As a member of The Old Schoolhouse’ Homeschool Crew, I had the opportunity to review the website: HelpMe2Teach. The owner of HelpMe2Teach was a teacher for more than 40 years. She has worked hard to create a searchable internet directory of educational websites.
The index is categorized by subject, and well-organized. You can scroll through the table of contents, find the topic or subject area you desire, and then click to see a description of each website in that topic. You can also use the search feature to find websites relating to your topic of interest.
The websites in the list are clearly labeled to show you which ages they are most appropriate for. This will save time when you are looking for information on the election process for your high school student, as opposed to elementary students.
HelpMe2Teach is safe. You could allow your children to use it to find information for themselves, and know that their search will not bring up inappropriate websites. There is no need to worry about who is in the room when you open a new website, hoping it is what it claims to be.
The creator of HelpMe2Teach is very responsive to her customers. When several members of the Homeschool Crew requested that she add faith-based websites to her directory, she did. When others reported dead internet links, she corrected them. When I had a problem with my account, she responded to my email and resolved the problem quickly.
I’ve explored HelpMe2Teach for 2 weeks now. I’ve been pondering whether this was a service I would recommend to others. I've debated whether it was a service I would purchase for myself, or not.
Many homeschool Moms are excellent at internet scavenging themselves, or they are members of message boards and email groups where online resources are shared frequently. Like me, they have a long list of homeschool-related bookmarks already. For those moms, HelpMe2Teach may not be the best way to spend their money. The main benefits for them would be time saved in searching for online resources, the safety of letting their children use the directory to find information themselves, and the ability to replace some purchased curricula with online free resources.
But for the moms who rely heavily on the internet for free resources, who don’t have a core curriculum already purchased, or who are just beginning to homeschool and don’t yet have a long list of bookmarks ... HelpMe2Teach will be even more beneficial. They can also use HelpMe2Teach to find websites that will fill holes in their curriculum, or to cover all the subjects they teach. They can easily create their own long list of bookmarked websites, as well as letting their children explore the directory.
HelpMe2Teach is a great resource for homeschool families that desire to use the internet as a core part of their curriculum.
HelpMe2Teach offers several different pricing structures, so you can choose the plan that best meets your family’s educational (and financial) needs.
12 months for $29.95
3 months for $15.95
1 month for $9.95
3 days for $4.95
The long term memberships allow for continual use as a family, in your homeschool. This would be an excellent way to let your students do online research as you cover new topics in your lessons. It also allows you to explore the directory in a leisurely manner.
The shorter memberships would be good for those who desire to quickly search the directory and bookmark any new sites that they find, or any sites related to the topics they plan to cover in the next year.
At the moment, HelpMe2Teach has a SPECIAL OFFER!! From now through December, you get a free year of membership, when you purchase a one year subscription. Buy one year, get one free. That’s 24 months of membership for $29.95 – just $1.25 per month. That is a price that will even tempt the internet-scavenging experts. To participate in this offer, you need to enter the code TOS into the discount coupon box in your order form.
Trusting in Him,
April
