All-in-One Room Schoolhouse Curriculum

Name: All-in-One Room Schoolhouse Curriculum
Brand: Sherlock Homeschoolinghttps://www.sherlockhomeschooling.com/

by Sherlock Homeschoolinghttps://www.sherlockhomeschooling.com/

Multi_subjectGrades 1–12

All-in-One Room Schoolhouse: Literature-Based Multi-Subject Program

All-in-One Room Schoolhouse Curriculum is a free, secular, online multi-subject curriculum for grades 1-12 that uses ten classic 'living books' per level in a Charlotte Mason approach. The curriculum covers core subjects except math through literature, requiring significant parent involvement for reading aloud, copywork, and oral narrations.

Best for

Families prioritizing classical literature exposure over systematic academic instruction, with parents who have strong subject knowledge and significant time for heavy involvement in daily teaching.

Evaluation Criteria

5 concerns · 1 neutral

Teacher TrainingConcern

Teacher support is minimal, consisting mainly of basic guides explaining the simple format. Parents need extensive subject knowledge to effectively teach across all areas without additional support materials.

The curriculum has a 'Start Guide' and 'Level 1 Guide' explaining basic procedures, but parents must 'devote a lot of time' and need to read 'required books a step ahead of students' with minimal pedagogical guidance

Direct InstructionConcern

The curriculum provides minimal direct instruction, relying primarily on literature interaction with basic activities like copywork and oral narration. Parents must create most instructional structure themselves.

Activities are limited to 'copy work after each chapter,' 'oral narrations,' and 'select 1 vocabulary word from each chapter' with parents needing to be 'heavily involved, reading the required books a step ahead of students'

Retrieval PracticeConcern

Retrieval practice is minimal, consisting mainly of oral narrations after reading and end-of-book summaries. There is no systematic review or spaced practice across the curriculum.

Students complete 'oral narrations, retelling the reading in their own words' and 'provide their own narration after completing a book' but no mention of cumulative review or retrieval practice

Knowledge CoherenceConcern

Knowledge building lacks coherence as books are not arranged chronologically and academic coverage is uneven across subjects and levels. The curriculum prioritizes interesting literature over systematic knowledge development.

Historical books 'are not read in chronological order but appear at levels where students are likely to find them readable,' and some levels have 'preponderance of fiction' while others focus heavily on one subject like physics

Individual Subject RigorConcern

Subject rigor varies dramatically by level and area, with some advanced texts like Einstein and Tesla for physics but gaps in systematic coverage. Math is entirely excluded from the program.

Level 12 includes challenging physics texts like 'Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein' but 'Since math isn't included, the AIO website recommends a few free math programs'

Cross Curricular IntegrationNeutral

The curriculum integrates subjects naturally through literature, with historical fiction teaching history and science books covering scientific topics. However, the integration is somewhat haphazard rather than systematically coordinated.

Books like 'Viking Tales' teach history while 'The Burgess Animal Book' covers science, but books are not organized chronologically and academic content varies significantly between levels

Sources: cathyduffyreviews.com