I have to admit, I have a couple computer programs that I use regularly with my son.
1. Reading Kingdom. Reading Kingdom is a fun, easy-to-use online program that teaches children 4-10 years old how to read and write to a third grade level.
2. Science4Us. Granted we are doing this for a review but my son is enjoying it so much that he'll continue to use it for as long as we can after the review. :)
I'm a bits and snippets type of homeschooler. Show me you are interested in something and I'll teach you about it until you want to move on to something else. Sometimes that is just five minutes of learning, other times it stretches into a week or more. It's all good. I do find though, that for some topics (aka reading and math) that regular attendance is necessary for continuity in learning. :)
Now I have tried math on the computer and that does NOT work well long term with my boy. He doesn't like bells and whistles with math. He just wants regular pages that he can work on and never mind the fanciness. He'll enjoy an on-line math program for a while but then you can see him getting a bit antsy about it all so we play around with it a bit. For instance, he enjoyed doing target the question because I could print off the situation of the week and he could work from that.
But science, history, and reading work really well for him so we use our reading program, we watch documentaries and search youtube for good videos. For instance this video popped up in my facebook feed and inspired a session of learning about ants. He thought it was a great way to get rid of nasty ants as it was so hot the ants wouldn't know what happened until they were dead. BUT not a good idea on our friendly outside ants here. :)
1. Reading Kingdom. Reading Kingdom is a fun, easy-to-use online program that teaches children 4-10 years old how to read and write to a third grade level.
2. Science4Us. Granted we are doing this for a review but my son is enjoying it so much that he'll continue to use it for as long as we can after the review. :)
I'm a bits and snippets type of homeschooler. Show me you are interested in something and I'll teach you about it until you want to move on to something else. Sometimes that is just five minutes of learning, other times it stretches into a week or more. It's all good. I do find though, that for some topics (aka reading and math) that regular attendance is necessary for continuity in learning. :)
Now I have tried math on the computer and that does NOT work well long term with my boy. He doesn't like bells and whistles with math. He just wants regular pages that he can work on and never mind the fanciness. He'll enjoy an on-line math program for a while but then you can see him getting a bit antsy about it all so we play around with it a bit. For instance, he enjoyed doing target the question because I could print off the situation of the week and he could work from that.
But science, history, and reading work really well for him so we use our reading program, we watch documentaries and search youtube for good videos. For instance this video popped up in my facebook feed and inspired a session of learning about ants. He thought it was a great way to get rid of nasty ants as it was so hot the ants wouldn't know what happened until they were dead. BUT not a good idea on our friendly outside ants here. :)
Whenever we go out for walks or just out for whatever reason I tote along my phone so that when he asks a question I can immediately look it up if I don't know the answer myself. He's starting to learn how to scroll through the images so he can ask additional questions. We've learned about water striders hibernating for the winter, and where the best place is to find snow fleas, and all sorts of interesting things. Currently the big question is MOM, how are we doing in the Olympics. It's gotten so I can just give him the phone now and he knows where the find the information. Rather cool that eh?
I make use of my kindle to do our names of Christ study. We are reading from a book I did as a review for some company (can't remember which right now) about the names of Christ. Isn't the lad doing a fine job of putting the names up?
I make use of my kindle to do our names of Christ study. We are reading from a book I did as a review for some company (can't remember which right now) about the names of Christ. Isn't the lad doing a fine job of putting the names up?
We still use some "old-school" technology of paper and pen and even a cassette deck with tapes. We off and on listen to some history tapes from Chelesea house publishers. We've studied Marco Polo and soon will embark on the adventures of Magellan. Combine those audio tapes with information we find on library or at the library is just an added benefit in learning. :)
Getting Science DVD's such as the one we are currently reviewing for Science and Math are a boon to us as we can stop them anytime to ask questions, generate thinking skills, test theorems etc before seeing how the experiment actually works for the person putting on the experiment.
Before I go on with the rest of my day, I want to tell you that I am writing this post to go with the Crew Carnival of Technology in your homeschool. I have to admit, I"m drawing a blank as to when it goes live so I need to go look that up. :) Ah Feb. 26! So check back then to go read what others have to say about how they use Technology in their Classrooms. :) Cheers!
Getting Science DVD's such as the one we are currently reviewing for Science and Math are a boon to us as we can stop them anytime to ask questions, generate thinking skills, test theorems etc before seeing how the experiment actually works for the person putting on the experiment.
Before I go on with the rest of my day, I want to tell you that I am writing this post to go with the Crew Carnival of Technology in your homeschool. I have to admit, I"m drawing a blank as to when it goes live so I need to go look that up. :) Ah Feb. 26! So check back then to go read what others have to say about how they use Technology in their Classrooms. :) Cheers!
RSS Feed
