I am frequently asked why T4L.com does not teach typing. I think it’s a great question. I think we should. In the meantime, I’m collecting info on alternatives. Here are some great typing and keyboarding games for students. 

Games list:

Dance Mat Typing
The Typing of The Ghosts
Numpad Kenny’s
Cup Stacking
Typing Speed Test
Typing Monster
QWERTY Warriors
Typing Tidepool
Type Type Revolution
Arachnid Falls
 Typing Speed TestTyping Speed Test

Choosing the right learning tool for a child with special needs can be a daunting task. Every child has his or her own combination of gifts, skills, needs, and difficulties with learning, so each deserves a customized learning program suited to his or her needs.

Parents want learning software that their children will like. However, while there are many entertaining “educational” web sites and software learning programs, few qualify as real educational learning systems, much less as one robust enough to support the special educational requirements of children with special needs. Unlike “educational games,” a learning system provides appropriately sequenced lessons and reinforced learning in an educationally valid, engaging scope and sequence.

When evaluating learning software for special educational needs, you should make sure that it:

• Proceeds at the student’s own special needs pace
• Builds on existing reading, writing and math skills
• Allows placing the child at different levels for math and language arts
• Encourages kids to become active learners through exploration and discovery
• Introduces new learning opportunities in a safe, supportive environment
• Balances learning with fun!

Time4Learning offers a comprehensive, educational learning system that builds and reinforces reading, writing and math skills. It is used by children with special needs as well as by gifted and mainstream students. Using an interactive online environment, our educational learning system mixes educational lessons with learning games designed to engage and challenge your young learner. Many homeschoolers with special learning needs find that Time4Learning.com really helps.  If you’d like to discuss it with other parents, they host a section on the forum for discussions of homeschooling children with special needs.

I’ve often thought it must be difficult to be a non religious homeschooler in a small town in much of America. The problem would be that the homeschooling community tends to be very Christian and evangelical so those who are not of that mindset must find themselves pretty lonely.

I was pleased to see a vibrant secular homeschool group start up on the web. Way to go Topsy! (the lady who leads it).

Are you a secular homeschooler?

Then welcome home! We hope that this will be your home base for discovering articles about secular homeschooling, sharing blog posts about your experiences, finding like-minded friends, and discussing what is on your mind. Secularhomeschool.com aims to be your one-stop shop for all things homeschool! We will be highlighting information about wonderful secular homeschool resources, and keeping you up to date with what is going on in the world of secular homeschooling.

But that is only the beginning. Secularhomeschool.com is your playground. A place to share the things that are important to you. A place to create and join groups that share your interests. A place to give and get advice. There are no limits to what you can do at Secular Homeschool, so join today and help build the community you have always wanted.

Help for the Helper in Getting Writing Help!

Check out writing class selection chart and select the perfect class for your writer with confidence!

There are some words that you just have to memorize. I just read a nice summary about the sight words or dolch words.

he Dolch Word List is a list compiled by Edward William Dolch in 1936. The list contains 220 commonly used words that should be recognized by “sight” for fast or “fluent” reading. The compilation excludes nouns, which comprise a separate 95-word list. Many of the 220 Dolch words do not follow the basic phonics words so they cannot be “sounded out.” They should be learned by sight. Dolch words are now often referred to as “sight words.”

It has been rumored that Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) was challenged to write and illustrate a children’s primer using only the 220 Dolch words. The result was ‘The Cat in the Hat’.  Here are some lists:

PreK Dolch Words: a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you

Kindergarten Dolch Words: all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yes

1st Grade Dolch Words: after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, giving, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, live, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, stop, take, thank, them, then, think, walk, were, when

2nd Grade Dolch Words: always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don’t, fast, first, five, found, gave, goes, green, its, made, many, off, or, pull, read, right, sing, sit, sleep, tell, their, these, those, upon, us, use, very, wash, which, why, wish, work, would, write, your

3rd Grade Dolch Words: about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm

Dolch Nouns: apple, baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother, cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, Christmas, coat, corn, cow, day, dog, doll, door, duck, egg, eye, farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower, game, garden, girl, good-bye, grass, ground, hand, head, hill, home, horse, house, kitty, leg, letter, man, men, milk, money, morning, mother, name, nest, night, paper, party, picture, pig, rabbit, rain, ring, robin, Santa Claus, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window, wood

To study vocabulary, you can use your own lists on a service like SpellingCity.com or you can use an integrated service for language arts such as Time4Learning.com:

• Kindergarten vocabulary
• First Grade vocabulary skills
• Second Grade vocabulary skills
• Third Grade vocabulary skills
• Fourth Grade vocabulary skills
  
• Fifth Grade vocabulary skills
• Sixth Grade vocabulary skills
• Seventh Grade vocabulary
  
• Eighth Grade vocabulary

In building Time4Writing, we have found that we needed some help to communicate with the parents about writing. So we built a few different tools about communicating about teaching writing. I’ll share one of them here.

It’s about the type of writing mechanics and lessons that will get taught in the writing courses.

