Resource Description
Monarch is an interactive, Internet-based homeschool curriculum for grades 3-12 that's compatible with most web browsers on a Windows® or Macintosh® operating system accessible 24/7 from anywhere in the world. Monarch contains Bible-based online lessons in the five core subjects of Bible, history and geography, language arts, math, and science, as well as a wide variety of electives. Electives include world languages, history, literature, math, science, geography, health, civics, and preparation for GED testing. Monarch subscriptions are good for 18 months beginning on the date of purchase.
Website: Alpha Omega Monarch
(38 Reviews)
Before investing in any homeschooling resources, please read "How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum."
Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: This curriculum severely negatively affected my mental health. And stunted my growth and education as a child.
Grades Used: All 12
This curriculum is indoctrination. My parents used it on me from 1999-2011.
It is patriarchal, I remember thinking as a child while reading this...Did women exist back in the day? No child should have to ask themselves that about their gender... I was excited when I finally learned about a woman, Betsy Ross but then was instantly disappointed when I read, she was just the white women who sowed the flag. I got so depressed. I couldn't understand how no women made a single contribution to the human race story, considering women are human...
This curriculum did negatively affect my mental health.
It is whitewashed. There are very few Black American stories, and the ones that are there are the typical ones that keep white people comfy. Ex: Harriett Tubman, MLK.
It is homophobic. There is zero LGBT+ History in it. No Stonewall, no Martha P. Johnson...Nothing which suited my parents well who told me I was going to hell for thinking if I was gay when I was a teenager which severely impacted my mental health.
The science and math curriculum were so bad that even my teacherless parents decided to switch that and go to Bob Jones (Just as bad).
It allowed my emotionally stunted under educated parents to abandon the mental labor and positive reinforcement required to teach a "child" and keep the child motivated, happy, and learning. They had 6 children and I'm the only one who went to college and graduated. I started in my community college in "below college" level classes. I didn't even have basic English composition down even though I thought I did. I now have a degree in science and business management in spite of this curriculum.
If you love your child and want them to get a real education. Do not use this curriculum.
Your child will have issues in adulthood, as this curriculum is not a complete understanding of Amercian history, nor does it have a complete understanding of science.
Do not use this curriculum.
Cons: Payment account is not connected to the Curriculum account
Grades Used: 6-12
The curriculum is great and I have used it for many, many years. Make sure you stop payment drafts before closing your account. They are not both done at the same time, as I just, regrettably found out. They worked on refunding me some of the charges but I thought you should know incase you close your account.
Cons: I haven't really found a con yet
Grades Used: High School
I'm not sure what people are griping about with this curriculum. I pulled my 10th grader out of public school in September because they were teaching the students things that do not align with our values, I would know because I'm employed by the district. Monarch has been wonderful for us. You can set your own school year and as far as there being so much work, that's not necessarily a bad thing compared to what's been going on in these public schools. Monarch allows you to unassign anything if the parent or guardian deems necessary. I love that it is Christian based. Trust me, get your kids out of the public school system and get a start on reversing the damage the system has caused our children! I set my daughter's sophomore year to end in April and she is well on her way to be done probably in February, if not sooner.
Cons: EVERYTHING ABOUT IT
Grades Used: 3-6
very bad
Cons: too much work too many prodjects and essays constantly glitching and questions are hard to read or understand.
Grades Used: 4-5
so much work ;-;
Cons: Lots of questions are marked as wrong, when they are in fact correct.
Grades Used: 10th
Monarch is a great way to zoom through your work in a month, if you know the material. much quicker than khan academy. the only thing that it doesn't have is a *report this problem button*. I have just started using this for about a week, and about every 8 questions it says my answer is incorrect, when I double check and it is in fact correct. Their people need to fix these bugs.
Cons: None except for timing you out for taking too long (in my opinion thats a good thing, though.)
Grades Used: 5
Monarch is a great program and it has over 2000+ assignments for each grade and It picks the right ones for whatever your child needs to either work on or is struggling in. Monarch is amazing and it has at least 10 voiced videos a day by the creators to help with work. Everybody is putting Monarch down and making a big deal because it either "times you out" or it "crashes their internet router". There are 2 easy solutions for those problems: 1. Do you work and use your hour it gives you! 2. Don't buy anymore internet boxes from mcdonalds or just get a new one! You can grade work that you think Monarch graded wrong. Some questions answered might get an F (Paragraphs) if you don't grade your child's work in time! Monarch is actually great if you are responsible and do the work on time.
