Any reviews of "Home2Teach" writing classes?

[Maura in NY]

I'm thinking of enrolling my rising 10th grader. He's a natural writer, but I haven't done a very good job of helping him with structure. If you have used Home2Teach, what did you think of it, and what did your child think?

 

It would help if you briefly told me what your goal for the class was and if it was met. (My goal for ds is that he be able to write an essay without both of us losing our minds. :001_huh: Once he's focused on a topic and gets an outline down, he does alright, but there is an unbelievable amount of circling around and avoidance involved first. I just need someone else to wield the carrot and stick for a bit.)

 

Thanks,

Maura

[Sophia]

is taking a summer class (paragraph) with them.

It's been three weeks and I have been very pleased.

His greatest struggle is accountability and meeting deadlines. Well, that and paying attention to detail. And applying what he knows.

O.k., so he has lots of issues :D.

 

Eileen has been great about keeping him accountable in using the correct format (MLA) and reminding him to check his class notes to make sure he is following the assignment correctly and completely.

It is not unusual for her to send his work back to him 2-3 times in one day so he can correct format and edit.

Ds will be taking a Potter's School English class this fall, and they have a reputation of being tough, so I appreciate her thoroughness.

 

Ds spent his first week complaining about the class~he hated seeing yet another email from her;)~but he's a reasonable boy and admits the class has been good for him :001_smile:.

 

hth!

[dtsmamtj]

I hadn't heard of Home2Teach - will look them up. Thank you.

 

 

T

[Sandra in FL]

It's going well. Eileen is very quick to respond with her emails. She just sent an email with advanced requirements for lesson 3 so it seems that she adjusts her lessons depending on the level of the student. She says she wants to challenge dd. We'll see how dd responds to this "harder" lesson.

 

 

HTH,

Sandra

[dtsmamtj]

I looked into this and she e-mailed me with the scope and sequence of the paragraph class and literature class. Does she use a specific type of curriculum? If so, what is it.

 

Has anyone taken the literature class?

 

Thank you.

 

T

[Sophia]

I think she creates her own curriculum.

Each week a transcript of the class is mailed to the kids so they can review as they do their assignments.

Ds has used Rod & Staff grammar since 3rd grade and much of the grammar she reviews has already been covered with R & S.

The writing instruction is specific, with examples provided, i.e she will give a list of words not to use at all, words to avoid in beginning a sentence, how many sentences should support a topic sentence, etc.

 

Don't know anything about the lit class.

hth,

[Deidre in GA]

my son (14) has spent the past year with Home2Teach for Paragraph, Paragraph II, Writing About Books, and Expository Writing. this has helped him so much because:

 

1. he was so resistant to my guiding his writing development. he couldn't argue with Eileen; you meet her assignment requirements or it gets sent back to you. he learned mom wasn't making it up when she said certain conventions have to be met.

 

2. Eileen helped him focus and organize his content much more clearly.

 

3. Eileen was extremely patient with him and, though requiring him to work hard, still enabled him to feel capable and creative.

 

4. Eileen has deadlines that have to be met. this was so good for him.

 

5. it was so beneficial for both of us for me not to be the arbiter for at least one of his subjects.

 

if we were continuing to homeschool (he's going to conventional public school in august) I'd definitely have him take a few more courses with Eileen. it was money well spent.

[Maura in NY]

This sounds like it might be just what we need right now. Thank you for taking the time to give me such detailed answers. I appreciate your help!

 

Peace,

Maura

[dtsmamtj]

Thank you from me also!!!! Looks like my dd may be taking the paragraph class this year.

 

T

[lwilliams1922]

any updates on this class?

 

I'm trying to decide between home2teach and writeathome.

 

any suggestions, comparisons, additional reviews?

 

thanks

[Peela]

My dd14 has done Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 2. Eileen insisted they were the classes she needed to start with, and dd got a lot out of them. As Sopia said, Eileen will often send an assignment back 2-3 times in a day for revising. There was a lot of feedback, my dd felt the feedback was good, and I as a parent was asked not to help, which I didnt and was glad to have a class where I wasnt expected to help. we have had difficulties with online classes before, but home2teach was probably our best online class experience so far.

I intend to have dd do more when they align with our school terms again in the 2nd half of next year.

