More cool things about Spelling City!

As I mentioned in the past, we LOVE Spelling City! It works for us! We love the way it tests my boys, we love the games you can play with your spelling words, we love the fact we can print out our spelling words for HANDWRITING practice and it goes on and on! I mean I am killing 2 birds with 1 stone here.....and they are learning with both of them to boot! Out of their games, one of my boys favorites is "Which Word" sentences or fill in the blank as we call them! Here is the brief description that Spelling City gives you about it: "WhichWord? Sentences is a great activity to practice using context clues to identify spelling and vocabulary words. WhichWord? Sentences may be played as an online context clues game or printable grammar worksheets may be generated from this free online game." And see, I learned something NEW just by printing that. I never knew it could be printed out! WOW! Ok, Spelling City....you are getting even COOLER in my book! And I didn’t think that was possible! We are on vacation the last week in August and I have already bought all the boys curriculum, joined all the online things we wanted and since we are not starting until September 4th, I am spending part of vacation week laying it all out so we know what we have to do and when. Including Spelling City will definitely be part of it and Which Word is a MUST! Happy Homeschooling!!

Do you know your fractions?

How many of us REALLY know our fractions? I mean be honest? We know measuring, we know that 4 quarters makes a whole, etc. but if you had to sit down and remember HOW to multiply 1/7 x 3/4 could you do it? In a reasonable amount of time? I thought not!LOL Neither can I! Once I get back into the swing of things and take notes on the right way to do it....I can limp along but to have that problem presented to me....HA! Forget it! And since I am teaching 2 middle school/high school boys....we tend to do a lot of fraction lessons! And yes, I get a lot of practice but it is not one of those things you retain. Use it or lose it! So I check out EVERY single thing I find on the internet about fractions! Why? Because if it is a good program for little to no cost, we are going to use it! It may be the key to unlock the mysteries of fractions! All it takes is a different way of being taught for people and something clicks and then you just know it! It may take 10 programs/curriculums before you find the right one that clicks for your child and/or for you! So, if you did NOT know how to multiply 1/7 x 3/4 and you have a child heading into a school year of fraction lessons, I suggest you get on the ball and find something to teach you how to teach them.....or at least limp along! It helped me! :) Happy Homeschooling!