Mission: Family: Study help for kids just a click away with Tutor.com - Army Spouse and Family Resources - Army Times

Mission: Family: Study help for kids just a click away with Tutor.com

School is starting, so gather those tools for a successful year: pens, notebooks, scissors, backpacks … and free access to online tutoring through Tutor.com.

This service, funded by the Defense Department, has been available to military families since 2010. But this year, Tutor.com has added a couple of new features:

• The To Go mobile app allows students with an iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad to connect to a tutor and review past sessions and resources. They can take a picture of their assignment and store it in their “digital locker” to share with a tutor. Tutor.com expects to have an Android app in early 2012.

• Favorite Tutors allows students to make a list of just that. When students log in, they can check to see if any of their favorite tutors are online, and choose to connect with one. Students also can view a tutor’s upcoming schedule.

Navy wife Rachel Gilbert said her daughter Grace, a high school sophomore, was having trouble with Algebra 2, and the few tutors near Fallon Naval Air Station, Nev., were expensive.

Then Gilbert heard about Tutor.com, and 15-year-old Grace got the help she needed this spring. “She loved the fact that she could talk to someone while she was studying late at night. It gave her great encouragement working through the procedures and checking her problems with the tutor on the whiteboard,” Gilbert said. Her daughter scored a B on her final exam.

“As a military family, finding educational resources when you need them can be difficult. … Now that we know about Tutor.com, I am confident our two younger children will have help in their education, no matter where the Navy sends us,” Gilbert said.

Military families such as the Gilberts connected to tutors for 133,769 online live tutoring sessions from February through July of this year. Of those, 65 percent were Army families, 16 percent were Air Force, 11 percent were Navy, and 8 percent were Marine Corps.

Tutors can help in more than 20 subjects with homework, test preparation, projects and papers. Students can get help at any skill level, from elementary math to college classes.

Eligible are:

• Active-duty service members and their dependents.

• National Guard and reserve members on active duty in a deployed status and their dependents.

• Defense Department civilians in a deployed status and their dependents.

The free service for families will continue at least through the end of September 2012, but it is based on availability of DoD funding, so nothing is guaranteed for the future. But for now, this fills a need long expressed by military families.