Homework Hotline
The hottest new thing that has sprung up as a paid service are hotlines your kids can call if they get in trouble doing their homework or fall behind in particularly difficult subjects like math or science. Like anything new that seems to be marketed a lot, you do have to be careful if you decide to use one of these resources to help the students in your home to get out of a difficult situation with homework or preparing for a project or a test. The idea is that around the clock, these services staff experts in each topic area to offer "by the minute" tutoring for your child to turn around a bad academic situation through "at the fingertips" homework help.
It isn’t a bad idea to check these services out to see if they could be a good emergency resource if you have a child in a state of panic about an academic challenge that you cannot help him or her with. If you hear about one hotline service for help with homework or test preparation or your child comes to you with the idea to use this kind of service, be a good consumer and do some shopping to find out who are the premier services in this field of work. The earlier you start looking into these services, the more time you have to build a comfort level that your young student will be calling on a reliable service that is worth what they change and can be trusted with good education and to do business honestly.
The quest to validate that any hotline service for homework you use is a legitimate service that is worth what they change should include some consultation with the educators who are over your children's class work. For one thing, there are different approaches to some topics such as math and even history. It is important that if your young student calls a hotline with a question that the expert at the other end can counsel the struggling scholar in a way that is in step with what is being taught at your child's school.
A great place to ask the right questions about hotline services is during those early parent teacher conferences before the school year gets underway. In fact, when you bring the topic up, the school may offer tutoring or even hotline services that can be accessed for free. Also discuss the use of hotlines with each individual teacher. Many times the teacher herself might prefer that her student call her directly or to enter into an instant message tutoring session to guide the student to do well with his or her homework. It is much better to tap that resource than to turn to a "for profit" service that will not be as knowledgeable about the curriculum being presented or your child's particular learning needs.
Even if you find a good service, your child should always come to you or turn to friends or a study group before resorting to a hotline service. By giving your youngster all of these resources, there is no reason he or she cannot find the help that is needed when homework becomes overwhelming.