We have officially started our first week as homeschoolers. Drew and I registered him on Monday with the district's homeschooling program. We still have to revise his IEP to reflect the placement change from his former private school. Meanwhile, we're digging into the new curriculum. It's slightly different than he was doing before as it actually has to meet state standards (private does not) and will likely require some fine-tuning to keep him challenged in some of the subjects. We hope to incorporate some of that into his IEP.
To keep things interesting, we also supplement the provided texts and assignments, especially with online resources as Drew and I are both rather geeky at heart. Here are a few of our favorites:
Free Rice (for vocabulary & goodwill -- what's your vocab level?)
Lawrence Hall of Science (for everything under the sun - amazing!)
Geography Quiz (Africa has a lot of countries, doesn't it?)
Math Playground (which I mentioned earlier)
School Time Games (good, clean fun)
And, for educational Nintendo DS Lite gaming, we've started using a game called Flash Focus. It's intent is to improve visual skills like hand-eye coordination, peripheral vision, visual memory, and the like. There are customized exercises to complete each day for up to 4 players. I've also become addicted to the NY Times Crossword Puzzle game. The kids haven't braved it yet.
Another 'downtime' activity Drew and I have been doing was a childhood favorite of mine -- logic puzzles. Santa put a MindWare book of logic puzzles called Perplexors: Level D in Drew's stocking which he and I have been doing as part of his bedtime routine. It brings back fond memories of doing the Reader's Digest logic puzzles at my grandmother's house when I was Drew's age.
Aunnie, although not homeschooling, has become a Sudoku addict. Fortunately, Santa brought her a Will Shortz' Sudoku book which we've been doing together as part of her bedtime routine. It's so cool to see how she and I work through the same puzzle in different ways.
To keep things interesting, we also supplement the provided texts and assignments, especially with online resources as Drew and I are both rather geeky at heart. Here are a few of our favorites:
Free Rice (for vocabulary & goodwill -- what's your vocab level?)
Lawrence Hall of Science (for everything under the sun - amazing!)
Geography Quiz (Africa has a lot of countries, doesn't it?)
Math Playground (which I mentioned earlier)
School Time Games (good, clean fun)
And, for educational Nintendo DS Lite gaming, we've started using a game called Flash Focus. It's intent is to improve visual skills like hand-eye coordination, peripheral vision, visual memory, and the like. There are customized exercises to complete each day for up to 4 players. I've also become addicted to the NY Times Crossword Puzzle game. The kids haven't braved it yet.
Another 'downtime' activity Drew and I have been doing was a childhood favorite of mine -- logic puzzles. Santa put a MindWare book of logic puzzles called Perplexors: Level D in Drew's stocking which he and I have been doing as part of his bedtime routine. It brings back fond memories of doing the Reader's Digest logic puzzles at my grandmother's house when I was Drew's age.
Aunnie, although not homeschooling, has become a Sudoku addict. Fortunately, Santa brought her a Will Shortz' Sudoku book which we've been doing together as part of her bedtime routine. It's so cool to see how she and I work through the same puzzle in different ways.
Comments
Is it cheating to have dictionary.com open at the same time?