By Heather Sanders.
While a few of my friends have already kicked off their 2012-2013 homeschool year, we plan to extend our summer vacation right through Labor Day, starting back on Monday, September 10th.
In preparation, I have integrated some last minute supplemental work, compiled the kids’ co-op school supplies list, created and emailed the syllabi for two courses I am teaching at co-op, and started updating our co-op’s website with FREE online resources and study tools to better equip our students and parents for the upcoming school year.
One of the resources that has truly morphed into a more comprehensive online and mobile word learning destination is Dictionary.com. Previously we used this site solely as a reference source, as in “Mom, what does zephyr mean?”, “How do you spell that word that sounds like you’re a pee’n?”(paean), or “Is it allright or all right?”
Following Meredith’s Sentence to Paragraph writing course last year, our Dictionary.com usage extended to include a sister site, Thesaurus.com in addition to a disappointing small pocket Thesaurus and my old college favorite, The Synonym Finder.
However, if you haven’t visited Dictionary.com lately, their offerings have expanded significantly beyond just finding definitions or spellings.
First, there is Word Dynamo, which is basically customized learning games for all grade levels as well as for different test preps such as the PSAT, SAT, GRE, ACT, and LSAT to name a few. The goal is for users to grow in their command of language at their own pace, complete work faster, and improve test scores and overall academic performance.
Parents can use Word Dynamo to augment weekly lessons and as a resource for supplemental assignments or study tools.
I particularly like the Make a Word List. There users can make a word list from terms at Dictionary.com, or add their own words and meanings. The lists have privacy settings so you can decide whether you want to share your list with everyone (the lists are searchable by “tags”) or keep private.
Enter your own title and then add words. You can “Add your own definition” (the first box) or you can use the auto fill definition from Dictionary.com.
Next, is Writing Dynamo, a writing analyzer which boasts it will teach you how to dramatically improve writing in 30 seconds. While this has a free one-week trial, it does cost $4.99/month to continue.
The Writing Review proofreads and makes suggestions on Sentence Length and Structure to Informal Expressions and Word Choice. This is primarily a resource for upper level students who need more help fine-tuning their writing.
Translator will quickly translate any page or word into over 50 languages with a full text translator of over 2000 characters.
Students can enter their own text to translate or start with translations of the more popular basic phrases like “Hello”, “What is your name?” and “Pleased to meet you.” Also available are well-used travel words and phrases, food and restaurant phrases, and time and places.
Or y’know, more REAL LIFE stuff like the permanent LEGO indention in my bum.
Designed to accommodate all levels of users, the English-Spanish dictionary can help with learning pronunciation and conversational Spanish. There are a myriad of choices in the Spanish dictionary, including Spanish Word of the Day, Grammar Tip of the Day, and Situation of the Week.
I enjoyed reading through a few of the Travel Narratives, though they are entirely above the level of Meredith’s Conversational Spanish co-op class she will take this year. That said, I can tell the Spanish tab is going to be a valuable resource for us going forward.
I am looking for more valuable (preferably FREE) online resources. What are your favorite online resources for study tools and helps?
OMSH/Heather L. Sanders is “Momma” to three kids, Emelie, Meredith and Kenny. When not homeschooling, or writing about homeschooling, Heather is busy designing websites or going on dates with her husband Jeff, the love of her life.
Thinking of Home Schooling? Read mine and 24 other homeschooling families’ stories shared in the new book, You Can Do It Too!