Going on year #2 of this adventure, I’ve learned so much about myself as a homeschooling high school Mom!

Namely…it’s a myth that I need to teach every subject.  Some coursework is better suited to an expert in the field working directly with my student.

For example, my teen’s interest in linguistics has grown to include Latin, Greek and Arabic.  She studies the first two locally, and last year began Arabic via an online school.  This summer, I was thrilled to be given opportunity to review a new-to-us tutoring program for her Arabic practice.

I was compensated for my time to write about this program, and we received 6 lessons for free.  I’d really like to share with you our positive experience & opinion of italki online tutoring.

The program worked so well, we have extra lessons scheduled already!  By the way, should you choose to use our referral code for a purchase, we earn lessons – so thank you.

How italki Tutoring Works

The setup of italki.com is fairly simple:  after registering for an account, lessons are via a Skype connection (a free service), and you schedule with a tutor of your choice.

There are many to choose from.  Scroll down the homeschool page with suggested tutors –  I highly recommended our tutor Somaia!

The program offers ways to connect with language learners worldwide, but we simply set our privacy settings to not include this interaction.  Really, I found italki to be very safe, and a great option for the home-based language learning we needed!

Online Tutoring vs. Local Private Tutor

I had done some research before learning of italki, and found several local possibilities to tutor our daughter in Arabic.

Not one was less than $45 an hour (and up to $65 an hour). While I believe it’s worth the money, this wasn’t our working budget for lessons.  With italki.com, our lessons were about $16 an hour for one-on-one language tutoring with a native speaker!  That’s less expensive than what I have charged for private music lessons.

Each language tutor’s pricing varies, so you can shop around…and you know I love bargain shopping for our needs. 🙂  You can purchase a package deal or simply one lesson at a time.

So, How Did We Like Online Arabic?

As a parent, I appreciated from italki.com the options for lessons:

• conversational practice
• speaking & pronunciation practice
• writing & reading
• professional lessons (a combo of the above depending on tutor)

When you’ve scheduled lessons with a teacher, there’s a handy contact form to share specific information about your learning goals as a student — from how often you’d like to take lessons to the reason for tutoring…

upcoming test  ::  travel or work  ::  personal interest  ::  or the homeschool mother’s favorite — lessons for my child!

My daughter liked being able to choose a tutor who could help her practice both Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Colloquial (the latter being more street, everyday language).  She says too:

‘I didn’t just get lessons in Arabic, but great feedback on how I’m progressing as a student.’

Speaking of feedback, here’s the true benefit of language learning with a private tutor — instant correction and personal encouragement when learning.

Watch it in progress as my teen learns new vocabulary (yes, she’s kind of hiding, but didn’t mind the video being posted!):

A Special for You

If you register and make a purchase, italki is offering any reader here an added benefit — you’ll receive an additional $10 USD worth of credits towards more lessons with any tutor of your choice.

To redeem this offer:

• register on italki
• make a purchase for lessons
• head over to this special link
• italki will deposit $10 USD into your account!

 :

Should you run into any hiccups or issues, simply email support@italki.com and find incredible customer service (I know, I’ve emailed them twice)!  The offer only lasts until September 15th for new italki users.

For anyone who would like to follow along, you can find italki on Facebook and on Google Plus.

I give my personal stamp of approval — a highly recommended resource for homeschooling!