Head Of the Class, and Elementary Advantage

I want to share a couple of things with my readers today. I blogged a couple weeks back about wanting to get away from traditional textbook teaching to more hands on, and online teaching. I am unsure how I found Head of the Class, but I am so glad I did. It is completely free online, with some printable worksheets. They just released fifth grade, and are planning on releasing sixth through eighth all in 2011. I am not sure if they will do high school or not. Anyways I set it up on Saturday, and it was a bit confusing at first. But today Caitlin flew threw her lessons with no problems, once we understood how the system works. Their customer service was very fast when I sent them a question I had, and as I stated it is free. They keep records of all lessons completed and you can then keep them for your evaluation. You could always just have your evaluator log onto the site to see completed activities. Caitlin's was smooth, DJ tries his after lunch, so we will see how fifth grade goes. They also have certificates of achievements you can print. Each grade is set to be 180 days, so if you start midway through the school year, like I did, you either have to do more lessons each day, or go longer into your school year to complete it. This will be supplemental for us, until I am certain of the completeness of the lessons. So far I love it!

The other thing I wanted to mention is Elementary Advantage. I bought this two years ago, and the kids used it briefly at the end of last year. They like it, and can move through it easily. I do not care for the Science section as it freezes all the time, and does not appear to work correctly most of the time. It is affordable however, and all the other parts are good. Caitlin and DJ will be doing online and computer software activities mostly on Monday and Friday, plus if time permits on the other days.

Lesson Plans For 02/07/11:

Chutes and Ladders board game
DJ blog post Fishy Monday: Bicolor parrot fish
Advantage Elementary computer software
Head of the Class first and fifth grade lessons
Discovery Atlas Uncovering Earth: Great Rift Valley, only DJ watched this 43 minutes long