Home School Online

I’ll admit that I think SpellingCity.com is just coolest site.  I register for free and save word lists connected not just to spelling (actually, we don’t have spelling as a topic in my homeschool program) but related to literature, geography, history, math, science, and ethics. Also, holidays!  I can have my kids take tests, play games, create printables, get handwriting practice, have vocabulary practice, and it’s all free. There are ten games that the lists automatically get imported into ranging from vocabulary exercises to alphabetical order.  The site is great.

Practice Vocabulary and Spelling at SpellingCity.com

They’ve now added the ability to track student records for test taking. So SpellingCity got even cooler. I’ll quote their page on student record-keeping:

StudentRecord-Keeping

One homeschooling family builds vocabulary and spelling lists from their math, history, science, and language arts studies. SpellingCity.com not only provides a method to collect, practice, review, and test on these lists, the student records are easily printed for the student portfolios and annual review. (they could be talking about me!)

How do I get started? First, you must be a registered user of SpellingCity.com.  To register as a parent or teacher is free. Once registered, when the user logs in to SpellingCity.com, the user should select a menu item on the Teacher Toolbox labelled Student Records which will guide them into activating student records.

How much to track student records? For homeschool families, it’s  $29.99 for a year. It’s more if you want to pay by check or handle a group larger than five. There is the opportunity to build homeschool groups with up to 30 for $49.99 which I think they would allow.

Student Gradebook

Here’s some more reasons that I’m excited about SpellingCity.com.  They are building lists of great interest for each state. The one about Alabama is the first one, I can’t wait until they get Florida done (they announced they’ll all be up by mid September).  Also, their lists of resources are fantastic:

Dolch Words - This collection of Dolch or Sight words is perennially useful. There is both background information and lists ready-to-use.
Compound Words – Kids love studying compound words. Teachers love teaching them. Does your school have a Compound Word Day? It should!
Sound Alike Words or Homophones – All students and many adults benefit from practice distinguishing the right spelling and usage of its and it’s; they’re, there, and their; and to, too, and two.
Word Confusion – This article reviews homophones, homonyms, homographs, and synonyms.  Need a quick reminder? Here it is

Contractions – You can build lists using words like: I’ll, we’ll, shouldn’t, and they’re. There are lists of what contractions SpellingCity.com supports.
Abbreviations - You can build lists using abbreviations such as titles (Mr. Dr, Mrs.), measurements (oz., pt, qt.), and geographic terms (Blvd., Pkwy., and Rd.)
Possessives - SpellingCity has added some sample possessive forms of nouns, both plural and singular, for spelling and grammar practice.  For example: aunt, aunts, aunt’s, aunts’, boy, boys, boy’s, boys’, lady, ladies, lady’s, ladies’, doctor, doctors, doctor’s, doctors’.  As background, SpellingCity has always included both the singular and plural forms of nouns and the the forms of verbs (ex play, playing, played).


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I just read about this which I think is cool.  To celebrate composition in all its forms, we [The National Council of Teachers of Writing] are inviting diverse participants –students, teachers, parents, grandparents, service and industrial workers, managers, business owners, legislators, retirees, and many more — to submit a piece of writing to the National Gallery of Writing.   

Basically, they’re trying to get everyone to contribute a piece of writing, organized in local Galleries, to a National Gallery. Backed by the Verizon foundation and many of  the national educational groups (see below), they’re thinking that such a project is one heck of a writing prompt for students and everyone else. Basically, what have you got to say and how well can you say it?  I notice that there has been no effort to include homeschoolers and that no homeschoolers have made any effort to get involved.  

 I see also that there is  a movement to create a National Writing Day on October 20th (ie a bill before Congress). 

Does anyone have thoughts on this? I’ll discuss it with the Time4Writing.com people (they’re one of the top writing schools online for homeschoolers) to see if they want to get involved in any way. They might use it as a writing prompt, they might think of building a whole course around, or they might think that it’s way too much distraction to devote any time to it. 

I notice that the National Gallery of Writing website has no graphics available for those of us that want to post about it.  They do have a twitter account which appears to be the only way to communicate with them.  Very novel. Original. OK, it’s weird. But they’re trying. (Actually, it’s a broadcast only twitter account).

How different can you make the summer? How long a “total” vacation is OK for an elementary or middle school student?  Can they feel like they’re having a total vacation but can you slip in enough education to keep them from backsliding?  You know that a two or three month summer vacation can result in serious back-sliding. 

Here’s my answer to this question:
1. A summer reading program. Fit it into everyday. Maybe for 30 minutes after lunch. Maybe after dinner.  Maybe it’s comic books or other light-reading. But thou shall read daily!  My daughter had a trip to Rome planned: I had her (high school) read Angels and Demons.  Ok, maybe it wasn’t the best choice, but it did give her some perspective on what she was about to see.
2. Explore ideas. Talk about history and social studies and math as you see its traces in your travels.
3. An alternative summer study program for 30 minutes per day. And I recommend Time4Learning.  Depending on your child’s needs, you can focus on math, language arts, or do both.  Take a look. 

And I’ll quote Time4Learning:

Your child works hard during the school year and needs a summer vacation in order to come back refreshed. The sensible part of you knows that it would be foolish to waste the summer months, since a long vacation without study can result in backsliding. The sensitive part of you feels guilty about asking your kids to do work while their friends are spending their vacation doing other things.

 Here’s a solution:

Have you noticed how much your child enjoys using the computer? If you haven’t, you should. Kids are constantly surfing the web. Whether they’re checking out a video game or chatting with their friends, they are (without a doubt) online. So, it makes sense to turn to the web for a fun alternative to summer school. Time4Learning’s online interactive curriculum provides a web based summer learning program that they won’t mind using. In fact, they might even like it!

Time4Learning’s Web Based Summer Learning Program might be your answer.