I feel like I'm drowning in lessons. They swarm about me. Four separate grades. I look at my upcoming schedule and haven't a clue on how I'm going to teach all of the day's lessons in just one single day! At this rate, my school year will be 365/year. sigh.
So I began to brainstorm. What can I do to alleviate all the lessons? I love teaching all the kids all the subjects myself, but realistically, I just can't.
So I began the search for helpful tools on the internet. And I found many FREE great sites!!
Here they are:
Quizlet - Free to join, but better options with subscription: I will use this one for Classical Roots Vocabulary for my 5th, 7th, and 8th graders. They have the workbook, which they will use, but they will practice and take the final test using this site.
Wordly Wise 3000 - FREE: (I could only get this site to link up to Book 2, Lesson 1. But you can navigate from there.) This one does basically the same thing as Quizlet, but it's geared toward Wordly Wise and you use Wordly Wises's premade study system. This will be for my 3rd grader.
Spelling City - Free to join, but better options with a $29.99/year subscription: I bit the bullet and paid for a year's subscription. :) It equals out to being about $0.62 per kid, per month (I have 4 kiddos) They will practice their spelling list daily on this site (I will teach the initial lesson and make them write out sentences daily still) and they'll take the final test on here. This alleviates me from having to take the time to administer 4 different spelling tests every week.
Book Adventure - FREE: This website allows you to have your kids take a quiz after reading their book to test their reading comprehension. They have thousands of titles and most books that you would use are on this site. If one isn't, you can read the book yourself and make your own quiz!
Mango Language - FREE: Through our local library, we have signed up for Mango Language to teach my 8th grader Spanish. This is not available in all areas. The link will take you to a page that will see if it is available in yours.
Teaching Textbooks - Not so Free: ;) Y'all already know my love for this program. It does have free placement tests and sample lessons. I love this program because the lesson is taught on the CD, the quizzes are on the CD, and it grades for you! You have the option to delete or change an answer if your kid accidentally hits the wrong key (I usually 'quiz' them on a similar question before I change to see if they really understand.) And I can use it for all my kids without buying a new workbook every year. So although the initial cost is a tad expensive, having 3 kids use the lower grades, it equals out to $40 per kid a school year. Not bad! :)
Multiplication - FREE: This site has free math drills and self correcting scores. I'm using this as a supplement to Teaching Textbooks.
APlusMath - FREE: This site has math related bingo games and flash cards. Another supplement I'll be using. :)
Good Reads - FREE: Is an excellent site to find books that are age appropriate for all your readers. I am making my own reading program this year, and between this and Book Adventure, this alleviates a lot of stress and work. :)
Jeopardy Rocks - FREE: This one is a little more tricky. It is absolutely free. BUT, you have to make the board right before you want to use it, and if you "x" out of your jeopardy board, you lose it. It doesn't save. But it is so very fun! I will be using it for Science, Grammar, Bible and Social Studies as a quiz of sorts.
And there is a trick to getting your game to open. But now I can't remember!!! I'll have to research it and edit this once I find out what it is. :)
** Edited 5/29/15: For Jeopardy Rocks, from the person who shared this resource with me, "After you type in your words and your title, refresh the page. It will begin the game."
I hope you find these resources helpful! I am so excited to be relieved from some of the busy work.
There are some subjects I'm not "delegating" out to the cyber world: History/Social Studies, Grammar, Bible, and Science.
I'm hoping that all of these sites will alleviate my stress during the school year, and help my kids so they don't have to listen to me drone on everyday, all day. :)
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