Here to Help Learning {TOS Crew Review}

Do your children write in paragraphs easily and efficiently?  My children still struggle with writing in complete paragraphs.  We recently received a helper for this area from Here to Help Learning as a review from the TOS Crew.  We got Teacher’s Kit Flight 2 Paragraph Writing in the physical form for our review.

 

This is a multi-level program that works for grades 1-3(and higher if needed).  I have several children in these grades and was excited to give it a go.  You can get this course in physical format or online.  If you get it physically you’ll receive two books.  A Teacher’s Guide with Lesson DVDs(6 DVD’s) and a student workbook and language helps booklet.  You do have to have all of those components to use the course properly.  Each student should also have their own workbook as they are required to write in them.  Plus kids just like having a workbook to call their own(or my kids do!).  The Kit we received retails for $89.99.  The individual student workbooks are available for $19.99.

The online version of this course is available for $6.99 a month.  You get access to all the levels that Here to Help Learning offers and are not locked into just one level but can move around and use whatever fits your child best.  You do have to have reliable internet access and computer access for each student who will be using the course.  If you’re not sure if you’d like the online version feel free to take advantage of their free one day membership to check it out!

 

 

We received the physical kit from Here to Help Learning as we currently only have one computer in our house so the children are not using it very much at all.  My husband needs it for his business and I sneak on when I can.  Thankfully most of our homeschool is done in physical books or items I can download and print off so the death of my laptop hasn’t been a huge hardship for us.

I decided to initially use this with my older two students.  One is 11 and one is 9.  They both work around a fourth grade level but are a bit behind in writing.  This was a great fit and they seem to be flying through it.  I can see us needing Flight 3 Paragraph soon as they’re almost done with this level.  

I plan to continue using this and may be a combination of online and book once we have another computer.  I do like that they have a section of their forum to connect with parents of special needs children.  They also have a section in my teacher’s book explaining that they think this works well with students who have special needs and why.  I’m looking forward to trying this out with some of my special needs kiddos in the future.  Probably when we switch to our next school levels.  

 

 

Some fun things about the program include that it’s all like an airplane ride or learning how to fly.  You’re teaching your child to fly with their writing.  There are sections for Pre-Flight Checklist, Flight Check-In, Take-Off, Full Throttle, and Flying Solo.  My son especially loves these titles and it seems to help him keep working and be engaged with the material knowing he’s flying his own airplane.  

The recommendation for this course was to work on it two days a week.  One day for watching the video and doing the games and one day for the coursework/writing.  Each flight has 32 lessons for the year so that would take you 32 weeks to complete.  We’re looking at being done in 16 or less weeks as we’ve been using the program four days a week and completing two lessons per week.  My kids like to work on this and since we’re ahead in most other subjects and behind in writing so we were able to focus on this more.

If you’re interested in learning more about Here to Help Learning and hearing from reviewers of the online version as well please go to the Main TOS Blog to see what everyone has to say!  You can also find Here to Help Learning on their blog, facebook, twitter, pinterest, and youtube.