Although students definitely need to know how to do a written book report or research paper, there are other ways to see what your child has learned. And there are benefits to mixing it up. 3 major benefits:

Show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy often uses ideas like these in their online classes and web-based unit studies. Check them out!

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

Homeschool moms are busy! Bright Ideas Press gets that. And that’s why, for over 25 years, we have promised to publish Christian-oriented homeschool curriculum that will fit your family—curriculum that is both affordable and easy-to-use with children of different ages and learning styles at the same time. Curriculum that busy Moms love!

Offering history, science, geography, and humanities curriculum and over 100 options of online classes and clubs for homeschool families, the team at Bright Ideas Press creates products and resources that will not only help simplify your life, but also inspire, encourage, and equip you to educate your children.

Find out more here!

The post Techie Alternatives to Written Reports appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

The free tools mentioned in this episode are:

Find free icons to use in your graphics projects at The Noun Project.

Show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy, teaches students to use many of these tools in their online Computer Applications class.

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

Homeschool moms are busy! Bright Ideas Press gets that. And that’s why, for over 25 years, we have promised to publish Christian-oriented homeschool curriculum that will fit your family—curriculum that is both affordable and easy-to-use with children of different ages and learning styles at the same time. Curriculum that busy Moms love!

Offering history, science, geography, and humanities curriculum and over 100 options of online classes and clubs for homeschool families, the team at Bright Ideas Press creates products and resources that will not only help simplify your life, but also inspire, encourage, and equip you to educate your children.

Find out more here!

The post Free Graphic Creation Tools appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

The free tools mentioned in this episode are:

Show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy, teaches students to use many of these tools in their online Computer Applications class. Some of the teachers also use video creation in their assignments (as you can see from the examples above).

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 Christian Standard Bible captures the Bible’s original meaning without compromising clarity. An optimal blend of accuracy and readability, this translation helps readers make a deeper connection with God’s Word and inspires lifelong discipleship. The CSB is for everyone—for readers young and old, new and seasoned. It’s a Bible pastors can preach from and a Bible you can share with your neighbor hearing God’s Word for the very first time.

Find out more here!

The post Free Video Creation Tools appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Modern technology makes it far easier to homeschooling when you travel than it was for me when we traveled around the world about 11 years ago with our 4 children.

Chromebooks – take a flash drive for storing documents.

If you have younger students, you can take a break from your regular curriculum. Travel is a fantastic education – but you can use devices to learn about the places you are visiting.

You can also use devices for learning while you are on flights, in the airport etc.

Educational apps – vocabulary.com, is great to build vocabulary for all ages. Also look for other word games.

For teens, online classes can provide an easy way to homeschool anywhere. However, if you choose live online classes, make sure it will work to miss the live sessions. Some classes do offer video recordings students can watch if they miss class.

Self-paced, or online classes that don’t have a live component – like our sponsor FundaFunda Academy’s are a better option as they offer more flexible pacing while you are traveling.

Web-based unit studies are great to use with upper elementary and middle schoolers as everything is self-contained online.

And no need to worry about not having a printer for worksheets – just complete them online. Many newer computers already offer the ability to complete pdfs online, but if yours doesn’t then use Type on Pdf which if a free online option.

Most airports have free wifi now

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 How tech can help you homeschool when you travel appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

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 Tech skills teens need before they graduate appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

In today’s episode we will explore some of the fun resources on the website Classtools.

Our sponsor, FundaFunda Academy enjoys using the free Classtools resources in many of their online classes and web-based unit studies.

Fakebook – create a “fake” book page complete with cover image, profile pic and posts for a literary or historical character.

SMS generator – imagine a text conversation between 2 literary or historical characters.

Badgemaker – design a badge to celebrate a historical character.

Breaking News and Headline Generator – supply headlines and descriptions for news events in the past.

Turbo Timeline – produce a timeline that you can drive through.

Play your Dates Right – put historical events into chronological order.

Dustbin – create up to 4 categories with items that must be dragged to the correct one.

