Memoria Press Online Classical Academy -- Anyone Use This

[Josie]

I am considering using some classes at Memoria Press Online Classical Academy. Please tell me about your experiences. Do you think it is worth the money? Do you think your dc benefitted from the class? Would you do a class with them again? Just any info will be appreciated.

[Debbie in OR]

My ds "attended" the First Form Latin class Fall/Winter last year and, while he didn't love it, and I think we would have been just fine going through the book/DVD at home, it forced him to work harder than he typically would for me because his reputation was at stake with his classmates. This was, in my estimation, the best part of the class.

 

I would say the teachers were very available and I appreciated their encouragement of the kids. The only annoying thing to me (although my ds liked it) was there were times when the side chatter was a bit too much. While the teacher was drawing something on the board or was occupied for a minute with something that left the class not engaged (or sometimes when he/she was in the middle of teaching), the kids would start this chatting ("Who is going to their grandparents for Christmas?" "What do you want for Christmas?" "My baby sister is sitting here bugging me." "Oh yeah, my baby sister does that too. I hate it." "I went to a sleepover the other night...") Blabbity blab blab blab. But, the upside is that it helped the kids connect with each other (I loved to sit through the initial log-on because all the kids would throw out these greetings and happy thoughts to each other as they logged on...it was really very sweet). So, it was a minor thing really, and in light of the benefits, would not deter me from signing him up again.

 

My only suggestion would be to make sure your child's typing skills are decent... I don't think they have to be great but at least a good working knowledge of the keyboard. My ds would get frustrated when he would know an answer immediately but couldn't type fast enough to be first to post his answers.

 

Latin is now his favorite subject and I noticed that it coincided with this class. I think being able to see what he could do gave him some confidence that he wouldn't have had just sitting in our school room competing with himself.

 

All in all, a good experience and I am looking forward to him taking a few more as he gets older (Lost Tools of Writing, Traditional Logic, several of the literature classes....).

Edited July 27, 2010 by Debbie in OR