Works for Me Wednesday:Teaching Textbooks & Reading Detective
It's another Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks In My Dryer, and I almost forgot all about it.
Last school year, my oldest and I did nothing but get on each others nerves when it came to her math. She was in 6th grade and I was struggling with understanding how to teach her concepts that I myself was very unclear on. There was no way we were going to survive 7th grade the same way.
A friend suggested I try Teaching Textbooks. She's only been using it for 2 weeks and she loves it. The program runs $150.00 unless you can get it on ebay. It comes with a workbook and CD-Roms. On the CD's a "teacher" gives a lecture while you are able to read along in the workbook or just listen and the computer works out problems as the teacher explains the concept. Then the student is given some practice problems that they are able to work out. If you get it wrong after 2 tries it will take you through the explanation step by step. Then you work out 20 or so problems. The students score on these are automatically kept track of.
The other program she really likes is the Reading Detective. It is a reading comprehension program that is either in book form or on CD-Rom. My oldest loves the computer and we decided to give this a try. The student reads a story and then has to answer a variety of questions. If they score a high enough percentage they are rewarded by being able to play in the "detective arcade" (a variety of games). It's great motivation for her to pay attention to what she's reading.
These two programs thus far are adding more peace to our homeschooling, and so they definately WORK FOR ME!
God bless you as you homeschool. I will keep this recommendation in mind, as I will most likely be homeschooling my 6th grader next year.
ReplyDeleteI have been using Teaching Textbooks for several years and I love it! Unfortunately, after 7th grade it's not interactive and doesn't do the recordkeeping for you, but it's still a good program.
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