Favorite websites/resources?

[snipsnsnailsx5]

Hello!
A friend asked me about any websites or resources that I knew of to help her with afterschooling her 6 year old twins in math and writing.

Any tips or ideas for her?

My research extent is various curriculum. I have a lot of websites bookmarked but they are mostly blogs! LOL But I'm not sure about afterschooling help?

Thanks!

[fairytalemama]

I think you're the perfect wealth of information. I draw my afterschooling materials from all my homeschooling research over the years.

I would recommend Rightstart's math game book with the cards. If her kids enjoy playing games, it works great because it doesn't feel like more schoolwork. My daughter literally begs me to play their addition fact card game similar to Go Fish called Go to the Dump. The good thing about the book is she can choose a game that reinforces the math facts for any concept their struggling with.

When you say "writing practice", do you mean handwriting practice or composition? If it's composition, she could always pick up a copy of FLL or a WWE workbook and just do some here and there. Age 6 is still so young and they are already in school all day I would assume. I would try to keep any afterschooling to under a 1/2 hour to avoid burnout. If they need handwriting help, I would advise her to just make up her own copy work for them to model.

[freerange]

http://www.youtube.com/mathmammoth/

Www.khanacademy.org

For handwriting, there's a link on here somewhere for a great French website. If that's the sort of thing she wants rather than composition I'll find it later.

[Heigh Ho]

My BTDT tips for a child with no LD:

Figure out where the school is leaving gaps and fill.

Pick your own math curriculum for home and ignore the school as much as possible in the years you don't get an expert teacher. The school (unless she's in an unusual school where students are placed by instructional level) won't be able to get as much accomplished. Do math instruction before school, when children are fresh. Play games after school. Cultivate enthusiasm for solving puzzles.

Writing: try Spectrum Grade 1 Writing (available at bookstore) while figuring out how to teach writing and what the objectives are. This is quick and will fill in gaps and keep child at grade level. Honestly, we had no gaps at this level..the copywork was sufficient and so was the journaling. From Grade 3 until the honors program started we had to afterschool.

Handwriting: the instruction is probably adequate at school, but the practice may not be sufficient. If so, pick up a wkbk at a learning store..something like the Essential Learning Products series that will have short instructions at the top that she can read and provides adequate practice for the child. Continue no matter when school drops penmanship.

Add spelling instruction yearly if the school is just presenting lists or ignoring spelling altogether. Spelling Workout was good for us as it added in the LA skills and spelling rules that the district left out.

Use Highlights for Kids. (borrow from library)

Read Deconstructing Penguins and Liping Ma.

Keep up the nightly read aloud.

Pick up a used children's series like the Childcraft set we had as kids..ex. "The New Book of Knowledge" or "The Childcraft How & Why Library".

[MIch elle]

Brain pop is very good.