Online Lightning Lit 7 & 8 for Young Gifted Learners

[ChileMama]

I wanted to share a new online class provider that I'm excited about:

http://www.onlineg3.com/

This site, developed by two SF Bay area teachers/moms of gifted kiddos offers, among other courses, online classes based on Lightning Literature 7 and 8. These classes are geared especially for students younger than the typical 7th or 8th grade age range, but with advanced reading ability that allows them to enjoy the wonderful reading lists from these curricula. I had the opportunity to meet both the instructors in person a couple weeks ago, and both are smart ladies with lots of teaching experience. The lead site developer ("Guinevere") has a degree in online education as well as a degree in teaching English and experience teaching young students through adults.

I just signed my dd up to take Lightning Lit 7 and I'm excited for other folks to join these classes as well so we can get a great discussion going! If you're looking for online discussion (and lots of activities/videos/supplementary material) to accompany this curriculum (I was), have a look.

-- Susannah (and really, I'm not affiliated with onlineg3, just very excited to see it succeed -- I suspect I'm not the only one out here who was hoping her homeschooler could talk about these books with others)

[LaurieinCA]

Curious what is included for $169 besides the one hour "webinars." I am planning to use LL7 with my 9 yo 5th grader this year.

[ChileMama]

Curious what is included for $169 besides the one hour "webinars." I am planning to use LL7 with my 9 yo 5th grader this year.

Me too (using LL7 with a young 5th grader, was going to write "9 y. o., but she'll be 10 before we start school :o "). If you go to the main onlineg3 page and scroll right down to the bottom, you'll see "Course Categories" and the first of these is "Sample Units." Click here and you can view a sample LL7 unit. She's changed the sample since I looked, but what I found compelling was the student activities seem interesting and make good use of web technology, and the discussion starters seem compelling. There are also video and presentation links to enhance your student's understanding of the material; I presume these aren't in the LL teaching guide, although I haven't ordered mine yet so I'm not sure.

There's also a BrainPop subscription included in the price, plus access to discussion forums (my daughter has already posted a blog entry on what she's currently reading) and some sort of tech training. To me, the biggest sell is that here's a moderated forum run by a well qualified teacher to discuss this excellent literature, so it provides a social outlet as well as learning. Beyond that, I do think the learning will be enhanced, and it seems like you could just buy the LL7 student guide and acquire the books (as in, not buy the teacher guide) and let the onlineg3 gals do the teaching for you. So, more fun, less work, same great reading list. That's my hope anyway :) .

Hope this helps!

PS The onlineg3 gals are also based in California -- PM me where you're located and I'll let you know whether you might run into them in a homeschool co-op near you ;o)