Homeschooling moms and dads, students, and anyone baffled by mathematics (not ME, of course *cough*), I found the most amazing site!!! Mathway. This is totally, totally cool. You type in your math problem, and let the computer solve it. The results even give an explanation of how the problem is solved! This is soooo cool! We are definitely going to be using this, frequently, here.

I typed in this problem:

(2–6)(3x) < y

I asked the computer to solve the inequality for “y.” This is what it spit out:

Since y is on the right-hand side of the equation, switch the sides so it is on the left-hand side of the equation.

y>(2+6)(3x)

Add 6 to 2 to get 8.

y>(8)(3x)

Multiply 8 by 3x to get 24x.

y>(24x)

Remove the parentheses around the expression 24x.

y>24x

Wow. I will say that I am indignant and very offended that I had to go through TWELVE years of school without this website. :-p I sure could have used it.

Anyway, the site is free to use. It wil graph your answers and explain them further if need be. Totally cool!

Here’s a cool website I found: Waterford Press Games. There are tons and tons of printable worksheets, puzzles, mazes, and word games for kids. The site is free to use for personal use. They even have little activities (like origami) and I LOVE the quizzes (scroll down to the bottom of the page for those). I like to give my kids “pop quizzes” to keep them fresh. Anyway, thought you homeschooling and educationally-minded folks might like the site.

The kids and I recently checked out the Green Science Windmill Generator toy from KoboldToys.com. We like educational, sciency-type toys, and I like the kids to learn how to make mechanical things. This was an OK toy. It’s receommended for children ages 8 and up. My 12-year old found the instructions just a little complex.

He’s pretty mechanical (he has a few electronic generator gadgets around the house) so I was surprised that he was a little puzzled. Then again, he was recovering form a cold, so maybe his mind was tired.

My 16-year old joined in on the action and they attempted the project together.

Even though the directions are a little complex, I thought they were put together well. And they are a lot like the “adult” kind of directions I get for my home improvement projects. I like exposing the kids to such things. The paper included in the box explained about energy generation, which was great.

They had the windmill up within about 15 minutes.

The Green Science Windmill Generator is a small kit that you put together. It’s supposed to be a “green” kind of energy– wind spins the fan blades which creates a small bit of energy to run a tiny LED light. You use a recycled plastic bottle to hold the fan mechanism together.

Overall, it was OK. The fan was stiff and didn’t spin with any kind of natural breeze– we had to turn on our box fan to get it to go. The LED did light up. It’s a great toy for showing your child how things work, and to introduce him to science and energy. It’s a great “side” project, but not a very good main project. I recommend this toy for children between the ages of 10 (with an adult) to 15. It sells for $12 to $15, which is a bit pricey for what you get. But it would make a good hands-on project for showing your kid the science behind energy generation. And because you recycle a plastic bottle, it makes it “green.”

There’s a new breed of potato out there. It’s not the Yukon Gold, and it’s not even the proverbial Couch Potato. It’s much worse than this– it’s the Young Couch Potato! Doesn’t that sound awful! I know that my children are much more sedentary than I was. When I was young, we didn’t have video games (well, except for Pong, and that was like, ICK), we didn’t have DVDs or all the electronic games. “Games” to me meant hide and seek, Monopoly, or cowboys and indians. I’m amazed at how quickly our culture and childrens’ lifestyles have changed. And I know how impossible it is to yank the kids away from those durn computer games and Playstation games!!

Well, I’ve taken the long way around just to mention a nice site for parents and kids. It’s called Kids Off the Couch. They’re not paying me or sending me a boxful of bananas or baseball hats to mention them either! I just saw the website and think it looks neat. It has ideas for activities for kids and parents. I think it’s a good site to generate a little creativity. Homeschooling families might find it especially helpful, because a lot of the activities are educational. So lets get the kids off their butts and onto their feets!

Welll this is a “novel” idea (ha!): an online library, ala Netflix. It’s called BookSwim. It’s kind of like a library/rental program rolled into one. I checked it out. The selection is still a little slim, but it’s growing and there are some really good books there. This could be a real blessing for homeschoolers, as well as for book lovers.

It basically works this way: sign up online and pay a monthly fee at BookSwim. You reserve books into your queue, and they are sent to you. When you finish reading them, send them back. Your next books from your queue will be sent to you. Shipping is completely free, both to and from your house (the books come in postage-paid packaging).

The great thing about this is that there are NO DUE DATES and NO LATE FEES! I like this aspect of it. I use my local library but I have to drive there (costs money for gas) and if I forget my due date (which has happened a lot lately), I am hit with hefty fines.

This service looks really great for people in very rural areas who have no access to local libraries, who like the convenience of online rental services, who read slowly or very quickly, and who prefer a variety of books, especially newly-released books. There is a wide selection of topics, so I can see this kind of business taking off.

If you are interested, click: BookSwim. I like the idea of this service so much that I’ve decided to become an affiliate for BookSwim. So I will get a little commission if you sign up using my link! I’ll keep the button to BookSwim in my sidebar, should you want to check it out in the future.