Example Paragraph from Time4Writing

Many parents find that teaching writing is difficult and it’s often a good idea to shift tactics and do some delegation. Time4Writing.com is a set of online writing courses taught by professional writing teachers. These teachers are specialists in their areas. The courses are eight weeks in length and reasonably priced. Time4Writing has been created by Time4Learning, whose integrated K-8 online home school curriculum is indepth and priced at a surprisingly affordable $19.95 per month. Many parents were initially skeptical about the quality of Time4Learning given the low price. Thousands have now learned that quality can be affordable. Time4Writing too has a surprising amount of substance packed into one eight week $99 course. If you have questions about Time4Writing, you can ask in our parent discussion group about Time4Writing or on your choice of parenting homeschool forums.

For many homeschool parents, teaching writing is a major source of frustration and friction  .  Many homeschooling  planned and dreamed about they would mold their children’s mind by teaching them in two big areas: a love of reading and of writing.  The reading will open their children’s minds to an endless supply of fiction and fantasy to learn about history, science, our world, religion, and whatever interests can be developed. In writing, they hope their children will learn to explore their own thoughts and creativity.

While I don’t have any statistics, I think the vast majority of homeschool parent frustration is in teaching their kids to write.  I have no cure-all for these issues. I created Time4Writing.com as a resource for homeschool parents who want some help teaching writing.  Teaching writing can be hard and it’s often a good place to call in for reinforcements. Time4Writing.com is a set of  online writing courses taught by professional writing teachers. These teachers are specialists in their areas.  The courses are eight weeks in length and reasonably priced. Time4Writing has been created by Time4Learning, whose  integrated K-8  online home school curriculum is indepth and priced at a surprisingly affordable $19.95 per month. Many parents were initially skeptical about the quality of Time4Learning given the low price.  Thousands have now learned that quality can be affordable. Time4Writing too has a surprising amount of substance packed into one eight week $99 course. If you have questions about Time4Writing, you can ask in our parent community about Time4Writing or on your choice of parenting homeschool forums.

Here is more information about Time4Writing.com:

If you have a blog and want to take it to the next level or are thinking of starting one, here’s the fun, social, and easy way to do it!

The  next Blogging 101 course runs for  8-week starting January 11. And I quote:

Blogging 101 is an instructor-led course that will guide you through all the basics of creating and establishing a new blog.  Subjects covered in the Blogging 101 curriculum include:

• What Makes A Good Blog
• Developing Your Blog Identity
• Creating Your Blog
• “About Me” Pages
• Getting Started Writing
• Building Quality Content
• Hooking Your Readers
• Blogging Etiquette and Safety
• Promoting Your Blog

With Blogging 101, you will even have a built-in audience for your first posts – - your fellow classmates!  You will have fun learning with them and from them, and getting honest feedback and comments on your blog content.  Plus, your instructor, experienced blogger and writer, Topsy Techie will hold your hand as you go step by step through the process of creating and starting your new blog.  The Blogging 101 course is more than just a class – - it is a community of people who want to see you succeed in the world of blogging.

This is going to be a terrific course, so register today and don’t miss out on your chance to start a New Blog for the New Year!!

The Blogging course is part of the Time4Writing Online Writing Courses which is related to  the Time4Learning online homeschool curriculum.  Have questions? Ask on the Time4Learning Parents forum.

There’s a lot of discussion about education reform to adapt to todays technology and todays learners.  I just read a book about education, Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen. It’s a mainstream book being widely read and quoted in influential circles. Personally, I find it a rehash of ideas that I’m already very familiar with but he seems to be respected as a visionary.  Which brings me to my point.

In his book, he discusses a number of “ground-breaking” points which have long been known, discussed, and implemented in the progressive sectiosn of the homeschool community. Examples:

• Children’s learning styles and different combinations of minds and interests should not swept aside as a detail: it should be the launching point for a quality education.
• Technology provides the world’s finest education over the net. Being limited to the physical teachers at a physical location is not a formula for success
• Technology-based education will incubate towards excellence as distance learning for homeschoolers,  rural schools that need it to offer AP courses, and other places where teachers are not readily available.

  Stay tuned for a full book report when I get through a few more chapters. John, founder of Time4Learning, web-based curriculum.

We have thousands of Time4Learning users, they often tell us what more they want. Most frequently, they comment that they would like help teaching writing. Not the automated grammar and vocabulary exercises that Time4Learning is based around, but more hands-on teacher feedback and guidance to struggling writers.  Hence, Time4Writing which we started in 2008.  By now, as we say, “Over 100 Served!”

One-On-One Writing Help for Kids

Time4Writing provides eight-week online writing courses that help elementary, middle and high school students build writing skills through one-on-one interaction with a certified teacher. Students study a new topic each week through automated online exercises, lessons, readings, and written assignments. A personal writing teacher reviews and provides feedback on each assignment, the day after it is submitted.

Would your young writers benefit from eight weeks of working one-on-one with a writing teacher?  Time4Writing offers a comprehensive online writing curriculum to homeschool students  who are looking to build basic writing skills and fundamentals in a one-on-one teaching environment.