Resources
-RESOURCES-
Various information and education resources
Information and Support for Home Schooling:
(The Home School Legal Defense Association)
This is an amazing national resource for all of the legal information and support for home schooling.
This is an amazing national resource for all of the legal information and support for home schooling.
(Rhode Island Guild of Home Teachers)
Another incredible resource for information and support regarding home schooling in RI.
Another incredible resource for information and support regarding home schooling in RI.
Curriculum:
At Ocean State HS, we create our own structure and use various curriculum, programs, and apps to assist in helping our children learn in their own styles, at their own pace. We may prefer one site's math, and one site's science, etc. The ability to choose, helps our children enjoy the journey because they are not forced into a structure that doesn't work for them. It was never our intention to "school at home". We wanted a very free-flowing atmosphere of student led studies which would evolve into a life long love of learning. Here are some of the curriculum and programs we have found useful in our journey, as some we are trying out for the first time in our 2023-2024 year.
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"A fully immersive virtual universe for those seeking knowledge and adventure. Gain access to hundreds of hours of educational activities teaching essential skills in math, language arts, science, social studies, and much more!"
Adventure Academy is at the younger age range. It finishes with grade 8 level. Since our student is currently beginning grade 8, and this is his first year home schooling alone, we wanted to include a little fun / video game atmosphere to some lessons. He is transitioning from a loose "unschooling" atmosphere into a more structured student led atmosphere.
This is a paid curriculum, but at $12.00/month with a free trial, it is very reasonable.
Geared towards students aged 8-13, I wish we had found it sooner!
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(I Excel)
"IXL is personalized learning. With a comprehensive K-12 curriculum, individualized guidance, and real-time analytics, IXL meets the unique needs of each learner."
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This one may be tough to beat. It's a paid program, but gosh..... what a great set up. It has everything. For $19.95/month, you get multiple core subjects, thousands of lessons, a personalized plan, games, quizzes, support... I am enjoying the free samples for now, but I may take the leap.
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"Discovery K12 is a direct to consumer education company. The company provides a free online homeschool platform and curriculum for pre-k to twelfth grade, and an upgraded Parent/Teacher Account for student reporting and tracking."
Discovery K12 is a free curriculum with a paid upgrade for the parent/teacher platform, which includes grade book, quiz/test scores, quiz/test answer keys, attendance tracking, reading log, scope & sequence of curriculum, assessment tests results, create transcripts, certificates of completion, diplomas, 24/7 email support, and more! At just $99.00/year, that's incredibly reasonable.
Programs:
Education . com
Their mission is to nurture each child’s passion, curiosity, optimism, and educational success.
This site is amazing. Countless worksheets on every subject for every grade level. Games. Lesson plans. Activities. Grades K-8
This site is amazing. Countless worksheets on every subject for every grade level. Games. Lesson plans. Activities. Grades K-8
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We have been using Khan Academy in our home school program for 8 years, and it has been a wonderful asset to help our children learn math. We are excited about using some of the other subjects offered as well in our 2023-2024 year.
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Duolingo is another program we have used since we began our home schooling journey. Our children have loved the interactive lessons and enjoy learning languages. As with any foreign language program, I feel it will not be practical in the long run unless they actually interact with people who speak the language they learn. I took French for 7 years throughout my public school years, and I cannot hold a conversation in French. It must be put to use. However, I do believe there is value in learning another language. It opens their minds to other cultural experiences, to what others go through to learn English, and to at least give them some knowledge of the languages which will stay with them in some small part. (My husband and I can hack just enough French to make plans without our toddlers understanding. LOL. That's a good enough reason right there. Note.... school aged children will decipher your code. 😉)
I, personally, and using Duolingo to learn French and German for a trip to Alsace, and Portuguese for future endeavors in Porto!
Just what it says it is! A great interactive site for learning civics. And it's free! Pretty awesome.
I, personally, and using Duolingo to learn French and German for a trip to Alsace, and Portuguese for future endeavors in Porto!
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i Civics
"iCivics, Inc. is a 501 non-profit organization in the United States that provides educational online games and lesson plans to promote civics education and encourage students to become active citizens. iCivics was founded in 2009 by retired Supreme Court of the United States Justice Sandra Day O'Connor."
"iCivics, Inc. is a 501 non-profit organization in the United States that provides educational online games and lesson plans to promote civics education and encourage students to become active citizens. iCivics was founded in 2009 by retired Supreme Court of the United States Justice Sandra Day O'Connor."
Just what it says it is! A great interactive site for learning civics. And it's free! Pretty awesome.
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World Wildlife Fund
"Connecting educators and parents with the tools and resources they need to help kids explore and understand the world around them. Together we can inspire the next generation to build a future where people and nature thrive!"
We are thrilled to include the Wild Classroom in our studies for 2023-2024. This is a great resource for learning about wildlife and our responsibility as stewards of this planet, its beautiful creatures, and their habitats.
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Vocabulary.com
There are various grade level vocabulary lists, games, etc.
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21 Draw
"21 Draw offers online courses and books on how to be a better artist for students of all skill levels.
Our contributing artists and instructors are the best in the world."
21 Draw is a great art workshop site teaching a large variety of styles and mediums, including traditional and digital. Some classes are a mix of both! When we joined, they were running a 75% off sale. ALL classes and content on the site for $59.00/year. I've paid more than that for one workshop. And this site had more of the kinds of illustration I've been looking for.
