The Internet as a Tool for Homeschooling
by Mimi Rothschild
Homeschooling is as ancient as learning itself; it was the first way knowledge was passed from parent to child. Schools were developed to pool resources and give children the benefit of learning things their parents might not know, broadening their horizons; a superior method than having one instructor who, let’s face it, might not have the breadth needed to teach in all subjects. Enter the Internet, the great equalizer, and a way to even the playing field.
Homeschooling is a viable educational alternative in all states, and many state-level and community-level resources are to be found. The Internet augments them all; with sites ranging from those that house thousands of public-domain books to those sites dedicated to specific homeschooling curriculums. Brushing up on what it has to offer should be the first of your homework assignments when preparing to homeschool.
While the types of sites that can be found are legion, there are a few basic categories that will go a long way towards making homeschooling less of a burden and more of a reward.
The first category, and recommended launch site when learning about homeschooling and the resources available, are the Homeschool Sites themselves. These sites seem to be divided into three categories; government and other organization sites that deal with specific programs, “catch all” resource sites that do a wonderful job educating, assisting and guiding anyone involved in homeschooling, and companies that offer entire homeschool programs for sale.
The next category of sites are Reference Sites, those dedicated to “look up” materials when a student is researching North Dakota’s State Bird for their State Project, trying to determine the per capita of Guadalajara, or just trying to confirm the spelling of a persnickety word.
Next are Research Sites, those dedicated (usually) to a particular field of study, or family of related fields. On these sites can be found everything from simple definitions to complex topics (such as the Theory of Relativity) to graphs, formulas and lecture notes that drill deep into the heart of theory.
Finally are Tool Sites, those wonderful Internet gifts that allow you to quickly convert centigrade to farenheight and meters to inches. These sites are filled with calculators for everything from phases of the moon to figuring out the interest on a car loan, and lets not forget the translators! While some philologists wouldn’t swear by their accuracy, they offer a great help in a pinch.
Review the sites below for a good sampling of what is available:
Homeschool Sites
Kids Town
http://www.hwcn.org/~ab448/kidstown/Profile.html
Everything Homeschooling
http://www.everythinghomeschooling.com/
Homefires
Reference Sites
Bartleby
Internet Public Library
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Wikipedia
Research Sites
National Geographic
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/
Social Science
http://www.ssrn.com/index_sf.html
Planetary Science
Tool Sites
Translators
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
Calculators
Converters
http://www.onlineconversion.com/
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