So am I the only one who considers September as the "beginning of the year"? It's the start of school and hockey season - which means late hours and cranky mornings for me!
Running a hockey-related business AND homeschooling my now 10 year old are respectfully two full time jobs and after a year of juggling both, I knew I needed to change my approach to certain things.
After critically evaluating how the last school year went, I realized that having a customized curriculum worked wonderfully for K, however, with his ever-curious mind, he naturally had questions that went beyond what I covered in his curriculum. His curiosity has always been encouraged, despite the incessant questions throughout the day can be like nails on a chalk board. Just when I thought I was going to loose my mind from hearing another inflection in his voice, I stumbled upon brainly.com.
This site was designed specifically for students as a tool to assist them with homework and assignments. Subjects range from French to Spanish to English to Math and everything in between! The site functions by a member (free) posting a question, and having the brainly community answering them. They have a point system, where the more questions you answer, the more points you can accumulate. I decided to toy around with it to see how well it functions and if it was even worth getting my son to use. So I posted my question, "what were the causes of world war one" - and I waited. In the meantime, I was able to answer other community questions and accumulate my own points. (oh and "the assassination of Ferdinand" and "Nationalism" were the popular answers to my question)
Kids are more connected than any other generation previous. With iphones and tablets as the "expected gifts" for our children, they're more tech-savy at a younger age, where the internet is a toy first and foremost. This site teaches them that the internet can be a tool, and should be used as such. The inquisitive child in the classroom now has an outlet to go to and ask his questions freely to the global community.
Brainly is more geared towards the upper grades, but my 5th grader has been more than comfortable posting his questions and delving through the answers he's received. This site will become a new tool that we'll be using in the classroom this year, and for years to come. Simply genius!
The site can be accessed here: www.brainly.com
By all means check it out and let me know what you think!
Happy learning!