Cons: Shuts down constantly
Grades Used: 3rd and 5th
We use the Monarch homeschool program . I want to just say the website is under constant repair and the problems are never resolved. It logs my daughter out constantly and erases some of her work. I'm talking 2-3 hundred word essays gone. The answers will be answered correctly but still grade her as if they are wrong. Will def not be using this program again. Please research other homeschool programs that would be less stressful for your child.
We have used Monarch for high school to fill in every subject that our homeschool class center does not offer. We absolutely love Monarch and it has been a huge help lifting a burden off of my shoulders and allowing my spirited and independent teenager to enjoy her schooling independently! We were not fans of the Biology as we found the writing to be extremely disjointed as if written by someone who does not speak English well. We have not tried the math because Teaching Textbooks is so amazing that we would not want to try anything else. But Monarch has so many features that make it flexible, self teaching, self grading, and you can reschedule your school year any way you like. You can go in and delete whole lessons as needed and you can easily print all your records. It even lets you adjust your grading criteria so that the grade weighting is more or less challenging, as you see fit! One important note is that you ***must assign the extra essays and porjects** and sometimes that will take a little research on your part but once you have figured out what you want and assigned it you can go an entire semester without thinking about it. If you do not assign the projects and essays and get ideas from online sources or your teacher friends, your child will NOT be prepared for college. That said you don’t have to assign *every* project 🙂 ...here is an example. For 10th grade world history the program just has “special project “ assigned and I decided to get the book “Document Based Questions for World History” because I know pre-AP ans AP history classes assign Document Based Questions. My daughter would take that book, learn from
It, read the documents, wrote her essay In MLA format and then I would grade it using the rubric in the book and input the grade into Monarch. It took literally 20 minutes to assign them and each time took 10 minutes to grade and since I didn’t have to plan anything else I was able to put effort into choosing something worthwhile. ...I would never use just Monarch for the entirety of high school unless I had no other option as I think it would be tedious. However it is actually a VERY good program !!!
Cons: Way to many quizzes, assignments and test's to complete and way to many reports and projects to complete in under 14 days.
Grades Used: 9 and 10th
It's not bad online program but i get sick and tired of the million projects and reports you have to do, and it will send you like 5 reports you have to do, they are all due the same day and they give you like a week in advance to get it done, 7 days to get 5 reports done, and some of them are 600 words long. The other thing is the crazy work day someday's i only do 3 assignments per class, but most of the time i'll have a test to take, and then it wants me to do 3 homework assignments and then take a quiz and another TEST, so at the end of the day i could have 5-7 assignments to do for each class and its so annoying, i don't remember doing almost 18-35 assignments a day in public school.
Cons: Not always written well
Grades Used: 3rd, 5th, 9th
We've been homeschooling for 10 years and this is our first year using an online curriculum. We've never used a boxed curriculum, either. We mostly unschool in the early years. Then we used Life of Fred for mathematics, Story of the World for history, some Apologia for science, but mostly we used real books and real life.
My kids are finding Monarch to be pretty easy and enjoyable. Mostly. The content is not too hard for them but the way many of the questions are worded makes it very easy to get a question marked incorrect.
I do not like that spelling words are not taught in word families. Rather, words are pulled out of a story. My 5th grader gets more difficult spelling words than my 9th grader. I've never heard of spelling in 9th grade but, there it is.
All of my kids are very strong in mathematics and science. So they are finding those subjects easy. Plus, we do a lot of real science and math in our home. I don't know if Monarch science and math would be enough, on it's own. I am especially concerned about my high school student, as she progresses. I don't know if we'll continue using Monarch for high school. We may look into Power Homeschool.
Final issue-- the pricing. I have 4 children who are eligible for Monarch. The family plan allows for 3 students for around $600. But, to add a 4th child, you have to pay the individual rate which is around $400. No discount for adding any extra students. So, you can great a great deal for 3 students or 6 students. Having 5 students isn't that bad, either. But 4? Out of luck. It costs about $1,000 for 4 students but only $600 for 3 students. That doesn't make sense.
