[00:00:00] Allison Herr: Don’t be afraid to search words in the Support Center on our Demme Learning website for support. It’s very keyword-based, so if there’s something you’re like, “I need help with this,” just look a word up in there. It can be one word or a sentence, and a lot of resources will come up for you.

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[00:00:24] Gretchen Roe: Good afternoon, everyone. This is Gretchen Roe, and I’m delighted to welcome you to The Demme Learning Show. We have a little bit of a pivot today because Dr. Karen Holinga was supposed to join us today, but she had a schedule change, and we wanted to have a conversation with you about something that we believe will make your homeschooling journey easier. I have invited two dear friends who are willing victims, if you will, to spend some time with me talking about the Demme Learning Support Center.

We’re also going to have a conversation about our subscriptions and how that has changed, and how there really is advantages to the changes that have been wrought. I’m so delighted to welcome Allison and Amanda to have this conversation with me today. I would like Amanda and Allison to introduce themselves. Amanda, we’ll start with you.

[00:01:16] Amanda Capps: Sure. I am thrilled to be here today. Thank you for asking me. I have been with Demme Learning for the last 16 years. The majority of that time I have spent in some form of customer support, either the customer service, I have transitioned into a more specific customer placement support and support specialist. I help parents and kids transition successfully into our family of curriculums, which I love because I have used these products with my own eight. I have graduated two out of this program, and I have six currently schooling in this program, so I will be homeschooling forever.

We live in Northwest Arkansas. We have two dogs. I’m married to my first responder husband, Justin, who is a firefighter. We have all the chaos and all the fun happening on the regular here at the Caps Home.

[00:02:14] Allison: Thank you for having me today. I’m so excited to be here. This is my first webinar, so if I seem nervous, that’s probably why. Overall, I’ve been at Demme Learning for three years. I work in the customer service role as well, and I help customers not only with placing orders, but accessing and using their tools, especially the online tools. I am a mom of one toddler and one on the way, so I’m not quite homeschooling yet, although I say everything is teaching right now at home. I used to be a kindergarten teacher for five years prior to beginning my position here and becoming a mom.

I do have some experience in the education world, and I also have some experience with technology. I really enjoy learning and using technology and helping customers with accessing the online tools as well. My husband’s also a data scientist for the government, so we all enjoy technology and discussing it in our household.

[00:03:13] Gretchen: Well, if you ever got the opportunity to meet Amanda, I mean, Allison, at a convention, watching her interact with little children, kids ages five to seven, is such a delight. Amanda and I got such a kick out of watching her at a conference in Texas two weeks ago because she just is a child’s magnet, and she brings that ability to explain things so simply. That was one of the reasons why Amanda and I thought that Allison would be the perfect counterbalance to answering questions today.

I’ve made Amanda into the navigator extraordinaire today to show us some of the things about the support center that I think will be really important for you to know. This is a hidden treasure that a lot of parents don’t realize exists. Amanda, I’m going to toss this ball into your lap and let you go with it.

[00:04:15] Amanda: All right. Hopefully you can see my screen and our main Demme Learning page. I’m going to move my icon out of here so I can see. You’ll notice in the orange heading here that we have a lot of great headings that give you an idea about what we’re about, the products and curriculums that we offer. We have a very wonderful blog and guild that offer a host of resources. The blog is where a lot of our articles as well as our webinars are housed.

If you’re looking for something with a specific topic pertaining to homeschooling, that is a great place to get into the search and search and see if you can find something because we’ve probably covered it, written an article about it, filled a webinar. There’s a wealth of resources out there. The guild is more focusing on some of our math and spelling resources and things that we have out here, our events. We have the Demme Learning show, we have virtual events that we host, and then we also have all of our in-person events, which is when Gretchen referenced our conventions. We travel to conventions and get face-to-face with our customer base at homeschool conferences.

Gretchen is one of our amazing speakers, and then you can see where we’re going to be and hopefully plan to see us there. We do have our new subscriptions. We’ll talk about this a little bit more in depth later. What we really want to focus on right now is this resource right here. We have this incredible support center, and I love the fact that right up front we have our search bar, but then we also have some bullets here, getting started with our digital toolbox. If you’ve found a suspected error, you can look here to see if it’s listed, and then also just a quick link to all of our customer service support.

We are available here in customer service Monday through Thursday, 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. This resource is a great place to look for those answers and those solutions to common issues that you might be having with the curriculum, with the website, with redeeming a code. The list is extensive, but we’ve provided great informative step-by-step articles, a lot of them with screenshots, so that you can walk through step-by-step getting that support that you’re looking for. You’ll notice as I scroll down, we have it divided into our different curriculums.

We have our Math-U-See, we have our Spelling You See, our Analytical Grammar, the Accelerated Individualized Mastery has an incredible wealth of resources. If you’re starting that intervention with students, this is a great amount of information to avail yourself of. Our Writeshop, then literally just customer service and FAQs. Anything that we have seen come through the door in customer service, we’ve probably got an answer for it right here.

