Rounded Schoolhouse

Rounded Schoolhouse is an online homeschool curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grade. The company describes it as "an all-in-one online video curriculum with printable workbooks, live teacher support, and daily group video classes," and its homepage calls it "the simpler way to provide a full education for your children from anywhere." Parents subscribe monthly, children work through short video lessons and paper worksheets, and a teacher is a text message away during the school day.

The pitch is that one subscription replaces the patchwork many homeschool families build from separate suppliers. The homepage promises "Complete subject coverage, no supplements needed," and closes with the line "Rounded Schoolhouse will help you teach your kids with less effort and fewer tears."

What the curriculum covers

The homepage says the program fully covers "the four core subjects needed for every grade level, plus Social-Emotional Learning." That means five areas for every grade from K to 8:

• Math
• English Language Arts
• Science
• Social Studies
• Social/Emotional Learning

Each area runs as a full school year. The homepage lists 180 days of video curriculum, "a full school year of video lessons created by real, qualified teachers." The company stresses that its content "was designed and developed by real teachers, not administrators."

Social-emotional learning gets its own lessons in every grade, alongside the academic subjects. The site also offers a free Social Emotional Ebook as a taster.

How a lesson works

Lessons are deliberately short. The homepage says videos are 2-4 minutes long and each assignment takes less than 20 minutes, so a child moves through several subjects in a day without long stretches in front of a screen.

The company calls the result a "hybrid, smart online/offline learning experience." The learning platform guides a student through the online video lessons, then hands over printable worksheets to finish with pencil and paper. According to the company's comparison page, every subject area has its own printable workbook: "Our teachers sometimes teach directly from the workbook and sometimes the workbook is provided for extended learning or practice." The homepage frames the worksheets as material "for tactile work and extra practice."

Assessment is built in. The homepage promises "challenging quizzes and assignments," and says quizzes are auto-graded and student progress is saved automatically. The comparison page describes the platform as one that "organizes each student's courses, tracks progress, saves, answers, and provides access to realtime teacher support." Badges and certificates are on the way: the homepage says students earn achievements as they complete lessons and courses, marked "(coming soon)."

Help from a teacher during the day

The program adds live help to its video lessons. "Stuck on a lesson and having trouble? Get help right away via text chat from a real teacher during school hours," the homepage says. The comparison page explains that the chat sits "right inside the learning portal" and that "Every student in our Full Program can message one of our teachers during the school day for help or guidance in their studies."

For a parent teaching several children, this means a child stuck on a fraction problem or a grammar rule can ask someone else first. It does not replace the parent, but it takes some of the load.

Daily live group classes

Beyond the core curriculum, Rounded Schoolhouse runs daily live group classes for subscribed students. According to the comparison page they focus on "STEAM subjects like art, music, crafts, theater, and science experiments, as well as social learning experiences like brain games, book read-aloud sessions, debate, Spanish, and more."

These classes are where children meet a teacher and other students face to face, which gives an online homeschool day some of the social side of a classroom. One parent on the homepage, Sharmane, writes that her family was "excited about the extra curricular part, there were so many amazing options, but we finally got it down to our top 5!"

Plans and pricing

The comparison page lists three subscriptions:

• Complete System: $58 a month for the on-demand curriculum, printable workbooks, realtime teacher support and the daily group video classes.
• Live classes only: $44 a month.
• On-demand curriculum only: $24 a month.

The same page states, "There are no extra fees for teacher support, workbooks, or live group classes," and says the Complete System bundles everything "for one affordable monthly subscription." When comparing plans, note that the page describes the $24 plan as "only the on-demand curriculum" and ties the teacher text chat to students in the Full Program. The comparison page also carries a "Try Rounded Schoolhouse For Free" button.

Before subscribing, families can join the company's Facebook Group, download 700+ free math worksheets and get the free Social Emotional Ebook. Support is by email, through an address on every page.

What parents say

The homepage quotes four reviewers. HowToHomeschool.com writes: "Honestly, for the price, I don't think you can beat what the Rounded Schoolhouse Curriculum has to offer. It's not kitschy, it has real teachers, it isn't a bunch of cartoons trying to teach your kids, and it is a wholesome education taught by teachers who care." HomeschoolOf1.com writes that "It is so easy to use, and it has definitely been designed with kids in mind." Lauren, a homeschool mom who runs a small business from home, says "having a program like this to take the heavy lifting off my plate is amazing!"

Who it suits

Rounded Schoolhouse suits families with children in kindergarten to eighth grade who want one complete program instead of assembling math from one place, reading from another and science from a third. The short videos and paper worksheets work well for younger children and for parents who want to limit screen time, and the teacher chat helps working parents who cannot sit beside a child all day. Families with several children in the K-8 range get one platform and one set of routines for all of them, and the daily live classes add art, music, debate and Spanish without extra bookings.

The program stops at eighth grade, so families with teenagers will need a separate high school option. Help comes by text chat during school hours rather than one-to-one tutoring, and the lessons are built around video, so a child who needs extended individual teaching may need more support at home. Badges and certificates are still listed as coming soon.