Links and Lists - Back to School

We all know that no matter how you school, it is the time right now to start gearing up for another year of it.

 

Today I thought I would share my favorite resources that homeschoolers and public schoolers could enjoy for supplemental in different subjects.

Starfall is a great place for emerging readers to start. 

Zac Browser is amazing.  It is a web browser that was developed with autistic children in mind, but it gives all children a safe place to browse the internet.

The Ultimate List of Online Music Activties is a large list of music enrichment things to access.

Have you ever had your child ask you about something and they want to learn more?  "Mom, what is paper made of?"  and your simple answer of trees is just not good enough...This is a list of Unit studies that will make answering those questions a bit easier.

And if unit studies are not your thing, Teacher Tube has videos.

And if you don't want videos, a virtual field trip might be the answer.

OR you might want an app to enhance your stuff.  I personally LOVE my iPad for that.  There are so many interesting apps you can download, even for free!

Sometimes you need to help with handwriting.  This cool tool lets you type in word and choose the way you want it to work.  It then generates a sheet for your child to trace.

If you have a high schooler (and *gasp* that is me as my son is doing Grades 8 and 9 this year...Where did my baby go??!) there might be some extra reading you want them to do.  This list is an excellent resource.

Pinterest is taking the teacher world, and pretty much every world, by storm.  I have boards on pretty much everything.  (Please follow me...I would love to connect there as well, or if you need an invite, let me know and I will pass one on.)  Here is an idea I am going to adapt for lots of things.  I can do this for meal planning, farm planning, garden planning, school planning and so much more!  What a great idea.

I would love to know your favorite places/links to visit for school helps.  Pass them on in the comments or feel free to email me!  I hope that back to school is less stressful, and more exciting this year than any year previous!

Cheers

My Favorite Apps

I love our iPad. 

We are so lucky here in Alberta because we have funding to use for school.  Last year we used some of our funding to buy an iPad and we have been using it ever since.

Just in case you have one you love and want to find a new app or two, I thought I would make a list.  Or you are getting one for Christmas...or iTunes money...

English

Verses Poetry

We love this one.  You get a whole selection of words and you make poems with them.  You can change them up, make them easy, or add words.  Great for practice.  (and no one grades you on your creativity)

Word Abacus

We love how you have to make words on a cool abacus.  I must admit that this is one of dh favorites.  He plays it more than anyone else in our house. 

You get a whole abacus full of letters and you must make words by using the letters adjacent, linking all of them.  Excellent game.

Bananagrams

Classic game, only on the iPad.  My oldest plays this often.  He loves Scrabble and Pick Two, so this is right up his word game alley.

You get a pile of tiles to make crosswords type puzzles with, adding letters as you run out.  When your pile is empty you are a winner!

Textropolis and Fishtropolis

I must admit that when this popped up as a free app, I was rather snobbish and I didn't download it for a couple weeks.  It was a persistent little app and so I finally figured if it sucked I would trash it.

It doesn't suck.

These are our families favorite apps right now.  My youngest is even able to play a bit.  He can pick out a few words and move on to another.  You must make as many words as you can out of the base word.  There are some words that I have never heard, but luckily they define them after you get them!  Great vocab builder for kids.

Word Bingo

This is one I downloaded for my youngest.  There are pre-K words and up.  He is getting really good at reading his sight words so this is a hit.  There are a couple different games that as you complete them you get a "bingo bug".  Later you can go play with your bingo bugs.  They can be shot at words or just tickled to give you little giggles and fun sounds.

Chicktionary

I admit it.  We really are suckers for word games.

This is much like scrabble in that you have a few letters you have to make as many words as you can out of them.  There are a couple ways to play (speed or just find them all) and we enjoy both.  There are a bunch you get for free then if you want more the next packs are pretty reasonable prices.  (I think $1.99)

Math

Drill-San

I love this one for my boys.  You can set the level, the number of questions and what they are doing (multiplication, division, addition, subtraction) then they do them.  After you can see how they did.  It tells you how long it took, how many they got wrong or right, and what percentage that is.

Math Bingo

Another one we enjoy is math bingo.  Just like the word bingo above, this one has a few different games to play.  After you do them you earn bingo bugs to play additional games with.

I think my favorite part of this one is that it looks like a game, but it is really a drill!  :)  Even my youngest can play this one.

Rocket Math
We enjoy the drills that look like games.  :)

This one uses incentives like rocket money.  You have to answer questions to earn money then  you can make a rocket.  Some of them are pretty fun (like a phone booth, a school bus and others).  Then you can see how far your rocket will go by answering more questions. 

History/World Awareness

50 Places of a Lifetime (National Geographic)

This one has some AMAZING photography.  We use it often.  We enjoy using it for the information it contains (there are photos, videos, and written articles). 

Flags of the World and National Geographic GeoBee

Both of these apps are wonderful for the information they contain.  They both have quizzes that are like games so that you are learning and having fun at the same time. 

