Anybody use Plato On-line Middle School classes?

[OneStepAtATime]

DD and DS want more science than we are currently doing.  They want something that is relatively interactive, not an on-line textbook, and that they can use independently besides the science stuff we do together.  Plato looks like it might be o.k., especially since we are doing other things, too, but I wondered if anyone here had used it with an LD kiddo....

[Tokyomarie]

My son used all three middle school courses when he was in 7th-8th grade. He is dyslexic and dysgraphic. I chose these courses to use as part of his science education at that level because he was having severe difficulty with writing and learns well when visual and auditory input are combined. He did well and, for the most part, enjoyed them. The record from his work gave me something objective to record for a grade since written expression- both the physical handwriting and the language components- were difficult and created barriers to demonstrating his learning.

[FairProspects]

We're using Earth and Space right now. Ds enjoys the interactive lessons and says they are a good kind of hard. The quizzes are a con for us. They don't have a reader or text-to-speech so I have to read them aloud to ds and they include difficult vocabulary that sometimes messes with his dyslexic language comprehension (but vocab is a huge weakness for him in general with his word retrieval issues). Also, if you get 1 of the 3 questions in the quiz wrong the whole quiz is invalid and you have to take it again. That aspect is discouraging for ds because he often misses a question if I don't read it aloud or just because the language itself trips him up and then he has to re-do the whole quiz. The verdict is still out on whether we will use more than this one course, but it is working for now while I don't have a lot of time to put together something for him with experiments.

[OneStepAtATime]

Thanks so much for the responses. I think I will go ahead and take the plunge and see how it goes.  Best wishes...

[Soror]

I remember reading that 8filltheheart used it with her son I believe and they seemed to like it ok, iirc.

[OneStepAtATime]

Thanks, Soror.  I just can't keep up with the number of science lessons the kids want.  I thought this might placate them while we still do a science lesson with experiment twice a week or so....  especially during the summer I really need to be working on business stuff that got neglected and we are still doing Barton and math and typing through the summer so Science they can do on relatively their own when they want to may be easier on all of us.

[MomatHWTK]

My kids watch a lot of Netflix documentaries and Coursera class lectures to add to their science lessons.  We are also using Fascinating Science- Chemistry and Biology this year.  We've used Plato in the past and enjoyed it.  Adaptive Curriculum via Learning.com also has some nice science lessons.  Have you watched the Happy Scientist videos? 

[Soror]

Thanks, Soror.  I just can't keep up with the number of science lessons the kids want.  I thought this might placate them while we still do a science lesson with experiment twice a week or so....  especially during the summer I really need to be working on business stuff that got neglected and we are still doing Barton and math and typing through the summer so Science they can do on relatively their own when they want to may be easier on all of us.

I hear you, I'm trying to figure out Science and History for next year myself as I've yet to find just the right fit for us in content or methodology. I considered Plato myself but I don't think it would work for ds, he seems to lose interest in on-line content.

[OneStepAtATime]

My kids watch a lot of Netflix documentaries and Coursera class lectures to add to their science lessons.  We are also using Fascinating Science- Chemistry and Biology this year.  We've used Plato in the past and enjoyed it.  Adaptive Curriculum via Learning.com also has some nice science lessons.  Have you watched the Happy Scientist videos? 

 

I have looked at Coursera, but not in detail.  DD gets bored with documentaries but DS could watch documentaries all day.  Between Fascinating Science and Plato, which do you think is more robust? User friendly?  Has the least amount of text to read?  Long ago, before he moved, we used to watch The Happy Scientist.  Have not done so in a long time, but I will look into it.  Thanks!

 

I hear you, I'm trying to figure out Science and History for next year myself as I've yet to find just the right fit for us in content or methodology. I considered Plato myself but I don't think it would work for ds, he seems to lose interest in on-line content.

I understand.  I was never as big on on-line learning.  DS and DD like on-line material a lot...as long as it clearly lays out what is expected of them and is not just a textbook on screen.  That they truly hate. We do lessons together but because math and language arts are SOOO teacher intensive, and we do so many read alouds together, the kids get tired of being dependent on me for learning.  DD just doesn't do well with researching on her own and she still struggles with text dense fact material, too.  And DS is not reading independently enough to do much on his own.  He does like documentaries a lot and will put those in or look for some on-line.   They both like being able to hop on the computer and do something reasonably independently when they feel like it....but I don't want to be completely disengaged from history and science with them so I am hoping to find a balance between stuff we do together and stuff they do on their own.  Also, I like learning this material too.... :)

 

Hope you find something that works for next year, Soror.... 

[FairProspects]

OneStep - Do you have text-to-speech enabled on your computer and devices? That was key to gaining more independence for us. With text-to-speech ds is able to do more assignments on his own and have more control over his work.

[OneStepAtATime]

OneStep - Do you have text-to-speech enabled on your computer and devices? That was key to gaining more independence for us. With text-to-speech ds is able to do more assignments on his own and have more control over his work.

I have not tried implementing Text to Speech with most of what DD does since she says it moves too fast and confuses her.  She hates having to pause it to think through things, too.  She seems to need some audio/video/kinesthetic input to learn anything well, but in small doses, then some extended quiet time to process.  Even when I am teaching her, I have to pause regularly to give her quiet time to think.  She cannot seem to hold audio input in her head while trying to process information she is working on.  It has been challenging for me and frustrating for her.

 

But for DS I really need to work on implementing Text to Speech.  He usually does really well with audio/text input.  I just haven't pushed it yet.  Thanks for the reminder, though.  It really seems like it would give him a lot more independence.

 

Best wishes.