Ex Sedda – from the chair

Here is a great bridge design software for your homeschooler. We have used this application prior to our homeschooling experiment. All our kids have had a great time trying to design a working bridge and then optimize it.  It just may be the thing that awakens the engineer in your kid. Chronic Logic also has two other bridge design software applications but we have not tried those.

http://www.chroniclogic.com/index.htm?pontifex2.htm

Here is an excellent resource for learning Scratch from La Salle Schools and Universities:

http://learnscratch.org/

I’ve found this resource most useful:

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

Here is a worthy resource dealing with calligraphy and penmanship:

http://www.iampeth.com/lessons.php

For those who prefer italic over looped letters here is a excellent resource for learning italic handwriting:

http://briem.ismennt.is/4/4.1.1a/4.1.1.1.quick.htm

The Full-Text Collection contains 140 schoolbooks from the Nietz Old Textbook Collection.

via Nietz Full-Text Collection.

I’ve stumbled upon this great resource purely by a Google search accident. Much can be learned from these old books.

I’ve loved using Sketchup^W program from their first version, long before they were acquired by Google. I always thought this was the perfect tool to teach kids basic CAD skills as well as some basic geometric concepts. Earlier in this school year when we decided to homeschool Matteo I decided to incorporate Sketchup into our curriculum. Each Friday we have a Sketchup session and our son loves every minute of it. Google Sketchup is entirely free and it can be downloaded at http://sketchup.google.com . Fortunately there are also excellent books by Bonnie Roskes that can teach your child to love using Sketchup by drawing fantastic objects. There are three levels of instruction: basic, intermediate and advanced. Matteo is currently using the third book of the basic series. To find our more about Bonnie Roskes’s books visit http://www.3dvinci.net/ .

After some search for a decent resource for spelling we’ve settled on Spelling Workout from Modern Curriculum Press.  It uses a consistent method that does not seem to bore our son. Each lesson starts with an introductory text, followed by a list of twenty words,  and then by sensible exercises which effectively use those twenty words. Simple, but a very effective method.

After some searching for a decent science learning resource we’ve settled on Real Science-4-Kids series of books.  We’ve just finished Biology I and will soon start on Chemistry I.

http://www.gravitaspublications.com/

After our move from the on-line school to full blown homeschooling  I missed a sense of structure that the on-line school provided. While we settled on the Well Trained Mind as our foundation we lacked the  more  structured planning.  Homeschool Tracker Plus software fixed all of that.  I am sure I use just a fraction of its power but what I am using is most helpful. I’ve created a lesson plan schedule with individual lesson plans and the software creates assignment schedules and much more. I highly recommend this software.

http://www.homeschooltracker.com/