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TopClicks
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Education
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Homeschooling
A to Z Home's Cool - Homeschooling Web Site - The starting place for exploring homeschooling resources, created by Ann Zeise, your homeschooling guide to the web.
AskERIC - Custom-build your own curriculum! The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a vast collection of data, ideas, research, lesson plans, literature, and more. This site will be of interest to parents who want to supplement their child's education at home or learn about parenting techniques. Teachers will find classroom ideas that go above and beyond textbook-type learning as well as professional information. They can also use the renowned AskERIC service. If you're an education professional (librarian, teacher, administrator, homeschooler, and so on) you can e-mail questions to AskERIC's Net-savvy information specialists; within 48 hours, you'll have suggestions and solutions drawn from customized ERIC database searches, ERIC digests, and Internet resources. If you've always wanted to talk to the reference librarian of the Internet, you can start with these folks. If you want to browse on your own, check AskERIC's Virtual Library, which contains over 1,200 lesson plans plus InfoGuides on hot topics like school violence, gender equity, at-risk students, year-round education, and more.
Book Adventure - Lots of kids like to read books because it's fun. Other kids need a little incentive to read. A free reading club-with prizes!-might be a good summer activity for families. Here's the deal. Your child registers a user name and picks a password. Giving a parent's e-mail address at the time of registration is an option, but you can always go back and add it in later. Your child then goes into the Facemaker section to create a silly face to adorn her new reading "account." After that, use the Book Finder section to select some books to read. Choose grade, reading level, and preferred types of books to generate a reading list. There are over 3,000 books in the database; many have one-sentence annotations, too. Print it out, take the resulting list to the library, and grab some books! After your child has read them, she can log on to her account at Book Adventure and try a short multiple-choice quiz on each book. If she doesn't do well at first, she can go back to the book to check out the answers, then take the quiz again. But beware, she can take each quiz only twice. She will rack up points for each correct answer. Points may be traded for prizes, which range from "instant win" printable things (like bookmarks), to gift certificates at Barnes & Noble bookstores. Other prizes include movie passes, a free game of miniature golf, and even shoe discounts at Kmart, among other things. Parental permission is required before these gift certificates are sent to kids, that's why the parent's e-mail address is needed. I signed up, took a quick quiz on a familiar book, and won a quick 100 points. That was good enough to allow me to print out a very cool paper airplane. But if I want the $5 Barnes & Noble certificate, I'll need a total of 1,500 points. Oh, and I have to be in kindergarten through eighth grade!
Christian Homeschool Forum - If you were to decide to homeschool, how would you get started? This information desk has tips to help you take the plunge. In the FAQ, you'll also find answers to questions you might have, lists of books and magazines, links to support groups, and lots of tips. You'll find plenty of encouragement here, whether or not you homeschool, from a Christian perspective.
Connected Teacher - Classroom Connect is one of our favorite magazines. Their Connected Teacher Web site doesn't disappoint, either. Check it out for info on upcoming conferences, a jumpstation to great Web links, feature articles about getting started with online projects, loads of lesson plans, and more. You can also become a member (free!) and participate in discussion boards.
Educational Web Adventures: Our Adventures and Web Sites - Discover the world of art, science, nature and social studies with Educational Web adventures and online activities. Explore each category in more detail, or use the list to go right to the adventures!!
FamilyEducation Network - FamilyEducation Network is an interactive learning community that links parents, teachers, students and schools to timely resources, to educational activities and to each other.
Homeschool World - Some kids don't "go" to school; they stay home. Every state in the U.S. and many foreign countries permit homeschooling in some form. If you're thinking of making the switch to more independent learning at home or if you already teach your kids at home, you'll find lots of ideas, news, links, and more at this site from the publishers of Practical Homeschooling.
Homeschooling Information - Visit this excellent selection of homeschooling resources for an overview of what's current and what's useful. You'll find thoughtful, briefly annotated links to homeschooling associations, magazines, newsgroups, and more. Some of the most interesting are a site started by a teenager about how to "do high school" at home and Real Audio files with interviews of interest to homeschooling families. For example, you can listen to Susannah Sheffer, author of A Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls. Don't miss the links to selected high-energy homeschooling families, and scroll to the bottom to find some great software to support homeschooling (and other) families.
Jon's Homeschool Resource Page - Will your children fit into the "real world" if they don't go to school? Will they do as well academically in homeschool? Will they be able to get into college? Research shows that the answer to all of these questions is a loud Yes! This site also has a collection of home pages and photos from families; check out what they're doing and learning.
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - The links in this guide are organized according to subject area. In History, for instance, you'll get a breakdown of Web pages, from "American History" to "World History." Each month, a list of new resources will point you to the latest and greatest.
Kids Can Learn - Helping parents, teachers, and homeschoolers help kids become motivated students--from kindergarten to primary to secondary schools!
KRN Software's Java Edutainment - Educational Games - There are many fine games here, including clickable dogs that bark and cows that moo, but let's focus on sorting shapes at Cargo Bay. Triangles, squares, and circles are floating around in the spaceship's cargo bay--can you sort them into the right bins?
Literacy Resources Online - What can parents do to help their kids become readers? This Web site offers pointers to several pamphlets and articles on how to prevent reading difficulties in young children as well as how to encourage reading in older kids. For example, there is a link to the Department of Education's Web page, "Simple Things You Can Do to Help All Children Read Well And Independently By The End of Third Grade." It's divided into things parents, schools, grandparents, caregivers, and community groups can do to promote literacy. One of these tips is the following: "Ask your children to describe events in their lives. Talking about their experiences makes children think about them. Giving detailed descriptions and telling complete stories also helps children learn about how stories are written and what the stories they read mean."
Math.com - This comprehensive math site says it "has the solution"-and in all probability it does. Students can take "one minute" math lessons, be intrigued by fascinating fractals, games, and puzzles, and try out my favorite: the Roman numeral calculator! You'll also find free worksheets, tips on how to beat math anxiety, and loads of links for homeschooling parents. We'd add more, but we don't want to take away the math surprises to be discovered here.
TeachersFirst - Classroom Resources & Lesson Plans for K-12 Teachers - If you need some Web site resources to go along with today's headlines, try here. This rich resource is on top of things when you need lesson plans on hot topics or classic curriculum. There are also some useful Internet tutorials that explain the basics of browsers and the infinite playground of plug-ins.
Teel Family Web Site - Brrrr! Snow is falling all around, and you're harnessing the dogs to the sled. Get ready for a trip to Alaska to visit the Teel family. There is no such thing as a typical homeschooling family, but you'll find out what interests the Teels on their homeschool Web page. See what curriculum they are working on this week, and explore some of their favorite links. Watch out for the polar bears, though!
Troll.com - For more than 40 years Troll has worked to inspire young minds and encourage reading among America's children. In doing so, Troll has created a well-respected brand name that has become synonymous with high quality children's literature among educators, parents, and children. Our commitment is unquestionable— offering innovative products that challenge and develop young minds. Join us for a whole new adventure in learning!
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