Write2Ignite

The homeschooling market is growing rapidly, and there are many ways childrens’ authors can be involved. I’m the executive editor at SchoolhouseTeachers.com, and I’d like to share with you about our company and how you can become part of our writing team. SchoolhouseTeachers.com is the curriculum site of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. We serve homeschool families around the world with online homeschool curriculum that is grounded in a Christian worldview. We are not an online academy in the sense that the students work is graded online, etc. What we offer is low-cost access to high quality material that parents can use in their homes to teach everything from the alphabet to advanced chemistry.

What are you looking for?

We’re looking for individuals to provide classes in many different subject areas for children in preschool through high school, as well as resources for parents. These can be general courses (like American history) or specific and specialized courses (such as a science class that focuses on bugs). We’re also looking for people to create unit studies, worksheets, and other educational content.

Our site currently has over 170 courses. Some are full-year core courses (like pre-algebra). Some are electives, and some are specialized supplemental classes. We are seeking to expand nearly every subject for almost every grade. Even if there is currently a similar course on our site, we are still interested in hearing what you have in mind. We know that every child learns in a unique way and that every teacher teaches in a unique way. We love giving our members choices so they can find what best fits each student. For example, we have two economics classes for high schoolers, but the teachers’ styles are completely different. Similarly, something like literature can be explored from an almost countless number of directions.

In addition to seeking teachers to teach classes, we’re also looking for writers who are interested in providing a number of shorter units. The options there are limitless, but a few ideas would be knights, Victorian England, Africa in the Middle Ages, ancient Japan, weather, gravity, magnets, how to write a paper, and many others.

We would love to discuss with you what type of class you are considering offering. If you are interested in writing for the site but aren’t really sure where to begin or what to write about, please contact me. We can brainstorm with you and help you find something that is a good fit for both of us.

What makes up one lesson?

Lessons include the lesson material, links to other resources (as appropriate), and generally an assignment that enables parents to gauge the student’s comprehension of the work and provides gradable content. If worksheets or questions are provided, the inclusion of an answer key is encouraged.

Purchasing a particular book cannot be required as part of the class, but for classes where additional reading is helpful (such as history) or where a text is required (such as literature), as long as the book can be generally obtained through a library, incorporating it into your lessons is fine.

How many lessons are required?

Class length varies based on the type of class. If it is a core subject, such as history or math, we like to have at least 18-36 weeks. If it is an elective or a specialized supplemental class (for example, a writing unit focused solely on a type of poem or writing a compare/contrast essay), there is no minimum number of lessons.

What is the compensation?

As far as compensation, all of our teachers and writers have complete access to SchoolhouseTeachers.com for their entire family for as long as they are with us. Quite a few of our teachers do so for the membership and as a way to help the community of members much like a co-op setting.

In addition, for those writers who are publishers, small business owners, or bloggers, each six-month period the class runs (adding new content on a regular basis) earns the author advertising through The Old Schoolhouse(R) Magazine. Please contact Executive Editor Bonnie Rose Hudson at bhudson@theoldschoolhouse.com for more information.

Do I retain the rights to my work?

All material remains your exclusive property, your copyright. You can always repost it, create an eBook, etc. If the material is new, we ask that it not be posted as new content on both your site and ours at the same time. (That will dilute its impact on both sites.) Generally, we ask that you wait to post it elsewhere for three months from when it is first posted on our site, but this is something that can be discussed in more detail.

Who writes for SchoolhouseTeachers.com? Do I have to be a homeschool parent?

We have homeschool moms, authors, and grandparents who create the material solely on a volunteer basis in exchange to a free membership to the site. They don’t use their advertising credit, the financial benefit to them being the free access to our materials (and a few who don’t have children help out just to be a part of blessing the homeschooling community).

We also have teachers who have their own businesses and sell their own curriculum or services, who create previously unpublished content for our site. They earn advertising credit that they use for their business and in turn can sell what they create, integrate it into larger projects they publish and sell, etc.

Others of our teachers share a portion of their published curriculum on our site in exchange for the advertising and exposure.

How do I submit an idea for a class I’d like to teach?

Contact me at bhudson@theoldschoolhouse.com. Please include a little bit about yourself and your background, what subject areas you are most interested in teaching, and why you are interested in being a part of SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Being a homeschooler is not required, but please feel free to share about your homeschooling background as well if you’d like.

Please feel free to email me with any and all ideas and questions. I’ll be happy to talk to you!

Bonnie Rose Hudson lives in central Pennsylvania. Along with spending time with her family and writing, making kids smile is her favorite thing to do. Her heart’s desire is for every child to feel the love of God and know how special they are to Him. She loves creating curriculum and working for SchoolhouseTeachers.com, the curriculum arm of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, as the site’s executive editor. At TOS, she found a place where her love of God and history combine with her love of writing to bring encouraging, educational, and entertaining material to students and their families. She would love for you to visit WriteBonnieRose.com to discover how you can write for the homeschool market.