Tutor Heather Recommends...

Easy Grammar is my go-to resource for grammar and mechanics practice for my own kids. It's great if you are a homeschool parent who needs a comprehensive grammar and mechanics curriculum, or if you just need a little extra practice for your school-goer. 

Easy Grammar offers a variety of different bound and digital workbooks for all ages, like the Daily Grams daily guided "warm-up" style practice workbooks, the larger Easy Grammar teacher/parent edition that provides direct instruction, and student workbooks for practice. 

As an ELA teacher, I really like the scope and sequence of the teacher/parent edition. It begins with instruction on prepositions and prepositional phrases to give students a strong foundation for learning sentence structures later. (Did you know that the subject or main predicate verb are never included in a prepositional phrase?) 

I give Easy Grammar a 4 out of 5 Sharpened Pencil Rating. If the materials had more visual appeal, Easy Grammar would have definitely received a 5 Sharpened Pencil Rating from me.

*Note: I am not paid to endorse products I recommend in Heather's Tutor Zone.

Did you know that you don't have to be an actual classroom teacher or online reading tutor to use the Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) website? It's true! Anyone can purchase academic materials from TpT!

TeachersPayTeachers.com is a website where educators sell learning materials that they have created. There are thousands of materials available for purchase in every subject you could want, from math to science to foreign language. I get lots of free resources for my kids there. You can filter by age, academic subject, and even the type of resource you are looking for. But be careful! Not every product is amazing. Be sure to look at the star rating, reviews, and product preview before making a purchase.

I give TpT a 3 out of 5 Sharpened Pencil Rating, only because with thousands upon thousands of resources for sale, it can sometimes be difficult to find exactly the type of resource you are looking for. But when you find a good resource, it is amazing!

Note: I have some materials for sale on TpT, and I make a profit when someone purchases my products. But I am not paid to endorse TpT in Heather's Tutor Zone.

I recommend Miacademy.com for math remediation; enrichment or advanced courses; or for a comprehensive homeschool curriculum. 

Miacademy offers courses for students in Kindergarten through grade 8 in math, science, music & arts, and more. My daughter takes several courses on Miacademy.  I particularly love how her Life Science class is designed. It provides a variety of activities to keep my daughter engaged and learning:  printable weekly checklists; video lessons with fill-in-the-blank guided notes; online practice games; readings and worksheets; virtual science simulations; and real-time science demonstrations and experiments. 

I also think that Miacademy is a good alternative to pricey virtual courses. For a low monthly fee, your child can partake in a variety of courses. The company, MiaPlaza, also offers a high school website called MiaPrep. 

I give Miacademy a 4 out of 5 Sharpened Pencil Rating,  Although I like most of the courses, the language arts classes leave a lot to be desired. It's very traditional with reading excerpts and worksheets. It's not as multidimensional as the science courses. 

Note: I am not paid to endorse Miacademy on Heather's Tutor Zone website.