If you are homeschooling your children then you know how time consuming, frustrating and costly it can be to find good quality lesson plans and teaching resources. It is almost impossible for one individual to reinvent the wheel when it comes to developing an entire curriculum for multiple years and subjects. The Internet can be a free source of quality resources. The good news is that there are tons of resources available online. The bad news is that there are tons of resources available online. Who has time to go through them all?
You may be Homeschooling to keep your kids away from the overly permissive aspects of our culture. The Internet is certainly a major player in the dissemination of that culture. At the same time it is pointless to sit your kids down in front of a monitor for hour on end with no guidance. Yes there are bad aspects to the Internet but it can also be your salvation when it comes to educational resources. There is no point in throwing the baby out with the bath water when it comes to the Internet. It takes some searching and direction but having your kids online can expose them to some of the best educational resources available.
As a former professional educator I realized early on that it came down to the reality of time not intention. You decide which product is likely to be better - 1: one individual preparing 6 hours of instruction each day with a limited budget and resources. 2: a professional studio or university spending months or sometimes years and many thousands of dollars developing a lesson on a single topic. As talented as many parents and teachers are they are handicapped from the start and it is no contest. That is why the best educators today consider themselves "guides" to information and not the "source" of all knowledge. Why not plug into the best the world has to offer and use what has already been developed?
Here are a few tips to help you sort through the vast resources available online.
Take the source into consideration. Not all Internet information is created equal and some is pure junk. The URL is important. Anyone can buy a .com URL. .edu URLs are reserved for authority sites and those produced by respected institutes. Skim through your Google search results for the .edu addresses and you can often pick the best sites right off the bat.
One of the best things about computers is the visual capability. Not only does it hold kids interest but many of us are visual learners and will get much more out of a short video than a long section of text. Google allows you to do a search for videos and/or images. After typing in your search term, instead of clicking "search" click on the link for "video" or "image" and your results will be limited to those categories.
The search term is also important. If you add "virtual tour", "tour", or "virtual" to your term you will get some incredible results. For instance doing a search for "solar system virtual tour" will lead you to invaluable sites. Another option is to add "lesson plan" to the term and you will get some great ideas.
Refining your search techniques and getting over the stigma of sitting the kids in front of the "electronic babysitter" can open your kids up to an entire new world of understanding. The Internet is no substitute for personal attention and instruction but it can be an extremely effective arrow in the quiver of an instructor.
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