My family had the opportunity to do a Beestar Review over the last few weeks and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
Beestar is an innovative online math and reading curriculum provider for kids! BeeStar is a FREE online course and lasts an entire semester, or all year long, depending on how often you want to use it. It’s a fantastic way to test your child’s knowledge. There are two weekly exercises that your child completes. Students will receive an immediate score upon completion. Although parts of the site are free, there are other areas that collect a $20-$30 fee for programs such as ELA and Gifted/Talented math.
For any homeschool parent looking for fantastic curriculum-based, online exercises for their children, I highly recommend Beestar. Here’s why:
- This is a supplementary program (2 exercises/about 20 minutes per week). I find that my kids do well with lots of supplemental programs to engage their learning when I am not teaching them individually. Beestar is fantastic because it provides an opportunity for practice and allows your children to improve on subject knowledge. I wouldn’t suggest using this as your core curriculum because it’s more of a practice test for your kids, but it’s a great way for your kids to master the skills you are teaching them with their core curriculum. Our family really liked the program a lot for this very reason. You can see samples of exercises here. And guess what? The Beestar math program is absolutely FREE! There is a small cost for the other subjects – $20-$30 per semester/per course – a very reasonable price in my opinion.
Here are some of the reasons I love Beestar for our homeschooling journey:
- The exercises are posted on the student’s home page on Sunday and due at midnight of the next Saturday (CST). The student can work on the exercises any time during the week. Most exercises follow the standard test format with multiple-choice problems. The exercises start with basic content and as time goes by, the exercises get a little more difficult. Each exercise usually has 10 problems/questions and takes about 10 minutes to complete.
- After the student finishes an exercise, the work is graded instantly – this includes score, time taken to finish, and a review of the answers. Each question is worth 2 points, so the total score for an exercise is 20 points. I love that I don’t need to grade them and that I get a report of what my child needs more help on. It also provides the answers when your child doesn’t answer correctly, helping to teach them while also testing their knowledge.
- If a child doesn’t finish his/her exercises by Friday, Beestar sends the parent a friendly reminder. This is so helpful!
- At the end of every week a report is sent to the parents. It includes the student’s exercise details and statistics. Parents can see the areas needing improvement, and can help their child as necessary. This is incredibly helpful and one of the main reasons I love this program. It helps me understand where I need to spend more time on teaching each week. For example, my daughter was having trouble with some of the 8th grade math questions but was a master in her reading program. So, we spent more time on math the following week and we saw a significant improvement in just one week! It is SO IMPORTANT to know where to focus your time as a homeschooling parent.
- At the end of the week, weekly honor rolls are released for all grades and subjects. Students who answer 80% of questions correctly in a week earn an honor roll ribbon. These students’ placements are determined by the total amount of time they use in the exercises. Students can vividly see their achievement and share their success with parents. Since homeschooling is individualized, I love this aspect of the program because my kids are somewhat competitive (they get that from my husband) and so it really motivates them to do the work and earn their Honor Roll Ribbons!
- Beestar has a National Competition. The Beestar National Competition (BNC) is designed to bring students nation wide together to solve interesting problems and compete with one another. The problems in BNC are designed to both consolidate fundamental knowledge and inspire students’ desire to explore. By exposing them to more interesting and mind-stretching topics, the competition problems challenge students to wonder and to research. For more info about the BNC, click here.
Let’s dive into the program a little more.
You can use Beestar for printing worksheets to help with supplementing your homeschool math, ELA or Science program. I love having worksheets on hand when we have a busy week because it helps me stay sane. Here are some examples of the math worksheets we used this week. I thought the layout was great and my kids enjoyed working on them.
Here are some examples of the exercises my kids did this week as well, through the Beestar program.
The program schedules for Beestar can be found below as well. This is helpful if you want to start at the beginning of each semester so that your student can participate in each week.
Beestar Homeschool Program – Conclusion.
I will continue using Beestar as a fantastic supplemental homeschool program for our family. Here are a few reasons I want to continue using Beestar in our homeschooling:
- It’s a good supplemental program – you can never have too many options/resources for this in my experience. I like the mastery aspect of this program.
- Beestar work is completed quickly – short time spans, instant results.
- The weekly outline/program topics page provides a great overview for the parent – especially if you have multiple kids.
- The student homepage is set up very nicely – your student can access weekly exercises and review exercise results and statistics, honor roll ribbons and score bar charts, and preview future exercise topics.
- The Parent Home Page lets you check on each of your students – see times spent on exercises, review the exercises, and review stats and see the honor roll/bar chart data.
- As mentioned, Beestar provides motivational recognitions every week. Accuracy medals and speed trophies – everyone likes being recognized…and it’s something to strive for.
- Also mentioned previously – the Beestar National Competition (BNC) is open to all students – and held during the Fall and Spring semesters.
- Free printable math worksheets – Want to practice more after Beestar’s weekly exercises? The website offers FREE printable math worksheets! Provided as a complimentary addition, the printable worksheets complement Beestar’s online programs and are a FANTASTIC resource for any homeschooling parent. It’s a struggle to find quality printables. They seem to be everywhere (printables) but most aren’t very good quality, and I appreciate the quality that Beestar provides!
- I appreciate the recommended math books by grade level. A great way to make math fun!
- There’s a Gifted and Talented (GT) program.
- The site offers referral credit towards fee-based programs – when you have 2 or more successful referrals, you can sign up for one fee-based program.
Interested in Beestar? You can learn more about Beestar here: www.Beestar.org
Did you like the Beestar Math and Reading Review? You can view more of our reviews here: https://www.howtohomeschool.net/curriculum-reviews
