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• Book and Product Reviews by Home Schooling Mom, Penny Ray

• Homework: Study Topics for Students: Math, History, Science, Reading, etc.

• Michigan Support Groups

• National Support Groups

• Free Resources for Home Schoolers

• Home School & Educational Associations

• Home Schooling Curriculum & Resources

• Cyber Schools

• Michigan Department of Education Information on Nonpublic and Home Schools (PDF; August 2005)

• GED Hotline 1-800-629-9433 - This hotline has a 24-hour operator service that provides information on local GED classes and testing services. They have an accommodations guide for people taking the GED who have a learning disability.

• Computing With Kids: Top Edutainment Titles Combine Learning, Fun - After testing hundreds of new titles this year, here's our "Best Picks for the Holidays" in the category of children's "edutainment" titles. Edutainment software combines entertainment and learning.

• Featured Educational Websites for Teachers: MarcoPolo - 4 Teachers - Michigan Teacher Network

About Penny Ray: I was a home schooling mom long before I thought I was. You see, my daughter regressed into autism around the time of her first birthday. We began early intervention in the public school system when she was 19 months old and we have always supplemented at home what the public school was doing, always feeling that what the public schools offered was not enough. During this time, I looked for unique products that would help me help my daughter learn at home, (there are many catalogs that sell products for individuals with disabilities and special needs) and one place I never thought to look was home school materials. When I finally gave up on the public schools to begin homeschooling my daughter full time in January of 2008 (my daughter was 8 ˝ years old at the time), I began looking at home school materials and learned that I had missed an incredibly rich treasure chest of innovative, creative products and materials. I suspect if I had known the extent of the materials available, I'd have made the leap to full time homeschooling much sooner. I hope to introduce other parents of children with developmental delays to products that will help them, whether they are full time home schoolers, or home schoolers who supplement with services from a public or private school.

Penny's Book Review: Peterson Directed Handwriting
http://notnewtoautism.blogspot.com/2008/12/peterson-directed-handwriting-tos.html
Penny's Book Review: All About Spelling
http://notnewtoautism.blogspot.com/2008/12/all-about-spelling-tos-homeschool-crew.html
Penny's Book Review: Puppetools
http://notnewtoautism.blogspot.com/2008/12/puppetools-dot-com-tos-homeschool-crew.html
Penny's Book Review: MotherBoard Books "Let's Make A Web Page"
http://notnewtoautism.blogspot.com/2008/12/motherboard-books-lets-make-web-page.html
Penny's Book Review: Trigger Memory Systems
http://notnewtoautism.blogspot.com/2008/12/trigger-memory-systems-education.html
Penny's Book Review: Rime to Read
http://notnewtoautism.blogspot.com/2008/12/rime-to-read-tos-homeschool-review.html
Penny's Book Review: ALEKS
http://notnewtoautism.blogspot.com/2008/12/aleks-tos-homeschool-crew-review.html

Penny's Book Review: Time4Learning
http://notnewtoautism.blogspot.com/2008/12/time4learning-tos-homeschool-crew.html
Penny's Book Review: And Then Mama Said..."It Takes Time To Learn To Read"
http://notnewtoautism.blogspot.com/2008/12/splish-and-then-mama-said-it-takes-time.html

Support Groups in Michigan    (top)

National Support Groups    (top)

Free Resources for Home Schoolers    (top)

Learning Page is a huge collection of professionally produced instructional materials for you to download and print. Lesson plans, books, worksheets, and much more can be found on the site. Some items require a free membership to view or download.
 

TestPrepReview - TestPrepReview.com is a free service "created to provide free practice test questions for students in a variety of career situations." Includes online review for ACT, SAT, GED, LSAT, GMAT, MCAT, ParaPro, Nursing, and many more.

Collection of Games, Experiments, Projects and Diversions For Parents & Teachers

Discovery Channel's Free Online Teacher/Educator Clipart Gallery - Discovery School now makes it easy to add graphics to your next project, whether it's for home or school. Choose from hundreds of original clip art pieces, including animations!

Homeschooling/Asperger's Syndrome Site "Kids Who Are Different"

At Web English Teacher "educators can take advantage of online technology to share ideas and to benefit from the work of others. Beginning teachers can find guidance; experienced teachers can find inspiration. Think of it as the faculty library and faculty workroom on a global scale. Because the most important part of teaching isn't the technology."

Chart Jungle - Free printable and reproducible charts for use during infancy, the preschool years, kindergarten, and other learning stages. Use the charts provided to help you get more organized in your life and activities.
 

Sample Curriculum and Plans for Education (SCoPE) Site - The Sample Curriculum and Plans for Education (SCoPE) Site offers practical classroom support to all Michigan education professionals. The site is unlike any other teacher resource now available on the Internet.
 

ABC TEACH - A quality educational site offering 5000+FREE printable theme units, word puzzles, writing forms, book report forms, math, ideas, lessons and much more. Great for new teachers, student teachers, homeschooling and teachers who like creative ways to teach.

Home School/Educational Associations     (top)

HIS Place for Help in School - HIS Place for Help in School is a site with unique, high-quality resources expressly designed to help parents of children with special needs. You will find links to educational resource sites for many disabilities, links to sites for legal information about special education students' rights and advocacy, and practical help both in links to suppliers and in tips for teaching and working with the special learner.
 

The Global Schoolhouse - Combines smart teaching ideas with web publishing, video conferencing and other online tools that bridge geographic gaps, allowing young people around the world to learn together. Global SchoolNet is a growing international network of educators, who engage in online project-based learning activities.

Experiencia: Program Connects Classroom and Home Instruction Through Immersive Learning for 3^rd - 6^th Graders - What is Experiencia? Experiencia is pioneering a proprietary learning system, Immersive Learning™, that enhances and connects classroom and home instruction with vivid learning experiences at interactive simulation sites. Experiencia programs transform teaching and learning by brining theory and best practices to life.

Resource from a Parent: "A viable K-12 education is available beyond bricks and mortar to any parent or family who might want to access it. For an example, visit K12 Online Home School."

MI CLiMB - Clarifying Language in Michigan Benchmarks - A Resource Developed by Teachers for the Michigan Department of Education. Provides clarifications, resources, instructional and assessment examples for five content areas: English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Fine Arts. To view the Michigan Benchmarks, click here (PDF).

 
Graphic Organizers: A graphic organizer is an instructional tool used to illustrate a student or class's prior knowledge about a topic or section of text; specific examples include the K-W-L-H Technique and the Anticipation/Reaction Guide. Other organizers include the Spider Map, the Series of Events Chain, the Continuum Scale, the Compare/Contrast Matrix and several more.

Cyber Schools     (top)

AZ Virtual Schools Thrive, But Not For Everyone - Virtual public school, which received the approval of the Arizona Legislature last year, sounds much easier than it is, according to a Scottsdale parent whose daughters are being educated that way. "It's not for everybody," Siamak Ghaffari said. "There's an extensive amount of material. Just because you're sitting at home doesn't mean there isn't work to do."

CA Cyber School For Kids Logs In - Virtual academy is state's first for elementary students.

CO Testing Rules Sock Colorado Cyber School - A dispute erupted when the ratings came out on the Branson Alternative School. State officials marked Branson down as one of the worst schools in the state, but angry supporters blame brick-and-mortar rules for artificially depressing the online school’s results.