I discussed my book methodology here, if you need a refresher. I’m continuing my posts on some good homeschooling books that I have found and work for us, in the hopes that maybe a morsel or two will help you!

One thing I want to say is that I very rarely buy brand-new books. I have found loads of great textbooks and workbooks through my local library, on their “discard” shelves. I also happen to prefer the old textbooks, as they emphasize critical thinking and aren’t filled with all the extraneous mush of “How does this make you feel” junk. I don’t care how multiplication and biology make my kid feel, I care they that understand it and can apply it.

So anyway, here are a few more books, books I bought at yard sales and the library. Guess how much all those books combines cost me? Go ahead- guess!

Under a dollar! Pretty cool huh? They are great books, too. more…

A long time ago in this country, 90% of the population was literate. Most children began their school at home, learning to read and do basic math. Grammar schools, where available, educated the child until 8th grade. In the early 1900s, a new trend in education began: John Dewey’s “student-based” system. It emphasized learning from the perspective of the student. Whereas education used to be the memorization of skills to be applied in adult life, Dewey made education more of a social engineering tool, encouraging teachers to bring out a student’s opinions and feelings. Memorization and discipline went by the wayside. Children now work in group settings, think in group settings, and learn in group settings.

Parents wonder why public schools leave their childern so ill-equipped, and why students graduate with so few skills. This is why. The children are being taught to operate under social conditions, while independent critical thinking skills are thrown out the window. Of course, this doesn’t ALWAYS happen in EVERY school, but it is happening in more and more schools, everywhere.

We homeschool, and send our kids to an umbrella school for tests on what they have learned. It is the best kind of school, I think– I teach the kids from books distributed by the school (they use the excellent Abeka curriculum) and I can add my own stuff, too. They test the kids on the basics but the standards are extremely high (so the kids work hard and apply what they know). They also handle all the administrative paperwork. I just love the way the schooling works, and I love the education the kids are getting.

So we are free to pick and choose our own extra-curricular books. I love art and history, so we have a lot of those kinds of books. Here’s a little sampling of some really great books I’ve found through the years. Maybe it will help you if you are looking for some good books.

I combine social studies, history, civics, and “living” all together. The best history books I have found, by far, have been the Abeka books. I also really like “The Story of the Constitution” by Sol Bloom and Lar Johnson. It’s great for high schoolers. Comes with tests, too.

The Drive-Thru History series, by Dave Stotts, are DVDs, not books. But WOW these things are great!! We have almost worn them out. They are history-centered. Dave Stotts is a hilariously funny guy with a love for history and cool cars. He drives the neatest machines through Rome, Greece cities, places in Turkey, and more. He does a superb job, and we just love his stuff. He also has a great educational series on American founding history. LOVE these!

My kids are big into American history. Here are some of our favorites. more…

Most homeschools integrate technology into their “classroom” much faster than public schools. That’s one of the beauties of homeschooling– you don’t have to wait for all that bureaucratic red tape to finally roll through before you can switch from Mac to Microsoft, or whatever. I have tried to utilize technology in our lessons as needed. Starting in elementary school, the kids had to learn how to make electronic book reports, use PaintShopPro for making graphics, use music software to record and edit their instrument playing, and work with video files to create movies.

By high school, I emphasize the classic topics of logic and rhetoric. We go on research binges with a quest for learning about something new, watch debates, have our own debates using the data we’ve derived, and present it to each other. I want the children to be excellent writers AND speakers, just like my hero– that orator extraordinaire– Patrick Henry. Boy, that man could present oratory!

Oration skills take lots of practice. The kids’ first oral books reports were, well… not Patrick Henry-esque, let’s say that much. They’ve improved, but I don’t think they’re up there with the House of Burgesses yet, lol. So we practice. I’m looking for ways to make it fun as well as productive. It would be very beneficial for a child to see his spoken words (re: realize how boring the words he uses really are) before he can begin to improve.

So this is what makes me think of Dragon Naturally Speaking, a speech-recognition software program that would be PERFECT for any classroom environment. I took the typing test (45 wpm, ugh! Click here to check out Dragon’s typing speed test!) and I see that DNS would definitely be a plus where I’m concerned, lol! But this software would be incredibly benefical for students and lecturers alike, both as a tool for completing projects like reports or transcribing research data, and as a self-improvement tool for improving oral skills and diction. There are some rave Dragon Reviews that extol Dragon Naturally Speaking for its near 100% accuracy rate, ease of use, and exceptional voice-to-computer functionality. Watching this video really won me over.

I have heard of some educators getting grants from their school districts, for using this software in their classrooms. It’s definitely worth checking out! This is a very versatile program.

You know, I think Dragon Naturally Speaking would also come in handy for my “lectures” moments– moments when I am expounding on theology or history and suddenly hit a vein, a really inspired vein that would probably bring in thousands of adoring fans if ONLY I could get it transcribed for the masses!!!! :D lol. Well, I’d use it to improve and speed up my blogging, anyway.

My daughter (who is schooled at home) sent me this video. HILARIOUS!! They did a great job with this!

And wow, all those kids, lol.

God bless moms and dads like this! Great job!