preschool
Beti Bwt's Wash Day | National Museum Wales
A fun and detailed video showing how women did the laundry in Wales before there were washing machines. Includes a song in Welsh about Beti Bwt's washing misadventures (pronounced Betty Boat). The site also has an online quiz reviewing the information taught in the video.
#15 Telling the parents of preschoolers they don't need to do anything with their child.
Today's "thing" was suggested by a friend of mine. Many longtime homeschoolers believe that formal learning is unnecessary for preschoolers, and there's no need to worry about hitting specific milestones. However, if you live in a place where most preschoolers attend preschool, it can be lonely and dull to just stay at home, and being told to do nothing when you ask for ideas is frustrating and can feel like a brush-off. An added challenge is that most homeschool groups focus on the needs of school-aged kids, leaving families with only preschoolers without much support or
WatchKnow.com: Videos for kids to learn from
Watchknow.com is a site that allows you to search for educational videos by age range and keywords. The videos are submitted, tagged and rated by users, the videos themselves are from other sites across the web. I would be tempted to prescreen any unranked videos before sharing them with young kids.
Scholastic Lesson Plans: a searchable, free collection of plans and projects
Looking for ideas to support a new interest, or a whole unit study? There's lots to choose from here! There are hands-on science projects, multimedia-supported lessons, book club ideas... Most are designed for classroom use, but all the lessons I've looked at are very well-suited to homeschooling.
There is the most available for elementary students, but pre-k through 12th grade are represented. Interesting to just browse if you're feeling uninspired.
Children's Poetry Archive
The children's section of the Poetry Archive section, this site features wonderful poems either written for children, or appealing to children. Most include a recording of the poem recited by the poet, and are serchable by keyword, author and form. Also includes biographies of the poets.
A fun site to browse with your kids, and a great way for non-readers to get to experience poetry.
Creativity Resources from the Denver Art Museum
Lesson plans for Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary levels. Each focuses on a particular piece of art, and includes a full page photo of the art piece in question, allowing you to do the lesson at home. There is also a database of the museum's art work, searchable by country/culture of origin, medium, period and continent of origin.
Reading Eggs
A subscription-based sight which guides your child through fun reading lessons, only letting them advance to a new level when they've mastered the earlier concepts.. Primarily takes a "whole language" approach to teaching reading, but includes some phonics instruction too. The site is based in Australia, and uses Australian English rather than US English, but it's barely noticeable.
GameGoo
Language arts games, beginning with letter recognition, and covering more advanced concepts like poetry, synonyms & antonyms, and spelling.
Between the Lions
Games, stories, and video and audio clips from the PBS tv show that teach phonics and other skills for the beginning reader.
