Website Review: HelpMe2Teach

Everybody knows that when you search for a topic on either Google or Yahoo, they usually return millions of sites. Out of that, there's only a small percentage that is directly related to the topic that you are actually looking for. This takes up too much of our time. Usually, it's time that we can't afford to take. Apart from that, it's also scary to let our children loose online because of the many inappropriate and unsafe sites out there.

  This is what HelpMe2Teach.com tries to solve for us. HelpMe2Teach.com was created by Elaine Taylor, an educator of over 40 years. It aims to provide curriculum and supplementary materials from Pre-K to High School. It is useful for educators, parents, students and homeschoolers alike. HelpMe2Teach.com provides over 2500 safe links to educational websites.

Being an experienced online researcher, I, at first, thought that I won't have much use for the website. I mean, I use Yahoo and Google search all the time and it works for me. I have found so many resources that I can use for our homeschool doing my own research. But I find that using HelpMe2Teach.com has made the search easier for me. It is laid out in a very organized manner. Ms. Taylor did provide a search box within the site, but she also provided a well-organized index with sub-indexes for her members to use.

Here is her complete index:

1. Academic Benchmarks and Standards

2. Animals

3. Arts and Crafts

4. Bible Study and Christian Links

5. Character

6. Computers

7. Cooking for Kids

8. Courtship

9. For Teachers/Parents Only

10. Foreign Languages

11. Health And Safety

12. Holidays

13. Inventions - Printing Press

14. Jewish Curriculum

15. Kites

16. Language Arts

17. Lapbooking and Notebooking

18. Magazines/Student/Student News

19. Mathematics

20. Media

21. Multi-Subject Sites

22. Music and Dance

23. Old and New Testament

24. Olympics

25. On Line Flash Cards

26. Preparing for College

27. Primarily Primary

28. Science

29. Sewing

30. Social Studies

31. Specialty Pay Sites

32. Specialty Topics

Ms. Taylor continues to add links everyday. As I write this, the index has been added to two times. The index makes online research a breeze. Ms. Taylor has gone further by categorizing each website under Primary (Pre-K through Grade 2), Elementary Student (Grades 2-5), Secondary Student (Grades 6-12), and Teacher or Supervising Student. So when your search returns results, one can see immediately if it's useful for your homeschool or educational needs.

  Personally, I have found a website for foreign languages that we are using now. I also found, through HelpMe2Teach.com, a free educational site for my children to learn about computer basics and keyboarding. In my personal research, I did not find these sites in the past, but only through this website. She further claims that some of the links provide complete curriculums so that there is no need for you to purchase one.

  For parents who are concerned for their children's net safety, they can let their children loose in HelpMe2Teach.com instead of using Google or Yahoo. According to Phyllis Wheeler of Motherboard Books, a homeschool computer curriculum provider (which I'm also set to review), having parental controls on your PC is not an assurance that your children are totally safe. You see, parental controls work by filtering out websites that contain certain words. But some ruthless website creators know that and simply don't use those words. Therefore, there's still a big chance for your children to come across sites that are harmful while using regular search engines for their school work. HelpMe2Teach.com solves that problem because Elaine Taylor has already done all the work for us and provides only safe educational links.

  Subscription rates are US$ 29.95 for one year, US$ 15.95 for three months, US$ 9.95 for one month and if you just want to check it out but don't want to spend a lot for it, you can also subscribe for three days at US$ 4.95. Payments are through Paypal and Authorize.net.

 

HomeWork, An Ebook by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

HomeWork

Juggling Home, Work and School Without Losing Your Balance

by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Homeschool + Home Business + Home Management = Impossible? Crazy? Can it be done?

You bet it can! HomeWork, an ebook published by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine showcases several families who are doing it all and loving what they are doing. They are homeschooling, managing their home businesses, taking care of their families, all at the same time.

