Okay, thought I'd report back on EPGY language arts. DS started in January with a virtual class on transitive and intransitive verbs. I was sure he'd hate it - looked dry and static to me, compared to the entertaining and colorful Elementary Problem Solving Math course at CTY. Well, surprise to me, DS loves it for two reasons - 1) he loves technology and LOVED participating in the class over the computer using headphones and a microphone; and 2) the EPGY computer course tracks his progress and he can see that the course starts at grade 3 and he is already at 3.12 after only a couple of sessions. (Note that he thought it was boring and objected to it when he started, but at the end of the 20 minutes when he saw his progress graph, he got excited - just as the tutor promised.)
One big difference b/n our current CTY and EPGY experience is that the EPGY tutor is involved and active. She emails to ask if anyone has questions, organized virtual classes, and emailed us initially to find out why DS wasn't doing the EPGY program (i.e., she had checked his progess and hadn't seen more than 3 minutes of work). It's probably just luck of the draw, but we never hear from DS's CTY tutor (nor do we really need to), but in her few emails with comments on his quizzes and tests, she's had incorrect info (such as explanation of a right answer from someone else's course in her email to DS).
I had signed DS up as a stealth method to get him to practice his reading. Rearranging words into short sentences in response to questions makes him read in a non-threatening manner (only a few words at a time on the page). The computer work has a set of problems interspersed with short lectures on things like proper nouns, topics versus main ideas, sentence structure, verbs, etc. The sentences and questions are read and then he has to either highlight all the nouns or arrange a list of words sorted by type (e.g., prepositions, pronouns, verbs, etc.) into a sentence. The only frustrating thing is that you have to move the word onto a small blue highlighted area that is hard to hit. If you don't do it right, the words get reversed, which has been a bit frustrating for him. So for now, he tells me what to click on and where to move things and I can deal with the frustration when it doesn't go where I intended.
I'd say that the EPGY LAW isn't for everyone, but it works for us. Also, since DS had trouble with writing initially, figure it's not too early to understand the rules of grammar.
And re: the RWL (books course), DS likes that, too. After reading the books, you answer questions online about the book, characters, timeline, moral of the story, etc. Our issue with this one is that his comprehension outpaces his reading ability. The tutor suggested that we read a more difficult book with me reading a page to his reading a paragraph and then working up to his reading more. One benefit is that he likes to do what the tutor says, and is already reading a page for every page I read of what they consider a fifth grade book (based on lexiles).
So in the end, I'm very pleased because it's having the desired effect for DS. Probably not the course for most, but if your child loves technology and responds to charting his progress, and wouldn't be doing language arts on his or her own, give it a try. (And I believe they do have a free add/drop period so you can test it out).
