Homeschooling with Technology

Our guest is Dr Kristin Moon from Kristin Moon Science . You can find her on Facebook too.

Dr. Moon teaches Chemistry for show sponsor FundaFunda Academy and Biology at True North Homeschool Academy.

Be sure to listen to our other interview with her where she talks about PHET Simulations.

3 virtual labs from their site that she mentions:

1. eMind Frog: virtual frog dissection lab (and 4 additional mini-labs).

You can use their demo page to get a feel for what it’s like to use the virtual lab.

It costs $5.99/family for a single license (giving you 12-month access)

2. eMind Animalcules and Other Cells: virtual microscopy lab

So many cool specimens to view using their virtual microscope.

Once again, you can use the demo and get some of the features:

3. eMind Fly: virtual genetics lab

This virtual lab makes genetics come alive as students virtually “breed” fruit flies. They predict the results using a Punnett Square, breed the flies, observe the progeny and note the outcome, and analyze their results.

Find the demo site here.

It costs $5.99/family for a single license (giving you 12-month access) but is a freebie that comes with any purchase.

Worth noting: You can buy access to ALL of the virtual labs eMind has to offer (including the frog, a cat, a fetal pig, invertebrates (including earthworm, squid, crayfish, and sea star), and fish ( including the lamprey, the dogfish, and the yellow perch) for $19.99 (for an individual license).

Additionally, if you are buying for a class or co-op, there are volume discounts.

There are many virtual labs your students can perform on this site, all related to chemistry. These are all free.

Examples of some of the labs:

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Here are 3 resources show sponsor FundaFunda Academy is offering that will help you!

30 days of educational activities for elementary school – 5 activities per day all laid out for you!

1. Exercise: find online videoas. YMCA has a number they are offering.

2. Documentaries / Educational programming: Consider a subscription to a streaming service. One Netflix show the whole family is likely to enjoy is “Churchill’s Secret Agents”.

3. Audiobooks / ebooks: In episode 67 Dr Monica Burns talked about Epic. Other options are digital library books through your library. Audible is offering free kids audio books currently. And you can listen to actors reading kids books on Storyline Online.

4. Podcasts

5. Gaming! For ideas listen to the episodes “Homeschool Moms can be Gamers” and “Learning History through Video Games”

6. Virtual Field Trips

7. Educational quizzes/games/apps: some examples

8. Hang out virtually: listen to the episode on Communication Tools for your Homeschool for ideas on how to do that

9. Buy things you can use offline – board games, puzzles, printable games.

Fundafunda Academy is offering a $3 coupon – use code CORONA – to use on ANYTHING in their store (items under Teaching Resources are cheap!). Expires 31 May 2020.

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In this episode, you will learn about some free resources to help you understand the coronavirus and teach your kids about it.

If you haven’t already listened to episode 58 How to Teach your Kids to Identify Fake News, I suggest you listen to it. In that episode, I share resources you can go through with. your children. Understanding fake news will help children figure out what the facts are and what is just hype and false information.

These are the online resources to teach about the coronavirus mentioned in this episode. Please note that often the data in the tables is a day old which that accounts for some discrepancies between the different sources.

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Here are the 5 communication tools mentioned in this episode. Listen to the episode to hear more about them.

All these are free or have a free version that is all you are likely to need.

Use the GroupMe app when you need to communicate with a group of people.

WhatsApp can be used to message and call people all over the world.

Marco Polo is an asynchronous video app that makes it easy to send and receive video messages.

Zoom is a video conferencing tool. The free version allows you up to 40 minutes at a time, and up to 100 people on a call!

Here is a video showing you how to use it

Slack is a messaging app where you can create channels for specific topics. It is a good tool to use when not everyone in the group wants to get all the messages all the time.

Thie show sponsor is FundaFunda Academy. The classes mentioned in this episode are

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Project-Based Learning is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

From pblworks.org

In the episode, I explain in more detail what PBL is, and I provide some examples. in addition to the examples I mention, you can find more ideas for projects here.

1. Online research that can include

2. Online presentation that can include

Be sure to listen to the whole episode for further explanation of how to do this with children of all ages.

Visit our sponsor FundaFunda Academy and check out their online classeses. Lots of options for all ages! Classes often include online games, interactive websites, videos and techie projects.

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In this episode, I talk about the following free tools to create slideshows. Listen to the episode for more detail about each of them.

Macs come with Keynote and many PCs will have Powerpoint on them when you buy them. These are both very powerful and have lots of features.

