Free online educational resources for kids!

Here are some online educational resources for kids.

KAHN ACADEMY  -- new
This site is amazing.  You can learn just about anything.  Most importantly, it has a very strong math section where the instructor goes through step-by-step explaining the fundamentals of math.  As a parent, you can have your child work on the problems and monitor your child's activities through your parent's account.  Your child will earn badges as he masters one level after another.  I have also used Kahn Academy to get a primer on a particular subject I was new to.  Here is the link to that site - http://www.khanacademy.org/

GUIDE TO GRAMMAR AND WRITING  -- new
This is a complete writing course on line and it is free.  The webpage is sponsored by a nonprofit, 501c3 and while it is not the prettiest website out there, it has good content and it is free.  http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

HYPER GRAMMAR -- new
It is a website by the University of Ottawa in Canada and it is a great grammar course that is avaialbe to the general public.  http://arts.uottawa.ca/writingcentre/en/hypergrammar

STARFALL
I love this website.  It is jam packed full of educational materials that begins with learning sounds to actual online activities to teach your child to read.  The best part of it is that it is free.  Any parent who does not know about this website should check it out and at the end you will be as excited as I am.  Here is the link. http://www.starfall.org/.

PBSKIDS
Although I am not a big fan of knowingly subjecting my children to branding (where companies try to imprint their image/logo in the minds of the public to gain greater market awareness and marketshare), I don't mind too much when the branding is by a public not-for-profit organization promoting education like PBS.  For those of you who do not know, PBS is the acronym for Public Broadcasting System.  They produce shows like Curious George, Cat In The Hat, and Super Why.  They have some awesome games kids can play that help kids with pattern recognition, reading, grouping, and other things of that nature that are the building blocks to math, reading, and logical reasoning.  So, I have to say - totally awesome.  Their website is http://www.pbskids.org/.

WRITING@CSU (Colorado State University) -- new
 This site provides more than 150 guides and interactive activities for writers.  The website hosts a rich collection of resources for teachers and writers.  http://writing.colostate.edu/


THE EXCELSIOR COLLEGE OWL -- new
This website is an online writing lab presented to the public by Excelsior College.  It is free, comprehensive, and attractive. Out of all the online writing programs I have listed, your child will most likely prefer this one.  http://owl.excelsior.edu/


LEARNING GAMES FOR KIDS and FUNBRAIN
While putting this blog list together I found these sites.  I have not had a chance to thoroughly explore what they have to offer but they seem like good sites.  The websites offer free online educational games on many different subject areas including the non traditional ones like typing.  Although I have not come across any virus problems on these sites, as I said, I have not had a chance to thoroughly explore them so be sure your virus software is up to date. www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games.html and http://www.funbrain.com/

IXL
For those interested in finding a website dedicated to math, go to this site - http://www.ixl.com/.  This website breaks down the key concepts covered at each grade level and the site includes free web based tests for your little ones to do.  They also offer a subscription based membership but, do you really need to pay someone to teach your child 5-3?  Hopefully not!  So, you probably will not need to pay for any of their services until your child is learning fractions. =)  Anyhow, here is the link  http://www.ixl.com/.

ALL SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS
This site breaks down the sciences into the major categories and gives you hands-on project ideas you can do with your child.  This is cool because science contains many abstract concepts that little ones may find it challenging to understand.  Also, for most of us, science was not one of our strong subjects so any help we can get from those who are good at it is welcomed very much.  So, here is the link - http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/.

FEDERAL RESOURCES FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE
The Federal government is also involved in distributing teaching and learning resources on a variety of subject areas for free at free.ed.gov.  This site is great because of the wealth of information it contains.  However, the content is not grade specific so it will take you some time to make it age appropriate for your child.

KOREAN LANGUAGE SKILLS
For those of you interested in learning Korean.  Here are some free websites that teach you Korean.   - www.learn-korean.net/ and www.learnkorean.com/home/index.asp.

SPANISH LANGUAGE SKILLS
You can not live in California or in a State bordering Mexico without Spanish.  Well, you can but knowing Spanish frequently comes in handy.  So here are some Spanish language websites - http://www.livemocha.com/, www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish, http://www.studyspanish.com/ (offer both free and subscription based services), http://www.onlinefreespanish.com/ (has some kid friendly language games), http://www.123teachme.com/ and www.loquella.com/learn-spanish/.  For additional resources, check out www.sussex.ac.uk/languages, http://www.teachinglearningspanish.blogspot.com/ and www.freelanguage.org/spanish.

TYPING
Not the prettiest website but it has a combination of lessons, tests, and games to make it worth mentioning - http://www.freetypinggame.net/.  In fact, once your child learns the alphabet positions on the keyboard, they can go onto http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games.html to play typing games (in addition to the one offered on http://www.freetypinggame.net/) to sharpen their typing skills. 


PIANO
http://www.pianonanny.com/
http://www.gopiano.com/
www.netrover.com/~kingskid/piano/piano.html
http://www.pianolessons4children.com/
www.classicsforkids.com/games/

MISC
http://www.gardenofpraise.com/