Freely Educate

Free! Here's $2 Towards Any Songs (mp3s). No Catches!

 

I made my teenager happy this week!  I gave him a $2 mp3 (digital song) credit that cost me ... nothing!  You can get the credit, too, through  TODAY (Thursday, June 30th).

How to Get this Freebie:  Go to Amazon MP3 and enter CLOUDMP3 to get your $2 credit

Expires June 30, 2011 at midnight PST

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Join Freely Educate & Random House in the Read & Play Summer Fun Community!

Yay!  I've partnered with Random House, the fab publishing company, to create a Read & Play Summer Fun Community.  We are focused on encouraging children to pick up a book and read this Summer, because we hope they'll then continue to read all year.  Any child can be encouraged to love reading, but sometimes he or she is a bit reluctant.  Our new community is a gathering place where you are welcome to come and be encouraged, ask questions, join in discussions, share your advice, and even win prizes!

For the next two Summer months, I will work with 9 other bloggers as a Community Leader at the new Read & Play Summer Fun Community.  Since we are parents, we'll welcome discussions on any parenting topic, from health to new teeth to organizing your schoolwork!  We are also going to work on an upcoming donation drive.  In fact, for every comment in the community, Random House will donate a book through FirstBook, their book donation program!

Please join me in the community at anytime, and at our Launch Party tomorrow night from 9-10pm EST, where we will be chatting live and giving away prizes. 

Here's how you can get involved in our new Read & Play Summer Fun Community:

• Join our Launch Party Live Chat on Thursday night, June 30th, from 9-10pm EST.  We will be giving away books and over $100 in gift cards!  I'll be there, so come say "hi!"
• Join our Read & Play Summer Fun Community and get involved right away in the discussions.  We would love to read your advice or answer your questions!

I hope to see you there!  Pop in and say "hey" to me when you do.

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How We Inspire Our Kids to Learn (& a Contest for Kids from Intel!)

 

Intel wants children aged 14-18 to answer, "What inspires you to learn?"  I'll tell you more about how your kids can answer that question (and possibly win a super cool laptop!), but first….here's how we inspire our children to learn.

 

As we all know, children are born wanting to learn. They love to learn.  We cannot stop a baby from learning to talk, or a toddler from asking, "Why?"  But we can discourage their love of learning until a child no longer wants to learn. 

 

When we began homeschooling nine years ago, I was on a sure course to discourage our four children from loving to learn.  I ordered full textbook curriculum based on price and ease, not on content.  I sent them to classes for subjects I thought were too hard to teach.  Our children were bored, wiggly, and grumbled about doing schoolwork.  My attitude about learning changed when I realized we cannot make anyone learn anything.  We need to inspire them to want to learn.  

 

Now, in our homeschool,  we (hubby & I) first consider why we want our children to learn a certain subject.  We don't teach simply to pass a grade or earn a credit, so we ask, "Why does he or she need to know this?" 

 

After we figure out our end goal, we search for the masters.  The "master" might be a famous speech writer, a biography author, a seminar teacher, or Mr. Jones across town.  We'll try to find a way to connect our child with the "master," by enrolling her in a sewing course with the heirloom seamstress, by signing him up to listen to the WWII veteran speak on Tuesday night, or by checking a biography out of the library. 

 

Then, we think of hands-on activities for the child.  As much as possible, we place the child in touch with the subject.  We will flip over a log to look for the spiders we are reading about in a famous naturalist's journal; we'll visit an old fort where Geronimo was held captive; we'll play an interactive online game on the subject; or we'll drive across down to talk to Mr. Jones whom we've noticed is smart with his money. 

 

So, how do we inspire our children to learn? We follow their example:  We love to learn.

 

Students: What Inspires You to Learn? 

 

Intel wants to give a laptop to the student with the best answer, and a Sony Internet TV to the winner's school! Here are the contest rules:

 

• Open to students 14 – 18. If student is 14 – 17 years of age, please have parent submit on student’s behalf.
• Contest is open until August 15. Winners will be announced Sept. 15.
• Winner will receive a laptop with Intel 2nd Generation Core i5 technology for themselves, plus a Sony Internet TV for their school
• To enter, students should e-mail their name, age, state, telephone number and answer to the question, “What inspires you to learn?” to studentinspiration@intel.com (minimum 50 words)
• Students can also include links to original photos, videos or other multimedia content that will add to their entry. Please only submit content that is appropriate at school and that the student would submit to their teacher. If the entry includes content with someone in it, be sure that you have their written permission. Students cannot use copyrighted material in their entry, unless they have specific written permission from the copyrighted material owner
• Entries will be judged by a panel of Intel and education experts based upon: (1) Relevance to the question, “What inspires you to learn?” (80%), (2) compelling nature of entry, including supplementary materials submitted (20%). Note: the entries will not be made public unless they are selected as one of the finalists.

