Website Wednesday
In less than two weeks, the kids will be home for the summer and it becomes 24-7 until Septemeber. All that government-sponsored free time (public schools are paid for by taxes) is gone when the school doors swing open on the last day of school and hordes of screaming, happy kids run to embrace summer freedom. Ah, the idylls of youth!
But since it’s against the law and common sense to leave these school-free cherubs alone, parents throughout the country are frantically planning summer activities for them. Now I’ll leave the big stuff like camps and summer school and cooking classes and swimming to the parental units and concentrate on the small stuff: little fillers to pull out of the hat when the dreaded cry wails up of: I’m bored.
Neo K12 is such a filler and a pretty fantastic one: http://www.neok12.com/
This site is composed of short educational videos running from about 2+ to 8+ minutes on a whole range of topics which seem to include all school subjects except languages. As their name says, they’ll interest kids from K to 12.
Their mission statement says: We...are committed to cataloging the best free online educational videos from across the internet at one place. We watch and review each and every video to ensure they are safe and appropriate for K - 12 kids. We also check the accuracy of the content and catalog it under the relevant categories and topics.
What mom (OK, that’s sexist) could ask for more?
The home page shows you a list of categories under which are listed topics. Click on the category and you get a listing of the videos and their running time. I did the math with one topic Acid and Bases and the running time of the videos is close to 45 minutes.
All the topics range from K to Grade 12 level. How do I know this? Under the American Revolution, there are two videos with the Sesame Street puppets explaining it.
Two minor quibbles and a two major pluses:
1- I can’t find who the people are behind this site. I would like to know who’s making the selection decisions. (But having said that, they do look like excellent selections.)
2- Unless you can tell from the small picture accompanying each topic (for example: Sesame Street characters) you can’t tell the grade level until you play the videos.
3 - The pluses: There are no advertisements and it’s FREE.
So take a look at Neo K-12. It’s a nice gift to parents facing the long, hot summer.
In less than two weeks, the kids will be home for the summer and it becomes 24-7 until Septemeber. All that government-sponsored free time (public schools are paid for by taxes) is gone when the school doors swing open on the last day of school and hordes of screaming, happy kids run to embrace summer freedom. Ah, the idylls of youth!
But since it’s against the law and common sense to leave these school-free cherubs alone, parents throughout the country are frantically planning summer activities for them. Now I’ll leave the big stuff like camps and summer school and cooking classes and swimming to the parental units and concentrate on the small stuff: little fillers to pull out of the hat when the dreaded cry wails up of: I’m bored.
Neo K12 is such a filler and a pretty fantastic one: http://www.neok12.com/
This site is composed of short educational videos running from about 2+ to 8+ minutes on a whole range of topics which seem to include all school subjects except languages. As their name says, they’ll interest kids from K to 12.
Their mission statement says: We...are committed to cataloging the best free online educational videos from across the internet at one place. We watch and review each and every video to ensure they are safe and appropriate for K - 12 kids. We also check the accuracy of the content and catalog it under the relevant categories and topics.
What mom (OK, that’s sexist) could ask for more?
The home page shows you a list of categories under which are listed topics. Click on the category and you get a listing of the videos and their running time. I did the math with one topic Acid and Bases and the running time of the videos is close to 45 minutes.
All the topics range from K to Grade 12 level. How do I know this? Under the American Revolution, there are two videos with the Sesame Street puppets explaining it.
Two minor quibbles and a two major pluses:
1- I can’t find who the people are behind this site. I would like to know who’s making the selection decisions. (But having said that, they do look like excellent selections.)
2- Unless you can tell from the small picture accompanying each topic (for example: Sesame Street characters) you can’t tell the grade level until you play the videos.
3 - The pluses: There are no advertisements and it’s FREE.
So take a look at Neo K-12. It’s a nice gift to parents facing the long, hot summer.
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