I wish they had done a better job with high school math and science. I like having everything on one platform. Hopefully, they'll improve. I haven't looked at Horizon textbooks yet but I would think they could use what's in Horizon to beef up Monarch.
Cons: There are a bunch of quizzes each week, they don't explain the math very good and the videos are pretty short and the math videos, (Some of them, not all) are hard to understand in my opinion.
Grades Used: 6,7,8,9
I'm seventeen and I have been doing this homeschooling program since I was in 6th grade! It's not that bad but there are a few cons about it, like: There are to many quizzes each week and they fit to many things into each section before the TEST. Most of the subjects are easy for me except math, I have so much trouble with math and I cant help to think that it might have something to do with the monarch and the way they explain it. The videos don't make since and the examples are ether not enough explained or to much explained to where it is to confusing. I have always had trouble with math and even when I was in school it was hard for me but I still think monarch could do a better job at explaining it:) Sometimes I wish I had a teacher helping me (A real teacher, not just the computer) My mom can't help me as much as she would like because she is at work when i'm doing my schoolwork, but that's ok. When math get's to hard though, I may be working 10 to 13 hours on it! along with all my other work piled up. Also I almost forgot to mention that there is a bunch of work each day...almost each day, Some days are a breez and others are putting bags under my eys and giving me headaches. Although I may sit here and talk about the negatives, monarch is a pretty good homeschooling program and I recommend it for busy moms or kids who are looking for and easy and fun way to LEARN.
GOD BLESS:)
Cons: Shouldn't be used for too many subjects
Grades Used: 9-11
We are using AOP Monarch for high school (I recommend just to use it for a few subjects each year, not all of them) and it is fantastic. The user interface lets the parent decide and adjust everything- what the grading scale is, whether they can skip problems, whether quizzes can be open-book (allows them to leave the screen and come back), and much more! You tell the program the start of the school year and the date of the last day and then it schedules the entire school year for you, including time off for holidays and Christmas. You can even have the program send you an alert when the student scores below a grade you set, on any assignment. AND it also sends you weekly reports automatically. My daughter has had no trouble with bugs or crashing. She uses Google Chrome on a Mac. We found some of the BIblical material to be a little weird, but it's ok, as that only pops up now and then in the beginning of world history. My daughter loves the interface and she loves her independence. I would NEVER encourage you to use only MOnarch for all of your subjects. I would be especially wary of using Monarch for Math and Foreign Language. However, for English, Literature, Electives, History and Science it really can't be beat! I am a very experienced homeschool mom who has used online live classes, Well Trained MInd Classes online, packages where I grade the work such as from Sonlight My Father's World and I can tell you, for a few subjects per year, Monarch is absolutely fantastic value and very well loved by our family. I cannot believe the value we are getting, and the drama-free school days Monarch allows us to have. For a few subjects, and assuming your child is reading current events (I recommend World Teen), and reading books (I recommend the Classics), and a few outsourced co-op classes, using Monarch will provide a fantastic experience. You do need to have realistic expectations of course. It is a textbook on a screen. The student needs to read his or her own material, study, make flashcards and take notes. You will at some point have your internet go down and if you reboot your router and it's still not back up, then make it a library internet day, or take the day off! We so far have not had any glitches with Chrome, but YMMV on a different browser. 🙂
Cons: User interface, glitchy, text only (not teacher videos), incorrect content
Grades Used: 7
For a simple online paltform that is very affordable Monarch does pretty well but we decided to discontinue use and seek a better option.
The interface for the platform leaves a lot to be desired. I would rate it a 3 on a 10 point scale.
The platform still has bugs, specifically on certain browsers. It worked ok on IE and pretty good on Chrome but not on Firefox. The bugs I am referring to are specifically on access. It would randomly log us out with in seconds of logging in. This loop would continue until you cleared all cache or restarted the computer.
I did like that the system did most of the work which meant I did not have to do a lot. I work from home so I needed a platform that did as much of the work as possible. There still is some interaction but most grading was done via the system. On the flip side there were assignments that the parent was to give for projects. This was very nebulous and little documentation on the best way to create a project for the subject.
