Homeschooling offers a unique educational approach that provides flexibility and tailored learning experiences for the student. With modern homeschooling, it is important to keep your curriculum relevant to the times, and a wide range of technologies can assist you in many aspects of your homeschooling curriculum.
By integrating apps and online tools, you can help with engagement and memory retention while using technologies now embedded into our societal norms.
VLP: Virtual learning platforms
Virtual learning platforms offer a plethora of courses that can enhance the learning experience of homeschooled students by providing self-guided and paced, interactive study with courses that have been designed with modern learning methods.
Examples of these VLPs’ include:
- Khan Academy
- Udemy
- Coursera
- Time for learning
- edX
- Abeka
- ABCmouse
- StudyLadder
- Power Homeschool
These platforms can provide interactive video lessons, quizzes, and progress tracking, encouraging students to learn of their own volition and improve online learning scores without the pressure of learning in groups of peers.
Educational apps
For more niche learning, there is a wide range of apps that are designed to improve cognitive skills, language learning, and arithmetic in a more structured and interactive way.
Language apps
There is a wide range of language learning apps for just about any language you can think of, from Asian languages to European dialects.
Some of the most popular language apps for homeschooling include:
- Duolingo
- Babbel
- Rosetta Stone
- LingoDeer
- Mango Languages
- Beelinguapp
- And much more
These apps offer a wide range of language learning courses; however, many language-specific learning apps can be used if a preferred second or third language has been selected. It’s worth trialling a few apps with the student to see which one complements their unique learning style.
Maths
Math can be a tricky subject for people who aren’t naturally inclined or struggle with numbers. Many different apps and online resources use interactive diagrams, videos, and games to help even the most math-hesitant student make significant progress.
Some of the most popular apps and online maths resources include:
- Photomath
- ABC MAthseed
- Khan Academy
- Prodigy Maths
- Adventure Academy
- Monster Math series
- BrainPop
- Marble Math Junior
- Dragon Box
- DoodleMath
This is another tool worth experimenting with the student to find the platform the student finds the most engaging.
Science
Science is a broad term for a range of disciplines, including biology, physics, chemistry, and geology. There is an exhaustive array of science education apps and websites. Some offer general science subjects, while others are more specific to their scientific area of study.
However, some apps have made homeschooling parents and facilitators ‘best of’ lists.
Apps
Apps are a great way to inspire independent learning in improved interaction with learning materials. Here are some of our top science learning app picks to get you started:
- Science 360: Created by the National Science Foundation, this app features nature and tech photos, videos, and stories and covers a wide range of interactive science lessons.
- DIY Nano: Watch entertaining videos and interact in real time with easy, at-home experiments. This app may need some supplies for the experiments. There is a website that is compatible with the app at Whatisnono.org.
- Bobo Explores Light: Bobo the robot guides kids through 21 interactive lessons about light forms, photosynthesis, lasers, electricity and much more. There are many free-play aspects for younger learners, while older kids can dig into science history and more mature science topics.
- Sid’s Science Fair: PBS science star Sid guides students through an interactive science fair with his friends. This app is more suited to kids aged 4-7.
Websites
Websites can provide more powerful and complete learning tools for science-hungry kids, many of which have been developed by some of the world’s leading universities and education specialists:
- Lawrence Hall of Science: Created by the University of California Berkeley, this site features a treasure trove of science games and activities for students of all ages.
- Exploratorium: If you can’t regularly visit the world-famous Exploratorium in San Francisco, their webpage is the next best thing and provides hours of science-based learning.
- NASA Kids’ Club: NASA has created games and interactive learning for space-crazed students everywhere, including access to NASA TV, images from the Hubble telescope, and the International Space Station.
- BrainPOP Jr: BrainPOP provides interactive education on many science topics for kids aged 7 and up. While this site has plenty of free access to science education, you may need to sign up for an affordable subscription to unlock the website’s full potential.
Apps are a part of most kids’ lives in the 2020s, so it makes sense to incorporate app-based learning into the homeschool classroom.
Online classroom and learning assistance apps
Online classrooms and LAAs can help students learn independently while still allowing parents and homeschool teachers to engage with their students, review progress and offer guidance.
There are a range of general learning apps that can assist in making learning a broad spectrum of topics more fun and engaging:
- Quizlet: A versatile app that offers learning through flashcards, quizzes, and games that use neuroscience to aid in memorisation and comprehension with a wide range of customisable tools and settings.
- Google Classroom: This is a powerful tool for organising assignments and facilitating non-confrontational communication and feedback between students and teachers. It is ideal for collaborative projects and remote learning situations.
- Brainscape is a web and app-based education platform and community that uses adaptive flashcards created by other users and publishers. These are good for students of all ages and year levels.
- Kahoot!: Kahoot! is a Norwegian game-based learning platform. It features a range of learning games known as “Kahoots” which feature user-created multiple-choice questions.
- Quizalize: Quizalize is a mobile and web-based platform with a gamified approach that assists homeschooling teachers in creating custom quizzes and tracking student performances.
There are many online classroom and learning assistance apps and platforms that cover a broad range of learning of classic classroom lessons and more specialty areas of study.
It is up to students and their teachers to experiment and decide what educational apps, online classrooms and websites provide the best learning and performance results. The best platforms are the ones the students will enjoy and stick to in the long term.
Lions Education: Making new pathways for homeschooling in Australia
Our facilitators at Lions Education are making new pathways for effective homeschooling in the Northern Territory and Australia-wide. We provide a support network and curriculum structures that ensure students get the desired results from their homeschool education.
For more information about how we can help you and your child on their homeschool journey, send a brief enquiry via our online contact porthole, and one of our expert educators will contact you shortly.
Photo by Werner Pfennig