Home Schooling Resources - Online Apps etc.

dUnKle

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HELP !!!!!

Ok, Im balancing "working" from home and trying to educate my 6 year old
She has a few minor issues and is a little behind due to these with her writing (her reading is very advanced, as to are most of her practical and IT skills)\

The school has produced a few resources, but to be honest they are very limited and not "fun"

Can anyone recommend anything suitable for Year 2 / Key Stage 1 that can be put on an iPad that will help with writing and maths ?
If on iPad I know will keep her interest that bit more - we have access to Apple Pencil as well, so anything that utilises that would be ideal

I remember when I was a kid, BBC had "Look and Read" that featured "The magic pencil" - it drew letters, "up and down, around and flick" etc.
Something like that to help her writing would be great

Or something that I could put words in and it would ask her to spell, and she had to use the Apple Pencil to spell them ?

She is doing brilliantly and we are doing it in exercise books, but I know she would find it more "fun" if was interactive on the iPad

Oh, and as a quick aside, but related - I am trying to print some of the resources school produces for her off via Ipad
Things like spelling sheets and timetables - however, I save these as "photos" and then print them out, but when they print off, the pictures are much to small and don't accommodate a full sheet of A4 paper - hopefully someone can sort me for this too

Cheers

All the best

Dunk
 
We used Carol Vorderman for maths. She has her own page with a bunch of videos and little games for basic maths and can be done on an ipad. It's subscription so a few pounds a month I think but my daughter seemed to improve while she was doing it. She's a little older though so not sure if suitable for your daughter. Might be worth looking in to though
 
Twinkl is a great resource and the whole thing was opened up for free in the first lockdown, not sure about now but there are also plenty of free resources, its something a lot of teachers use


otherwise jump on some of the facebook groups, I have found some can be really good for helping out on finding things for various ages

search for twinkl parents group, its run by twinkl and will list resources plus you can ask questions there

another was "homeschooling kids through coronavirus outbreak" and also I know you picked english and writing but "help your kids maths" group is useful too

The twinkl one is the best IMO, I used tons of it during lockdown one
 
Cheers guys.
Will get looking

keep suggestions coming, just need find something that “clicks” with her
 
for spelling we use ed shed on the ipad which is the schools system
 
Another vote for Maths Factor with Carol - she is very good at explaining/ showing examples, lots of games too.

We also use Education City - it was free last time.

Another one is the Oak Academy, online videos from Reception upto High school. Its OK & free (Be warned though, while you cant fault peoples time and effort for setting up a free online education tool, you can provide constructive criticism on some of the most dullest driest delivery known to man... )

If you want to get a 6 year old engaged - get some chalk pens and write on the window/ glass or get a roll of magic white board - sticks any where. 👍
 
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Does anyone know of anything like the old bbc “magic pen” thing as an app that uses the Apple Pencil and helps with the writing and shaping of letters

Daughter struggles with her penmanship (her spelling is good) and struggles with shape of letters and how to form them

something that she could “following the line” etc on iPad would be ideal
 
Twinkl is fantastic and most primary teachers' 'go to' site.

We subscribed to Busy Things for our 5 and 6 year old. That's fantastic. Lots of fun games and mostly very self-explanatory.
 
Does anyone know of anything like the old bbc “magic pen” thing as an app that uses the Apple Pencil and helps with the writing and shaping of letters

Daughter struggles with her penmanship (her spelling is good) and struggles with shape of letters and how to form them

something that she could “following the line” etc on iPad would be ideal
There are a few, but the good ones are paid for.

Nelson and PenPals are the two most used ones in my experience. Both offer some free resources on their websites.
 
Seems as good a place as any to ask a linked question
Is it possible to get a router / laptop / home device to not access certain web sites during certain times ?

so for example, between 9 and 3 weekdays it will not access YouTube ?
My partners daughter is at secondary school and gets “distracted”. She is a good kid but can’t be supervised all day.
 
Seems as good a place as any to ask a linked question
Is it possible to get a router / laptop / home device to not access certain web sites during certain times ?

so for example, between 9 and 3 weekdays it will not access YouTube ?
My partners daughter is at secondary school and gets “distracted”. She is a good kid but can’t be supervised all day.

Each ecosystem has various controls. We use Google Family Link. You can set time windows and limits at the device level. At the individual app level you can set daily limits but not time windows. At least I don't think you can.

We also use Microsoft Family for our Windows machines - this does let you set per-app time windows. Don't think it goes as far as per-website time limits but research would be needed.

For example here is limiting Chrome to one hour that can be used between 4pm and 6pm:

1610190535628.png
 

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