If your student does poorly on a quiz or test you can reset it, review the content with them and let them retake it which is nice.
I did find more than one question that had the incorrect answer as the correct answer. In other words the answer in the system was set to "B" but the actual answer was "C" so my son kept getting the answer incorrect. I reviewed the material and determined that he was correct but the system was not. I did notify them but this really should not happen.
My synopsis is that Monarch is a very basic option for schooling from home. It has no physical resources like books, handouts, etc which is good and bad. The interface is not pleasing to the eye. There is no teacher, just computer voices to read the lesson if you want audible. So ultimately we stopped using the platform and went with another online option that is more true to life which has videos of the lessons from real teachers, uses supporting books for each subject and is much better put together.
Cons: Not enough opportunities to review/ forgets info after tests
Grades Used: 3rd, 6th
We used Monarch for a few months, and while I love the content, and the format, there is not nearly enough options for review of the material. There needs to be more games, or flashcards from previous lessons available outside of the lessons. I found that my kids were memorizing for tests, as opposed to actually leaving the material. If your child doesn't need much review to remember long term, then this would be a good option.
Cons: Monarch also has lots of projects and some glitches
Grades Used: 6th
Monarch was the best online homeschool I have ever done! It’s fun, interactive, and easy to use. Now there are sometimes when I just want to relax and not do my work, but other days I’m doing my work, happy and humming. There are some glitches and there are a lot of projects. But the teacher can cancel some of them. So, it evens itself out. I’m sad that it’s the end of the school year, but if I ever do homeschool again I will definitely do monarch.
Cons: WAY to many projects assigned, ALOT of work, one day you would have just a liittlw to do, the next you were sitting for countless hours doing work and still not able to finish.
Grades Used: 6th grade
I used this for the first year of homeschool after she transitioned out of public school and we are not planning on using it again. Way to much work to do. They assign about 3 projects a day (most of which need MANY materials that can’t be found in stores) and I feel as though you never actually learn anything. It’s not stuff that will stick in their heads because it’s just mostly true or false or multiple choice questions. Also really sucked the fun out of learning for my daughter. It is really easy to use though. And isn’t THAT costly.
Cons: potential internet glitches. none with material or layout
Grades Used: 6th
Loving Monarch for our 6th grader!
I am a second-generation homeschooler so I feel like I have had significant experience with curriculum from both the learning and teaching perspectives. As a family, we are fans of AOP and have started all our kids with LifePac. Living in Ohio we are required for our students to be evaluated yearly by a certified teacher. They have always performed well and the teachers have been impressed with the curriculum. "Don't change a thing" is music to this mom's ears!! Bottom line: AOP makes solid curriculum.
We decided to try Monarch for our 6th grader this year to give her some computer experience and are so happy with it! The layout, grading and learning tools are all to be applauded. We did have some glitchy issues that were frustrating (random crashing and not recording my daughters work) but we also live rurally and don't have great internet service so most of the time its been better than anticipated. I called the tech support once; they were very helpful, suggested a browser change and we have had very minimal issues overall. I suspect anything internet based is going to have problems now and then.
I would totally recommend this curriculum and am excited by all the elective options for the future grade levels! In conclusion, I would also like to add that I love that AOP makes quality curriculum AFFORDABLE. 🙂
Cons: potential internet glitches. none with material or layout
Grades Used: 6th
Loving Monarch for our 6th grader!
I am a second-generation homeschooler so I feel like I have had significant experience with curriculum from both the learning and teaching perspectives. As a family, we are fans of AOP and have started all our kids with LifePac. Living in Ohio we are required for our students to be evaluated yearly by a certified teacher. They have always performed well and the teachers have been impressed with the curriculum. "Don't change a thing" is music to this mom's ears!!
Anyway, we decided to try Monarch for our 6th grader this year and are so happy with it! The layout, grading and learning tools are all to be applauded. We did have some glitchy issues that were frustrating (random crashing and not recording my daughters work) but we also live rurally and don't have great internet service so most of the time its been better than anticipated. I called the tech support and they were very helpful and suggested a browser change etc and we have had very minimal issues overall. I suspect anything internet based is going to have problems now and then.