If you are a school, if you’re looking specifically for support with digital tools, and then of course our Building Faith Families. Sometimes people struggle to find our stewardship, but it is housed. People think math, they think stewardship, and they think it’s going to be under our math curriculums, but it’s actually got its own little spot over here under Building Faith Families because it is one of our curriculums that does have biblical content, and so that’s where that is housed.

Then we’ve added here recently, again, we’re talking about group learning and subscription. So these are just, again, two really amazing options to help you with information regarding these options and what is going to make the most sense in your situation. Of course, if you have questions, concerns, challenges about any of this, and this doesn’t resolve the information you’re seeking, of course, reach out to us, and we’re happy to help you.

[00:08:22] Gretchen: Right. I think it’s also important to recognize that we used to have hours Monday through Friday, and now that our hours are Monday through Thursday, this becomes an even more valuable tool because if you’re like me, and it’s a Friday afternoon, and you’re looking for an answer, where are you going to find that answer? The support center is the place where you’re really going to go. Allison, I know you entertain a lot of conversation with parents who are new to the support center. If you are asking someone to navigate someplace for the first time, where do you send them?

[00:08:57] Allison: Yes. Within the support center, I think one of the best places that I send customers right now is looking at that subscription tab, especially because there are so many questions revolving around what a subscription is, how to use it, how to implement it, and add it to their digital toolbox. Another spot I often send them is the Math-U-See tab because a lot of parents have questions about how do I get started, where do I view my lesson instruction, or view my videos, things like that.

Some of those questions that do come in on Friday with a parent who is trying to either get started with math or complete a math lesson that day, and then they feel like they cannot complete that lesson because they weren’t able to use some of our online resources. A lot of the answers they can find right there under the Math-U-See or under the subscriptions tab if they’re new to our company.

Another area that I send a lot of parents to is the spelling You See under the general questions. Parents want to know about our digital resources for spelling You See a lot.

[00:09:58] Gretchen: Can you scroll down to the Spelling UC check questions and just click on that so parents can see what is there and available to them because I think that that would be helpful for parents to recommend. Sometimes, for instance, as I entertain questions for parents with Spelling You See, one of the ones that comes up most frequently is, what do I do when we have overlapping chunks? We had that question enough times that we wrote an article about it. If you all keep asking the same questions, we’re going to write some sort of a resource so a parent will have that to be able to go to. Which one does the student mark?

We’ve given you some latitude there. Parents sometimes want an absolutely black and white answer. Instead, we’re going to give you an answer that says what makes the most sense to your student. That would be really important. I also want you ladies, before we step off of this for any degree, is to talk about errata and print corrections because errata is a lovely Latin word that a lot of us were not exposed to. We don’t know that’s where you find the mistakes. Let’s talk a little bit about that. Why is that really helpful to parents? Amanda’s negotiating her way through this so we can see it right now.

[00:11:26] Amanda: Absolutely. You’re going to click into that errata and corrections link. You’re going to end up on this page here. You’re going to want to select your level. We have primer all the way through the bridge materials, the aims, really anything in the Math-U-See family. At this time, we don’t have errata for the analytical grammar, the Writeshop, or the Spelling You See, but good news, being in WordPress and being in the new platform and the new Demme Learning subscription platform, a big part of that decision was being able to push corrections to be able to update things in a much more efficient and live and real-time manner.

You can be watching for things to be coming and being released more regularly from Demme Learning because now we have a much more efficient and user-friendly platform to do that.

[00:12:26] Gretchen: Absolutely. I’d love to tell you that we don’t make mistakes, but we’re human, and it happens. Even though we have multiple passes with multiple proofreading experiences, stuff is still going to be out there that is incorrect. Sometimes I know in the past where I have been absolutely convinced that I have found a mistake. When I go to the errata, I figure out that I’m the mistake. I’m the one that didn’t do the math correctly. It was a me error, not the error, if you will. It’s always good to know. I think it’s also important if parents know that they can go here, they can find the answers to their questions and they don’t have to be frustrated not knowing that.

Amanda, can you show us how a parent would negotiate their way through this? I think this is a little bit important.

[00:13:21] Amanda: Absolutely. First, you’re going to pick your level. I’ve just chosen gamma as an example. Then you’re going to come over to your title. We have this broken down to where, if you’re finding it in the student workbook, if you’re finding it in your test booklet, there’s the instruction manual, there’s the lesson itself. This would be the written synopsis of the lesson, or whether it’s in the actual solution itself.

Then because these were filmed live, there could be a misspeak or something that was said wrong in the video. We have tried, as we have become aware of them, to update this as much as we can and as quickly as we can for our customers so that they know that they’re working off of the most error-free option.

[00:14:09] Gretchen: If you believe you have encountered an error, it’s important really to start here. However, that doesn’t mean if you don’t find the error, you don’t reach out to somebody like Allison or Amanda to ask further questions. Particularly if you feel like, “I don’t find an error, this feels like an error,” sometimes it’s how you complete the problem. That’s what I call user error on my part when I do that. You may have found something of which we are not aware. For that, we would be very grateful if you would let us know.

