Momnesia

When Your Child is Smarter Than You

Every day I talk to Emerson about what she does at school. And every day she says the same thing: "I don't breenembered."

So then I have to ask her more specific questions: "What did you read today? Who did you play with? What centers did you visit?"

Saturday, we were lazing in bed, watching "Harry Potter," and chatting.

"I wish dat wuz my school," she sighed.

"Hogwarts?"

"Yeah. Essept for da troll."

"But there's fun things at your school, too. What do you like to learn about?"

"Math and science."

SSCREEEEECH!! Houston, we have a problem.

I don't want to tell you how much I struggled in math when I was in school. It's beyond embarrassing. I just couldn't retain the information. I understood the concepts, but application... let's just say there are formulae I left behind in middle and high school the mistakes in which no one will ever be able to figure out.

So I can't help her in this arena. And tutoring is dang expensive. Have you ever priced places like Sylvan? I'm talking thousands of dollars. There are some local places that are excellent (I miss you, Roberta!), but sometimes their business hours don't gel with ours.

But there are some new online services I've looked into, like TutorVista, that offer general math help, algebra help, calculus help, and even general homework help with their daily math problems. Honestly, I might be able to get Emerson through decimals and fractions. I can help her with factoring, even. But let's just say that Scott and I will be investing as we go, because there's only so far we will be able to take her in this arena.

Although there's not the personalized service you get with a local provider, they offer unlimited tutoring for $99.99 a month for all subjects. Did you hear me say unlimited? Students can use the service as much as they want, whenever they want, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

That's important to me, because evenings after 6 p.m. and weekends are when I have the most time to give her on her schoolwork. And as she gets older (TutorVista, in particular, goes through college) she would be able to use the service as her schedule allows. I remember studying all night in college - especially for math classes. I could have used some help at 3 a.m. to get through some of those more difficult problems.

I adore our excellent local providers. But I worry about the cost and the hours of access. So I think this is a reasonable alternative to keep in mind.