 

By the way, i am in Australia and the online class time was something like 11pm here, so not practical- Eileen made sure dd got the transcript and helped her with any questions, and had no problem with accomodating her without having to do the online class section.

[Colleen]

I am deciding between a couple of different online writing courses for my 13 year old son. If I go with Home2Teach, I believe the Paragraph class would be best-suited. How does the weekly online meeting work, though? I'm not clear on that. Also, as unbelievable as it may seem, we don't have MS Word, only Works. Has that been an issue for anyone else? Thanks!

 

ETA: Okay, scratch that question about using MS Works versus Word. I just read the FAQ on the Home2Teach site (what a novel idea ~ read the info before asking questions, LOL!) and see that it wouldn't be a problem. What does seem somewhat daunting is the fact that students have an assignment due every single day. I confess that we do like to maintain some flexibility in our homeschool schedule, particularly during the ski season. We have days when we work extra hard in order to go hit the slopes the next day. I'm worried that this class won't allow us to do that. Or will it? What's been your experience?

Edited January 2, 2009 by Colleen

[Grace is Sufficient]

What does seem somewhat daunting is the fact that students have an assignment due every single day. I confess that we do like to maintain some flexibility in our homeschool schedule, particularly during the ski season. We have days when we work extra hard in order to go hit the slopes the next day. I'm worried that this class won't allow us to do that. Or will it? What's been your experience?

 

That shouldn't be a problem. She provides a daily schedule to help students keep on track with the weekly assignments. Since the work is often returned for revision - sometimes multiple times - waiting until the day it's due to turn things in is a mistake. But there's a lot of flexibility in the daily work as long as the weekly assignment is turned in and approved by the due date.

[Peela]

What does seem somewhat daunting is the fact that students have an assignment due every single day. I confess that we do like to maintain some flexibility in our homeschool schedule, particularly during the ski season. We have days when we work extra hard in order to go hit the slopes the next day. I'm worried that this class won't allow us to do that. Or will it? What's been your experience?

 

This is somewhat flexible although there is strong encouragement to send in work in plenty of time to get feedback. The online meetings- well, we didnt do that part (which is once a week at a particular time), so if you had to miss one for skiiing, well, I am sure it would be ok! The rest is just sending in assignments.

What I did some days was just have my daughter do her writing class work and nothing else, if we were busy with other things.

[Kelly on the prairie]

We started using Home2Teach last fall with two children. We like it very much.

 

My son who is fourteen has really learned accountability and along with daily editing assignments added in this year, has become MUCH better at editing his own work. He started in paragraphs but was moved back to reports so he could learn to slow down and follow directions carefully and edit. As a mom, it was tough staying away, but he is standing up and making great strides. He is a good writer and always has been. Home2Teach is making him a mature, accountable writer. For me, he would become so frustrated with the constant rewrites, he thought I was a tyrant. What an eye opener for him.

 

My daughter just loves Home2Teach and is steadily moving up through the classes. The only complaint I have, and I am not sure how it could be any different, is if they repeat a class all the classtime is the same transcripted talk. This can be a bit boring if a student has the material down pat but just needs to fine tune their skills. The more advanced students in the class have different assignments to shake things up for them.

 

Overall, I would highly recommend Home2Teach. The response time to handed in assignments has become a family joke around here. The kids are convinced the teachers are the "undead". Day or night, if you hand it in, you generally get a response within 10-20 minutes! Also, we have OpenOfficeWriter instead of Word and the teachers are excellent about leading you through the process using what you have. This is our first time using an online class, and I have to say they lead us through patiently.

[Colleen]

Thanks for the replies. All the feedback about these classes has been good and I do think it would be worthwhile. I still have this nagging feeling, though, that I'll resent how much time it requires. Having to revise and submit work multiple times in one day sounds annoying, and I don't like having a specific meeting time. (One thing that draws me to Bravewriter's online courses is the lack of that fixed meeting time.)

 

Peela mentioned sometimes having her daughter just focus on her writing assignments if they were having a busy day; I wouldn't be comfortable with that. I want this to augment my son's studies, not monopolize them. So I guess I just need to decide whether to pros outweigh the cons.