[00:14:45] Allison: I think it’s also important to note that you can access this on our digital toolbox and also our new Early Access website as well. There, it’s listed as the errors and corrections log. You’re not looking for the word errata there. We have changed that. I think it’s going to become more called the errors and corrections log as time goes on. It is accessible on there. If you’re already logged in and watching a video, you can access it under the digital tools there or linked underneath the lesson video for that specific lesson. Any errors that were found in that specific lesson will be listed as well.

[00:15:23] Gretchen: Amanda, can you give us a little bit of navigation here and show us why this would be to a parent’s advantage to look at the new digital toolbox? Now, I recognize that I am a creature of habit. I was telling the ladies before we began our episode that when Google changed their icons last week, I almost lost my mind for three days because I couldn’t find my own calendar because the icon had changed. I am such a visual learner. I’m used to looking for it a particular way. When it changed, change is hard. We all understand that.

Amanda and Allison are going to explain to you all why there would be some advantages to be in the new Demme Learning platform even though we currently offer the access in both the new and the old.

[00:16:13] Amanda: I was following what Allison was saying. I wanted to just be able to show you that if you log into your account through Demme Learning, and you’ll notice up here at the web address that I’m in the new demmelearning.com dashboard. This is, again, my personal account with Demme Learning. You’ll notice under the dashboard, you have your overview, which is the screen we’re in right now. You have your library. This is where all of your lifetime or subscription accesses live. Just to clarify, anything you purchased with digital access prior to May 5th, when we switched to the subscription platform, is still going to be here, going to stay in here for you. It will be accessible.

Then, as you maybe need to include a subscription for the next, the older child in your string of kiddos, which is what I ended up doing, I would buy the new level for the oldest child and then replace workbooks down the line. Those are going to be housed here in your library. If you have student accounts, those will also transfer into right here. I don’t utilize this feature as much except for my one daughter. The groups is something we’ll touch on briefly. Then where Allison was actually talking about and where I was motivated to get in here and show you visually is this digital tools.

This is where our virtual manipulatives live. We have our worksheet generator. Worksheet generator is specific in that it will allow you to produce additional lesson practice pages for the majority of our curriculum, with a few exceptions. It is limited in that it cannot produce concepts that are graphics-based or text-based. Again, no word problems. You will notice maybe a gap in the sequence of available lessons. If that particular lesson was more graphics-based, like it had more pictures of our blocks or something like that aligned with it, you’re not going to see those in here.

This is really a resource for parents who need additional equation-based lesson practice. Not designed to replace the workbook, not designed to be used in place of the workbook because the workbook is much more comprehensive. It provides that systematic lesson and concept progression as well as spiraled review, which both components are very important. This can be a great little tool. If you just are like, “We did all three lesson practice pages, we’re just not quite ready to go onto the next lesson, and we need another page or two of equation-based practice.”

We also have our online drill tool. Did you know you can drill facts, build the fluency, timed drills? It supports addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It gives immediate feedback to the parent as to how the fact fluency is coming for the student. Then this is what we were referencing here, this errors and corrections. This, again, will take you into that errata from directly within your account, and it’s very easy to access directly from there.

[00:19:45] Gretchen: Amanda, I’m going to play the devil’s advocate here for a second and say I’m a mom who’s looking for more practice, but specifically with word problems. I know that in the support center, we offer parents some suggestions to do with that. Allison, if I were calling in to ask you, I need word problem help, where would you send me? Then maybe you can navigate Amanda there.

[00:20:13] Allison: If you go into our Support Center, and under the Math-U-See tab, we have our levels questions. I believe, if I’m correct, they are listed under the levels questions. Amanda, you can correct me if I’m wrong. I believe that there’s some word problem Support Center articles here.

[00:20:36] Gretchen: Pretty sure that they’re included in there.

[00:20:39] Allison: Yes, I think so too.

[00:20:43] Gretchen: As long as Amanda is clicking around, let me also say that the easiest way for you as a parent to come up with more word problems is not to redo math. Take the word problem you have and change the nouns and the verbs, and behold, you have a new word problem. If the word problem deals with apples being collected, change it to toys being collected. You have a different word problem, but you have the same computation because I never had the patience to come up with a new computation. I just wanted more practice with the word problems themselves.

[00:21:18] Allison: This article that she’s in right now is one I often send because it reiterates just what Gretchen said. It gives those same ideas of how to create your own word problems, but also add on that practice in home. It’s so easy to add into your everyday life, saying an oral word problem to a student and being like, “Hey, can we figure this out together?” This Support Center article is just under the general questions.

[00:21:42] Gretchen: I love the fact that you said, “Can we figure this out together?” Math is a language, and nobody learns a language in a vacuum. You have to cooperate together. I think it’s really one of the key differentiating factors for Math-U-See is that we want languages. We want participation and verbalization with a student and a parent together. Amanda, you’ve pulled up a great webinar there. Tell me a little bit more about it.

[00:22:16] Amanda: I recommend this one a lot. When we have a parent reach out to us and they’re like, “Okay, we’re doing okay on the lesson practice. We’re getting the formulas, so the process. We’ve figured out the process. Where my student is really struggling is word problems.” Here’s the fun part. With a word problem, we’re specifically not giving them a formula. We’re giving them a language that is going to tell them how they are going to come up with a formula and then solve. Math has a vocabulary. Math has a language.

