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Thursday, February 12, 2015

INTERNET RESOURCES & TIPS

The availability of technology can be a useful tool in homeschooling. It can also be a destructive vice if misused. For this reason, we recommend using some safety tips for internet usage in the home:
  • Place the computer in a central location where it is in view of others
  • Establish time restrictions that the computer cannot be used (In parental controls)
  • Use filters in parental controls to choose the desired maturity level that can be accessed
  • Install a program like Covenant Eyes or Ever Accountable to receive accountability reports
  • Regularly discuss dangers and establish safety goals
  • Limit usage to educational purpose, rather than entertainment and social
  • Encourage communication about internet usage, temptations, experiences, questions, etc.
  • Listen as a family to The Dark Side of the Internet  sermon by Rand Hummel (http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakeronly=true&currsection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Dr._Rand_Hummel)
Once you’ve established soFullSizeRenderme safety and accountability goals, find resources and links you can use to help improve your students’ skills. Do not use these resources as a replacement for curriculum, but they can be very helpful for quizzing, improving skills, promoting learning and comprehension of a specific subject. This can be a great help to the mom that has many students raising their hands for help at the same time. Instead of sitting and waiting, if you have a list of sites already on their checklist, they can make use of their waiting time. This is not just filling their time with unnecessary and repetitive “busy work,” because their individualized checklist includes subjects they actually need extra drill work on. It gives a fun change in between their regular workbook, DVD, or computer routine that can be just the right “pick me up” to re-arouse their interest. (Caution: Avoid  letting the focus be on games that have more pizzazz and appeal than actual educational benefit.)
  Most of these sites were introduced to us by friends and other homeschool families, but there are many more resources that can be found. So if you have some suggestions of conservative educational sites that encouraging learning, feel free to share them.
We learned about this site from Joy Duggar. It quizzes on many subjects, but the little girls (Addee, Ellie, and Callie) learned to locate the states and name the capitals from this site.
This is a great site for help with science and math (especially upper levels subjects like chemistry and physics). Short tutorials are shown with plenty of explanation and practice!
3. Homeschool Math http://www.homeschoolmath.net/
This is one of many sites that provides practice math drills for every grade, sorted by concepts. So if your student needs extra drill work on addition, multiplication, fractions, or any other concepts, this will help solidify their mastery. 
4. Language Arts Skills http://www.ixl.com/ela/
This is one of many sites that gives drill work for language skills at each grade level.
5. The Pioneer Woman
The Pioneer Woman lists an abundance of links and descriptions for sites to help with homeschooling
The best advice is word of mouth recommendations by those who have tested the resources and have found them helpful enough that they want to share them with others!

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