Cleo - Can you answer a question about EAD?...

[Nan in Mass]

It says this:
Prenez connaissance de votre première leçon ; rédigez le travail qui vous est demandé et envoyez-le nous. Un professeur vérifiera votre travail. Vous recevrez également ses conseils et ses commentaires.
Ensuite, vos cours vous parviendront au rythme convenu.

What does the last part mean? Does it mean that we have to follow their weekly schedule, or does it mean we can stop and start a class if my son travels for a month or two during the school year?

It says this:
Peut-on continuer à recevoir des allocations familiales si on ne va plus à l'école et si on est inscrit à l'Enseignement à Distance ?

Tout dépend de l'âge. Jusqu'au 31 août de l'année de leur 18e anniversaire, les jeunes ont droit aux allocations familiales sans condition.
Mais à partir de l'âge de 18 ans, le fait de suivre uniquement les cours dispensés par l'Enseignement à Distance ne permet pas de continuer à percevoir les allocations familiales.

What is une allocation familiale? Does this mean my son couldn't sign up for a course or two because he is under 18?

This makes it sound like he would be able to. Have I interpreted en compément au programme correctly?:
Peut-on s'inscrire à l'Enseignement à Distance si on est encore soumis à l'obligation scolaire ?

Oui, bien sûr, mais attention: l'inscription aux cours de l'Enseignement à Distance ne dégage pas l'élève de l'obligation scolaire.
Un jeune de moins de 18 ans s'inscrira donc à l'Enseignement à Distance pour suivre l'un ou l'autre cours en complément au programme suivi dans une école ou parce qu'il ne peut fréquenter un établissement d'enseignement à cause d'une maladie, d'une hospitalisation, d'un long séjour à l'étranger.

(These are from the Foire aux Question.)

What is Français Escalire? Speedreading? Or reading for better comprehension? It is a course under the remedial classes.

How did you know about the quality of the classes? Did you look at samples someplace? Or are some of the classes downloadable free?

And the ultimate in stupid questions - a formation is a course?

-Nan

[Joan in Geneva]

This is not to answer the questions that you are asking Cleo, but we have had some serious frustrations with EAD this year that you might like to know about before taking the plunge.

So far I've ordered 3 courses from them - an elementary level French which ds ended up not using because the Genevois authorities would not accept it.

This year ds took a literature analysis course and now he is taking a second lit analysis course.

Our biggest frustration is with the shipping situation. I would no longer continue if I did not now have friends in Belgium shipping me the coursework.

In case you are not familiar with the system, you order the course, they send you the first lesson - by boat/surface.

You finish and return it - after they have received it and maybe corrected it as well, they send you the next lessons or some of them - by boat.

This process takes at least one month if not more at the beginning.

The first lit analysis course worked out ok because it was a small course (204), so they sent all the lessons after the first one was received back.

But when I saw he was finishing up and knowing that it would take at least a month to get the first lesson and then another to get the second lesson, I ordered in November. On the 12th Nov I received an email saying they had received the request. By the 19th of December I sent another email saying that we still had not received the first lesson. I did not get any reply.

In January I finally called and they said that it was sent but they would send it again. By the end of January I still had not received the first lesson. At that point I decided to involve my Belgian friends. A couple days later (26 Jan), I finally received that lesson that was resent. A few days later, I received the stuff from the Belgian friends. And now we get all the stuff in just a few days sent by my friends.

Before it took a month minumum and sometimes two to get a lesson back. The feedback is variable. The correcter will always give some comments, and sometimes he will get a number mark and sometimes just a TB (tres bien).

In January I told them I was willing to pay the airmail shipping but they have absolutely no mechanism to do that. Even with the shipping now being only European from my friends, it still adds up.

I have noticed that his answer sheets are a different color from when he was an "outside Belgium" student. I do not know if there is a difference in priority.

With the primary school age course, they sent a large box of papers (the size box of about 5 reams of photocopy paper). So it would not have been just two lessons at a time.

You might wonder why we even bother? It is so hard to get French literature analysis for homeschool. I know that the French way of doing it is not at all like the Swiss way so I could not see any point in paying for CNED. I am not sure how close the Belgian way is to the Swiss way, and since it is free, I thought at least he gets some other feedback - a gentle introduction. But I would not use their course as the mainstay of my program. We had lots of other stuff to do while we were waiting. But it means that he won't be finished by the summer.

As long as you know these things before signing up, you can schedule your program accordingly.

Some other homeschoolers here in CH also use their courses as the inspectors (in another canton- VD) will accept the coursework and like that the work is checked by someone other than the mother. I'll have to talk with them about their shipping experiences...

Other things to know...the 204 course is easier than the 162 course. To me, from an American system the numbers do not make sense. Higher number = harder course. The courses don't have enough description to always know what you are getting.

The 204 course had nicely color printed pages. The 162 course is black and white.

Advice - start the process well in advance.
Do not use as your main program at the high school level.
If you have friends in Belgium, enlist them for shipping help and send Euros to cover shipping expenses.:001_smile:

Just had to air some of these frustrations to try to help you not get caught unaware....
Joan

[Nan in Mass]

Thank you, Joan. I don't think we'll bother with EAD, then. I couldn't see how the shipping would work, anyway, since they described it as surface mail. What I really want is to continue at least our history with Hachette, which I'm now used to. I might be willing to switch from Bordas Francais to CNED Francais, just using their online material for free and not signing up for the correcting/record-keeping service. I'd rather just keep doing what we are doing, though. Guess I'll go back to searching for instructor guides. Did you say that they are published in August? What if I want one for an older edition of Histoire/Geographie 5e?