I would totally recommend this curriculum and am excited by all the elective options for the future grade levels! In conclusion, I would also like to add that I love that AOP makes quality curriculum AFFORDABLE. 🙂
Cons: Practically none
Grades Used: 8th and 9th
We have been using Monarch Online for two years, grades eight and nine.
We have all positive reviews. Monarch has exceeded what we need in our home school. The student has to read each lesson. Parents may print lessons in order to help the child with study and preparation for quizzes or tests. The grades are practically taken care of by Monarch. The reports are available at the click of the button. We are totally satisfied and thankful that Monarch has been available for us.
The only problem we have is when the system is down for maintenance and this is usually scheduled.
Thankful for Monarch!
Priscilla M.
Cons: see above
Grades Used: 10th, 3rd
JUST BECAME AWARE THAT THE MONARCH PROGRAM DOES NOT LEAD TO A DIPLOMA. ..IT IS STILL NECESSARY TO OBTAIN A GED!
[From THSM: Just to clarify for anyone who might be reading this, it is not necessary for homeschoolers to obtain a GED. This Ask Jeanne article is helpful for understanding how diplomas work for homeschoolers.]
It's okay. My daughter was very upset because your website is glitchy and almost everytime she does school something goes wrong. Like when she's writing a report, she'll press submit and it will take her back to sign up and her report was not saved. For instance her Alfed the Great report. It took her 45 min to rewrite the story in her own words, using colorful words and being a bit more dramatic. And she goes "Mommy! I finished my report"
As I'm watching her and telling her good job her smile turned ino a frown and she goes "It didn't save my report"
Thanks Monarch..........
Cons: NONE
Grades Used: 4th and 8th
I must say that we disagree with most of the negative comments about Monarch.
I am a mother, and having a teaching background, applaud this online curriculum. We, (myself and our Masters in Child psychology and Masters in education tutor), both took 1 month to find a suitable best homeschooling curriculum and found Monarch.
It is Christian based, accredited, offers transcripts, marks and keeps track of your children's full lesson sessions and submitted work, and the support has been superb, especially their online chat or over the phone.
I have a 4th and 8th grader and they are simply flourishing with this system. (They both came from private schools). They love the layout, user friendly and overall teaching and learning experience. It has ample written content, video's, audio's, tasks, lesson plans, experiments, essays, rapports, you name it.
All of which enables and provides your child with a holistic experience in every single subject area. The work load may be a little much but if your student is diligent and follows a thoroughly prepared daily plan, they can easily achieve their goals. The content is rich and extremely informative. Mine learn so much and in fact learn much more than children of their age in public or even private schools.
They are able to go over their work as many times as they wish in order to consolidate and grasp concepts properly, before moving on to the quizzes and tests. Their study time is focussed and non-distracting which helps them to absorb information effectively and actually learn. The instant gratification of grading scores inspires them to achieve good results and keep record of their marks achieved. Where needed they can then review on the weakest areas and brush up on those.
Thank you Monarch for all you endeavour to achieve and do with your online system. Keep improving and keep upgrading and know that you are doing a really good job. We couldn't have done without you and thank you for what you are enabling my children to learn. From an appreciative family.
Cons: Crashes constantly
Grades Used: 7
Not happy at all. My daughter gets finished with a question that took a while to figure out and the site crashes when she submits the answer. This happens all the time. I wish I had read reviews first Shame on me.
Cons: The program is useless. See my review for details.
Grades Used: 9th
This is the worst online homeschooling program we have ever used. It is very discouraging to a student when he constantly receives the following message while trying to complete lessons:
Our Apologies - On this page, an error has been detected.
Contact Us - If this error continues to occur, you can Leave Feedback or Contact Monarch Technical Support
More Information - Not authenticated. Problem with https://monarch.aop.com/api/get_maintenance/,
When we clicked on the "Leave Feedback" nothing happens. When we click on "Contach Monarch Technical Support" we get a sad face in a square box that below says "www.aophomeschooling.com refused to connect.
We have struggled with this program through the year that we've used it. Unfortunately we can't afford to just simply purchase something else, so as disheartening as it has been to our student, we've had to constantly encourage him to just keep trying, even though the messages above recur many, many times while he is using the program.