A homeschool supplement for ten minutes of daily review

A homeschool supplement is anything that sits alongside your main curriculum and helps it stick. Dad's Academy is one kind: ten minutes or so of daily review in math, reading, science and life skills, at the level your child is actually working at, with a clear view for you of what is and is not landing.

This guide covers what daily review is for, what to look for in an app, and how Dad's Academy fits into a homeschool week.

A supplement, not a curriculum

Your curriculum does the teaching: the explanations, the manipulatives, the read-alouds, the conversations at the kitchen table. A supplement has a narrower job. It brings back what has already been taught, often enough that it is still there in a month.

Dad's Academy is built for that narrower job. It asks questions, explains when an answer is wrong, and adjusts the level. It does not set out a scope and sequence for the year, and it is not a replacement for the curriculum you have chosen.

Why a short daily review helps

Retrieval, little and often

Learning researchers call it retrieval practice: having to recall something, rather than re-read it, makes it easier to recall next time. Spacing that recall out over days and weeks tends to work better than a single long session. For a homeschool, that points to something modest and regular, a few questions each morning, rather than a long review at the end of a unit.

Mixing old topics with new

Many homeschool curricula move through one topic at a time. That is good for teaching and less good for remembering. A daily review that mixes in older topics, multiplication facts in the middle of a fractions unit, say, catches the things that have quietly slipped before they become a gap.

If you are unsure whether something has slipped already, our grade-by-grade math checklist is a calm place to start.

What to look for in homeschool math practice online

Most homeschooling parents try several tools before one sticks. Whatever you choose, these are worth checking:

• It adapts in each subject separately. A child can be ahead in reading and behind in math. One overall level hides that.
• The questions are hard to guess. Multiple choice alone rewards luck. Typed answers, ordering steps and choosing every correct answer show what a child actually knows.
• It explains mistakes. A wrong answer should lead to a short explanation, not just a red cross.
• It tells you, the teaching parent, something specific. Not just "45 minutes played", but which skills keep being missed.
• It fits your curriculum, not the other way round. You should be able to point practice at what you taught this week.
• No ads and no upsells to your child. A child should never be the one being sold to.
• It stays short. Ten minutes that happens every day is worth more than an hour that happens twice.

How Dad's Academy fits a homeschool day

Four subjects, kindergarten to grade 9

Dad's Academy covers Math, English and Reading, Science and Life Skills for children from kindergarten to grade 9. Your child answers one question at a time with Pip, the companion in the app. Pip explains when an answer is wrong, and on the paid plan the level adjusts to how your child is actually doing, separately in each subject. See adaptive learning, explained for how the level is set.

Many families use it first thing, before the main lesson, as a warm-up. Others use it at the end of the day, as a quiet check on what went in.

Matching what you taught this week

On the paid plan, This Week at School lets you send in what was covered, a photo of a worksheet or a short note, and the following week's Math, English and Science reviews draw on it. In a homeschool, "school" is your table: photograph the page you worked from on Wednesday, and next week's review returns to it. Read more on practice that matches class.

A short example: Maya, grade 4

Maya is homeschooled and in grade 4. Her family's curriculum spent the last two weeks on equivalent fractions. Her parent photographs the last worksheet, and the next week Maya's math review includes fraction questions alongside older material. She answers the fraction questions well, but misses two questions on multi-digit subtraction in the same way, so her level in that skill holds, Pip walks her through a worked example, and a different subtraction question returns later in the week. Her reading level is set on its own track and is unaffected.

What you see as the teaching parent

The parent Command Center shows each child's recent accuracy by subject, the skills they miss most often, and time spent practising. If subtraction with regrouping keeps coming up, you can assign practice on it in a tap, or ask Pip about your child's progress in plain language. Both are available on the free plan. That gives you something specific to reteach tomorrow, rather than a general sense that math is "going fine".

When the school computer is also the game computer

In many homeschools the same Windows PC is used for lessons in the morning and games in the afternoon. On the paid plan, the Dad's Academy Windows companion keeps that PC on learning first: your child earns their screen time by doing their review, within the limits you set. It runs on Windows PCs only. See screen time they earn for how it works.

Records and reporting

Some states and provinces ask homeschooling families to keep records or show progress; requirements vary a great deal, so check the rules where you live. Dad's Academy is not an accredited program and does not issue grades or transcripts. What it can offer is a running picture of practice: accuracy by subject and the skills worked on, in the Command Center. Many families note it alongside their own portfolio rather than in place of it.

On the free and paid plans

Dad's Academy is free to start, with no card required, and you can cancel anytime.

Each additional child in the same family is 25% off. Prices are shown in your local currency on the pricing page.

When Dad's Academy is not the right fit

We would rather you choose the right tool than ours:

• If you want a complete curriculum, with lessons and a year's sequence, choose one of those and add review alongside it.
• If your children are in high school, Dad's Academy stops at grade 9.
• If you want long video lessons, Khan Academy is free and much deeper. Many families use both.
• If you need earn-to-play on a Mac, Chromebook or tablet, the screen-time companion is Windows-only today.