Websites to help me keep my sanity this summer

So I missed a post and this one is late. You can blame these two adorable children right here:

They should be glad they're so cute. While trying to take this picture, however, my third child, who happens to be covered in fur, was grumbling and whining until I let him in the picture.

Notice how his head is lifted in two of them? I took multiple pictures to make sure everyone had their eyes open, and he started "talking" to me and telling me to hurry up and show them the pictures. Yes, I have to show both kids and the dog my phone every time I take their pictures. And yes, the dog actual looks at the phone.

And we can't blame the pibble for my missed post, but we can blame all three of them for the mess they made yesterday causing this post to be late. lol

Now onto the post!

Summer has started for my two adorable children, which for us means they'll be home when I'm trying to write. It also means it's time for "momma school." Since they were little we've done school throughout the summer to keep our brains from turning to mush. This summer I have a whole new list of websites we'll be trying. Each of my kids have their own netbooks, old ones of mine, and I use the Easy Whitelist add-on for Firefox to help ensure my children are only going to specific sites. I also keep an eye on them when they're on their computers. These sites were specifically picked because they allow me to have a parent/teacher account where I can easily check the kids progress from my computer. My kids are 10 going into 5th grade (Z) and 8 going to third grade (J).

1.) Typing.com : My kids have been learning to type every summer since they were little; however, given how much of a requirement typing skills are in our world, I dislike how little practice is done at school. While they've done drills and typing games every summer, we normally stop once school starts, and any improvements they've made are forgotten. This site is more than just the basics and typing games. While I'm using it for my kids, the site could really help anyone no matter the age or skill.

First Day Reactions

 Z's reaction: She didn't like the typing website. It messed up on her right at the end, and she lost her results.

J's reaction: My son liked it, and he didn't lose his results like my daughter did.

Mom's reaction: I had such high hopes for this website. It looked really good and easy to use. However, even though I had set it to "remember me" and saved the password with Firefox, I had to resign in. Then it kept saying my username and password were wrong. I wrote them down. They weren't wrong. I clicked that I had forgot my password. It said there was not a record of my email address, but if I went to new account, my username was already taken. I couldn't find any kind help section either. Looks like I might be finding a different typing website.

2.) xtramath.org : I hate math. I really, really hate math. One of the things that made me hate math as a kid (besides the fact that the numbers often reversed on me) were the time drills we had to do. Sadly, those are never going away, and they do help to create a solid foundation for math skills. Z really struggled with her's this last year in 4th grade. The jump from 3rd to 4th left a gap on where she should be on her time drills, and it was really hard on her. This site helps to improve those skills. At first glance, I really liked the videos and the layout of this one.

First Day Reactions

Z's reaction: My daughter, who hates math, liked this site. If there was a problem you kept getting wrong, you could race the teacher for extra practice. She really liked this part of the site.

J's reaction: My son liked how you could replay the videos on this one.

Mom's reaction: The site was great! I instantly got results for the lessons they did. The way it reports the data is also really easy to follow. I also liked how short it kept the lessons. For summer, I'll be having them do multiple lessons a day, but because of how it's set up, we'll likely keep this one for short practice during the school year. I highly recommend checking this one out. 

3.) readtheory.org : This isn't one of the fun sites, but it offers clear and easy to follow reading comprehension practice. My kids read all the time. J inherited my comic addiction. They have tablets full of books and comics, and they had so many books that I had to start rotating them out in their room. Making sure your child comprehends and grows from their reading can be a challenge though. While I'm not a fan of multiple choice reading tests, I do like this site. My kids both do AR book tests at school. Some of the issues we've encountered with these tests are teachers that push them to "just earn points" that they have to settle for only reading books slightly below their reading level. It's annoying for my children, and it is also greatly discouraging for a young reader. It also stalls their growth as a reader in my opinion. There is also the issue that as my kids get older they are reading longer and longer works. It can take several days to read one of their books, and then because of limited time and computers at school, it can often take them days to get to take the test over the book. It's stressful, and I seriously hate AR. The way this site is set up though made me feel like it might be a more accurate way to test how my kids are doing when it comes to reading comprehension. It's also set up like many of the tests they'll have to deal with as they get older.