I’m glad I read this ebook because this answered one of those questions that has been nagging at me for the longest time.  I’ve always asked myself if I can manage a home business well while also giving my children the best education that they can have. I haven’t an answer to this yet because I have not done it as of this writing. For the families featured in HomeWork though, they have proven that working and teaching at home are ideal partners. It not only provides the income of the family, it also gives the children a safe place to hone their skills and develop their own entrepreneurial spirits. This is such an encouraging book to read.  All of the testimonials are written by Christians describing how the Lord has allowed them this kind of a lifestyle. Each family shares how they manage their days. It’s definitely not easy, but it is doable.

This ebook also includes some important ideas to help you in your home businesses. Inside, one can find more treasures in the links that the writers have included for us to study. 

Economics doesn’t have to make us quit on teaching our children at home. There are always, always opportunities in crisis, we just need to open our eyes and hearts to find it.

 

 

 

Art Curriculum Review: Spears Art Studio, Inc.: K-8 Christian Art Curriculum, A Teacher’s Manual

Art is one of the subjects that I feel the most unable and most unqualified to teach. This is for the simple reason I really don’t believe myself to be artsy. Although I do like crafting, I feel that the crafts that I like to do are too much for children. During the first few years, I would have my children do art activities that I remembered doing as a child. So we’ve done finger painting, drawing, coloring, paper weaving, leaf painting. After awhile, I started running out of ideas. I tried buying a book on crafting but the materials are also not easy to find. Eventually, art in our house whittled down to just me downloading coloring pages from the internet for my smaller ones to color or paint. My eldest has almost no art lessons at all. Now this really worried me because I haven’t even taught my children the primary and secondary colors! I want to but I needed to follow a curriculum. I dreamed of taking my children to see paintings and discussing it with them, but I was intimidated by that idea because I really don’t have any idea how to start it.  So teaching my children Art has continued to remain a dream for me.

 

Then I received Spears Art Studio, Inc. K-8 Christian Art Curriculum, A Teacher’s Manual in CD format for review.  At first, I felt very intimidated by it. Though it is in CD format, it consisted of hundreds of pages of art instruction. But after perusing it more slowly, I saw that it is actually a very organized presentation of how this art curriculum can be used for the levels K-8. She provides very detailed instructions on teaching art, using your materials wisely and how to evaluate a student’s artwork. The curriculum is divided into monthly themes according to seasons and events, with daily activities and divided further for each grade level. The daily activities are further explained in detail with color samples included. The best thing about this curriculum is that all of her art activities makes use of materials that are already normally found in your home.

 

K-8 Christian Art Curriculum, A Teacher’s Manual is created by Diane Shields Spears, Doctor of Christian Education. Here is their Mission Statement which I got from their website:

 

Spears Art Studio MISSION STATEMENT

1. to recognize the hand of God in everything and to give Him glory;

2. to reconnect the Lord as the Supreme Artist to the process and excitement of learning for both children and educators through the study and activity of art;

3. to provide resources for the Christian educator that:      

a. help students make connections between the Creator, creativity, and personal maturity;

b. are organized for natural learning progression;

c. provide experiences for higher order thinking skills;

d. "stretch" academic and manipulative skills;

e. introduce students to famous artists and artworks incorporated into a seasonal and/or art elements/principles arrangement of art and craft production.

 

Or to put it simply, by using this art curriculum, you are able to teach art to your children from a Biblical world view.

 

So I am really glad to receive K-8 Christian Art Curriculum. The first time we used it, there was still some intimidation on my part, however, the details in the manual and the sample made it easy for me to explain to my children the activity.

 

I highly recommend this Art curriculum for purchase because you can use it teach your multiple-grade students together or use it to teach one student for many years, each theme has a verse to go along with it, you need not be an art major to teach your child with this curriculum. The price of US$ 39.95 for the CD is very reasonable because you can use just this one program for many years to come.

 

Please go to their website for Diane Spears’ free article “ART IS GOOD FOR MY BRAIN?”. While you’re there, you can check out and download free lessons for you to sample.