-Nan

[CleoQc]

I did EAD for Latin (for me, not the kids).
My experience does not reflect Joan's, so I'm assuming it's variable...

For Latin, we got the first lesson. When I returned payment, they sent the second lesson. After that, they send the lessons on a regular basis (every 2 weeks, possibly 3, I don't remember). If you do not return your homework, they will discontinue the sending of lessons. So there's a delay. Let's say you don't send in homework 6. You will probably receive lesson 9 before they discontinue it. As soon as homework 6 is received, the sending of lessons will start again. I did try it out (unwillingly) and it worked.

[CleoQc]

It says this:
Prenez connaissance de votre première leçon ; rédigez le travail qui vous est demandé et envoyez-le nous. Un professeur vérifiera votre travail. Vous recevrez également ses conseils et ses commentaires.
Ensuite, vos cours vous parviendront au rythme convenu.

What does the last part mean? Does it mean that we have to follow their weekly schedule, or does it mean we can stop and start a class if my son travels for a month or two during the school year?

The 'rythme convenu' is usually every 2 weeks, but may vary with the course. You can also ask for a faster rythm, or a slower one. You can also stop and start at will.


It says this:
Peut-on continuer à recevoir des allocations familiales si on ne va plus à l'école et si on est inscrit à l'Enseignement à Distance ?


What is une allocation familiale? Does this mean my son couldn't sign up for a course or two because he is under 18?

I'm not sure you guys have something like this in the States. We do in Canada. It's a monthly payment to families from the government to help in raising the kids. It's till the kids are adults and no longer in school. It does not apply to you. ;-)



Peut-on s'inscrire à l'Enseignement à Distance si on est encore soumis à l'obligation scolaire ?
Oui, bien sûr, mais attention: l'inscription aux cours de l'Enseignement à Distance ne dégage pas l'élève de l'obligation scolaire.


This only means you are still to follow the homeschooling law in your state. EAD does not constitute full time schooling.



What is Français Escalire? Speedreading? Or reading for better comprehension? It is a course under the remedial classes.

I don't know. They seem to have made a pun out of 'escalier' and 'lire'. So I'll assume it's a remedial class for reading.



How did you know about the quality of the classes? Did you look at samples someplace? Or are some of the classes downloadable free?
And the ultimate in stupid questions - a formation is a course?

-Nan

I know quite a few homeschoolers who use EAD. They all seem happy with the courses. As I said in my previous post I used them for Latin. They are a no-frill solution for quite a few people. Many use them to complement CNED which does not have a lot of grammar.

[Nan in Mass]

No allocation familliale here, unless one is divorced and receiving it from the other parent, or unless one's children are wards of the state, or unless one is poor. There is a spot on the tax form for "claiming" one's dependents. With each dependent, one pays less taxes. I wonder if the amount saved on taxes is equivalent to the amount you receive as an allocation familliale?

Thank you. It is nice to know that you and others have had a good experience with them.

-Nan

[CleoQc]

There is a spot on the tax form for "claiming" one's dependents. With each dependent, one pays less taxes.

Oh we have that too. We pay less taxes *and* receive monthly payments. It's to ensure that kids are fed on a regular basis, I guess. I do know that schools have noticed kids do better at the beginning of the month, when those monthly payments come in.

[Joan in Geneva]

Thank you, Joan. I don't think we'll bother with EAD, then. I couldn't see how the shipping would work

Nan, I don't think you should come to this decision yet. I do not know anything about their grammar program and it can be helpful to have additional input into a language course. You can do your other French work with him on the side.

I can see that I jumped to a conclusion that is not necessarily true about them not shipping the following two lessons until after receiving the returned lessons (so I'll delete it from my previous post). Maybe my son is just working quickly and the return happened to coincide with when they would normally send the next set of two lessons.

I did not know you could ask for them to be sent more quickly either.

My situation might have been different with the first course that was a short one. But the communication on their end was zero. I asked my contact about that first course and how long it was supposed to take and she never answered. Clearly the starting time table is the most time consuming part which I experienced for all three courses. So having two courses in one year meant two difficult times.

Maybe if you are ordering a year long course, then once you get it rolling you won't have such problems.

The corrections part though could be a problem. I was just looking at my emails and in November I wrote to ask if they had received the 2nd and 3rd lessons as we still had not received the corrections. That is the problem with the surface mail. It takes so long, that if there is a problem, it can take a long time to sort out. Like the lesson they sent that I never received. At the high school level, if it is the main course, you don't have time to wait around. But if you are using it as a supplement, then it is not so stressful if things take time.

A friend of mine here says that she did not have a problem. I'll have to see how quickly she was returning the lessons, if she was getting two at a time, etc.

Joan

[Nan in Mass]

So it sounds like it is meant to be like our food stamps (which you can get if you are below a certain income)? But without anything to keep and adult from spending it all at the liquor store?

[Nan in Mass]

Can you hear the wheels grinding as I think over all these options and try to fit them into an already condensed school year? I've been looking at the CNED Français and it looks like it might be an easy solution. I was considering EAD because it would provide some sort of outside verification, but it looks like there are easier ways to accomplish that.

[jld]

Dh says everybody gets allocations familiales, except maybe the top earners. (I thought his dad said once that even the president of Renault got it, so I don't know if top earners are excluded.) Dh said it was designed to push people to have kids. He said that natalist policies, of which allocations familiales are a part, have resulted in France's having one of the highest birth rates in Western Europe.

He says it is true that the system is abused in some communities.

[burckeri]

allocations familiales...designed to push people to have kids

The Canada Child Tax Benefit (described by the government as "a tax-free monthly payment made to eligible families to help them with the cost of raising children under age 18") is sometimes referred to as the "baby bonus."

Erin