Twenty-Six Lists - Educational Apps and Website to Check Out - #twentysixlists

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Homeschool Coffee Break helps fuel this blog.

Welcome to Twenty Six Lists! I hope you'll join me in using some fun List prompts for writing. Every other week I'll share a writing prompt and invite you to link up your list, and wherever the prompt takes you. You may want to simply make a list of five or ten items that answer the prompt, or you may elaborate on the items in your list, or even write an entire article. Be creative, and have fun!

"There's an app for that!" And that's probably true! We turn to the internet and apps for our devices for just about everything nowadays - or at least we could if we wanted to. The convenience and portability of having an app for many tasks is very appealing, but personally I try to avoid being completely reliant on my phone for everything. 

I was thinking that with so many new homeschoolers - and so many doing virtual learning - it sure would be nice to list some great educational apps and websites, but since I don't have school age kids using those right now, I feel like my list would probably be out of date. I'm going to focus on some of the websites that have impressed me, and I hope you'll add some of your favorites in the comments or link-up.

List #17 - Best Apps or Websites

• This isn't an educational website per se, but it's such a valuable resource for homeschoolers that I have to start with it. The Homeschool Review Crew blog is the hub for finding lots of real reviews on all kinds of curriculum and resources - including online resources and educational apps - for homeschooling. I was one of the reviewers for many seasons and constantly refer homeschoolers to the blog to consult the reviews of products. Why? Because the Crew bloggers actually use the products in their homeschools before they write reviews; and they are a diverse group with different styles and approaches to homeschooling that you can find honest real-world reviews and information. 
• Not particularly skilled in a particular subject area? Curriculum websites are so helpful to fill in those gaps! I had a student that enjoyed art, but I sure wasn't qualified to teach it. Online art instruction to the rescue. Favorites of ours were: Creating A Masterpiece and ArtAchieve. Studio music lessons are ideal, but getting to and from class can be a challenge. And the cost can really add up! There are some creative music lessons available online, like Guitar 360 Method. Latin - many homeschoolers want their kids to learn Latin, but we didn't study it ourselves. Latin is also really valuable for vocabulary building for high schoolers. There are many curriculum options, but we had a lot of fun with Picta Dicta from Roman Roads. It's an app that makes learning Latin vocabulary like a game and we enjoyed it.
• I cannot begin to name all the websites offering online instruction, video classes of all kinds, full curriculum, and more. But as this is a list of my favorites, I'm going to drop names of a couple of math resources that I think are worth checking out. CTCMath is a website with video tutorials that can be used as a full curriculum or a supplement. UnLock Math is another comprehensive math curriculum website. VideoText was a lifesaver for high school algebra!
• We love the DriveThru History video series with Dave Stotts, so it was no surprise that we also loved and highly recommend the DriveThru History Adventures website too, with the videos and lots of additional content!
• When it comes to homeschool record-keeping, I cannot recommend Homeschool Tracker enough! I considered it absolutely essential from the time my oldest got to high school, and all the way through until I graduated my youngest. The best cloud-based record-keeping site, in my opinion.
• I am so glad for Google Classrooms, which has made it so much easier for me to keep in touch with my co-op students (especially during the lockdown!), track their grades and give them feedback on assignments, and give them updates when they miss a class or need help during the week.  
• Most bang-for-your-buck education website has got to be SchoolhouseTeachers.com. We used it as a supplement for various subjects every year, and a couple of years used course material as a main curriculum. And that was before it grew to the over 400 courses it offers now! It's such a great deal because it's one price for access to everything, all grades, all subjects, for your entire family. They also have a huge video library and lots of parent resources, including record-keeping.

Read our reviews of the websites I mentioned: Creating A Masterpiece and Creating A Masterpiece ~ Drawing Lessons; Draw the World with ArtAchieve; Guitar 360 Method; CTCMath; UnLock Pre-Algebra; VideoText Interactive: Algebra; Drive Thru History Adventures; Building Latin Vocabulary with Picta Dicta; and Homeschool Tracker Online.

What's on your list? Link up or tell me in the comments!

Please use the hashtag #twentysixlists if you post on Instagram!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Grab the button: <a href="https://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMQtS2u2J4Fri5EXj15xD5zfcc7-Sx1eDU-2IoWlCgl9V8eai9udfeAwJ3YRN1kj3QnbA32y8im3IzipzAHyBPnuCbMbtlfVOYrCMkwtsbogsYnmqM8s4lJlkCfJ0tFOvlngLEmsw5etL2/w140-h140-p/twenty+six+lists.jpg"</a>

Bonus List - Upcoming in Twenty Six Lists so you can think ahead!

September 3 - The Jobs You've Had

September 17 - Simple Pleasures

October 1 - Fall Activities

October 15 - States and Provinces You've Visited

Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to Homeschool Coffee Break by Email! 

