Educational Websites and Games

Recently I have been on a hunt to search for interesting ways for Grace to learn history, science, math, current events, etc. Ways other than just reading. Most if not all of the websites below I have found from other blogs. I thank each and every one of my fellow bloggers for putting lists out there that I can then research and find out which will work best for our own family. So far here are some we have started using this week:

Free Rice : Free Rice is not new to us but in the past Grace was somewhat resistant to using it or even considering it fun. Well, I am happy to report that this week she liked it and we have tried just about every subject they have available. Her favorites have been Spanish, Human Anatomy, and World Landmarks.

Have Fun With History:  We have just touched the surface of what is available on this site. This week she was a short video about the history of WWII. Even though we have moved on up the timeline of history, she still finds WWII interesting and likes to learn new information about it. I plan on using the many videos that are available to enhance whatever history we will be studying in the future.

Cool Math :  Of course Grace hates everything that has to do with math. I have tried just about everything textbook wise to teach her and mostly she grasps concepts at the moment of learning them but a couple months down the road she can't remember how to perform the same function. This does not apply to the basics like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and some fraction work. I hope to also start using Khan Academy to explain certain concepts to her for many subjects, not just math.

Story Bird :  This one I plan on handing over to Grace and let her explore. It looks very interesting. Putting words to illustrations and creating stories.

Arkive :  This is a website all about animals. You can find articles, videos, and lessons. Yesterday we watched a power point presentation about species discovery targeted for her age range. I plan on incorporating this to her lesson plans along with Khan Academy.

Science News For Kids :  Another Science website with articles about all kinds of things. This week Grace went on the sight and picked an article to read about infectious diseases that are spread by animals. I hope to have her find an interesting article to read once a week from this sight.

CNN Student News :  I will have to say the CNN Student News is probably her favorite thing we do each day. Watching a 10 minute news segment that updates her in kid/teen speak what is going on in the world. We do not have cable and typically do not watch any news programs. Up until a month or so ago, unless we told her about it, she really didn't know what was happening in the world.

Last but not least she has started messing around with SAT a Day Questions and a free app for our phone that gives her a SAT Vocab Quiz each day. Ten words for each quiz. Next on the agenda we hope to get her blog back up and running to help market her art that she hopes to start selling in May.

Do you have any interesting websites/games/apps that you recommend for teens? If so please let me know in the comment section so I can go and check it out.