Homeschool and Homework Helpers
February 19, 2009|Comments (9)
For those of you whose ankle-biters have reached the age of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, telling time, vocabulary tests, and counting money — look no further! These totally rad sites have you covered be ye a homeschooling mom/dad searching for resources, a teacher who needs customized worksheets, or simply a parent who wants to give your child practice work. These sweet babies (websites) are right up your alley.
I just made this practice test for my third grader on Math Fact Cafe, who is working on her times tables and needs plenty of review before her test tomorrow. In moments like these, I find myself wishing I could homeschool my kids. Of course, I would homeschool them if I could adopt them. One day, I’ll homeschool some kids. Mark my words. Anyway, Math Fact Cafe offers help with telling time, money, flash cards, and more!
How about this smokin’ hot site to make word searches for your brilliant offspring? Take their list of spelling words and throw them into the magic boxes and voila! A word search is born. Even my kindergartner enjoys word searches which are made up of her sight words (tall, tab, map, Jack, Jilly, cat…) and color words (yellow, blue, green…). She works on her word searches right next to her big sister while in the car.
My third grader gets weekly vocabulary words which she must define and also have a clear understanding of their use. Her homework is fairly standard: write their definitions. I found that my child forgets the meaning of the word by the time she’s written the sentence. She gets nothing out of the assignment. So, I created a follow-up crossword puzzle with carefully constructed hints to reinforce those definitions. She’s permitted to use her completed homework to answer the clues. Works like a charm.
The Word Scramble Puzzle is my favorite for spelling words because it makes my girls really concentrate on how a word is supposed to look, the order of the letters, etc. It’s super. I love it. My six year old, whose attention span is roughly that of a Georgia no-see-um, will stare intently at her word list and the scrambled letters — saying each letter slowly and carefully with infinite patience. My third grader thinks it’s all kinds of fun.
Ask any of my friends, I am about as anti-video games as they come but I LOVE these games. Jungle Jim is terrific and it has really helped my third grader with her times tables. Cone Crazy is another fave in which correct answers show a snowball hitting another kid and an incorrect answer gets a snowball thrown at you. Check out a ton of great multiplication games at Multiplication.com’s Interactive Games. Make learning fun!
Goodness, I hope that I haven’t bored you to death. I know this isn’t my usual earthy/chickeny/cookery post but I couldn’t help but pass these on. Forgive me?
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Wow, two post in one day!! Awesome!
Lacy,
These babies are lucky to have you as a foster mom. Years from now when they think back about this time they will remember how loving and supportive you were and it will make their day. Remember that one teacher that made a difference in your life? I firmly believe you are that one teacher in these children lives. Please don’t apologize for showing that you care.
Michele
I LOVE make your own word searches! They’re nice to use as birthday party favors or invitations, too. I still can’t believe you’ve got 4 kids to possibly hopefully one day homeschool! That’s sorta kinda like suddenly finding out you’re going to teach 4 different grades…tomorrow! Only a lot more fun, I’ll bet!
You all are so sweet!!!! Thank you for your support. I confess to feeling a bit anxious about posting this stuff. People generally don’t come to my blog for help teaching their children multiplication but then again… I haven’t exactly been a mommy blogger very long. Hmmm…. perhaps there’s something to that!
Blessings and thanks!
Lacy
Very Cool, thanks for all the great resources. I often dream about being a homeschooling Momma but in reality my kids are learning and enjoy school and I am a more patient, happy Momma with time away. If at anytime they are having issues I will homeschool them. I do get homeschholing magazines and suplement the kids in many ways. Can’t wait to explore these sites with the kids.
Those look great. I think my youngest would enjoy them. I love the comment about the Georgia no-see-um, LOL. I am pretty sure the ones up here don’t have a much better attention span. I think you would do a great job of home schooling.
Hey Miss Lacy!
I hope you are doing well. I think of you often, hugs, Robin
Awesome resources!
I can appreciate your enthusiasm. I have home schooled my children for 13 years.My youngest graduates in May. Now, we am starting over and plan to homeschool as soon as the children are ours. I can’t wait. Your blog is just that YOUR blog. Don’t worry if people aren’t intersted, they will skip that post. However most people with kids are looking for any help they can find.