My 3rd Grader Tried Brighterly — & He’s Never Been More Excited About Doing Homework

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“I hate math!” “I can’t read out loud — only in my head.” “Do I have to do it?” These are the kind of questions I navigate daily from my third grader, Logan. After school, his younger brother Liam is always immediately ready to dive into his first-grade homework with me, while Logan will whine and complain and find any excuse in the book to try to get out of it. (“I can’t find a pencil.” “My head hurts.” “I have to go to the bathroom.” And on and on and on.) Have I been tempted to let him skip the work to avoid a fight? Yes. Have I fought him tooth and nail to get him to sit down and just get it over with? Also, yes. By the time he actually sits down to do it, he goes so fast that he usually has to go back and redo the areas he got wrong, turning what should be a 15-minute process into double that or more.

Regardless of how you feel about kids doing homework, can we all agree that doing it daily is hard? Especially for elementary school students who need our help every step of the way. I know doing the required work will help him. It gives him a chance to practice new concepts at home, slow down and rework problems he got wrong, and develop confidence in his own abilities. Reading in front of the class is no big deal when you’ve already mastered reading in front of mom, you know? Yet, as a mom who is not a teacher, I don’t have a lot of experience wrangling kids into doing schoolwork — even if it’s just a couple of worksheets at home.

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So, when it was suggested that I try the online tutoring Brighterly, I jumped at the chance. It’s not that Logan’s grades are suffering or that he is falling behind; he just needs someone else to help guide him, encourage him, and explain concepts to him in a way that he can understand. Brighterly offers that for math or reading for grades 1 through 9th. I expected him to learn something during his free trial course, but I was amazed by how much fun he had while doing the work.

First, I signed up for a free demo lesson on Brighterly.com, which had tons of flexible scheduling options for after school and even on weekends. Before his scheduled meeting time, he had to fill out a Brighterly Assessment Report without parental help. This involved him solving a few multiple-choice problems on the computer in either ELA or Math. We chose ELA, and they emailed me a copy of his results, including his strengths and areas of improvement. Pretty cool! Next, it was time for the lesson with a STEM-certified instructor.  

I logged onto the video and after a few technical difficulties (the tutor couldn’t hear us at first), we were up and going! The tutor named Jay talked to me for a few minutes, explaining that I could sit nearby during the lesson but asked me not to jump in to help Logan. Then, he asked my son to grab a notebook and a pencil, and they got to work. With his screen, he put up an interactive page for Logan to read. Jay could underline certain words that would show up on Logan’s screen, and Logan could circle words for Jay to see. It felt more like they were in the same room together, looking over a book, than a passive online video or YouTube tutorial. It was very personable and fun, immediately helping to engage Logan.

After working on some reading and comprehension for a few minutes, Jay switched it up to keep Logan’s attention. He had them play a game where Logan had to grab an item in the house within a certain number of seconds and for a certain number of points. For example, he had to find a shoe in 20 seconds, and it would earn him 10 points. He started the timer, and Logan ran to grab his shoe and bring it back to show the camera before writing down the points he won. Jay told him the goal was to get 100 points by the end of the lesson. Knowing that he had more games that he was going to play after working on another problem helped Logan stay focused and entertained. He was smiling the whole time and actually having fun with the homework, which was amazing to see!

They went over the definition of paragraphs and sentence structure, and he had Logan write a three-paragraph sentence about something, then show the screen so he could take a picture of it. In between, he had to get more objects from around the house, and he ended up making it to 100 points. He was so excited and chatty and smiling, and even when he would get distracted by drawing digital doodles on the screen or going off on a tangent about something else, Jay would easily and expertly bring him back on topic for the lesson.

At the end of the lesson, Jay recommended two lessons a week for Logan. In addition to the digital work available, he said Logan could bring his actual homework for the two of them to work on together. Talk about two birds with one stone! Logan gets to learn and have that one-on-one tutoring, and he gets his actual homework done for school without needing to take any extra time outside of tutoring to work on that.

After your free lesson, you can choose the tutoring plan that works for you. At two lessons per week, which is what Logan was recommended, it’s $219 for one month, $214/month for three months, $202/month for six months, and $177/month for 12 months. The price goes down or up depending on whether you want only one lesson per week or three lessons per week. And it also includes more resources for homework help!

“I’m so excited for the next time!” Logan told me afterward, making my heart burst. He’s already ready to have another tutoring session, and I couldn’t be prouder of him!

Struggle with getting your kiddo to read? Check out these middle-grade books that might do the trick!