Surfin' HSA

I've been surfing a bit and checking out some pretty terrific online resources. For homeschoolers, the internet is like the Holy Grail of information sources. There are free or cheap websites of information and games, Youtube with it's endless information and opinion, and every other thing you can imagine.


http://www.edhelper.com/  :  about twenty bucks a year.
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/  :  free
Youtube:  free
http://us.educationcity.com/  :  29.95 per year per child
http://www.educationworld.com/  :  Free
http://www.funbrain.com/  :  Free
http://www.studentsfriend.com/index.html  :  Free
http://www.kidsknowit.com/  :  Free
http://www.brainpop.com/  :  $195 per year for a homeschool family
http://www.khanacademy.org/  :  Free
http://www.ted.com/talks  :  Free
http://www.watchknowlearn.org/  :  Free


The internet for supplementing your homeschool materials:  PRICELESS.

 Here are a few reviews for those of you who don't have the time to check them out yourself.

If readers are interested, I could review more websites from the perspective of a secular homeschooler.

Edhelper:

I have had a subscription to this site several times over these ten years of homeschooling.  
One time my dad bought me a subscription after, apparently, he did some surfing for educational sites for homeschoolers.  He just surprised me with it!
You know, I had almost forgotten about that.  That was a very loving and lovely thing to do!
Anyway, the site is geared mostly for  early childhood and early elementary.  The list of materials contains links for K-HS work, but the materials get pretty thin after about third grade.

Pros 

• All of the major subjects contain supplemental materials.  
• Special theme units offer both fun and educational pages for holidays, cultural events, and other special themes. (A few of those themes are:  Black History Month, Spring, Chinese New Year, Earth Day)
• If your child enjoys worksheets and word finds and crossword puzzles, Edhelper.com offers these in abundance.
• Parents can create their own vocabulary sheets and other sheets. These personalized pages make it easy to create worksheets for your special themes or units of study
•  
• It contains a "Special Education" section 
• Good clip art 
• Many downloadable activities, clip art, maps, flags, etc
• Available in German, Italian, Spanish, and French
• Lots of printable graphs and charts
• Includes test prep
• the site upgrades and improves available projects

Cons

• Sparse activities in many of the categories above middle school
• Repetitive types of activity in vocabulary
• Website is not child-friendly in that it is not engaging or interactive

National Geographic Kids

Pros 

•  New and constantly being updated information and features
• Hundreds of links to follow
• Easy-to-navigate
• Dynamic-looking, engaging website for kids to explore
• Interactive
• Amazing pictures and text
• Videos and MANY other types of activities
• Completely secular

Cons

•  I couldn't get off of it!  LOL

 YouTube

I have come across some truly fun or GREAT video series on Youtube. Here are a few of them. Please share others that you run across!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Yocja_N5s1I#!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbVdlIc5DPE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=218xrCCjZNc&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL0F9D6331E42A5778
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJGrwWOWt3Q&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/user/scishow?feature=watch

That's about all I have time for today.

Do you have a favorite website?
Please share!