Pandemic Homeschooling Resources

I made an off-the-cuff remark about homeschooling prep in the last newsletter and a number of you asked for my plans and resources. I considered a picture of an iPad here. My kids are currently on “spring break” so I have another week to figure it out.

However, I will make here three resource recommendations based on approaches I’ve used to supplement in the past.

Teaching reading

Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. A good starting point for a kid who is ready to read, and structured well for people who are not actual teachers.

Teaching math

Eureka. A complete math curriculum online; used by many school systems. I use these lessons to supplement with my older even outside of the epidemic and I’m a huge fan of the thoughtful word problems among other things. The only issue is that I often read them wrong when I’m “grading” so sometimes Penelope has to write me notes saying “Actually, I got this right. Read more carefully, Mom.”

Teaching coding

I mean, okay, this is more optional. Still, Kodable is great. And for an older kid (say, middle school), I’ve played around with Grasshopper and it seems like a nice mix of actual skills and game-ification.