We had the opportunity to review Here to Help Learning, an online writing program for elementary school age children.
I am a writer, so you would think teaching the skill would be easy. Well, it is and it isn’t. It is when you have a child who loves to write, which I do, and it isn’t when you have a child who does not like to write, which I do.
Beth Mora, A.K.A. Mrs. Mora, has homeschooled for more than 20 years. She is currently home educating her eighth child, who was the motivation for creating Here to Help Learning. I always love the homeschooling spirit: if you can’t find something that works, you create your own. As a result, we have Here to Help Learning, which is engaging, thorough and extremely creative in presentation.
Here to Help Learning uses airplane terminology, but your child does not have to love airplanes or enjoy flying to appreciate the study. It has two skill levels, paragraph and essay writing. Each skill level has three flight levels and are Biblically-based:
Flight 1 Paragraph Writing
Flight 2 Paragraph Writing
Flight 3 Paragraph Writing
Flight 1 Essay Writing
Flight 2 Essay Writing
Flight 3 Essay Writing
You can easily determine where your children should start by having them take the writing placement test.The program was created to take your student through six years of writing instruction from first through sixth grades. It can be adapted to accommodate an older child, who may need beginning writing skills or improve what they already know.
The video lessons are fun and where we really got to see Mrs. Mora’s personality shine. I will admit, from looking at her picture, I thought she would be very formal in presentation and drab. Whenever I come across a video lesson, I get concerned. The material can be excellent, but the presentation can totally ruin everything making the product useless. The presenter can be monotone, boring, difficult to understand, hard to look at or just plain annoying. Mrs. Mora is none of those descriptions, and thank goodness! She is a pleasure to watch and has a great sense of humor, which will be appealing to children. That is surprising considering the lessons cover a wide age range.
Mrs. Mora speaks to the students in an intelligent manner and does not coddle the younger student who may be working through the program. I love Mrs. Mora. She is so much fun, but gets the job done with teaching writing.
I had my children take the placement test, which helped me know where they should start. Mrs. Mora provides information about how to determine where your child should start. That is very helpful, because I think when it comes to writing programs, determining your child’s writing skill can be challenging, especially if writing is not your forte.
One of the things that makes using Flight 1 Essay Writing successful with my oldest son is that he only has to spend two days a week on the lessons. Both days took about one hour to one hour and 30 minutes. That may seem long, but the lessons flowed smoothly and the time passed pretty quickly. The lessons are set up very orderly with the student completing a five-part instruction on the first day:
Pre-Flight Checklist
Flight Check-In
Take-Off
Full Throttle
Flying Solo Assignment
The second day is spent completing the solo assignment/independent study. The length of time spent on the independent student work is really dependent upon the student. I was able to convince him to start working through at least two lessons per week, because I would like him to finish the program and move on to another flight. I want to take advantage of his interest in writing while using a program he likes.
I had not planned on using Here to Help Learning with my youngest (second/third grade – you understand), but after watching the video with him, he wanted to try the program. Mrs. Mora is engaging and seeing the other children in the videos learning along with him kept Canyon’s interest. He worked on (and will continue) Flight 1 Paragraph Writing.
Some of the features I really like about Help to Help Learning are the instructions on how to evaluate your child’s writing, which gives me gentle guidelines when I may otherwise evaluate with my professional eye (possibly harsher than necessary). I like the personal hand holding (scripted lessons), which has been more of a necessity for me as my children advance in grade levels. I also like the independence in writing the program promotes. Although Mrs. Mora encourages the parent to work along with their child, everything is well laid out, so the child can follow on his own when they come to the solo exercise.
I really think the visuals Mrs. Mora includes and the step-by-step instructions make a difference for the children using the program; even the younger ones. The student sees where they are going and knows the goal(s) they are working towards in each lesson. There is no confusion. If they listen to the instructor and follow the steps, they can learn how to write well.
Something to consider with this program is the worksheets must be printed or you may purchase a physical copy of both the student lessons and teacher instructions. Also, it is suggested you print a Student Language Helps Booklet for each child. This has a lot of helpful information including the Writing Process Steps one should follow to produce a finished piece of writing.
Here to Help Learning is a great writing program for your younger child, struggling writer and the child who loves to write.
By the way, Mrs. Mora personally provides great customer service. The FAQ page has a lot of great information to help you determine how HTHL would fit into your school. HTHL physical products are available for $89.99.
You can read more reviews of this item by fellow crew members.
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