Showing posts with label Good Software/Website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Good Software/Website. Show all posts

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Curious Times - Indian Newspaper For Kids

 

                                           



In this fast paced world where most of the news are often not fit for the child, finding a way to keep our children up to date with current news and happenings around the world is a difficult task. I was looking for a newspaper for kids that covers all major areas and is clean and easy to read. I came across - Curious Times and wanted to share this great find with you all.

Curious times is India's first news website for children. Their weekly newspaper is the one we use at home. This is free to read and has short articles that cover the following areas:

Current events
National and international news
Sports news
Science news
Technology news
Space news
Climate news as well as
Important days, dates and events.


It also features art and poetry of kids. 



In addition to this, you can access news by grade level on their website. Don't forget to check out the Funtastic section that features - Joke of the day, quote of the day and many more.






Sunday, November 6, 2022

Centervention - For Social Emotional Learning

 

                                                  



Dear Reader, thank you for your support for our book - Talking Fingers. It's been quite some time since I blogged about resources for our children. Let's get back to it with getting to know an awesome website for teaching social emotional learning skills to our children on the spectrum. This is going to be a long post as this website offers five different programs which in turn have multiple levels. The five programs are:

Zoo Academy - Once the kiddo creates an avatar, they can start playing the various games that focus on six key areas:

Impulse Control - the ability to control your behaviours
 Emotion regulation - the ability to identify and manage your feelings
 Empathy - the ability to identify and understand other's feelings
 Cooperation - working together with others as a team
 Social initiation - knowing when and how to work and play with others and
 Communication - what you say and how you say it. 

The child is introduced to various animals that are struggling in these key areas and he/she has to help them. This removes the focus from the child and they learn well in the process of teaching/helping someone else. The games are short but very helpful in reinforcing the skills.

Zoo U - This is the next level and there are thirty games here, five each for the six skills mentioned above. They focus on the next level of mastering these crucial skills. The games are locked and open soon as he/she completes the level. The best part is the personal feedback they receive that guides them to master the various mini games and learn many important aspects along the way.

SS Grin - This program is my personal favourite as it focusses on skills that are so important but unfortunately not given a lot of importance in many other similar resources. The skills included are:

Respect - being kind, caring about the feelings of others, sharing, listening and being responsible for what we say and do.

Think ahead - considering consequences, identifying good role models and setting goals for the future.

Stop and think - thinking about the consequences of our actions and making good decisions when faced with temptation

Communication - what we say and how we say it to help others understand us and listening to understand others.

Check it out - understanding the situation without making assumptions to see things from other person's point of view

Building friendship - knowing what qualities make a good friend and taking the initial step toward making friends

Cooperation - working together toward a common goal

Emotion regulation - understanding how your emotions work and using strategies to manage them.

The many levels in this program will contribute towards a better understanding of these skills as your kiddo uses them to solve the various difficulties they encounter in the games.

Hall of heroes - This program is older children and has the feel of a video game. The six skills focused in this program are - Impulse control, Emotion regulation, Empathy, cooperation, Social initiation and communication. Though these skills are the same as those in the first two programs, here they are dealt with in depth via multiple games that encourage your kiddo to apply these skills as they navigate the different scenarios in these games.

Stories in motion - This is an interactive program for Autistics as they create personalized social narratives using dialogues and thought options. The various scenarios included are - anxiety, bullying, personal space, coping, perspective taking, sportsmanship, transitions, etc.


                                               

























                 In addition to these amazing interactive games, the website also offers free resources for all the skills covered in this program! I am sure you must be thinking that this must be a very expensive one. This can be purchased as annual license to their website and let's your child explore all the programs. I recommend starting from the beginning level as it builds a solid foundation. Now coming to the price; single user license costs $12/year. Shocked by the pocket friendly price, right? I felt the same! What are you waiting for? Go ahead and check out the website:

https://www.centervention.com/

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Huge Collection Of FREE AAC Books

 

                     Dear readers, today's post is very special as I am super excited to share with you all a wonderful website - Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities, that features a collection of over 400 AAC adapted books for our children and the icing on the cake is that is is totally free! A huge, huge thank you to the people behind this awesome venture. 