 

Complete contest rules http://bit.ly/IdeaJamEducationRules

You can find Intel on Facebook and Twitter.

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p.s.  Intel kindly sponsored this post as part of a campaign with Mom Blogger’s Club, but the opinions and stories are my own, of course.  I can't wait to hear how your children answer!  ~ Lori Seaborg

Educational Summer Fun! Free Art Lesson Plans and Free Video Art Workshops

Dick Blick, a huge art supply company, offers free lesson plans and now video workshops of their most popular lesson plans on their website.  The lessons are clearly marked by grade level, and there are art projects for all skill levels and projects that require many or few materials.

Even if you think you cannot teach art (oh, yes you can! simply tell them to draw or create what they see - it cannot be wrong)...anyway, even if you think you can't, you'll enjoy these Dick Blick lesson plans as each one is clearly written with photos and a complete material list. 

While you're there, don't forget to check out the Mulitcultural Art Lessons, featuring items such as Aboriginal hand prints, Chinese ink painting and Huichol yarn painting. 

  

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Most Popular: Free Preschool Reading Curriculum

Okay, I have a good free reading curriculum for you today, especially if you have preschoolers, kindergartners and/or beginning readers traipsing around the house.  We have a couple of those in our house, and Starfall is definitely a favorite site for them! 

Starfall teaches children the alphabet and how to read.  It's interactive, brightly-colored, and fun (that opinion is based on my children's frequent requests to visit the site). 

Here is a screenshot of the "Learn to Read" area of the Starfall website:

Click on a "book," such as Zac the Rat and the program reads a book to the child, sounding out, through audio, each word in the book.

Do you want to know exactly how Starfall teaches students how to read?  Visit the Educators' Page for a full description of the teaching methods used.

Enjoy!

How to Get This Freebie:  Visit Starfall

For: Preschoolers and Kindergartners

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Free College Courses!

Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative (OLI) is for the adult who wants to learn, for the college student who wants to take an online course, and for the instructor who wants to teach from a ready-made curriculum. 

For Students:  OLI's Open & Free courses are just that -- open and free.  They are open to anyone around the world who wants access to learning and they are 100% free.  Any catch?  You won't receive credit or a diploma from Carnegie Mellon, but you may arrange that with your local school*.  The current  Open & Free courses available at OLI are:

For Teachers: Go to the "Teach an Academic Course using OLI" page for more information on how to set up the courses for students.  NOTE:  The instructor account is free.  The students that you add under an instructor account are free for some courses, but a few courses charge $15-25 maintenance fee per student.  OLI suggests that you contact them if the amount of money suggested will prevent a student from taking the course.  All of the fees (free included) are listed in a blue sidebar box on the instructor's information page. 

Will I receive credit? Students will not receive credit from Carnegie Mellon for courses taken; however, students may convince a school to offer credit or diplomas for the courses taken at OLI.  See the FAQ page for more information on how to get credit for the courses. Many schools are already accepting OLI courses, so check with yours.

Here is another link to the Open Learning Initiative homepage.

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We have been able to find many basic college courses, or bachelor's degree level courses, but would love to find masters in secondary education options, too.  Please let me know if you find any free masters degree courses that I could highlight on FreelyEducate.com! 

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It's Free, It's a Little Obnoxious, but It's Definitely a Fun Typing Program for Elementary Students

Our 8yo asked me if I could teach her to "type fast."  I know a great freebie for that! Our older kids enjoyed Dance Mat Typing.  The audio might annoy the adult in you, but since it's made for ages 7-11, an age that not only tolerates annoying sounds, but makes them on a frequent basis, the kids love this site.

Here is a description from Dance Mat Typing:

Welcome to Dance Mat Typing, an introduction to touch typing for children aged 7 - 11 years. Each of the 4 levels are divided into 3 stages. Begin at Level 1 and build up your skills gradually through to Level 4. Stage 1 introduces the home row, and stages 2 - 12 will:

• Recap the previous lesson
• Introduce new letters typed with the left and right hands
• Practise all previously learnt letters
• Reward the typist with a mini song and dance

Why learn to touch type?
When you can do it well, touch typing is the fastest way to write. Many people can soon learn to touch type faster than they can write with a pen.

How to Get this Freebie:  Visit Dance Mat Typing

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