Part of our job as parents is to make sure that our children are familiar, comfortable, and confident with the process of being able to take language information and put it into a formula and then solve. This webinar that you did with Lisa is absolutely phenomenal, capturing the how of mathematical word problems. Making word problems fun is another video. There are practical tips for teaching word problems. A lot of people don’t know that we have a Teach Word Problems with a Graphic Organizer. This is a free download where you can literally print this off and use this tool to help your child scope out and build or pull from their word problem.

There’s just so many. Visualizing word problems is a math superpower. As you can see, and another thing too, is that it’s going to pull up related content as well. What does Mastery and Teach Back look like? Are word problems a part of that? Absolutely. A child should be able to confidently complete word problems in order to prove mastery. There’s a lot of really wonderful resources out here. Again, this was literally just me coming out into the Demme Learning site, typing word problems into the search. You can see a wealth of resources here.

If you’re not finding what you’re looking for, reach out to customer service. We may have something under our hat or something that we’ve encountered in our own experience. We’re more than willing. I cannot tell you the number of times. I’m not an advanced math person. Lisa Chimento, Laurie Wardle. There’s some amazing women in our customer service that do an excellent job supporting our parents in Algebra 1 and beyond in those upper levels. Not my forte, and I’m okay with it. What’s phenomenal about it is you can reach out to us.

I will not tell you the number of times I’ve gotten somebody on the phone and they’re like, “Oh, I need support with pre-calculus.” I’m like, “Okay. Where are you at?” Nine times out of 10, they walk you through what they don’t understand, and they figure it out themselves. Just talking it out loud with another human, bouncing it off another brain, verbalizing it, suddenly they’re hearing it, and they’re like, “Oh, wait. Oh, wait, I get it. I see what we’ve done. I see what we haven’t done.” Then they think you’ve done this incredible job fixing their problem and helping them out when you’re just like, whew, they figured it out on their own. Yay.

[00:25:42] Allison: Then I say to them, if they don’t get it, if they don’t get to that point, or if they do, I say, “I’m so glad that you figured that out because I taught kindergarten for a reason. I could not have helped you with that, but great job.” Or “Let me pass you on to someone who can help you because it is not me.”

[00:25:59] Amanda: Exactly.

[00:25:59] Gretchen: Actually, ladies, can you all talk for a second about the fact that we do have a dedicated way that parents can access upper-level support because I think that would be something maybe parents don’t realize that.

[00:26:14] Allison: Yes, sure. We have advanced support teams. Again, Amanda and I can support you all the way up through, I would even say, Pre-Algebra. For me, I can mostly support customers through. If they call in with those, or chat with us online with some of those upper-level questions, and they’ve talked through it, and we’re not able to solve it on their own, or it’s a concept that they really just need more support in, we’ll pass them along to one of our advanced support specialists.

You can email your question directly to them. Their email address is advancesupportdemmelearning.com, or you can actually schedule a meeting with one of them where they’ll give you a call, and you’ll have a notes section in there where you can write what level you’re in, what problem and page number and lesson that you’re on, and then more specifics of either it’s a whole concept you’re struggling with or one specific problem so that the support center specialist can be prepared when they give you that call, or you can chat with us online, and if one of them is available, they’ll chat with you too.

Once you schedule that call with them, they’ll be able to talk you through further of support and their lessons. It might end up being that it was an error on our end, but a lot of times, like Gretchen said, if it’s user error or just you need a different way of explaining, I think those ladies are so wonderful at talking through a concept or a specific problem to reword it in a way that makes more sense.

[00:27:45] Gretchen: Of course, they’re going to use the techniques that we have taught through Math-U-See, that build, write, say, walk me through what you have done, explain to me where you are in the problem. Very often, a student can find their own errors using that process, which is pretty reinforcing because it helps a student really feel like, “Yes, I can do this.” It’s an amazing thing. I have some questions here that, Amanda, can you address the support videos that are available in Pre-Algebra through Pre-Calculus? Can you show us those a little bit?

[00:28:23] Amanda: Absolutely. Yes, I had pulled this up just specifically to segue into that, but you’ll see under this Algebra 1 or Pre-Algebra here. You’ll see Pre-Algebra Lesson 7 support video. This is additional content. This is in addition to your lesson video that you have in your digital toolbox or your physical DVD or what have you, these were lessons that we started seeing consistent pain points. We were like, “Oh, let’s give a little more information. Let’s dig into this a little deeper. Let’s make sure that customers and students are really understanding what’s being asked of them here and give them more content and confidence to do that.”

We’ve got the Pre-Algebra Lesson 7 support video. You’ll notice there was one for Lesson 1 of Algebra Legacy. Then, yes, you’ll see as well if you go down into Geometry, there are some additional support videos that have been added. Algebra 2 definitely has quite a bit of additional content. Definitely, get in there, kick the tires, and make sure that you’re actually availing yourself of all of the available resources that we offer.