                Finding literature adapter for our early AAC readers is a tough task and this is indeed a treasure trove. I will share some screenshots from two books , the first one is - A Good day by Kevin Henkes ( the first three images) and the second one is - A chair for my mother by Vera B. Williams( the last three images) . 



                           
















The books can be utilized in four different ways:

-  Simply open the books as a power point and print them or read them online

- Use the extended literacy guides. For example, in the book, A chair for mother, the guide offers extended learning opportunities for our children, one example is introducing money and counting it, etc.

- Use the 'Shows' option, wherein, the power points play in an interactive manner and your kiddo can control them through a mouse. A few books have 'songs' option too.

- For children with visual difficulties, there is an option to view the books on a black background.


I am sure you're as impressed as I am with this website. Without further delay, check it out:






 

Friday, April 22, 2022

Good Website - Coolmath4kids

 


                                                     



Coolmath4kids is a very good website that provide a really good collection of math resources for our children. It caters to K-6th grade math . 

There are many different sections in the website for you to chose the appropriate resource for your kiddo. In the Math games section, you can choose games from - addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and fractions. You can also select games by grades. In the Math lessons, you can chose lessons to enhance your child's math skills in various aspects of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions. In the Quiz section, you can play games and even get a certificate.

Their Brain Teasers section contains different puzzles, but you will need a pen and paper to copy the puzzles and complete them offline. You can check the solutions once you are done. The best feature of this website is the Manipulatives section. Here you can use different manipulatives like  - Ten frame, Base ten blocks, Number line and Pattern blocks. Your kiddo will have a great time using them online to learn many cool math lessons.














Do  check out these games with your child and I hope you found this review helpful. As always, don't hesitate to  reach out using the contact form on the blog.




Saturday, December 18, 2021

Good Website - Live Worksheets

 



                                                



Is your kiddo bored of traditional worksheets and you're looking for new ways to expand  his/her education? Why not try something new? Live worksheets is a great website that turns traditional worksheets into live worksheets, wherein, you have new features such as multiple choice, drag and drop, join with arrows and sometimes even audio and video! You can create your own interactive worksheets or search through thousands of worksheets created by others. There is a huge variety of free worksheets that cover many subjects like Math, English, Science and more. Take a look:














                                                          




I am sure you are looking forward to exploring this website. Without further delay, let me share the link, so that you find some new and exciting ways to keep our kids engaged.


Friday, November 12, 2021

Good Website - Math Games

 


                                           




                It always makes me happy to come across a website that offers quality educational resources for free, a huge thank you to the creators of one such gem - Math Games. Filled with games and worksheets, this website is a go-to resource to develop your kiddo's budding math skills. You can search for resources by grade, they are available from Pre K to Grade 8.  Another option is to search resources by skill; you will find some not-so-easily resources here along with regular ones:

Addition

Algebra

Comparison

Decimals

Division

Measurement

Estimation

Graphing and many, many more...



                                   










Don't forget to check out the worksheets section when you visit the website. I hope you make good use of this website:


Sunday, July 18, 2021

Good Website - Twinkl

 


                                                       



Twinkl website is a one stop resource collection for our children of all age groups and levels of learning. It caters to children as young as one year and all the way to high school. The different subjects like math, English, science and others like art, communication and language, social emotional development and many more are covered. Home schooling packs and school closure packs are an interesting addition to the resources available.




The library has some good books and there is a book club too. The icing on the cake, though, is their Twinkl Go interactive games that you can play on ipad as well as on their website. The games are graded by ages there are many to keep our kids engaged. Let's take a look:











There are many India specific resources for our festivals and school subjects cover CBSE syllabus. You can read more here and there are details about membership too. There is free membership with access to limited resources. Hope you find it useful and helps keeps your kiddo engaged safely at home during these difficult times.






Sunday, February 23, 2020

Learning Games For Kids


 

 

Learning Games For Kids is a website with an amazing collection of games for kids ( Well, you guessed it right, they are educational games!) The games here are  collected from various websites. There are many games that cover a variety of topics like math, geography, science, vocabulary, spelling, literature, and many more.

 

 

 

 

 

                                         

 

Do check out the games without further delay:

https://www.learninggamesforkids.com/