Hi i am wondering if other parents have found tried and true - (Free) extension websites for there primary aged children. I have a child 8 who is asking for work when they get home from school but I am having difficulty searching the web to find "worksheets" in maths, english or science, any help would be gratefully appreciated.
If you go to Sites For Teachers - www.sitesforteachers.com - you will find hundreds of websites packed with resources for primary school teachers (and above). For example - www.worksheets4teachers.com - has heaps of free, just-print-off worksheets to use. They're excellent for make-work, or supplementing a unit study.
I used them heaps when my dd was a toddler, although I find them a bit simplistic now that she is older - depending on the functioning mental age of your 8 year old, you may find more appropriate worksheets at upeer primary or intermediate level. Most of the sites are American, and their standard of education seems lower than ours.
May I give you a little advice though? This probably sounds presumptuous coming from the parent of a 4 year old - you've btdt much longer than I have. But have you thought about, instead of make-work worksheets and the like, encouraging your child to get interested in a topic and doing a unit study on it? They might find that route more creative, innovative, and stimulating, especially if they can choose any topic they like. For example, my dd has just finished detailling her obsession with dinosaurs (finally!) and we are now doing the solar system.
If you type "unit studies" into google, you will find websites that help you to understand the concept and create your own studies. Or you could simply do what my dd and I do - we create a book on the topic, with pages from loose leaf paper that we collect between two sheets of card and have professionally bound ($3.50). If she does crafts on the topic, we take photos and put them in the book too. Its fun and a great educational resource for younger children.
Thanks Nadine for this very useful information.I have been having the same problem with my son who has just turned 5 and started school. We too have been taking a topicat a time. Started off with the solarsystem and went on to the human body and are now back to the space. But we just used the library for books and CD roms. I think doing a unit study will more organised and give him something to work on continuosly.
He likes school, but looks at it as a place to play and socialise. The school has been very helpful in letting him work at his own level, but they too have their own limitations and constarints. So its upto us at home to keep him stimulated. I am sure your idae will help us a lot. Thanks again.
I much prefer library books to the internet, but that is probably just my dd's learning style. She can take a book to bed, she can't take the computer!
Also, I do have to say that you can organise and study a topic in much more DEPTH if you rely on books rather than websites. At no time have I ever found the internet superior to the library. It is good for things like worksheets to supplement reading, and for fun on-line games based on the topic, eg >www.kidsdomain.com/games/space.html< for the solar system. But nothing beats books!
By the way, I'd appreciate hearing about any good ideas that you may come up with about the solar system. I am not scientific, but my dd is, and I often struggle to think of fun scientific things for her to do.
I just wanted to say that the sites and ideas that have been listed have been very helpfull, any more Im sure will help myself and other families, it has been great to see my request develop into a feast of ideas and sharing.
I totally agree with u that no technology can replace books and the library. We too have been doing all our study and gathering of info from books. However, I have been using CD roms to supplement what books are not able to do. Especially with the solar system and Universe and also the human body the DK series CD roms ahve really been useful. Know he actually has seen how the planets move around the suns, the craters on the moon and also the volcanoes on mars. The list is endless. The same is the case ith the human body. The interactive activities are real fun. U can get these from the library.
Another activity u can do with ur daughter (i.e if u have'nt done it already) is a visit to the planetarium. Avoid the pre schoolers show, she may find it too elementary. We have also made models of the solar system using cardboard and simulated the day and night experiments with table lamp for the sun and a ball or the globe for the earth. I'll keep u updated as we design more experiments. I wish we were living closer, then we could have got the two together. It would be nice for him to have a child to discuss things with instead of having to do it only with adults. U live in Auckland, don't u.
Yes, I live in Auckland. I am planning to take dd to the - god, I can't remember its proper name. The planetarium will do! I'm hoping to drag along some other homeschoolers too, so if anyone sees this and wants to come along, email me :-)
Thanks for the info about the cd-roms, I shall look for them!