 ©2006-2020 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

From the High School Lesson Book - A Resource Collection for Math

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Homeschool Coffee Break helps fuel this blog.  

Tackling high school level math at home can be a challenge! Most of us have forgotten a lot of this stuff if we're not actively using it in our workplace, so we're a little nervous about whether we're of much help to our teens. As in other subjects, it's really important to find a curriculum that is a good fit for your student's learning style, and that suits your ability to assist and grade. 

********************

No-Nonsense Algebra from Math Essentials was a favorite in our homeschool! It's a combination of short, self-contained book lessons and concise online video tutorials. The book gives examples of problems with step-by-step solutions, and provides practice problems and review in each lesson. Chapter tests and a final exam are also included to help evaluate a student's success. The first chapter is a refresher of basic math principles and algebra tools to make sure students are ready for the more complex algebra problems in the rest of the book. From that point on, the lessons are usually two pages long. The concept is taught and summarized, and there are more practice problems for the student to complete. Students who tend to catch on quickly or who are using the course as a review or test prep may need just the text, but my students preferred the online video instruction. The videos are simple and uncluttered, and relatively short - ten minutes or a bit more - but they offer clear examples and explanation. There's no background classroom noise or music, and nothing on the screen to distract. Each chapter is followed by a Review test, with a Final Review at the very end. 

Read our review here: No-Nonsense Algebra from Math Essentials (and our first review HERE)

See an update here: No-Nonsense Algebra (Blogging Through the Alphabet)

The company offers other math courses as well, so if you've been trying to help your kids keep up with their math classes and having trouble remembering some of the skills or terminology, the Math Refresher for Adults might be for you. It's designed for parents who need to help their kids with math, for adults returning to college, for students preparing for the GED or SAT/PSAT, and for anyone who needs to improve or brush up on math skills. You can check out our review of the Math Refresher for more info.

********************

A more rigorous algebra course that my son did very well with was Algebra: A Complete Course from VideoText Interactive. Something that makes this algebra course different is that it is indeed a complete algebra course, not separated into Pre-Algebra, Algebra I and Algebra II as many of us are used to seeing. In a nutshell, the idea is to teach the concepts analytically, using a mastery approach rather than spiral teaching. The material is presented in a logical progression, and the student doesn't just memorize formulas, but learns how and why the concepts work. Completion of this course covers Pre-Algebra, Algebra I and Algebra II. The student views the videotext lesson on the website (the course can also be purchased on DVD) which takes about 10 minutes or less. There are course notes and lesson practice to print for each lesson. This course is comprehensive and taught expertly. The teaching is done for you, but you will still need to check lesson practice and tests. This course is good for students that can work well independently.

Read our review here: VideoText Interactive - Algebra

********************

CTCMath is a an online math tutoring curriculum with over 1300 animated and narrated math lessons ranging from Kindergarten to high school level math. Each of the video lessons are concise teaching videos by Australian teacher Pat Murray, and are accompanied by interactive questions for practice, quizzes, and diagnostic tests. With an online tutor, a student can replay a lesson video as often as needed to understand all the information without embarrassment; and the lesson material is always available. Each tutorial video is between 4 and 9 minutes long, and engages visual and audio learners. A summary of the tutorial can be printed as well. After watching the lesson, the student can practice the concepts using the interactive questions online or the optional printed worksheet. The interactive questions are graded automatically, which gives the student instant feedback on how they are doing, and the correct solutions are shown on the screen so they can see exactly how to do the problems they may have missed.  CTCMath also builds individual progress reports for each student, which makes it easy to see results and areas that may need more work. We used and reviewed this as a supplement for algebra, but the program is expanded and has much more available for high school level math now.

Read our review here: CTCMath - A Schoolhouse Crew Review

********************

A couple of brief mentions:

Life of Fred was our choice for middle grades for my daughter, and she continued in it when she started high school. It teaches in a story format, and there isn't as much in the way of practice problems as many folks prefer. Believe it or not, though, it covers even advanced algebra. If your student "hates" math or really struggles with it, but likes a good story, this might be one to consider. 

My oldest two boys used Saxon for most of their high school math. Saxon used to be very popular among homeschoolers, but I think with more choices available, it's less dominant now. It teaches using a spiral approach, and is definitely thorough. We found it rather repetitious and dry, and since there are so many problems, I usually had my students do only about half the review problems. This kept it from being too time consuming. 

My second son took Geometry and between the two of us we struggled through it until we reviewed a web-based math instruction program at ALEKS. This was an easy to use online program that was self-grading and did a great job filling in the gaps. It's been a number of years since we used it and I'm sure it's changed since then, but I do recommend visiting the website and checking it out.

