Switched On Schoolhouse 2012

Features in the 2012 version of Switched On Schoolhouse include:

Updated UI
The User Interface has been tweaked and trimmed to reduce the number of keystrokes needed to perform some tasks, and simplified to make things a little cleaner, clearer, or easier for you!

Transcript
Need to submit a transcript for your student? SOS provides a transcript you can also customize to enter any non-SOS courses you want on the student transcript.

Attendance for multiple students
Looking for an easier way to track attendance for multiple students?
The new attendance tracker lets you easily update multiple students attendance each week. This lets you count days when you had non-SOS school activities as school days for multiple students on one tracking screen instead of going into each student's calendar.

To find out more information click the Learn More tab above.

Switched–On Schoolhouse is a comprehensive, Biblically-based CD-ROM curriculum where children grades 3-12 learn, study and do their schoolwork right on the computer. All the core subjects - Math, Language Arts, Science, History, Geography, and Bible - are included. SOS Provides an interactive learning environment with 3-D animation, video clips, and other multimedia. SOS also features automatic grading, record keeping, and lesson planning with the click of a mouse.

...a Little Like Bread
A homeschool curriculum is a little like bread. There are those of us who grind our own wheat within minutes of kneading it (pun intended). Our eggs are still warm from the hen, our honey harvested from our own hives. We experiment with the ingredients, adding a handful of seeds for flavor, maybe a little cracked seven grain mix for texture. We even try making the flour extra coarse to save time grinding, but only once. Most of the time we make standard loaves, but sometimes we make mini-loaves, buns, even an occasional cinnamon roll. When the bread emerges from the oven, we cut our slices to suit our individual tastes, heels for those who like the sturdy crusts, thick slices for the famished, thinner slices for those counting calories. Often it takes longer to grind enough wheat for a loaf of bread than it does to eat the same loaf.

Store-bought or Home-baked
Then there are those who buy their bread from the store. It is customarily pre-sliced, often enriched, always convenient. There are some choices available, but never as wide a selection, and never as nutritious as what can be done at home. Still, when time is at a premium, a slice of store-bought bread with a spoonful of peanut butter will satisfy your hunger just as nicely as any home-ground, home-baked slice will. And isn't satisfying hunger the overall reason for bread anyway?

The Best Sliced-bread Option on the Market
In much the same way, we are grind-your-own educators. We prefer to have complete control over what our children are consuming. We are fussy about what they are feeding their minds and hearts. We are particular about what we are giving them a taste for. It often seems as if we spend more time researching materials than they do using them. However, many parents are just as committed to their children and would love to home educate, but feel that they cannot for many reasons: illness, singleness, children with special needs, or any number of upheavals that families of today must weather. For them, we are offering what we consider the best "sliced-bread" option on the market today.

Cannot Imagine an Easier Way
Switched-On Schoolhouse automatically guides the rate of student work, drills, and sets the level of achievement. You will also appreciate the built-in review and tutoring. Alpha Omega Publications seems to have it all covered with automatic grading and record-keeping. I cannot imagine an easier way to teach your child at home. This program will be a treasure for any parent who wants to home educate but feels inadequate for the task because of time, talent, or resources.

Switched On Schoolhouse New Features for 2012

Transcript
Need to submit a transcript for your student?
SOS provides a transcript you can also customize to enter any non-SOS courses you want on the student transcript.

Past Due Report
Looking for an easy way to see which assignments a student needs to catch up on?
The Past Due Report gives you a list of all assignments a student has that are currently past due.

Parent Journal
Are you looking for a place to jot down your thoughts, plans, reminders?
The Parent Journal in the Resource Center is the perfect place to keep your ideas, questions, notes, whatever you want or need. It is a free-form, text based online journal.

Improved Print Functionality
Looking for more flexibility when printing?
Choose the font size and the range of sections

Student Search Feature
Press the F3 button to find a word or phrase in SOS Student.
Helps students locate a specific word or phrase in SOS assignments. Available only if you enable the setting for each student.

Parent Toolbox
Need a way to track the books your students have read or their service, educational, or sports activities?
The Parent Toolbox contains a Reading Log and an Activity Log you can use for any activities you need to track.

Enhanced Custom Assignment Editor
Want your students to use a picture as part of a custom assignment? How about adding a weblink in to start them thinking?
Use the new enhanced custom assignment editor to include picture files, web links, Flash videos in your custom assignments. There are also additional formatting features available with the new editor.

Easier access to assignment level functionality
In a hurry to get some work done?
A simple right-click of your mouse lets you block an assignment, remove it, print it, change the due date of an assignment, and several other functions. Just go to your Assignments page and pick the assignment.

Bible Lookup in Resource Center
Wish you had a way to look up a Bible reference while in a lesson?
Click the Resource Center button while in a lesson and select the Bible Lookup tool. You can enter a Bible reference; book, chapter, verse or range of verses and select the translation you want to see. Your selection displays in a pop-up window for you.

Attendance for multiple students
Looking for an easier way to track attendance for multiple students?
The new attendance tracker lets you easily update multiple students attendance each week. This lets you count days when you had non-SOS school activities as school days for multiple students on one tracking screen instead of going into each student's calendar.

Graphic Theme Selector
Don't want to guess what that theme looks like?
Use the graphic theme selector, see a small picture of each theme before you make your choice.

Failure Notification
Want to know if your student achieved the score you expect before you start grading?
Set a scoring threshold you expect your student to achieve on quiz or test and choose to see a message in your SOS Inbox, if the score is not achieved.

New Themes, Avatars and Audio Feedback
New choices for themes and avatars. New messages for audio feedback.
You can select from several new themes and avatars for your Home Page. Students hear new audio feedback messages when they submit answers to problems.

Updated UI
15 years... time for a facelift!
We tweaked and trimmed SOS to reduce the number of keystrokes needed to perform some tasks, and looked for places we could make things a little cleaner, clearer, or easier for you!

Updates for:
Timeline
Periodic Table Calculator
Vocabulocity
Sample Lesson
This Day in History Widget
Born on This Day Widget
Bible Verse of the Day Widget
Ready for some changes and updates?
See new facts and references in the Bible Verse of the Day widget, This Day in History and Born on This Day widgets.
Learn about the recently added elements in the new Periodic Table. Use the memory keys in the enhanced calculator.
See what's been added to the Timeline.
Check out the new graphics in the Vocabulocity game.