First of all, I would like to share with you links that I personally use EVERYDAY. I will give you my opinion in review of these sites. Please feel free to comment or leave any questions. It's so good for us to network together!
- First thing first, I use Homeschool Skedtrack everyday to keep up with our "paperwork". I really like this site for many reasons.
1) It's free!
2)It keeps up with attendance for me (which is a requirement from my state)
3) It keeps track of grades....automatically generates report cards and transcripts (great for portfolio requirements)
4) Another feature that I really like is the option to either plan ahead or just fill in day-by-day. I use this feature in many different ways. Ex: for Math and Language we follow (very loosely) a curriculum. So, at the beginning of the year I "plan" out what will be done daily. Day 1: pg.1 Day 2:pg 2.....and so on. but the great thing is that if I see that my child is not getting a concept I can stop, add a few blank days in (however many we really need to 'get it')....then as I go I can fill in those blanks daily with whatever we did. Ex: "reviewed telling time" or "reviewed parts of a sentence" and so on. Then when they understand we can start back where we left off. For those of you who have a relaxed curriculum, or even unschool, you can have it set so that you just go in everyday and write a little note about what you did that day in each subject that applies (which is pretty much what we do for everything else but math and language).
5) It tracks multiple children at once
6) You can edit holidays/vacation days as you go, or at the beginning of the 'school year', whichever suits your family's needs.
7) MY FAVORITE FEATURE: If you miss a day of school because you decided to just go to the beach, or woke up with everyone throwing up...whatever life throws (which we all know life can get a little crazy sometimes), this program automatically just moves everything that was planned to the next day. No biggie. No erasing. No moving everything down a day in your little pocket planner.
On to the next lovely link. Every time we finish up a book (which is pretty often in our house) I go to this site
- Book Adventure. Its kinda like the accelerated reader program. I like it because I can have separate accounts for all my kids. They have their own login info. We have the option to either go in and make a reading plan (pre-select a reading list), in which they can go in and take a short test after each one...or they can read a book and then look it up to see if there is a test for it. I like to "test" the kids on the books they read, not to actually have a test score, but to make sure they aren't just saying they read the book when they really didn't. In our house we give incentives for reading: once a person reaches the 10th book they get a gift certificate to the book store (so cheating is a no-no). Plus, I can keep these "test scores" as proof for our state for our reading program, or in a portfolio list of materials.
Now let's talk about different subjects. I have found some great websites for different subjects. Check out some of these if you would like!
Arithmetic Links:
- Math-Aids Worksheets (you make the worksheet specific for your particular needs) LOVE LOVE LOVE
- Interactive Math Games
- More Interactive Math Games
All these are free and are so valuable to any homeschool! My kids don't see the interactive sites as work, but actually ask me to "play" them. They are enjoyable and fun!
- Mathematical Science Research Institute This website is so cool. It's not really on a younger students' level, more for high school....although, my 5th grader likes it. Some things are over his head (and mine too) but it's good because we both learn something new and it starts great conversations about math and different mathematical processes. Isn't that the whole idea of teaching our children? Guiding them toward different avenues that cause them to stop and think. When they start asking questions, they are really taking control of their own education! I love this!
Language and Phonics:
- Starfall This site is great for young learners! It has some really great phonics and reading games. My son (Kindergarten) LOVES this site. It also has some math and lots of other fun games too....a good mix of fun learning games for kids.
Science:
- Scratch We found this awesome website for kids that are interested in computers and animation. It's kinda tricky at first, but once you figure it out it's really fun. (The "figuring it out" part is actually great to help your child with problem solving, process of elimination and, and reasoning!!!)
- The Institute for Creation Research this is a wonderful website that is all about research done in the scientific field that proves the creation 'theory'. It is great for just perusing through and reading articles...you can just get lost here!! They also have textbooks and literature for homeschool students that are a great resource if you teach creationism.
Reading/Literature:
- 1000 Good books is a list of classical books separated by reading level
- Open Library is so great. You can search for topics/keywords/titles like in a library. This website is free and a great resource for books online. Just search for what you are looking for, then choose an icon with an "open book" image on the bottom (that tells you it is in PDF or online book form ready-to-read). Once you click on the book with an open book image icon, scroll down a bit and you will either see the PDF link or 'Read online" link. We have fun just searching for all sorts of things. My daughter really enjoys this site alot.
Music:
- Violin great teacher. easy to follow. Has free lessons available on Youtube, but also offers paid lessons via webcam. Packages are very affordable.
- Piano also free
Misc Helpful Sites for Homeschooling Parents:
- Educational Resources this site is pretty neat, but kinda difficult to navigate at first. It is really best for High School students or even College. It has plenty of college-level lectures and presentations on any subject you could think of......but there is some things on this site that would interesting to secondary students (you just have to dig a little).
- Homeschoolshare is a Free Lapbook resource. AWESOME! If you've never done lapbooking, please check this out. My kids love it! They remember so much more of what they learn when they lapbook.... and most of the lessons cover more than one subject, so its pretty comprehensive.
- Homeschool Creation is an encouraging website that has so may resources for you. It has worksheets, craft ideas, free printables, its is full of ideas!!!
- Lesson Planz online lesson plans and teaching resources.Some things are free and some you have to buy.
and last but not least......
Homeschool Blogs that I follow:
- Stories of an Unschooling Family THIS IS MY FAV!!! She is so inspiring! I read this blog regularly. It really helps me to stop worrying if I'm doing "enough" or doing it "right". i really believe she has a wonderful outlook on schooling and raising children.
- The Homeschool Mom lots of info
Well, this post ending up being a little long-winded I suppose....but I think that it is so important that we put good resource lists together and share them! That's what networking is all about. I hope that you find some of these links helpful and are able to use some of them! I know I wish somebody handed me this list when I first began this journey. Well, off to bed I go. See you next time!
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