Technology in our Homeschool

Life is changing- we live in such a technology centered world now.  There are some amazing benefits to having this kind of technology at our fingertips.  I can learn about anything I want by searching the web.  It helps immensely with our schooling- because there are SO MANY things I still don't know.  We often use the internet just for reasearching topics that we are interested in or to answer the many questions my kids have. We use technology regularly in our schooling- but I also greatly limit the amount that we use.  It really think it is important to keep a healthy balance of screen time vs. real life hands-on activities.

I want to share with you some of the technological resources we have used/are using in our home to enhance our schooling.

Apps:  If you have an i-phone, i-pad, i-anything... apps are becoming so useful in schooling.  I have posted several time about educational apps that we have been enjoying. But there are SO many incredible ones available!

A couple of past posts about apps:
Apps for Learning
App Love
Free App Friday

Learning websites:  There seem to be more and more websites for teaching kids these days.  We have been able to try out many of them through the review crew that I am a part of.  I think that online learning can be a wonderful way to reinforce things that you are teaching your kids.  I love giving my kids a chance to learn with games.  There are also many online curriculums that homeschoolers use.

Here are links to reviews of several educational websites that I have done on my blog:
Pilgrim Story
KinderBach
Zoo Whiz
Speekee Spanish
Reading Kingdom
Spelling City
Jump Start

Others I love to use:
Starfall
Reading Teacher
Reading Eggs
Classics For Kids

Movies:  Movies and video clips can be an incredible way to help teach a topic.  We often use Magic School Bus & Planet Earth movies in our science learning. We also really like the Animated Hero Classics by Nest Learning for history. You Tube has a whole educational site where all of the videos are focused on learning.  You still have to be careful, but there are some amazing resources there.


Music:  We have so many songs for learning that the kids adore.  We found some very inexpensive used ipods for the kids & loaded music on there for them.  We have the Singin' Smart Cd's.  These are so wonderful!  Also the music by Brite Music has been great for learning in our home. We listen to classical music a lot, too.