[00:29:37] Gretchen: I think it’s also important for parents to understand that most of the content that has been generated here is because you’ve asked. You have said to us, “How do I do X, Y, or Z?” If you ask often enough, we’re like, “Maybe that needs a support center article.” A lot of the questions that you would have in your mind have been addressed here in this valuable resource, and it does make a difference. Getting started for AIM, Amanda, can you show us that a little bit?

[00:30:11] Amanda: Absolutely. We have two different AIMs. We have the AIM, which stands for Accelerated Individualized Mastery. We have one for addition and subtraction, and then we have one for multiplication with bridge to division. One of the things and reasons that AIMs were developed were, again, [laughs] these pain points. We were having parents and students go through the placement tool, and it was immediately sending them back to Alpha, which is the first mastery level in our sequence.

We do have Primer, which works great for that preschool, kindergarten, age child, but when the rubber’s ready to meet the road and we’re ready to learn facts, we’re going to start with our Alpha level, and it teaches them beautifully. As parents were answering the questions around their child’s skills, what we were finding a lot of times is they couldn’t successfully get past the question about counting on our fingers, counting in our head, using a fact sheet, using tally marks, using an abacus, whatever the default may be. We’re still counting. We’re still stuck in that redirecting our mental energy to counting things out instead of just knowing our facts and being able to efficiently recall them.

That is how the AIMs were born. We were seeing that with addition and subtraction. We were seeing that with multiplication and division facts. This is a shorter term, 8 to 12 weeks typically. There are kids who have needed to work with it longer. There have been kids who have finished it faster. It really depends on your individual student, which is why it’s individualized. That’s in the title. You can use it at their pace, but this is really going to help get that mastery level automaticity of our facts so that we know what we know. Then we can build those higher-level skills on top of these foundational skills.

These were just really common areas where we were seeing gaps for students as they were coming into or wanting to transition into Math-U-See. Because we know if we don’t have this here in the foundation, everything we’re doing up here is going to be a struggle. It’s going to be stressful. It’s going to produce anxiety and fatigue. It’s just a really not ideal situation for a student to try to navigate learning. We want to make that as easy and as comfortable and as stress-free as possible because that’s where real learning happens.

[00:33:00] Gretchen: Absolutely. I think it’s also important for parents to understand that because AIM is not a level of Math-U-See, because it is an intervention, your interaction there is really predetermined by how long it takes you to change a habit. If you can break this habit with rapidity, then you spend less time with that. It makes so much of a difference for so many students. We definitely have lost count in the last nine years how many students have benefited from the opportunity to get a more solid foundational fact set.

I often think of Mr. Demme when he talks about the student who just looks to the skies for divine inspiration when they’re calculating a fact. If you have a student who does that, it’s always really valuable to say in that moment, “So how did you get there? What was happening in your head when you were doing that?” Because it’s amazing what you’ll learn as a parent in that moment. Right, Allison? I see you going, “Uh-huh.” You must have more to say there.

[00:34:07] Allison: Well, I just think it’s so important to listen to your child about the way their brain works and how they’re getting to an answer. Like Gretchen and Amanda keep repeating, it’s so important for children to have those facts down pat as they get into subjects like pre-algebra and above. If they’re still looking to the heavens to solve a problem and they’re really distracting themselves from what their main focus of the problem is, which are much more complex problems, they’re going to just become completely lost.

I know when I talk to parents about starting the AIM program and mentioning that 8 to 12-week-long period, parents panic a little because everyone wants to keep their kid on track and they have this timeline in their brain. It’s just so important to understand that without having these facts down solid and understanding where your child is coming from when they’re solving these problems as early as possible, then they’re going to just have a harder time as they continue on, and it’s going to compound the difficulty of completing math for them.

[00:35:14] Gretchen: Amanda’s actually accessed an article here that I think is really helpful for parents. In fact, if I tell truth here, Amanda was the drafter of this article because we answered this question so often that we felt we needed to put it in writing. It really is when you, as a parent, have that understanding, it’s a huge difference maker because then math, because of its very nature of being sequential and cumulative, it just becomes easier. Isn’t that what we really want for our kiddos is for it to be easier for them?

Amanda, can we now step into a little bit of discussion about subscriptions? Actually, I’d like to do this in the context of the reason we changed the model was driven in part because we were hearing from parents that they wanted more, that they had different needs. Can we talk about that now?

[00:36:18] Amanda: Absolutely. This platform, again, allows us to really provide some incredible additional resources. Let me go back to my overview and my online resources. I’m back in my account here. One of the things that you’ll see, when I was in my library, you were really seeing the levels of Math-U-See that I have access to as far as teaching videos, my teacher’s manuals, and solutions. Out here in the online resources, we have so much content that correlates, or compliments, or supports Math-U-See, or adds some of those supplemental concepts. You’ll notice a mastery decision tree and guide, money blocks. These are supplemental lessons.

I don’t know if our customers realize, but we have an entire set of blocks now that you can go out into our store and purchase specifically for teaching all of those money-related concepts, which is phenomenal. It just takes some of the things that we touch on in Beta and Gamma and does a little bit deeper dive and really makes sure that our kids are confident with working with those concepts.

[00:37:32] Gretchen: Again, Amanda, we should say that money blocks evolved because parents ask us, please give us a tool to make this more doable for our students. The cool part is access to the physical elements is a small purchase price, but then the access to the resources related to it is free.