Arcade Games – There are 70 ready-made games and you can add your own. Use the questions in one of 5 games: PacMan, Manic Miner Asteroids, Pong or Wordshoot.

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 Classtools – Online Educational Fun appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Our sponsor, FundaFunda Academy offers online high school world geography classes as well as web-based unit studies for 4th – 8th grade on North America, South America, and Poland. In addition, they sell inexpensive Geography printable games.

Here are the 6 free online geography games mentioned in this episode:

1. Seterra

2. Lizardpoint

3. Sporcle

4. Smartypins

5. GeoGuessr

6. Fanschool

These games are good for upper elementary through high school – and for adults too!

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 Geography Games appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

* Use Scholarship Search Engines

Other scholarship search engines: Peterson’s, Fastweb, Cappex, Collegeboard, Scholarships.com

* Scholly App

* Local school websites

* Google search – “scholarship” + major / hobby / achievement etc

* Facebook – follow people like Monica Matthews

* put all scholarships and requirements and deadlines on Google sheets and share with your child

* Use Google sheets to track volunteer hours, workshops attended etc so you have all the info at hand

—> Check out our sponsor, FundaFunda Academy‘s summer challenge for high schoolers. Part of the challenge helps students figure out what they need to do to win scholarships, and where to find them. And students can win money in the challenge to put towards their college tuition!

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 Finding, tracking and winning scholarships appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

—> Check out our sponsor, FundaFunda Academy‘s classes and web-based unit studies for Spring 2019.

They are similar to Escape Rooms – just all online!

They teach critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork. And they add an element of fun to the material you are studying.

* Breakout Edu

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 Digital Breakouts appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

—> Check out our sponsor, FundaFunda Academy’s web-based unit studies and online high school classes. They all utilize technology to enhance the lessons and also include techie projects.

These games allow your kids to be on their devices – but still participating in family games.

Use Alexa or any smart speaker and ask her to play a certain genre of music or music from a time period. The whole family tries to guess the song title – and perhaps the artist too. Whoever gets it first scores a point. Use Shazam to verify the answer is correct, or to find out what the song is if no one knows.

Sporcle has thousands of quizzes on every topic imaginable. The quizzes also have different styles so you can play for a long time without getting bored. Although these are designed to play alone, we turn it into a family game.

We take it in turns to select a quiz and then text everyone else the link and yell “Go”. Everyone tries to complete the quiz as fast as possible and when time runs out we see who did the best.

Kahoot is used in co-ops and schools as it is a fun way to do review. But you can also use it for family fun. One adult needs to sign up at Kahoot.com. Then find a ready-created quiz on a topic your family will enjoy. There are plenty of Christmas-themed ones. Once you select it and start it, everyone will be able to join the game using an access code that will be displayed on your laptop. If you can project it on a TV it makes it a bit easier for everyone to see.

Multiple choice questions appear one at a time and everyone answers on their own devices (phones, laptops etc all work). The faster you answer the more points you get. A leaderboard keeps track of how everyone is doing.

Quizizz is very similar to Kahoot. Try out both and see which your family prefers.

Heads-up is a phone app available on iTunes and Google Play. The basic version is free but you pay if you add more packs or want to create your own.

Basically you divide into teams and then one person puts the phone on their forehead. A word/phrase appears and the rest of the team have to describe it to the person. Once they get it correct – or give up – they flip the phone to get a new word and you see how many a team can get correct in the time given.

Do read the review on Common Sense Media before playing as the app does encourage social sharing of videos of players and you probably won’t want your kids doing that!! But if the app is on your phone and you are controlling play, you can have a lot of fun together!

Phrase Party is also a phone app that you can find on iTunes or the Google Play store. The lite version is free. This game plays like “Catchphrase”. You pass the phone around and each person has to describe the word/phrase they are given. Once someone gets it correct, they pass it to the next person. The person who ends up with the phone when the timer ends, is the loser!

All these games are great because everyone plays together and there are free versions of all of them.

If you enjoyed these ideas, 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 Techie Family Fun appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.