The flags one has lots of info on each country and flag.

The GeoBee works you up level by level and gets harder and harder as you go.  I enjoy the challenge if presents.  It is slanted to US though,  (so those of us that don't actually live there know ahead of time) with many questions about states and history.

Misc Apps For The Younger Set

How to Draw

This is a fun little drawing program.  It takes you step by step through the process of drawing simple things like a dog, cat and dinosaur.

My youngest likes it best because it is geared towards really young kids who are just starting out.  It is even narrated by young children.

Moody Monster

Apparently this is a program on TV?  Not having TV makes us ignorant to that, so if your littles like moody monster, this will be a hit. 

There are different games in here that you match, make up different things and answer questions.  It is a great pre-K or K game.

Super Why

Also a program I guess...who knew?!

This one has 4 fun games on it.  Rhyming, fixing a story, spelling and hunting letters.  Great game for the younger kids.  This is the app that helped my youngest finally understand rhyming.  For the longest time he would think that the words that STARTED the same rhymed.  Now he understands.

Misc Apps That we Love

BrainPop

Super fun (and educational) app.  There is a featured movie you can watch everyday.  It is always informational and fun.  After watching you can answer questions.  (or not)

There are a few movies each day you can see.  I think it is about a weeks worth. 

All my boys love to watch it.  The youngest still doesn't answer the questions but it is amazing what he retains from the information he hears.

Weird but True

Who doesn't love the books?! 

My boys love this app because of the information (which is funny) and the animations (which are really funny). 

My youngest especially loves the animation that says "That's Weird".

Triazzle

Ok, I added this one because it is my favorite one.  Have you ever put together the three sided puzzles?  This is it only as an app.

I love to figure them out, and it is nice to have the little animations to tell me when I have it right!

Where's my Water?

Love Swampy.

He is a little guy that all he wants is to get clean.  He doesn't want any poison in his bath though because he is unlike others, he likes clean water.

These are fun and rather addictive puzzles. 

You need to get all three ducks, avoid poison, bombs and other obstacles.  Our whole family enjoys this little app.  (and the animations are awesome!)

Spikey

This is another one we just play for fun.  Spikey sticks into everything.  He wants to free all the butterflies but he keeps getting stuck.  You have to shoot him to smash all the jars to free the trapped butterflies.

Little Things

I love the I Spy books.  Well, we all do in my family.

This is a game like the I Spy's.  You have a big photo that you have to find little photos in.  It gets harder are you figure them out. 

This is great fun for all my kids.  (and me when they are in bed!)

Fruit Ninja

Who doesn't like chopping up fruit and wishes to be a ninja?!  That's all I have to say.

World of Goo

I actually held off buying this app for a year. 

I am not a big fan of some of the other big grossing apps, and this has been on the top charts for a long time, but I finally caved and bought it.

It is a great little app.

You have to help the goo balls reach the collection tubes.  You have to be really careful though because if you build a shaky tower, it falls.  You build bridges and towers and various other methods of transportation for your little goo balls.

My youngest is in love with this game. 

Pixlr O Matic

Love this one.

You upload your photos (or if you are in the lucky few who got an iPad2, just take a photo with your built in camera) and apply different things to them.

You can make them black and white, sepia, old fashioned, change the colors, add different extras to them...and more.

Great fun similar to photoshop. 

My two oldest really get a kick out of changing their pictures with it.

Well, that's it for now.  I hope that you might find something that you can enjoy from our list.  We sure have fun with ours.  How about you?  What are your favorite apps?

Cheers

Grocery Shopping and Math...

I love to grocery shop. 

For real.

No sarcasm at all.

I love making the list of what we are eating that month.  I love to pour over my recipes (and then don't follow them!), I love to decide what we are rotating off my food storage that month, I love the act of actually shopping.  I even love putting all the groceries away.

So, now that my kids are older I hate to give up some of my control over something I love so much.

BUT, I want them to possibly love it just as much.

Grocery shopping needn't be a chore.  Meal planning also can be fun.

So, how do I instill the love of that part into my boys?  (and make it count as school!)

Here is a little peek into what we do.

First, I let them browse my pintrest boards.  I have them all broken down into meals and desserts and what have you, and I know it is safe for them to check them out.  (I have actually clicked on all the links so I know where they go)  This would also be a good place for your kids to page through cookbooks, ours are all packed because this new place is so teeny tiny I had to pack them away.

Second, once the meals are decided on, I have them write a list of all the ingredients that their chosen recipes will take.  I don't let them plan alot, some months are more than others depending on MY list.

Once they have their list, I go through and cross off the things they don't need to buy.  I have an extensive food storage and so we do have lots of things that we don't need to buy.

Third, I have them estimate how much THEY think it will cost to buy the things they have chosen.  They can use their knowledge of what we have bought before, but I want them to see how much they THINK things cost.