Read our review here: TOS Review - ALEKS

We reviewed the Pre-Algebra course from UnLock Math one year and found it to be very helpful. At the time, they were still developing Algebra I,  but it's now available along with Algebra II, Geometry, and Calculus. These are creative video presentations along with practice problems. Again, it's been a few years since we used and reviewed the program, but it's worth checking out.

Read our review here: UnLock PreAlgebra.

********************

And yes, SchoolhouseTeachers.com has got you covered for High School Math as well! There are courses for Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Pre-Calculus, and Trigonometry. There are some shorter courses that are very helpful and related to high school math, such as Economics. We used Money 101: Seminars in Personal Finances for Consumer Math during my daughter's senior year. Consumer Math or Personal Finance is a course I require my students to take before graduating, and this course covered topics such as Savings and Debt, Budgeting, Investing, and Paying for College. Also very valuable - the SAT-ACT Math Prep class!

For math and every other subject, SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a lifeline for homeschooling! Use promo code: SHARK to take advantage of the BOGO discounted rate of $179 for two full years and receive a free tote and print back issue as well!

As always, I'd be delighted to answer further questions about these resources, or any questions you may have about homeschooling. 

 

Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to Homeschool Coffee Break by Email! 

 ©2006-2020 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Suddenly Homeschooling - Pro Tips - Resources for You!

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Homeschool Coffee Break helps fuel this blog. 

Now that school at home is the reality for the rest of this school year, many are settled in and doing their best to get things done. A lot of school districts and teachers are doing a great job getting guidance and instruction delivered online, but it's still a challenge! Even for those that were already homeschooling, there are new challenges when libraries aren't open and co-ops aren't meeting.  Whether you're doing school at home just until your school reopens or you've jumped in for another reason, it's a major adjustment. Whatever your situation, you may need some additional resources or ideas for learning at home. Here are some resources we've used or reviewed that you may find helpful!

SchoolhouseTeachers.com

This is probably the most versatile and comprehensive web resource available for home educating. Whether you need a full curriculum or just some supplements, SchoolhouseTeachers.com has you covered, and for a very reasonable price. With more than 460 courses for all age and grade levels, record-keeping resources, and so much more, chances are very good that you will find what you need there! One membership includes access for the entire family so you won't need to buy one for your high schooler, another for your middle schooler, and yet another for your grade schooler. Additional resources in the Just For Parents section, Focused Learning Centers, High School Help, and Help with Special Needs sections are valuable as well. Pricing plans are available starting at $10 (US dollars)

Where to start? Some suggestions:

What to Do for a Month at Home: Elementary

What to Do for a Month at Home: Middle and High School

Learning Online

There is so much available online, and that is the quickest way to get access to resources right now, when time is of the essence. Many homeschool curriculum providers have extensive online offerings, and I can't begin to name them all. Look through the list of my reviews of homeschool products and you'll see many web resources included: My Reviews page. A couple of highlights to get you started:

Creating A Masterpiece ~ Drawing Lessons ~ - This art curriculum website has been one of our favorites. This review was the drawing lessons, which I consider a very reasonable price point, but we've also used the other art lessons here and enjoyed them. Visit Creating A Masterpiece and check out the free Sample Project. 

**********

 The Drive Thru HistoryⓇ series are some of our favorite educational DVDs. But there's also an online version - Drive Thru History Adventures is a website that brings together the best of the popular Drive Thru History videos with additional curriculum and resources. - it's an entire Homeschool Video Curriculum that covers History and Bible topics. See our review of Drive Thru History Adventures for more info.  They are also offering some extra lessons and material for free in their "Coronavirus Editions".




Drive Thru HistoryⓇ is a fast-paced video series in which host Dave Stotts takes driving trips through the places where major historical events took place. His commentary provides facts and interesting background information about the geography, history, and significance. There's witty asides and humorous observations throughout, and he also tells you about the vehicles he's driving. Dave likes to try out local foods, so every now and again he'll tell you about a great local specialty. History is presented in story form, along with the places and artifacts connected to it. Dave is enjoying every minute of the road trip and he keeps viewers entertained and engaged.

**********
Other Resources

Math Essentials was a game-changer in our homeschool. The No-Nonsense Algebra course was straight-forward, and truly no-nonsense, presenting the needed lessons in a clear and concise way. There are online video lessons to go along with the book, and it can be used as a curriculum or as a study or review supplement. 



They have a lot of other math courses as well, and if you've been trying to help your kids keep up with their math classes and having trouble remembering some of the skills or terminology, the Math Refresher for Adults might be for you. It's designed for parents who need to help their kids with math, for adults returning to college, for students preparing for the GED or SAT/PSAT, and for anyone who needs to improve or brush up on math skills. You can check out our review of the Math Refresher for more info.