First Day Reactions

Z's reaction: She like the stories. Her favorite was "Dog Tricks." She also said the site was super easy to use. She also said the readings were better than the ones they have at school.

J's reaction: My son liked the stories on the site. They didn't seem boring, which often happens on comprehension sites. His favorite story was "How the Butterflies Came to Earth."

Mom's reaction: I love this website! In fact, I might be recommending this one to my boss. I'm a writing tutor at a community college. Many of our students are still in high school, and the website goes up to a 12th grade reading level. We also tutor students for the GED test, and I could see this being an easy students could practice. The feedback was instant, and the site adjusted their reading level as they went. The passages were kept fairly short (although they get longer as the level goes up), so my kids were able to focus and test on a section without getting distracted.

4.) turtlediary.com : This was my answer for not wanting to bore my children too much over the summer. It's a site filled with learning games. While there are many sites out there with similar (and maybe even better) games, this one allows me to track progress. It only goes to 5th grade though, and like many sites, the higher grades have less games.

First Day Reactions

Z's reaction: She said some of the games were a little tricky. She also found the selection of 5th grade games rather lacking. She liked the science experiments the site had.

J's reaction: Surprise, surprise my son like this one too. lol. He said Monster Hop is his favorite.

Mom's reaction: I was able to easily log in to this one as well, and I could instantly see that my children were spending too much time on puzzle games when they were told to do puzzles last after doing a game for the other subjects. BUSTED! It doesn't just show what subject of games they're doing though. The site also shows you reports on what skills they're working on through the games.

5.) mobymax.com : This site covers multiple subjects, and it seems to help track progress really well. I also liked that it had a writing section with assignments and lessons. The site offers limited features for free, so I wonder just how much we'll be able to on it. Depending on how good the site is, the paid features might be worth it for some. It's $99 for a year, but considering we'll only be using it for 2 months, it's just not an option I want to do just yet. It does look like it'd be great for a teacher or as an online homeschool program. The site does have games, but you have to earn them by doing the lessons. As the student does lessons, the site keeps track of how much game time they earn. I really liked this. This one was actually suggested to me for me when I homechool my daughter full-time staring in 6th grade. The website is supposed to be for K-8th and cover all core subjects.

First Day Reactions

Z's reaction: My daughter's first comment was that the assessment was a bit baby-ish and way too easy. Some of the lessons didn't load right, but then we figured out we just needed to zoom out to fix this. After that, and the first assessments to figure out her level, she liked the site a lot. She did like the reading passages and said they were better than what they did at school too.

J's reaction: My son had some difficulty figuring out the site as well. He didn't like that it had him adding four numbers.


Mom's reaction: I'm not a huge fan of how the reports are set up. It's a bit confusing to see what all they've done, and you have to scroll a lot. At first, I didn't see this being a program I wanted to pay for to use as her main homeschool curriculum. However, the site did get easier the longer we spent on it. I did notice that when it came to how much game time you earn, it's not just based on how much time you spend on the lessons but on how well you do with the lesson. I liked that. We, however, couldn't get the writing section to let her respond, which was annoying since I was so excited about using it. I'm sure with enough playing we will be able to figure it out.

Because the typing website I had picked proved to be difficult, I decided to find another while my kids were works.




6.) typingclub.com : This one seemed to fit what I was looking for. Sign up was secure and easy. It was set up for school age children, and I created a teacher account, so I could track my kids easily. However, you could also just sign your kids up, and they would be able to see their progress on their own account. Since my kids will be doing some of their school at my mom's, I want to be able to access their progress from my computer. Also, If you set it up this way, be aware that default is for students to be able to view each other's results. I didn't like this, so I set it where they couldn't. My kids will only be able to see their own results.We didn't have time to play around with this one though. I'll update how we liked it next post.

Throughout the summer I'll be posting updates on how we like these websites. If you have suggestions for education websites for my kids to try, feel free to leave links.

While my kidos were busy at VBS and doing their momma school, I got to work on Howl. My favorite quote so far has to be:

“You're right. I'm not trying to solve our problems very maturely. I'm going to solve our problems with a bullet.” --Liz

Although the book isn't finished being edited yet, so no promises that my favorite quote won't change some. . . or disappear completely.