[Kelly on the prairie]

I guess I didn't speak to the time involved with this program and I would like the opportunity to correct that.

 

The first two weeks starting this program was a little awkward from our end just trying to figure out the pattern. My kids quickly figured out what was expected of them (disregarding "Oh-Stubborn-One's" looking for loopholes). This program doesn't monopolize their time at all, and I remember that being a concern of mine as well. Some days, they have an hour of work toward it and some days they have fifteen minutes toward it.

 

You aren't tied to the class time either. As a matter of fact, my son is starting driver's ed this spring and can only attend half of the class time. Right after class time, the students are emailed a transcript of the class. The transcript tells them everything they need to know to proceed and all that was said in the class itself. There has been several times that our internet has been down or we have been out of town, and we have been able to just print out the transcript and go.

 

I hope this helps.

[Sandra in FL]

Dd will be starting the Poetry Writing and Analysis class in January. She's enjoyed the Paragraph, Writing about Books and Expository Writing classes. Dd doesn't feel as if she's "tied" to the classes at all. The transcript lists what happens in the class if she misses (as in doesn't wake up in time :-)

 

HTH,

Sandra

[Colleen]

Thanks for explaining more, Kelly and Sandra. So-o-o-o, if the transcript lists all that takes place in the "class", what's the point in being there (so to speak) for the class? I'm not clear as to how this class meeting works or why it exists. I know, I'm slow on the uptake but this is new territory to me. My son uses OSU's online German course, but it's different in that the only "real time" action is very brief call he makes once a week to check in.

 

Thanks for your help!

[Teri H.; Oregon]

Colleen, what OSU class is your son taking? Oregon State University, Ohio; what does that stand for?

[Pink Fairy]

Sneaking over from the K-8 board...

 

I can't speak to whether or not being there for the class is an essential component of the program (although it may not be optional if you don't live in Australia :001_smile:). My dd says she found the class time really helpful when doing her assignments. Some of the terminology and formatting were new to her, and she had questions for Brianna that she could ask during the class.

 

I don't recall having to send stuff back and forth multiple times every day. We sent it in, she sent it back, and if needed we fixed it and sent it again. It wasn't burdensome though--the changes were usually small. I suppose that might not be the case as the classes become more challenging.

 

Dd took Elementary 2 over the summer, and she's starting Narrative Writing next week, so we'll find out soon. ;)

[Kelly on the prairie]

The teacher guides students through the assignments by questioning each student regarding different parts of the process. The class time is interactive to some degree.

[MicheleinMN]

A mixed review here. Ds did Paragraph I class, and it was a good solid class for him. He didn't care for the in-class time online, and I didn't feel it was particularly helpful or necessary to the class. Then ds did the Paragraph II class, not as good an experience. We experienced a bit of miscommunication at the very beginning of this class, and it wasn't as great an experience from that point on.

 

Ds did learn a lot in both classes, but we opted to go with WriteatHome.com after that. WriteatHome.com has semester long (and workshops and year long) classes and no required in-class time.

 

HTH

[proudmamma]

How is the write at home course going compared to the home 2 teach course?

 

Thanks, :001_smile:

[Colleen]

Colleen, what OSU class is your son taking? Oregon State University, Ohio; what does that stand for?

 

It's a German course through Oklahoma State University. After reading much praise for it on this board, I enrolled him this past fall and thus far I'm very pleased.

[BZmom]

After reading all the reveiws here, I have decided to enroll my 2 ds into the Home2teach program this coming March. They will both taking the Fundamentals I. We will try it and see how it goes. We've tried IEW and Classical Writing a little bit, but just did not click. Hope this program will help them. Thanks, Ladies!

[Annie Laurie]

Can anyone compare Home2Teach with Write@Home?

[nanmom]

We used home2teach for about 5 years with 2 different kids. Loved the program and very happy with their writing progress. Both are in college and are good writers. Both made A's in all their English classes in college. I give Eileen the credit for their success. We also used Writeathome. We used it as a supplemnt to eileens class. We did essay and research paper with it. Really enjoyed it. Both are well worth the money. Both prgrams are good but different. I think they complement each othr well. Eileen really digs into literary analysis in high school grades. I felt my kids needed hand holding writing a research paper in a subject like history so used Writeathome for that.