Wacky Celestial Writing

Have fun writing something and then “galaxifying” it with My Galaxies. When you type a word, my galaxies replace the letters with the images of real galaxies that look like that letter’s formation. You can share your “words” with others, on social medias and even learn more about the galaxies used in your writing.

WWW–Dragon Breeder

Review: Dragon Breeder (BETA) is a game where players progress by using the principles of Mendelian Genetics. Breed target dragons, or determine the genotypes of the dragons in your den. Purchase special skills and upgrades, and work your way through a storyline mode that will take your knowledge of genetic principles to their limit. Because the game is written in HTML5, you will need the latest version of whichever browser you use. When I studied basic genetics in school, we did it in context of pea plants, but lets face it, dragons are a lot cooler than pea plants. And the colorful graphics and easy interface makes it hard to give up! You need to register though to use this resource but registration is free and easy. And once you have registered take some time and explore the wonderful Sponge Lab site further, there are tons of wonderful and innovative resources out there.

Suitable for ages: 10-15 (although my 7 year old is up to her eye ball in it now, so let the younger ones have a go with it as well!)

Disclaimer: I am not being paid by anyone for these reviews and mention on my blog. I only share the stuff I have used myself in our homeschooling journey and like it so want to share with everyone.

Engineer Guy

A fantastic site with 10 very detailed and interesting videos on engineering details of different stuff like why the cell phones look like they do, what is inside a LCD monitor and even the engineering behind pop tab on a soda can. Do give them a try! You can download the videos in MP4 format for easy ipod viewing. Every video has a “learn more” section where you can find links to further information and recommended books.

Smart Application–Move The Turtle

Details By Developer

Move The Turtle is an educational application for iPhone and iPad that teaches children the basics of creating computer programs, using intuitive graphic commands. a friendly Turtle will introduce your child step by step to the basic concepts of programming in a colourful graphic environment. By completing the tasks, one after another, your child learns:

• how to plan complex activities composed of simple elements
• how to reuse previously completed work
• how to use graphics, spatial orientation and sound in programming

Your child will also become familiar with the notions of loops, procedures, variables and conditional instructions.
Programming is about more than completing tasks, it is also about implementing your own ideas using your imagination. With this in mind we give you the opportunity to create your own programs from scratch or based on our inspiring examples.

Links for:
Iphone
Ipad

Price:
$ 2.99

(Currently unavailable in South Africa)

WWW–Make Me Genius

Review: Make Me Genius has tons of science  videos and ppts for elementary aged kids, on a wide range of topics.
Suitable for ages: 5-12

Free Kindle Book–Homeschooling In Your Garden

 

You can download a free kindle ebook from Amazon, “Homeschooling In Your Garden”. It has many fun ideas and projects to make gardening more fun and educational for you and your kids. If you do not have Kindle device, you can still use this resource. Simple download Kindle for PC and then download your free ebook to it.

Smart Application–Picle

 

Picle is a free app for iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch that works well for putting images and audio together to create digital stories or multimedia projects. Images can be imported from the camera roll. Or, pictures can be taken directly by the app with the iDevice’s built-in camera. Then by clicking a record-button you can attach audio narration or other desired sounds to the image. You can also record whatever sound is present when the picture is taken while taking a picture to capture. Each image, with attached audio, is known as a ‘picle’. Individual picles can be woven together into movies that tell a story. These movies can be uploaded and shared on Picle’s site. Or, movies can be saved to the camera roll and sent from there directly to Youtube, on your blog or emailed. Individual picles can also be shared on their own.

I particulary like to use this application in language learning and reading. Children can take pictures of different things and say a few words about them in the language they are learning. As a fun way to teach reading, they can take the picture of some text written in other languages and record themselves reading it. My children are also using it in making tajweed videos by taking pictures of different words and verses from the Quraan and explaining the tajweed rules in the voice recording. children can also take pictures of their art work and record themselves explaining it. This application presents many wonderful opportunities and since it is so easy to use, it can be used by even very young children.

Price
Free

Link for
iphone and ipad

www–EconEdLink

 

Review: EconEdLink is a site which has got tons of stuff to teach financial literacy for k – 12.  You can find lessons for economic as well as personal finances. There are more than 740 lessons available on all concepts related to finance, from credit cards to inflation. But I like their interactives even more than their lessons. (Most of the lessons use the interactives, by the way) The interactives contain videos and flash activities. You can use the interactives even if you are not using the lessons. Most of the stuff on this site is geared toward upper grades but there are some nice resources available for elementary grades as well. None of the interactives I have used till now have music which is a plus point.

Suitable for ages: 7-16

WWW–Planet Quest

 

Review: Planet Quest is another excellent site offered by NASA. Planet Quest is all about humans’ quest for exo planets or planets outside solar system. It has many neat interactives. Interactive Timeline is an excellent resource tracing the history of astronomy and space exploration from the Greek philosophers through today. This timeline has actually three elements combined into one: technology, discovery, and culture as they relate to astronomy and space exploration especially exo planet quets. Each element on the timeline is narrated. Users can select individual elements on the timeline or choose autoplay to hear the narration of each item in sequence. Alien Safari is a small interactive map that you can click on to discover the homes of the "most extreme" organisms on our planet. We can discover organisms that live at the coldest temperatures, hottest temperatures, deepest depths, and highest elevations. There is a short audio lesson about each of the organisms. The Interstellar Trip Planner is a simple interactive  in which students learn how long it would take to arrive at destination inside and outside of our solar system if they were travelling by plane, car, or rocket. Other interactives include 3D guide to galaxy, Extreme planet makeover etc. Don’t forget to have a look at New world atlas and the educators’ page to find other amazing stuff and resources. There is some music in the interactives so you may need to keep the sound off, or shuffle the on and off switches on your speakers quite frequently. Over all this site is an asset for students and educators alike like the other resources from NASA.

Suitable for ages: 10-18

WWW–Adventures of Splish and Splash

 

Review: Adventures of Splish and Splash is a collection of child friendly interactive games teaching children about safety at pool sides. There are three games, safety at home pool, safety at a public pool and one where the character splash learns how to swim. the aim of the website is not teaching how to swim though, but basic pool side safety and guides.

Suitable for ages: 3-7