Awesome Online Language Arts Curriculum for Kids
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Are you looking for help teaching language arts to your elementary-age kids? An online language arts curriculum might be a great option!
There are a few benefits to using an online language arts curriculum:
- Can start right away – You don’t need to wait for materials to ship to start using an online curriculum.
- Parental support – Homeschooling doesn’t mean that you have to teach everything yourself.
- Break up the day by changing the type of instruction.
- You don’t need to leave the house.
There are two main ways to use an online language arts curriculum.
It can serve as the primary form of language arts instruction. This is perfect for a homeschool family.
It can also be used as a supplement for extra practice, help, and review. This is a great option for families who use traditional schools.
Awesome Online Language Arts Curriculum for Kids
This post was sponsored by Night Zookeeper. I was compensated for my time, but all opinions and thoughts are my own.
There are a few things to look for in an online language arts curriculum for kids:
- Safety
- Engaging activities
- Feedback from tutors
- Covers a variety of language arts skills
- Parental report
- Value
Safety
Safety is an incredibly important part of any online curriculum. The internet is not always safe for children, but Night Zookeeper has thought of everything to keep kids safe.
Kids are assigned a username when they are signed up. I think it was really smart to not allow kids to choose their own usernames. Children might be tempted to accidentally give away personal information within a username by including their real name, nickname, location, age, birthday, etc.
Night Zookeeper tutors scan all writing projects that are submitted to make sure the site is free of any inappropriate language or bullying.
One more way that Night Zookeeper keeps kids safe is by not allowing photos of people to be uploaded. Instead, kids have two options for creating their gravatar:
- Use the drawing tools to draw a persona – creativity is encouraged!
- Upload a picture of their favorite artwork
These might seem like small things, but they really go a long way towards keeping kids safe online.
Engaging Activities
There is no need for language arts lessons to be boring! Kids learn best when they are actually engaged and interested in the lesson.
While playing Night Zookeeper, kids fill their personal night zoo with animals they create using the art tools. Those animals become the subjects of writing projects that are geared towards their specific grade level. Taking the time to create and draw a new animal gets kids warmed up and excited about the activity. Then they spend some time writing all about their newest addition to their zoo.
Night Zookeeper also teaches writing, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling through fun games and challenges.
Imagine practicing language arts skills by playing:
- Sea Lion’s Sentences
- Waterfall Word Jumble
- Volcano Word Hop
- Will’s Quiz Quest
Games keep kids engaged in a way that worksheets just can’t.
Feedback from tutors
Feedback from tutors who are actually reading the writing projects is crucial if kids want to improve their writing skills. Kids need to know what they did well and how they can improve.
Night Zookeeper has a team of tutors who read every writing project. They leave positive and encouraging comments as well as tips and suggestions. Here is an example of the type of feedback offered, “This was great to read from beginning to end! Here’s some advice: Please check your spelling here: camoflauge. Writing challenge: Can you write a story about a group of people or things? For example: A stack of pancakes.”
Feedback from tutors means that parents don’t need to read every single writing project submitted (although you could if you wanted to).
Covers a variety of language arts skills
Language arts is a broad term that generally encompasses writing, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and reading. Night Zookeeper covers most of those areas. It is a little light on reading, but that can be easily remedied by reading and discussing age-appropriate books.
It is very handy having most of the language arts instruction in one place. These skills all work together to create great writing, so it makes sense to teach them together.
Parental report
A good online language arts curriculum will have an easily accessible way for parents to stay informed.
Night Zookeeper has a parent dashboard where you can check on your child’s progress.
In the parent dashboard you will find:
- Completed curriculum challenges
- Skills practiced and the accuracy scores
- Writing projects with tutor feedback (parents can add writing feedback here too)
- Drawings
- Reading records
This information lets you make sure your kids are staying on track, but it also acts as a way of recordkeeping, if that is a homeschool requirement for your state.
Value
While cost is not the most important factor in choosing an online language arts curriculum, it is something to consider. Night Zookeeper offers several payment plans.
- Monthly – $12.99 a month
- Quarterly – $33.99 a quarter
- Annual – $118.99 a year
To make it even more affordable, Night Zookeeper is offering you 50% off the annual price! Just click this link and the discount will be automatically applied.
One of the things I think about when deciding whether to purchase a new curriculum or educational supplement is how much time it will save me. If an online curriculum can keep a child engaged and learning without any parental involvement, then that parent is free to teach another child, tackle a chore, work, or even just sit down with a hot cup of coffee.
We already know that Night Zookeeper’s game-based lessons keep kids interested in learning and that it doesn’t require much time from parents. Let’s think about its value from an hourly rate perspective. If you ask your child to work on Night Zookeeper for 3 hours a week for 36 weeks a year (the average legnth of a school year) that is 108 hours. If you divide that by the special discounted annual price that comes out to about 55 cents an hour! 55 cents an hour is unheard of for any sort of tutoring or teaching. That is a tremendous value!
If you know a family who would benefit from an online language arts curriculum, share this post with them!
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