Google Slides allows people to collaborate and work on the same slideshow. It also allows one to leave comments.

Prezi has a unique look and feel and allows you to zoom in and our of different areas of your presentation.

This tool easily allows one to search for copyright-free photos online to add to the presentation

Emaze has a very cool modern look and it is very intuitive to use. You can also download the presentation to use offline or you can share the link.

Canva also allows you to link to your presentation or download it. It also offers the ability to make presenter notes

And visit our sponsor FundaFunda Academy and check out their online Computer Applications class for 7th – 12th graders. It covers most of these slideshow tools and many more tools your teen needs to learn how to use.

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Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

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In this episode, I talk to Jayda Justus, aka The History Mom about virtual field trips.

Jayda is a writer and blogger at The History Mom, where she reviews historical sites and

Show sponsor FundaFunda Academy incorporates virtual field trips into their online high school US History class as well as their history web-based unit studies for 4th – 8th grade.

Historic Homes:

Museums:

Presidential Sites/Libraries:

National Park Service:

International:

YouTube:

Apps: 

You can find more ideas in this guest blog post by Jayda on this guest post on TechSavvy Homeschool blog.

Be sure to join our Facebook group where we can talk about this together.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

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Host: Meryl van der Merwe

Welcome to Homeschooling with Technology! I’m Meryl van der Merwe, a graduated homeschool mom, tech enthusiast, and teacher at Fundafunda Academy. In this episode, we explore free online vocabulary games to supplement your homeschool curriculum.

Building a strong vocabulary helps students excel in reading, writing, public speaking, and standardized tests, like the ACT. While non-digital methods work well, today we’ll focus on four online tools that make vocabulary practice fun.

URL: spelling.com

URL: playknoword.com

URL: vocabulary.com

URL: freerice.com

If you use other vocabulary apps, share your recommendations in our Facebook group: Homeschooling with Technology Community. The link is available in the show notes.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the podcast on your preferred platform. Your feedback helps others find the show and keeps me motivated to bring new content each week.

Thanks for listening, and see you next time! Visit us at fundafundaacademy.com and homeschoolingwithtechnology.com.

Here are the free online vocabulary games mentioned in this episode. Listen to the episode to learn about each one.

Vocabulary Spelling City is for students up to middle school and includes games like Hangmouse, a version of Hangman.

Knoword is for teens and older and even the ‘easy’ level is challenging as you don’t get choices but must give the term with only the first letter as a hint. Stats and gamification make this fun.

Vocabulary.com is available as a website or an app (the app does have a small cost). Students can either just play on their own, or you can create a teacher account and assign specific packs of word.

Freerice is also available as a website or an app, and this app is free too. You can choose from 5 levels and you earn rice that is sent to countries where there is extreme hunger. You can also earn badges.

Show sponsor FundaFunda Academy incorporates some of these games in their Writing Mechanics online class.

Be sure to join our Facebook group where we can talk about this together.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

The post Free Online Vocabulary Games appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

These are the tools to create digital portfolios discussed in this episode.

Padlet is like a giant pinboard and makes it easy to pin graphics, videos, and text.

Google Slides allows one to scroll through slides to view students’ work.

Seesaw is an website designed specifically for digital portfolios. It is suitable for younger students as it has very tight privacy features.

Pathbrite offers similar options to seesaw but without the privacy features, so better for older students who might want to send the link as part of a scholarship application or when applying for a job.

Students could use free website building tools, or build a website from scratch to showcase their work. Here is an example of one my son created – Jason’s portfolio.

If your children don’t have the techie skills to create a digital portfolio, consider enrolling them in show sponsor FundaFunda Academy’s Computer Applications online class.

Be sure to join our Facebook group where we can talk about this together.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

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Don’t imagine gamers as teen boys who play first-person shooter games and one has to drag away from the computer. That’s a stereotype – homeschool moms can be gamers!

Merriam-Webster defines a gamer as ” a person who plays games especially : a person who regularly plays computer or video games”.

There are some many different types of games that there is really something for everyone!

2. Good for your brain – practice problem-solving

3. Stress reliever

4. Something you can do WITH your kids. Create shared experiences trying to beat a game. Let your children be the teacher and show you how to play. Discuss Video Games as an art form.

** FundaFunda Academy, our sponsor, has a Visual Literacy class and as part of that class students study video games!

5. Something to do with your husband

Games mentioned in this episode:

Be sure to join our Facebook group where we can talk about this together.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review!

Contact Meryl via email on [email protected] or connect with her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook

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