Good morning, how are you? I wanted to share our Homeschool Resources: MathFlix, Energy Hog, Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)- and Revolutionary War Virtual Battlefield Tours- Age Range. Would you take a look at the websites and let me know if you’ve used these resources?
The videos archived at the site allow students to engage in math challenges “without the distraction and pressure of classmates but with the benefit of parental involvement at home.”
MathFLIX is a great resource to utilize for math instruction and remediation.
- Fridge Frenzy – Upgrade to Energy Star refrigerators by finding the old fridges with matching contents. But hurry! Leaving refrigerator doors open too long wastes energy.
- Bulb Hunter – Make your way through a dark maze, converting all of the bulbs to energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs before time runs out.
- Whack a Hog – Whack 20 energy hogs in the shower before they waste all the hot water. (Aim carefully; these hogs can be mighty elusive!)
- Wacky Windows – Caulk all the windows before the energy hog gets in! Hint: Aim for the window corners and remember to reload your caulk gun frequently. It’s helpful to have the speakers on for this game, although not necessary.
- Attic Attack – Get up there and roll out the insulation, whacking the energy hogs before they can get you! Attic Attack is another beat-the-clock game, and it’s the final game of the five needed for your certificate.
NOTE: The bonus game link and the “Hog and Seek” link did not work for us during our review of the site.
And there’s more:
- Download the .pdf Scavenger Hunt – with an adult, answer ten of the twelve questions found here, and see what can be done to make your own home more energy efficient.
- Check out the .pdf Energy Hog Busting Handbook for pointers to share with your parents!
- Click “Who is Hog” to get the low-down on several energy hogs you wouldn’t want to meet in your home.
- Starting the Writing Process – Tips for instructors and students on beginning writing.
- Developing an Outline – and the suggestions for improving useful outlines.
- Paragraphs – Learn to create logical and coherent sections.
- Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing – Compares and contrasts the three terms and includes a short excerpt to practice these skills.
- Creating a Thesis Statement – Includes examples of different types of thesis statements.
- Writing a Research Paper – How to write research papers including choosing topics and finding sources.
- Writing About Fiction – Covers pre-writing, thesis development, drafting, and common pitfalls to avoid.
- Sentence Variety – Tips for varying structure, a discussion of sentence types, and specific parts of speech which can aid in sentence variety.
- Punctuation – Learn when and how to use various marks of punctuation.
- Proofreading Your Writing – Finding and fixing common errors.
There are many more topics to choose from, and you can use the menu to explore the rest of the site designed to help improve the writing process.
MUST SEE! Don’t miss the Exercises Page that provides free activity pages for learning:
- Grammar – Adjectives, adverbs, nouns, prepositions, and tense.
- Punctuation – Basics, apostrophes, quotation marks, and commas.
- Spelling – A few spelling rules and joint difficulties.
- Sentence Structure – Clauses, fragments, verb agreement, etc.
- Sentence Style – Eliminating wordiness.
- The Ben Franklin Story
- The Life of George Washington
- Declaring Independence
- Paul Revere, Messenger of the Revolution
- The Shot Heard Around the World
- The Treason of Benedict Arnold
- The Real Face of George Washington
- Molly Pitcher, An American Heroine
All of the films provide students with a better understanding of the people, places, and events of this era. While you can watch the movie at the website, you can also download them for a small fee. But that’s not all!
When you are through watching the films, explore the menu. You will find primary source documents, biographies of notable women in early American history, maps, the music of the era, milestone events recounted through primary source documents. Along with famous obituaries, biographies of prominent first Americans, and an excellent gallery of portraits of early Americans including John Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and much more.
This terrific site gets a ClickSchooling Award for combining modern technology with historical documents to create a multi-media website resource that will enhance the study of Early American History for students of all ages.
- Quebec – January 1, 1776
- Charleston – June 28, 1776
- Bennington – August 16, 1777
- Cooch’s Bridge – September 3, 1777
- Brandywine – September 11, 1777
- Battle of the Clouds – September 16, 1777
- The Paoli “Massacre” – September 21, 1777
- Forts Clinton and Montgomery – October 6, 1777
- Saratoga – September 19 to October 7, 1777
- Whitemarsh – December 4 – 8, 1777
- Valley Forge Winter Quarters – 1777-78
- Barren Hill – May 20, 1778
- Charleston – May 12, 1780
- Camden – August 16, 1780
- King’s Mountain – October 7, 1780
- Cowpens – January 17, 1781
- Guilford Courthouse – March 15, 1781
- Ninety-Six – May 22 to June 18, 1781
- Yorktown – August 20 to October 17, 1781
After making a selection, visitors will either be taken directly to the battlefield page that provides information about the location, and the battle and images of the battlefield or visitors will see multiple links to different views of the battlefield. Occasionally there will be editorial information about the battle from the creator.
Add these virtual tours to your studies of the Revolutionary War to help provide a visual context of the battles for your students.
