Participate as a Homeschool
Cathy Duffy homeschool review
Cathy is a nationally-known for her independent homeschool curriculum reviews. Her review can be found here. Some short snippets include:
- "CSM uses the academic content as a vehicle to help students develop personal qualities that will help them in many situations. For example, if a student can gain self-confidence and persistence, those qualities will help him or her in school, in the job market, in the work world, and in their ability to conquer new tasks on their own."
- "These 'soft skills' are often difficult for a student to learn. I’ll give you an example of how CSM helps students develop one of these skills—persistence. CSM requires 100% mastery of each item rather than passing students with a lower percentage of correct answers."
- "CSM should be particularly helpful for struggling students who doubt their ability to learn. However, the soft skills taught in the course might be needed by students who are college-bound and meet academic requirements but still lack confidence and persistence when confronted by new tasks. In addition, CMS can also help academically strong students who need to accept greater personal responsibility."
Most students benefit from a coach
CSM is challenging! A coach can help students through CSM, allowing them to complete the course faster and with less difficulty.
The purpose of a CSM coach is NOT to teach math, literacy or problem solving -- students are required to learn all of those skills on their own so that they become more independent learners. Rather, the coach is there to help students with their learning strategies, their persistence, and their confidence.
You can use an Expert CSM Online Coach through SeeMore Impact Labs, the non-profit creators of CSM. This comes with a modest fee, and the coach works at a distance through phone, Zoom, text, email or however you like to work. And the coach stays with you as long as it takes to complete CSM.
A parent can be a coach!
In a CSM homeschool, a parent can become a coach. SeeMore Impact Labs offers a free 4-6 hour, self-paced course for parents to become a Certified CSM Coach. The parent experiences the first few skills in CSM while learning about how to be a coach and how to use the special Toolkit to help students.
Using CSM in your online homeschool
In order to take CSM, a student must have a smart phone, tablet or laptop. You need a connection to the Internet, but it doesn't have to be a high-speed connection. If you're not sure about your device or how good your connection is, you can start CSM, and if it's not working, your purchase can be refunded.
I'd like to try it out first
You can try out CSM using the free trial period, which lasts the first 2 hours or 10% of the way through CSM (whichever comes first).
WV homeschool laws and requirements
- While West Virginia does NOT require students to take the GED before completing homeschool high school, CSM does serve as GED preparation.
- Homeschool parents are NOT required to prepare transcripts for their children, but CSM can serve to indicate college and career readiness, and it comes with a Credly® digital badge of High Performance that is recognized for college math credit at many WV colleges and universities
Ways to use CSM as a homeschool program
There are a number of ways for a homeschooler to take CSM:
- as an independent student working on their own - click here to go directly to CSM login page, and then click the "Register" button.
- as a student with a parent/guardian acting as a personal CSM Coach (becoming a CSM Coach is free!). Click here to go to the CSM login page, click the "Register" button, and then click "Register as a New Organization" to register your homeschool. A parent should take the free CSM Coach training course.
- as a student working with an online Expert Coach from SeeMore Impact Labs -- fill in the form directly below.
Please fill in the form below if you'd like to learn more or speak to someone about CSM for homeschoolers.