I'd love to hear any of your thoughts on whatever online/video curriculum there might be out there. The only one I've heard of at this point is A Beka. I'm considering the possibility that an online or video based curriculum might be beneficial to my 8yo. He's so much more engaged when learning the couple of subjects we already do on the computer (French and Typing) than he is when doing any of our other subjects, that I think it's worth considering at least. But I don't even know what to start looking at!
That's what I offer at my online classroom, but only for science. 8 might be a little young to get the most out of it but you are free to give it a try with my Bees unit study. It is geared for the younger set. Homepage Free Bees Unit My son is repeating the final 15 units of my middle school physics course from last year because the interactive videos weren't ready when he was going through the course and I wanted him to brush up on the topics before we get started with the interactive chemistry. Already he's stopped the program like 6 times to ask me questions. It really gets him involved in his learning. We even spent an extra 20 minutes watching related YouTube videos, and normally he can't get finished with school fast enough - so this is a huge improvement from when he was simply reading and doing worksheets on the very same topics. When your son is older an online language would probably work for him too. We have been using Rosetta Stone for Japanese for 3 years now and even though he complains about it (every single day) he still gets a lot more engaged than he would in a non-interactive program. He was laughing at me today as I was trying to repeat a sentence about a horse and they kept telling me my accent was wrong. Another thing for older kids (sorry, I don't have little ones anymore) is the History Channel Multimedia Classroom DVD sets. We did China, India, and Japan. It's more for high school though, but very cool. I am constantly looking for computer based curriculum and the good thing is that people are coming up with more and more everyday!
Thanks so much, ColoradoMom, I'll definately check it out! We're already using Rosetta Stone for French (I have a strong French background) and he's really enjoying it. I'd be really interested if anyone has experience with Switched On Schoolhouse or Time4Learning, or both.
I recommend NOT using Rosetta Stone for a foreign language, edit: NEVER MIND. If it works for you, great. Anyway, for Math, try KhanAcademy 100% free and something for EVERYONE, from 1+, to advanced College topics and you can create an account and monitor his progress.
At the 3rd garde level we used SOS for Science and Language arts. Both my kids enjoyed it. In fact we still use SOS for some subjects. We also used math from SOS but would not suggest it. We found that there was not enough explaination and it was hard to imput the answers correctly. It simply is easier with paper and pencil. My kinder used Time4Learning for part of last year. It was OK but it wasn't as interactive as I had hoped. The phonics instruction was decent, but not enough review and my dd was getting adept at answering the questions but when given something to read seperate from the computer, she couldn't do it. She did phonics, science, math and social studies. Some lessons would read aloud to her and some would not, and that was a pain. Sometimes I wished I could let her be with a science lesson or something and go help another one of my kids but I couldn't. It wasn't that interactive.
My son has used Time4Learning for the 4th grade (he was 8-9) and this year for 5th grade (9-10) and loved it. 4th grade was our first year home-schooling. We found out he was a very visual learner, a little ADD and he did great with it. At those levels he was able to do it somewhat independantly and I was able to manage my 3yr old twins. It's pretty cheap and they give you a free trail so it wouldn't hurt to try it out. We still use it but we supplement now with a lot more. Ds needs that review and this is a mastery approach.
http://www.mathusee.com http://www.watchknow.org http://cosmeo.com http://brainpop.com http://www.neok12.com/ http://www.aleks.com/ http://www.bigiqkids.com/ http://www.superchargedscience.com/
My children have enjoyed Time4Learning. I have used it during the summers and during moves. I have closed it for now but the kids are asking for it again. I am using Math U See videos with all three and it's working great with my middle, a boy. The girls can go with or without videos. I started using this program over the summer and have enjoyed the progress my oldest has made. I finally found a fit for her. and hopefully the others.
Thanks so much for all the suggestions, everyone! I've been madly Googling all your ideas LOL A word of advice to any fellow Canadians who might think of using Switched On Schoolhouse... do not order directly from SOS (Alpha Omega Publications). I was price checking to buy 3 seperate grade 3 courses (math/science/language arts). They wanted $85/course and $75 shipping! For 3 DVDs, are you kidding me?! I found the same 3 courses at ChristianBookstore.com for $74/course and just $7.50 total shipping. I feel badly for anyone who doesn't research their options before buying from them directly!