Fourth, I make out a list for them to write in how much things REALLY cost.  They are responsible for making sure that their list of ingredients make it into the cart.  They have to bargain shop as well to get the very best price that they can for their stuff.

Fifth, when we get home they total their list.  Then we compare the estimate to the real cost.

Sixth, they figure out how much each recipe costs to make for our family.  This sometimes means doubling or tripling a recipe first so they can figure out how much they need to double or triple the price.  Then they figure out cost per serving of each recipe.

This teaches them so many things.  I find the most gratifying thing that they have learned though is that food is costly.  We can't afford to have $10 meals each night (our budget is about $400/month), but we can eat REALLY well if we plan it out.  Sometimes we can eat for as little as $2 per day! 

It is fun to teach my boys how much things really cost, but it is also really fun to see them process that and try to make things cost less or just figure out how to make it work.

How about you?  How do you involve your kids in the kitchen?  How do you involve them in meal planning and shopping?  How do you teach your kids this skill that they will need when they grow up and move out?

Cheers

Math Rocks

We went to our favorite rock gathering/throwing spot the other day to collect rocks for a project. 

I saw an alphabet set made from nice little rocks the other day on pintrest, and figured I could make one as well (more on that later) but also thought that I might like to do a set for numbers.

I wanted to have a set of 0-20 and some common symbols.  This would enable my boys to make almost any number and have the tactile sensation of doing their math work.  (I have a really visual learner I think this will work great for)

Please excuse the fact that a photo has alphabets on them...that is for another post, but was the only one I took of that step!  :)

First we cleaned off our rocks of the gross slimy-ness that was from the river.   Then I painted numbers (3 of each except the 0, 10 and 20, those all got only 2 each) on each rock. 

Then I sprayed the tops with this:

I am not a big fan of "germs" and I am sure that swimming in the slime from the river were are few.  I like the nice shiny look, and the fact that it seals in the gross that I might have missed in the cracks of the rocks!  I let them sit for a few hours till they were dry.  Then check out the difference in the back from the front:

Of course if you are going to seal in the gross on the front, you should do the back right?!  So I flipped them all and did the back too.  Then after sitting over night to let it dry completely, they were ready.

I had them all assorted, but look how pretty they are!

Now there are some simple equations you can do, or I am sure you can get much harder, but I need a calculator for that!  I am looking forward to seeing how many different ways we can use these in school this year.

In a couple weeks I will show you what we did for the alphabet.  (Sept 2nd...it is also running on Latter-day Homeschooling that day)  And in a couple days I will show you some cool little "Angry Birds" we are going to do on Friday. 

Cheers

Bubble Wrap

OK, I have a confession to make...

...I am a recycling picker.  (like a garbage picker)  I was doing my recycling the other day and in the bin was a couple really big rolls of bubble wrap.  I didn't want to do it, but of their own violation my arms reached in a PICKED THEM OUT!  :)

I had a great idea to do with the boys as a math type game we could play with it so I brought it home.  (all the time hoping there weren't any gross things inside the rolls of bubble wrap!)

I sliced it up into squares and wrote numbers on them.  Then I took them outside and taped it all down into a hopscotch.

The boys had to roll dice and do math problems for each square they hopped.  My baby did addition and the other two did multiplication.

I have these cool little dice that have two dice in them just for that purpose.

3 times 1 is.....?

The boys had a blast popping all the bubbles and almost didn't even realize they were doing math drills at the same time.  :)

Cheers

Bath Fizzies/Bath Bombs

We made bath fizzies.  I thought that it would be good for a small Science talk and Math lesson.

I found two recipes HERE and HERE that I let the boys choose from.  One we split in half, one we doubled.

Here are a few pictures of our day.

They work awesome too...the boys have each had lots of fun having baths with them!  :)

Here is the simple science behind WHY a bath fizzy, fizzes:

What's Happening?

A bath fizzy is showing how acids and bases react when they are mixed together.  The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is the base and the citric acid is the acid.

When the bath bomb dissolves in water, there is a chemical reaction between the citric acid and the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). The result is called sodium citrate. During the reaction, carbon dioxide is released. This causes the 'fizzing' that you see, similar to that in carbonated water.  (here is an experiment on carbonating your own water) Water is needed for the reaction to occur because is dissolves the solids and allows the ions in the acid and the base to move and collide with each other, causing a reaction to occur. 

And, of course, the oils and the fragrances are useful as a liquid to help form the bath bombs as well as cause the skin to be smooth and scented.

As I was searching for some fun things to do to enhance this experiment, I went to one of my very favorite sites, the Naked Scientists.  There were a few really great things I bookmarked to try later, here they are:

Lava Lamps
Lemonade Volcano
Dancing Raisins (we actually did this one in a different unit and thought it was cool)
and the old classic Volcano (you know the one that all kids submit to their first Science Fair...)

Have a BLAST making some exploding and fizzing things!  :)

Cheers