lessons and assignments. This can be done creating a free Parent Observer account in Canvas. Instructions for setting this up are included in the user manual that I email to both students and parents at the beginning of each course, and is also linked on the course page in Canvas. Regarding scheduling, the only firm deadline is the final end date of the course. I accept Week 1 assignments all the way up to the very end of the class- I never turn away assignments for being late. Students receive a lesson each Tuesday, and the assignments are due 2 weeks after that, giving them 2 full weeks to work on the lesson and assignments. Late penalties apply only to students who have chosen to be graded in the class. The maximum I deduct is 20 points, and that is for assignments that are over 2 weeks late (so 1 month from when the lesson was posted). Students will never fail a course due to late submissions. Families who prefer complete flexibility may choose the ungraded option, which has no late penalties. Additionally, when families reach out to me about upcoming vacations, illness, or other circumstances, I give them a work-around so late points aren't deducted. Communication is key. My full year science classes are designed so all of my students stay on track together as we navigate the complex topics of each section. This structure helps many students build time management and executive functioning skills, which parents often tell me they value even over the subject matter! However, we do offer many self-paced classes as well that are completely on your schedule throughout the semester with no due dates except the end of the course. My high school biology is a rigorous, college-prep course, and your son truly did excellent work! His passion and dedication to his studies shone through in his assignments, and it was a pleasure to have him in class! I hope he feels proud of what he accomplished, because I am definitely proud of him. Thank you again for sharing your experience.

I am so glad that your child enjoyed the Vertebrate Zoology course! The issue you mention with the registration has been a problem I have been trying to solve for a few years. There are certain things we do during enrollment (multiple levels of courses, multiple student discounts, etc...) that are impossible for normal shopping cart software to handle. That said, I'm excited to announce that we are in the process of completely revamping our site! I have hired a developer to create a custom checkout system for us to alleviate the issues you mentioned. Watch for that when summer enrollment opens! Thanks again for your review and reinforcing the fact that our user experience during registration needs improvement. :)

YES! When I can make school not feel like school, I know I'm doing something right! Getting this kiddos excited about learning is always my goal, and it looks like I met it with your daughter! I hope to see you in Panama in the future.

Thank you for this glowing review! Allowing students to express their own creativity through assignments is what can get them truly engaged with the process. The whole "write a 2 page essay, double spaced, with one inch margins" thing is pointless. Give students a way to prove their knowledge that best fits them as an individual. That's when the learning really takes off!

Thank you for the glowing review of our class content and format! I'm so glad that Next Level fits your child's learning needs and schedule! However, I'm very concerned about the letter of recommendation that you say was never responded to. I do about a dozen of these every year, so it's definitely not something I would ignore. Chances are, I did not receive the email for some reason. I would reach out to you personally about this, but the review doesn't have your real name. Please send me an email so I can get you the information we need to start this process. Also, just to clarify for readers of this review, students and parents have access to weekly grades during the entire length of the course. However, after the class is over and we issue the final reports for the class, there is a 10 day window to print those final reports if you require them for your records. UPDATE: Now I know who this is. :) On January 6, your daughter emailed me to say that my response to her about the letter of recommendation that I sent in November went to her spam and she just found it. I want other people reading the reviews to understand that I don't meet student requests with deafening silence. This was simply a case of me responding promptly and the message going to spam.

This is wonderful to hear and exactly what I strive to emphasize with parents...that the learning at Next Level goes far beyond just the content. By intentionally building executive functioning skills and incorporating new formats, learning approaches, and technologies, we’re helping students become stronger, more adaptable learners who are better prepared to face challenges as they progress through their academic careers. Kudos to your son for excelling, and I'm excited to have him in future classes!