You can use the app on any internet-connected device (so long as it’s not ancient). You can log in on your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop.
You can use multiple devices with one account at the same time. My wife is always signed in on both her phone and our home computer. My son is usually signed in on his iPod touch and my daughter is often signed in on her iPhone. I sign in from time to time on my laptop just to check on the kid’s progress. All at the same time.
Students can have their own login. If you set their Role to “User,” they will have no access to Users or Billing in the Settings section. Other than that, they will have full access to the app.
When Scheduling your School Year, it’s best not to think about when school is going to happen. Rather you should focus on what needs to happen for your School Year to be complete.
For instance, don’t think about when you will start or when you will take breaks or what calendar week your vacation falls on. The app uses flexible timeframes instead of specific dates on a calendar. You can start or stop whenever, and the app will flex around it without any extra effort.
Instead of focusing on the calendar dates on which school will or will not happen, focus on what you need to accomplish over the course of the School Year. For instance: I will complete 3 Terms of 12 weeks each for a total of 36 weeks. Or: I will complete 4 terms of 9 weeks each for a total of 36 weeks.
Because the app uses flexible timeframes instead of specific dates on the calendar, you can speed up, slow down, stop or start as needed without having to mess with the app.
You can just schedule one long term of 36 weeks, but for purely psychological reasons, that can feel like a lot in one big chunk. So it’s helpful to divide the School Year into Terms.
For instance, my family does 3 terms of 12 weeks each for a total of 36 weeks. You might choose to do 4 terms of 9 weeks for a total of 36 weeks. It’s really up to you how you wish to organize your School Year.
The other reason to divide the year into Terms might be to change up what School Work is being done for each Term. For instance, our 14-year-old only did Geology School Work the First Term this last year. We could have just scheduled Geology for the first 12 weeks of one 36 week term, but it’s simpler to break up the year.
Bottom Line: Terms help break up the School Year mentally. It’s just easier to focus on getting through 12 weeks of School (1st term), celebrate the accomplishment, and then dive into the next 12 weeks (2nd term).
The best way to handle a special field trip is to treat it as its own School Work Item. If it’s going to be 3-day trip, schedule it for 3 Segments; if 4 days, schedule it for 4 Segments.
When planning, you won’t know how far into the Term the field trip will happen because the app uses flexible timeframes, not specific dates on a calendar (See the question: How do I handle vacations, unforeseen breaks or sickness?). So I would schedule it for the week you think it might fall on or for the last week of the term.
If you want to record the exact dates of the trip or what you did each day, you can do so in each segment’s dropdown in the Tracking Section.
There are two places to provide instructions and one place to record what you actually accomplished. Clarifying their roles in the app should help with planning and tracking.
When planning, do not focus on specifics (See the question: How do I handle vacations, unforeseen breaks or sickness?). The General Instructions for an item of School Work are loose goals and notes. If you plan to do 3 pages a segment, and one of those days you do a test instead, that’s not a problem; the app will flex around it.
As you work your way through the school year, you may want to make note (specifics instructions or changes) about an item of School Work for that week. You can do so by pressing the Notes button next to the item of School Work in the Tracking section. If notes are present, the button will turn orange to alert students that a note has been added.
Once you have completed the work for a segment, you can record exactly what you accomplished in the Segments completed work text area.
Yes. Create a new report. Give the report a meaningful name like “Weekly School Work.” The video, Reporting Workflow Tutorial, covers how to create a report.
Because this report will focus on School Work, turn off the School Year section. The Terms and Resources sections are already unchecked by default on new Reports.
That leaves you with the School Work section. Uncheck: Progress Bar, Time Statistics and Schedule Statistics. These items are not pertinent to helping a Student see what is expected that week.
That leaves you with General Instructions, which will let the Student know what is expected with each item of School Work; and Attached Resource, which will let the Student know what Resources are to be used.
You also want to turn on Weekly Data. This will show each Segment scheduled and its related information. Turn off the progress bar for Weekly Data, and click the “Save” button.
Now you can choose the Student, Year, Term and Week you want and have a printable report of what’s expected for that week.
No. A traditional calendar is not a part of the app. We actually feel this is counter to a Flexible Homeschool. Trying to be specific in August about what page or chapter you will be on in November is a recipe for constant changes.
You can print the Tracking page, but that is not the best way to print this information. I would encourage you to create a report. The video, Reporting Workflow Tutorial, covers how to create a report.
No. The app does not currently record and calculate grades. That is a feature (along with transcripts) that we are considering for a future version of the app. Please let us know if you would like to see this feature added to the app. support@aflexiblehomeschool.com