5LittleMonkeys Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Has anyone used any of these? I just came across the American Lit. and it has me very curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Hmmm... Interesting! Wonder if it would be worth signing dd13 up for one of the short ones (like How to Read Well) just to try it out. I do have many questions not answered in their FAQ or video intro, though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5LittleMonkeys Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 That's what I was thinking ... sign up for a less expensive one to try it. I saw some that were only in the $20 range. My older girls have used Shmoop's literary analysis info for several books (just the written material - not the online\interactive stuff) and they really like the humor and wit. I feel they do a good job of leading the child through a work without it feeling heavy or boring. I also appreciate the essay suggestions that we also use as discussion points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 I want to do Bruce Springsteen's America. That sounds like a blast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Hmmm... Interesting! Wonder if it would be worth signing dd13 up for one of the short ones (like How to Read Well) just to try it out. I do have many questions not answered in their FAQ or video intro, though... They have an annoying lack of information on how the classes actually work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 They have two full courses for free. That would give you a good understanding of how the classes work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5LittleMonkeys Posted July 16, 2014 Author Share Posted July 16, 2014 I'm going through the free Dr. Suess one right now. Granted, it's specifically designed for a teacher to go through but I imagine it's set up similarly to one designed for a student. I really only wanted to look through it to get a feel for how they are organized but I actually think I might use this for my younger kids! It's really interesting and has a lot of fun activity suggestions. I'm going to go ahead and get the Am. Literature - A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bee Happy Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 I've tried them. We are actually using US History for a 9th and 11th grader. Also signed up for American Literature. The content is good. (These are definitely secular courses) They give you a course intro and then a unit intro. They have a short lesson for each chapter, which is basically reading (there is a ton of reading!). Then they have additional readings, which may be biographies, diaries, and other online resources. Most of them are on Shmoop, but some are other sites. There are activities that go with the readings. May be a comic that you analyze, essays to write, a short Shmoop type video, etc. Lots of writing (rubric is included). I mostly have my daughters answer aloud, because they could easily be answering 5 different essay questions per subject each day. You could also just pick and choose which ones to answer. One thing to note is, I wanted to create classrooms on the site. Meaning, we all can read on our own screens, and they could complete the lessons right in the site. There are WYSIWYG text boxes for each assignment that can be submitted. The submitted assignments end up in the backend of the class where they can be graded by the teacher/parent. Students will be able to access their grades in their own backends. It also makes it so that the student can have their own account without the teacher notes. Another benefit is that they can mark the readings complete as they do them. I learned the hard way that you have to pay for each student. When signing up, it never mentions that. It just says that you can invite your students to your course. When I invited my daughter, she was going to have to pay $80 for the course. (1 semester). I was upset and contacted them. Especially once I found out that public school systems typically pay less than 10$ for the entire year per student. I contacted them and they were working on some sort of deal for me, but haven't worked anything out yet. For now, my students log in with my info and complete the assignments in Google Drive. They share it with me, I print it out, correct and hand back for a final version (if necessary). We are no longer using them for American Lit (got a refund) because it was so much writing and it's just really much easier to do it within the site, which we were unable to do). We picked up something else for English. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bee Happy Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Update on this. They have since changed their accounts to include options for homeschooling parents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunnybuddy Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Update on this. They have since changed their accounts to include options for homeschooling parents. How did the course your daughters were taking turn out? And have you tried the new homeschooling section? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Its not a homeschooling section. Its just an option for homeschooling parents to pay in a manner similar to how schools pay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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