Like so many home educators, we are always trying new things. Sometimes, they are useless, like the cork strips that we tried for hanging up student art work. The shallow cork mostly served to make sure there were always thumbtacks underfoot. But, sometimes things work very well. I want to share our successes with you, so that you can try them in your own home school.
One of our biggest successes is a Daily Record Sheet that lets us keep good records of daily progress even while we use a loose and eclectic curriculum.
Our kids love word games and puzzles. We have developed some very cool puzzle worksheets that teach on four or five levels at once, without losing their entertainment value.
A computer ate our stereo. It was the best thing that ever happened to our children's musical education! Read all about our Kid Mix project.
Read some picks and pans from our overflowing bookshelves.
There are some fabulous resources for home schoolers available on the PC. There are some real dogs, too. Here's how some of the best and worst fared at our house.
We don't watch a lot of broadcast TV, but we do watch a good number of videos. Check out these reviews.
We are huge believers in educational games. Not only do they relieve the drudgery that plagues classroom instruction, they have a much higher retention rate. As long as the kids are learning, who cares if they think it's all in fun?
Four-year-olds sorting their own laundry? Yes! Check out these cool laundry hampers we found. I never would have believed it.
The World Wide Web contains a lot of trash. Cyber Patrol is expensive, but it's a pretty good content filter. We tell how it works in real life.
On the other hand, there are some really fabulous Web sites out there. BrainPop deserves special mention as the best of the best.
Educational toys, if they're done right, are a wonderful thing. But, most of what you see in the toy catalogs is junk. Here are our favorites.