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Various Apps and Fun Stuff
If you click on the images, it will bring you to either a website or the app in the google store.
But most of these apps are also available in apple.
An online game for middle schoolers.
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Fun Brain
An online educational game platform.
So far, so good! The first game I played was a geography game and I was pretty impressed.
Stack The States is a family favorite that absolutely helps solidify the memory of the geography of the U.S.
Because Stack the States 1 was so efficient at helping students memorize geography and trivia about states, they had to make a "volume 2"! And our family enjoyed it just as much!
And then..... You guessed it.
Stack the Countries.
This one was great for helping our geographically challenged students have fun while learning where our global neighbors live!
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Math Doodles
Just to mix things up... this is an Apple app.
To the best of my knowledge android does not have a version.
That makes me want to cry. This has to be one of the best elementary math apps ever created. It is the only math app my kids actually wanted to play. And it had EVERYTHING. I was so sad when my ipad became obsolete and I no longer had access to this app. It's worth it to buy an Apple product just to have this and a few other unique apps only available there.
Fun Brain
An online educational game platform.
So far, so good! The first game I played was a geography game and I was pretty impressed.
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Because Stack the States 1 was so efficient at helping students memorize geography and trivia about states, they had to make a "volume 2"! And our family enjoyed it just as much!
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And then..... You guessed it.
Stack the Countries.
This one was great for helping our geographically challenged students have fun while learning where our global neighbors live!
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The Human Body
This was always a very fascinating and engaging app
Our kids learned a lot and had fun while doing so.
If I recall, they always enjoyed the digestive system most. 🙄😂
This was always a very fascinating and engaging app
Our kids learned a lot and had fun while doing so.
If I recall, they always enjoyed the digestive system most. 🙄😂
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Just to mix things up... this is an Apple app.
To the best of my knowledge android does not have a version.
That makes me want to cry. This has to be one of the best elementary math apps ever created. It is the only math app my kids actually wanted to play. And it had EVERYTHING. I was so sad when my ipad became obsolete and I no longer had access to this app. It's worth it to buy an Apple product just to have this and a few other unique apps only available there.
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Kids Doodle is a simple drawing app.
It's bright and fun.
It's a great app to have for those times when you're stuck waiting somewhere and there is no one to play with and nothing to do. The kids would play drawing games on it. There are a few creative options, and their work can even be saved as a video, which is really fun. They get to see their process played back.
It's bright and fun.
It's a great app to have for those times when you're stuck waiting somewhere and there is no one to play with and nothing to do. The kids would play drawing games on it. There are a few creative options, and their work can even be saved as a video, which is really fun. They get to see their process played back.
We also used this app to do math, spelling, etc. Because they can write with their fingers. While waiting for their older siblings to finish a martial arts class, they would sit and do math problems with me in between drawings. It was a very useful app for many years. I would probably still have it on my phone if I didn't need to make room to download demo team and work apps. LOL
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" A free photo editing and design tools with AI-power. Edit photos and create stunning designs right in your browser, on your phone or desktop."
Hands down, pixlr is our favorite photo editing/manipulation app. We use it mostly on our phones. You can edit photos from anywhere, and share amazing photos and art in minutes. We are also using it on our desktop to create digital manipulation on our hand drawn/painted artwork.
We find the online interface to have a more difficult learning curve. The phone app couldn't be more straight forward. But it's worth working with. While another app makes sizing more exact, pixlr just has more options for overlays and effects. It's a tough call, because while I would choose one for sizing images, I could never give up pixlr for the frames/borders alone. I've been using this app for a decade.
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PicMonkey
Create beautiful photos, logos, social media graphics, and facebook covers with PicMonkey's easy yet powerful photo editing and graphic design software.
Create beautiful photos, logos, social media graphics, and facebook covers with PicMonkey's easy yet powerful photo editing and graphic design software.
I've been using PicMonkey since before it was called PicMonkey! It has been my "go to" for photo editing, resizing, graphics... you name it. It's easy to use, and worth every penny of the premium subscription. Their phone app has never worked right on my android. And it doesn't have all the same features as the site. But when I'm working from home, PicMonkey is always my first stop for editing and creating graphics.
Yes, if I got into photography seriously, I would need to dive into learning photoshop. But I don't. I use these apps to manipulate my art and to edit family photos for social media, etc.
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YouTube Favorites:
"Tune in every Monday-Friday to watch us eat truly unbelievable things, explore surprising new products and trends, compete in original games with celebrity guests, implement serious experiments in hilarious ways, and more."
It's ridiculous. It's hysterical. It's educational (sometimes). And our kids love it. Ok. So do I.
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Will Tennyson
Fitness - Food - Lifestyle
_______________Fitness - Food - Lifestyle
My kids are into health and fitness. They follow some really serious fitness experts. And they follow Will. Now.... don't get me wrong. He's great. He is serious about fitness. But he's usually a goof about it. And he goes extreme with some of his challenges. This content is definitely not for younger viewers. Some adult humor for sure. But it keeps my kids laughing and learning how to take care of their bodies at the same time. And... he loves donuts. So...... "balance". 😂
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eking knowledge and adventure. Gain access to hundreds of hours of educational activities teaching essential skills in math, language arts, science, social studies, and much more!
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eking knowledge and adventure. Gain access to hundreds of hours of educational activities teaching essential skills in math, language arts, science, social studies, and much more!