**********

The Critical Thinking Co.™ is the publisher of over 200 award-winning educational books, e-Books, and apps. They've been helping students of all ages improve their academic results since 1958, with help in reading, writing, math, science, history, and test prep. Critical thinking is built into all their lessons to encourage students to analyze carefully, think deeply, and build understanding. They have a long list of products for all age and grade levels - something for everyone. The most recent product we reviewed was Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT/SAT Book 1. You can read that review here: Becoming a Vocabulary Virtuoso with Critical Thinking. 

Need resources? Have questions? We've used and reviewed lots of materials over the years, so ask away! 

If you have specific questions, I would love to help! Leave a comment or message me using my Facebook page. 

 Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to Homeschool Coffee Break by Email!

 ©2006-2020 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

From the High School Lesson Book - A Year-End Summary for 2018-2019

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Homeschool Coffee Break helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! 

Goodness, I submitted final grades, got her high school transcript, and we celebrated Kennady's graduation a month ago, but I never did summarize the school year here! I think it's only fair that I do it, since it's a bit of a tradition for me.

Grammar and Composition

We used Writing Fiction [in High School]: Bringing Your Stories to Life! from Writing with Sharon Watson in a co-op class for Kennady's composition credit. The class was a lot of fun, and as the instructor, I really enjoyed the students' stories. The students wrote a lot of scenes and short stories, and often we learned about elements of fiction by reading or discussing novels, particularly the required reading for the class, The Last Book In The Universe. We also watched movies and movie clips to see fiction elements in action. Writing is one of Kennady's strengths so she rocked this class that was almost like a bonus English credit. I've written about this course here and there throughout the year, but haven't written a full review of it - but I will plan on doing that sometime soon!

      

Math

Kennady needed one more math credit before graduating, and I require my kids to do a Consumer Math course during high school, so we cobbled together a couple of things. I found a media-based half credit course called Money 101: Seminars in Personal Finances at SchoolhouseTeachers.com and started with that. I picked up an older Bob Jones Consumer Math text secondhand and assigned some chapters from that. We originally planned for her to do this course in second semester, but changed our timeline a bit when she decided to do an extra half-credit course at co-op. Her course load was very full at that point, and she also did a Dave Ramsey personal finance small group at church, so I allowed her to put this at the bottom of the priority list, and focus on it when co-op ended. When she got back to it, I also said that she could skip (or just quickly skim) anything in the textbook that had been covered in the small group. So most of this course is complete, but she is still finishing up the rest of it over the summer.



(SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a hundreds of courses for all ages and grade levels, and has an incredible list of educational resources. There are a couple days left to take advantage of the June Firefly Special and get your first month for just five bucks. Use the coupon code FIREFLY at the checkout.)

History, Bible, and Literature

Kennady also completed American History at the co-op. We used Exploring America from Notgrass so she earned a full History and full Bible credit, and a half credit in American Literature. Kennady struggled a little in first semester with writing tests. She knew the material but couldn't always recall the details or come up with them when under a bit of pressure. This was a good opportunity to work on some study skills! During second semester I did a lot of the unit quizzes as a class review activity, often turning them into a game show format. We had a lot of fun with those, especially when we played Who Wants to Be a History Major? 

Electives - Co-ops and Classes

French II - Kennady completed this at the co-op and did very well. I was kind of hoping that she would want to visit Quebec for the Summer of Kennady and test drive her conversational French, but that was not to be.




Introduction to Business and Entrepreneurship - True confession: the main reason Kennady wanted to take this co-op class in second semester was because she enjoyed her instructor and classmates so much! It was the same group from the Speech and Presentation class, and taught by the same instructor. They read The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth (Signet Classics) and used that as the basis for some of the lessons. The instructor gave a lecture on business principles each week.

 

Children's Chorus -  It was Kennady's final year in this upper level chorus. It's an excellent program that provides outstanding music education in choral singing, so a full Fine Arts credit.

Guitar - Kennady continued playing on worship teams and writing and performing some of her own material. For part of the year she also worked on the Guitar 360 Method, which is a 13-week self-paced course. She didn't complete the course, but when she had time it made a great alternative to guitar lessons during this very busy year. Guitar 360 is internet video-based, so she could work at her own pace, whenever it worked in her schedule. 

You can read our full review here: Guitar 360 Method - A Homeschool Coffee Break Review



Piano Tuning and Technology - This was her technology credit, and involved a lot of on the job training, sort of a preview to apprenticeship. Kennady works part time at the music shop where her guitar teacher is a piano technician, and they were training her to work on pianos - repairs and rebuilds of the action and insides of pianos. She really enjoyed it, even though she decided she did not have time to pursue the full time apprenticeship while also being a full time student in college.

Final credit count for the school year = 7.5
Previous credits earned = 23.5

Graduating with a total of 31 credits (23 required to graduate) and a 3.9 GPA.

This post is part of the July 2019 Homeschool Collection on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

 Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to Homeschool Coffee Break by Email!

 ©2006-2019 Homeschool Coffee Break. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://kympossibleblog.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.