[00:37:59] Amanda: This is where all the Spelling You See online resources live now. They’re completely free and accessible to you. If you have that level of Spelling You See, you can literally just jump into the level. You’ll see we offer resources that go along with our ELA, like a printable reading log if you want to keep track of or do an incentive chart for a child who’s reading over the summer. We have color-by-number multiplication practice activities. Tea Party printable and Math Fact Games. There’s just an ever-growing amount of fractions in relation to recipes, spring writing prompts, so seasonal things that we can draw out of and use alongside who wants to work on a budget? Nobody?

[laughter]

[00:38:52] Gretchen: Something we probably should all do, but nobody wants to, right?

[00:38:56] Amanda: Exactly. Again, even in relationship, because we talk so much in our webinars, we talk so much with our customers. Sometimes I’m definitely a customer support specialist, but sometimes I think I’m a customer support therapist. We get to be about this time of year, and I’m sure Allison will agree, there’s a little bit of talking people off the ledge. There’s a little bit of, “Here’s where we’re at.” We’re looking at, and we’re limping towards the finish line for the 2025/2026 school year; we’re looking at goals and looking towards our 2026/2027 school year. That feels a little like, oh, wow, maybe we didn’t get as much accomplished as we were hoping, or we discovered, oh, where we were at, we really needed to back up and do some review. Now we’re just getting to where we thought we were going to be more towards the beginning of the year.

All of those scenarios are fine and valid. You are where you’re at. The beauty of homeschooling and home education is you can meet your student where they’re at, and you can really be effective with your time if- I’m going to use some words here that are real important: consistency. Consistency is going to outpace quantity every single time, 100%. Smaller, focused incremental consistency over time is going to pay out in dividends way more than trying to cram or rush or condense something into a very tiny space of time.

Be thinking about ways and strategies to do that. We have a lot of great articles and webinars that talk to and address that. Call us in at customer service. We have ideas. We can support you. We can offer you fast-track options for some of the math lessons. If you have an older child that’s in a review situation, they don’t necessarily need to do every page, every problem. We don’t want to skip lessons. We want to stay with the consistency. I talked with a mom just earlier today before this webinar that she was like, “Oh, we’ve got to get through Epsilon and Zeta and we really need to try to do it as close to September as possible.” I’m like, “Okay.”

A lot of that’s going to be the motivation and the buy-in with your student. Are they on board with ramping this up, and do they know what that’s going to require of them, and are we ready to make that commitment? Absolutely. All right. Here’s your plan. Here’s how we do this. We’re happy to help you set up something that’s going to help you be successful and help your student be successful. We don’t ever want to sacrifice mastery for speed, but there are ways to accelerate things and to highlight specific things and specific gaps. We have a wealth of resources that we can offer you to do that.

I’m trying to think. Oh, so one of the things we were talking about, where I went with that because I went down rabbit trail, is this is talking about problem-solving flow charts. This is more relational and critical thinking and thought processes, and how do we start here and meet our goals. Tools like that are really invaluable as well. I cannot stress enough how important estimation and that concept is for our Beta students. Getting a general ballpark of, if I see this number, I see this number, and rounding and estimation. Those are huge skills that we really need to make sure that we’re doing well with. We have stuff for if you’ve gone to a conference and you’ve come to our booth. This is follow-up stuff that helps you.

Anyway, as you can see, there’s just all kinds of- make a little plug here: if you can’t attend a convention in person this year, if there’s not one geographically convenient to you, Demme Learning puts on a summer online summit. This is coming up in July. I don’t know why it says 2025.

[00:43:01] Gretchen: Because that is the archived resource.

[00:43:03] Allison: From the archives. You can revisit.

[00:43:05] Amanda: Got you.

[00:43:05] Gretchen: You have to go to the events to get into the 2026 one.

[00:43:09] Amanda: All right. Well, let’s do that really quick so that people can see what we’re talking about. If we come up here and we go back to, then you go to events, you go to virtual events, and here we go. These are the upcoming talks and webinars that we have. If you’ll scroll down, you’ll see right here we have our summer online summit. There is a discount available to customers who attend in a virtual capacity. You can check out the event and look at the criteria of what that looks like, and then avail yourself of that, which can be a really great way to save a little bit of money and get the next year’s levels and resources that you need.

[00:43:46] Gretchen: Allison, can you talk a little bit about when a parent comes into Demme Learning, and they’re asking you questions about, “But I have Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and I purchased those before,” what now is the change based on the changes that we made the first week of May? So that parents understand that they’re not losing access, but we have changed language.

[00:44:21] Allison: Yes. What you might have seen, Amanda, and maybe you have never seen before, and you’re like, what is this new website? I don’t know, because you might be going into the digital toolbox, ROG, a digital toolbox to view all of your resources that you’ve purchased previous to May of 2026. May 5th, 2026 is when the subscriptions went into service. Yes. If you’re still visiting the digital toolbox and it looks like this, all of your resources will still be here and also in the new version as well. There’s a pretty little peach bar at the top there where you can switch your view over. It will probably ask you to log in the first time you visit our new Early Access or new Demme Learning website.

