Pirates—A Nomadic Professor Course (Timberdoodle Review)

Blackbeard. Treasure Island. Dred Pirate Roberts. One-Eyed Willy. Our culture is riddled with pirates and pirate stories. Even if we do not agree with their methods of action, their stories are intriguing. 

The treasure. 

The life out at sea. 

The adventure.

If you are looking for a unit study for your teen, the Pirates Course found in the Timberdoodle Ninth Grade Curriculum Kit is by far the most detailed and engaging unit study used in our homeschool to date.

We have used other Nomadic Professor courses in our homeschool, including US History 1 & 2 which were high-quality and detailed. While those courses gives an incredible overview, the Pirates course dives deep into a specific topic, all while giving your teen high school credit for her transcript. It's a win-win! 

As with all Nomadic Professor courses, the Pirates course is easy to navigate with little assistance needed from a parent. It is helpful, though, to have at least two dedicated email addresses to access the content. More if you have multiple children using the course at the same time. 

I used one address for the Teacher Account where I could follow my child's work, check the grades, and ensure my child was on track. I used a seperate email address for my child to use to log in. Once logged into the student account, your child can view her progress on the left sidebar. Each lesson receives a red checkmark when completed. Easy peasy. My child thrived with this course because it is not limited to stuffy textbook readings. It includes videos, colorful timelines, and engaging online text. 

I appreciate how the student can look ahead and see what to expect in the upcoming week(s) so she does not become overwhelmed. Each lesson ends with a quiz, and if your child does not retain the information, she can retake the quiz. I told my child that she was to attain a certain grade in order to pass and had to retake the lesson if that benchmark was not met. This helped with retention and motivation. It was not a matter of just getting through the lesson to say it was done, but retention had to happen, and it did! Often, my child would repeat what she learned at dinner to the rest of the family. That is always a big win in my book. 

Although the quizzes include a tremendous amount of detailed content, the lessons prepare your child for studying in a way that helps her actually know and understand the content, which is extremely useful for college prep. The way the quizzes are set up in a way to make sure the lesson was understoood not just checked off.

Each course that your child is taking appears in the Dashboard with a red progress bar that appears whenever she logs in. It helps to see what has been accomplished and keeps an attainable end in sight.  

A huge bonus is the certificate that is awarded when the course has been completed! Perfect to print out and save for your child's portfolio or high school records. 

Disclaimer: Many thanks to Timberdoodle for access to the above course for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.