Raine's Schooling and Some Amazing Sites

I cannot keep up with Raine and Cooper in school. It is really quite remarkable. When I began Grade 1 with them both in September, it was apparent to me that Raine was not ready. Yes, if I had wanted to drill her and go over things and spend hours with, yes, then she would have learned.

But over my 15 years homeschooling, I have learned this is *not* the way to do it. Not for me. I know my own weaknesses, and I know the best way all my children have operated. Now, remember, they are birth and bio, boys and girls, academically minded and not. So therefore, it stands to reason that this will work with most children.

I let Raine stop school and return to playing with her little brother and sister. Finally, in the beginning of November, I retested her with the alphabet and voila! It was there. Where it came from I have no idea. The last time I tested her with sounds and letters she got 50% wrong. This time she got 100% correct. This was my sign that she was ready to move on.

That day, I brought out the Explode the Code book 1 and the Spectrum Phonics Grade . That was the beginning of her Grade 1 year. It was hard work because there were so many foreign concepts - the way we say things are strange. They are not always literal. Anyhow, her pages were taking her about 15 minutes per. But she was moving forward, one page at a time.

Cooper has also completed the complete Grade 1 and 2 curriculums and is now on Spectrum Phonics Grade 3 and Explode the Code book 5!

Soon after, we began working with two other amazing sites: IXL Math and Spelling City We are now using these sites on a daily basis for all the children. I recently tested Cooper with the Canadian Basic Skills Test and he scored on a 94% and at a beginning Grade 3 math and phonics level. This comes from doing IXL as he only math curriculum, Spelling City, Explode the Code, and Spectrum Phonics.

Raine has skyrocketted! Since she began school at the beginning of November she has completed the complete Grade 1 phonics year. She is now nearly half-way through her Grade 2 books! Her math is also fantastic; she is only a few lessons behind Cooper. I am truly impressed with how far she has come in just 3.5 months. If I was ever to adopt again, I would certainly take a year or more off before I would introduce 'school book work'. Raine has more than caught up with her peers!

Another fantastic site that we use on a daily basis is Canadian Geography. In the short weeks that I have had all of my children use this site they have learned all of the provinces, the capital cities, and the spellings of the names! Raine has already learned all of the provinces and she did this as quickly as the older boys!

Another fabulous site is this World Geography site. My kids have learned so much about other countries and it is again in a game form. There is also geology at this site where they can learn about Rock Types.

I am really pleased with a number of sites I am using that my children are really learning from. There are the ones I mentioned above, but there are a few more. I have learned from my past mistakes, and there are things I want to do differently with the younger set. One of those things is I want them to learn to type and type proficiently! The following are two sites that we use on a daily basis. The younger ones use BBC Typing Dance Mat . Raine and Cooper are already doing fantastic with not looking at their fingers. You better be good at listening to an English accent though! LOL!!

The second site is also fantastic and my older children use it. It is called Free Typing Games. They are expected to spend 10 minutes practicing their typing and then they get to pick a game. So they spend about 15 minutes per day on typing. I am seeing huge progress overnight!

I have also discovered a wonderful Spelling Bee site! I love it! There is a Mini Bee and that is for younger kids of ages 5-11. Again, they have an English accent, so it is good to use the Word Help, which gives hints and sentences and origin. It is brilliant if you want a child to advance in spelling and have fun at the same time! I did the 12 years and up bee and some of the words are very challenging! But a lot of fun.

Another site we use daily is a Vocabulary Site. My favourite is the Vocabulary Quiz.

All the children have regular books to read and workbooks to work from, but I have found that having these sites has been so beneficial as a main part of our curriculum. What I love about all these programs are they are painless to me. I see my children learning rapidly, loving their lessons (truly), and I am able to balance so many more lessons absorbing into their heads because so many of these programs are computer moderated!

As far as how long they work on each site:

Spelling City: 15 minutes: This equals a new list for the week where they run through seven different games, plus one test from a previous week. If they do well then we might move on to a new list in the same week. You can create your own lists and the site will generate sentences to go with the words, or you can override this and create your own sentences! This program is a paid program and worth it.

IXL: 30 minutes: This site is marvellous because the repetition on any given lesson is huge. If a child gets a question wrong then the computer will automatically knock back their score and they will have that many more questions before they are able to get through the lesson. A child can stop in the middle of a lesson and resume tomorrow. Because the children are answering questions on a computer they are able to do many, many more questions in a 30 minute period than they would on a workbook! Also, the earliest levels have an audio machine that reads the questions to the child. This is a paid program and well worth it. I have seen the testing results of my children using it.

BBC Typing or Spelling Games: 15 minutes - free

Geography: 15 minutes - free

Vocabulary: 1 or 2 games - about 15 minutes - free

If you find these sites helpful, I would love to hear back. And if you find others that you feel must be part of an everyday lesson plan, please pass them on to me through the Comment section.
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