Top 5 Readers Favorites
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It is always interesting to me to see what will be the readers favorites on my site. I have hundreds of blog posts on a variety of topics, but the readers favorites never seem to change.
These are the top 5 readers favorite homeschool blog posts on my site. I hope they give you fresh homeschool ideas!
Click through each post title to get all of the details!
Top 5 Readers Favorites
Teach Sight Words in Just 10 Minutes a Day
Have you ever noticed that many of the words we read are pretty common? Words like ‘the, and, on, etc.’ appear very frequently in just about everything we read. This is why sight words are also known as high-frequency words.
It is estimated that 80% of the words in a children’s book and 50% of words in an adult book are sight words! Memorizing sight words can quickly improve a child’s reading fluency and confidence.
This folder method helps kids memorize sight words in just 10 minutes a day.
All you need is:
- Folder
- Pocket envelopes
- Index cards
- Markers
How to Use Khan Academy as a Full Math Curriculum
Did you know that Khan Academy can be used as a full math curriculum? We used this free online option for years for my son.
This readers favorite post walks you through exactly how to set up a student account to use Khan Academy as a full math program. Once it is set up there is not much more for the parent to do.
The full math curriculum is available for grades pre-k through high school.
Each lesson teaches students how to work the math problem through a short video. Then students are given practice problems to solve. They can go back and watch the videos as often as necessary.
Khan Academy keeps retention levels high by requiring students to answer review questions. If they get a review question wrong, the program automatically adds that skill back into the lesson plan.
Ways to Use Khan Academy for Homeschool
Khan Academy offers a great free math curriculum, but they also offer quite a bit more! They are a fantastic free homeschool resource!
The Khan Academy website offers help in:
- Math
- Science
- Computing
- Reading
- Test Prep
- Arts and Humanities
- Economics
- Life Skills
There is something for every grade, but Khan Academy really shines in providing free educational resources for high school students. This is really helpful because high school level resources can get really expensive.
Check out all of the ways that Khan Academy can help your homeschool.
The Best Homeschool Spelling Curriculum
My family searched for quite a while before finally finding the best homeschool spelling curriculum for my family. This spelling program teaches ALL of the spelling rules (~30) so that there is no confusion.
The All About Spelling curriculum uses:
- Teacher’s guide that takes all of the planning out of teaching
- Hands-on magnetic spelling tiles
- Note cards (phonograms, sounds, keys, and words)
The lessons are intentionally short and you are encouraged to go at your own pace. We usually spent 20 minutes 4 times a week on spelling.
All About Spelling teaches using the Orton Gillingham approach. This technique was originally developed for kids with dyslexia, but in my experience, it works well for most kids.
How to Make an Animal Cell Cake
It seems like my kids learn through their stomachs because anytime I combine a lesson with food, they retain so much more information! We created an animal cell cake while we were studying the organelles and their functions. This activity was years ago, but they still remember the parts of an animal cell.
This hands-on activity is actually easier than it might look. We used:
- Variety of candies
- Cake – we baked it, but a store-bought cake would work too
- Science Encyclopedia
I think part of the reason this activity made such an educational impact on my kids was that they learned the material in a few ways:
- They read (and we discussed) the parts of a cell while using their science curriculum
- They really thought about the shapes of the organelles while choosing candies
- Decorating the cake added in a hands-on learning activity
- They were proud of their final product, so they explained everything to their dad when he came home from work
As a bonus, we had cake for dessert 😉.
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