Once you sign in as an instructor and you see your name or your email address in the top right corner, you know you’re signed in, you should see all of your previous purchases here in your library. If you have purchased Primer through Epsilon and you have that online instruction with video purchase made previous to May 5th of 2026, they should all be listed here. If they’re not listed here, there’s a little tab that says add to library. When you click on it, you should see those levels that are available to you there to add to your library. You will have to do it one at a time and see them appear. Click Add to Library again. Once they’re all in here, there’ll be a little white bubble in the top right corner of that level that says lifetime access. That means that you’ve added it and you will have it in there for a lifetime. It’s not using a credit for a subscription or anything like that.

The other nice thing is if you have made a purchase from one of our distributors or through a charter school or something like that and you received a code to redeem your online instruction with video prior to May 5th of 2026 and you still have that code or you’re like, “Oh, in 2020 I purchased Alpha and I want to add it to my library now,” and you have an order history or something, one, we can help you add it. Two, if you still have that code, which a lot of families still have codes to redeem, you can come right here to- I know it’s going to be a little difficult- to this new website, and you can redeem your code here for that lifetime access. You’ll see how she’s going to /subscribe.

This is where you’d sign up for a subscription or a free account. If you just want to access this website and don’t have any digital toolbox account yet, you can do so here. Underneath these plans, you have a code redemption box. This is where you will put in a code for your lifetime online instruction with video purchases through a distributor or charter school. If you’re starting your individual essential plan with us, you’re going to put your code in here. This page is super important for families that are even looking to start a subscription as well.

[00:47:26] Amanda: I just want to mention really quickly here, this is always going to default to the annual plan. You’ll see right here we have a toggle, and so it’s defaulted to the annual. That does include some savings over the monthly subscription option. Say you wanted to review a level and you only wanted to unlock it for a month, we do have monthly options as well. You can see those breakdown of the price and what they include. You’ve got a lot of flexibility here as to what you would like to do.

[00:48:00] Gretchen: I think it’s also important for parents to understand change is always hard. I whined earlier about the fact that Google changed their icons, and I found that to be hard because I’m such a visual learner. We had not addressed the issue of the behind-the-scenes necessity of providing support to parents since 2015, and it was time for us to address those issues. Even though change is always hard, we have listened to our parents when they have said, I want the flexibility to be able to access information in a different capacity. That’s why you’re going to see some of these changes implemented.

It wasn’t that we were seeking to make life more complicated because goodness knows no one needs life to be more complicated in this day and age, but we do need to have the ability to continue to provide you support. That meant we needed to change digitally how that support was provided. Allison, I see you having some thoughts about that.

[00:49:12] Allison: With this change, there’s just so much wonderful, free material that is coming out on our new website that’s not posted on our old digital toolbox like Amanda was showing earlier. So much of that content wouldn’t be available or accessible or anything without making some changes. I agree, change is really hard. We’ve definitely heard some of that feedback and understand that, but also, we’re doing it in hopes to provide customers with so much more content as time goes on. That’s going to be so much more beneficial to customers.

[00:49:47] Gretchen: I will say that we will have a session in the Summer Online Summit that gives you the history of why the changes needed to be made. I’m very grateful to Jeff Turner, our director of sales, who sat down with me and had a conversation about that to sort of give you a little bit of history to understand how we got from there to here, and why the changes were made, and how ultimately it will be to a parent’s advantage to participate in this new platform.

[00:50:17] Amanda: I think it’s really important while we’re talking about subscriptions and we’re talking about changes to look at an actual product page. I’ve chosen Beta just as an example, but you’ll notice now we have the set. This would be ideal for the person who is coming into this level for the first time. They’ve never used Math-U-See before. They need the manipulatives, the instructional materials, the whole kit and caboodle. This is the Beta set.

Then we have our à la carte options. We had a lot of parents who wanted us to transition away from different set options and just give them the ability to build their own package and pick and choose exactly the items that they did. Did not want to have included. At a minimum, you’re going to need student materials. This is always going to be, with the exception being our new Algebra Two Principles of Secondary Mathematics, which is completely digital and completely online; you’re going to need your workbook and your test booklet. That’s going to come together as the workbook and test.

Optionally, you can add a physical teacher’s manual if you are old school millennial like me and you want to pull a book off the shelf, and you want to read the written synopsis, and you want to be able to flip to the back and get the solutions and check your child’s work; then this is the ideal situation and option for you. Obviously, we would love for you to have the physical. I did point out, and we did look at the virtual manipulative option in the digital toolbox. There is something that data proves: getting something in their hands, that brain-hand connection. Same with the workbook. You just can’t get away from the pencil and writing it out yourself, barring your child having maybe some motor skills or needing additional support there, which is fine.

We have a lot of people calling in right now asking where the online instruction with video is. That is the terminology we’ve been using for a while now, online instruction with video. Now what you need to know is this is that access. It’s going to be physical. It’s going to come and be shipped to you. You need to treat it like cash. You need to treat it like a gift card. It has a code that we cannot access. We don’t have lists of these codes. They’re literally just printed on these, and these go out to the customer. When it comes in the mail, immediately get your phone out, take a picture of it so that you have a record of it, so that if it accidentally gets thrown away by a kiddo or it sprouts legs and runs away, which we all know in hectic, chaotic homeschool homes, that can happen.

