Kids Need School Help? Send Them Online

My daughter knew something was wrong from the look on my face. Up to that moment, we’d always had fun with her homework. We’d gather supplies and snacks, take over the dining room table, play vocabulary and math games, and get into heated history discussions.

But this was different. I was as puzzled as she was by the math in front of us. Sure, I’d done it before, but that was so long ago it was like a distant dream. I could not remember how to do the problems at hand. Neither could she. We needed help and we needed it now.

Fortunately, academic helpers can be as close as the nearest computer, phone, or tablet screen. While finding someone to help with geometry once required a drive across town, advanced scheduling, and cash, now it’s as simple as knowing the right URL and having a credit card handy. Here are four tutoring sites that can help with all kinds of academic issues.

Princeton Review

The same people who do test prep for the SAT, ACT, and all those other terrifying-but-necessary exams can also bring a cadre of smart tutors right to your kitchen table. (Tutor.com is now under the Princeton Review umbrella.)

The tutors are professionals, graduates of good colleges, and experts in just about any subject—40-plus, at last count—that your student is likely to encounter. The site is open 24/7; the tutors are all over the world. And you don’t need an appointment: Just log in, see who’s available, and get help. You can try a session for free; after that, plans start at $40 a month (for an hour a month).

Sylvan Online Tutoring

Is your child failing in a subject, but you don’t know why? Perhaps it’s an attention problem, or a bad teachers, or the distractions of bullies. Or maybe she just didn’t quite grasp something in a previous class a couple of years ago, and now that gap is tripping her up.

Whatever the reason, your kid can take one of Sylvan’s assessments to find out what it is. Once she has been assessed, Sylvan will come up with a customized learning plan and a weekly schedule to help solve the problem. And you don’t have to drive her to a Sylvan center to execute that plan; she can get the help she needs from one of the company’s online tutors.  Assessments start at $99.

Chegg Online Tutoring

Chegg aims to help your kid with all things college—from figuring out which schools he should apply to to buying text books once he’s there. To fill out this roster of services, the company recently bought InstaEDU, which provides online tutors for high school and college students.

Your child can set up regular tutoring sessions or simply log on when he’s in a panic over homework you can’t help with. He can even meet his tutor (who could be a college student or a professional teacher) via an iPhone app. High school students should also be sure to check out the service’s College Admissions counselors.

There aren’t many places where your kid can get schooled in college-admissions strategies while also getting help with her high-school classes (so she can earn the grades she’ll need to get in to the school of her dreams), all for an accessible price. Chegg offers a free trial. After that, one-on-one tutoring via video and online blackboard tools starts at $.50 a minute.

Tabtor Math

A clever meld of the human and the technical, this app for Apple and Android tablets observes your K-8 student solving problems inside the app’s math tools. The software learns how your student works through problems and adapts itself to accommodate his learning style. A tutor then uses the information gleaned from these observations to create customized lessons, to weigh in on weekly conference calls with parent and child, and to draw up lesson plans. Plans start at $30 a month.