The other option is if you are like, “I don’t want anything to do with the online platform, the subscriptions, I just want to own my math outright. I want to be able to sit down and watch my lessons in a physical format,” we still have our DVD option, and that is right here.

[00:53:20] Gretchen: I should also say that DVD option is for those parents who happen to live in rural locations where their access is unreliable and they don’t have the ubiquitous internet access that those of us who live in urban areas are used to.

[00:53:34] Allison: Or if you live in Lancaster like me and there’s lots of families that choose not to have internet access around me or all over the country, I’m sure, then that’s a great option for you too.

[00:53:44] Amanda: It is. It’s a really great option. We do still have that available. What I wanted to talk about specifically is the difference between. This physical card gives you a code. Where we were on the site before, where you saw you could enter your access code, that’s where you would go to do that. Once you do that, that is when your time starts. You’re going to have 12 months from the time you redeem that code, plus two weeks because you get a free trial period. 12 months and two weeks, you’re going to have the ability to unlock two levels of Math-U-See.

If you have historically had levels in there, they’re going to be there, they’re going to stay in your library. This allows you to unlock maybe the next two levels, Zeta and Pre-Algebra. Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1. Whatever you want to do. However your child tracks, you’ve got 12 months to access two levels. Great choice. If you do not want a physical card mailed to you, you do not want to keep up with a code, you want instant access, that’s where we’re again talking about that new.demmelearning.com/subscribe. You’re going to see the plans. You’re going to be able to literally set up your subscription right there in real time, enter your payment information, and then immediately go in, add it to your library, and be able to utilize it.

We have both delayed; I don’t want to start until September. You could wait to go out and start your subscription. You could do the code. The code that comes in the set is going to be you start it when you want to start it. Anyway, just wanted to explain the difference between the physical card and the instant access options for the subscription.

[00:55:32] Allison: The physical card is only for annual plans. If you’re looking for a monthly plan, then that will not come on a physical card. You will need to go to the website and do the little toggle to the monthly plan, and you can sign up for it online there without needing the code or a card at all.

[00:55:50] Gretchen: That makes sense to me. Okay, ladies, we are already at the top of the hour. I want you to think for a second: what should I have asked you that I have not? [laughs]

[00:56:03] Allison: Don’t be afraid to search words in the support center on our Demme Learning website for support. It’s very keyword-based. If there’s something you’re like, “I need help with this,” just look a word up in there. It can be one word or a sentence, and a lot of resources will come up for you.

[00:56:22] Amanda: Oh, I just thought of something. One of the things that I meant to point out when I was in the new version of the site in my account, at the bottom, in the very center of my account, there was a little folder tab, and it was titled Feedback. If you have an issue, if something’s glitching, that is where you can click that, you can take screenshots, you can show us and our IT team in real-time where you were at, what you were experiencing, and that feedback is invaluable to us to creating a better user experience. If you have feedback in any way, shape, or form for our online platform, that is a great way to get it to us and do it quickly and efficiently.

[00:57:08] Allison: Our IT team is very responsive. Any changes that need to be made, or if it’s individual user support, they’re fantastic. They will give you that support through us contacting you afterwards.

[00:57:22] Gretchen: Amanda, as we conclude, I’m going to ask you to put up your screen one more time and scroll down to the very bottom so that parents can see where they can subscribe to our newsletter. As this new site is built, we are adding free content on a weekly basis. It would be really important for you to know what is available as it comes available. The best way to do that, look, I will be the first one to admit, I want more emails like I want a hole in the head. However, if you want support in your homeschool journey so that it is the best it can possibly be, signing up for our newsletter on a weekly basis is a fantastic thing to do.

If you don’t remember later how to find your way to the summer online summit, guess what? The newsletter is going to give you a link for the next several weeks until that event occurs. It is really important for you to be able to access that kind of content. Thanks, Amanda. I appreciate you being my Vanna White. [chuckles] Ladies, I want to thank you both for joining me today. This was a lot of information. I know our guests felt like it was a little bit like drinking from a fire hose. I believe that we have provided information for them that they will find helpful as they continue their homeschool journeys.

Of course, let me just say in closing that Allison and Amanda are available to speak with you by phone. They are just two of a whole cadre of wonderful support personnel at Demme Learning who are either on their homeschooling journeys, have concluded their homeschooling journeys, or, like Allison, getting ready to begin. They want your success as well. Please don’t forget that they are here to help you have the best journey possible. We don’t take lightly that we’re allowed to come into your living room and share these kinds of information with you. We hope you find this information to be helpful.

If there’s something that you would like to see us have a conversation about, of course, please send us an email, contact Allison, Amanda, or someone at the company, and say, “Hey, I want to see you all have a conversation about X, Y, or Z because we would love to do it.” Thank you, ladies, for joining us today. I really appreciate it. We wish you all the best. Enjoy the journey. We know that some of those days are very long, but the years pass very quickly. Take care, everyone.