Being a modern parent means embracing the power of online education and teaching your kid to use the Internet in a productive manner. Try to show your kid that the world web is not only about watching funny cat videos and sending emojis on Facebook with the next four amazing educational websites.
1. Skillshare
Skillshare is a creative community where you can master new skills or gain expertise in various professional areas ranging from creative writing and web design to music and game creation. It’s a productive way to keep your elder kids busy during the breaks and let them develop their creativity, while gaining new experiences. For instance, you can take a screen writing course by James Franco or learn marketing basics from Seth Godin. Skillshare is an awesome way to test and try various career options and make sure your kid chooses the right college major. It’s one of the best educational websites available. The community is free to join and enroll to a limited amount of classes per month, whereas going premium (8-10$ per month) will let you access all the classes, plus unlock offline access to supporting materials and videos.
Besides, the service can be highly beneficial for both parents and kids! If you have expertise in a certain area and can convert it into a series of easy-to-follow videos, maybe you should become a Skillshare educator yourself? Some of them claim to make around 1.000$ per night.
2. The 11+ Tutors in Essex
The Eleven Plus Tutors in Essex team offers an innovative new service with virtual lessons conducted with the help of BigBlueButton virtual classroom technology. It allows students to collaborate with the mentor online via chat and webcam, plus interact with all the resources in real time. Along with their VLE, the service offers conventional 1-to-1 private tuition. These sessions are targeted at primary school children to help them successfully pass the 11 Plus exam and gain a prestigious grammar school place. If you opt for a private session the tutor will visit your child at a suitable time, whereas exam preparation sessions are usually held online. Your child will be mentored by a fully qualified teacher with a respective degree and certifications.
Also, the service offers amazing creative writing classes where your child will master common writing techniques establish their own writing style and increase overall literacy. Learning to write compelling essays is one of the key factors in passing any examination successfully and entering a prestigious school afterwards
3. Duolingo
Duolingo is an incredible free language learning website (and app) that gives actual results fast. My kid started to read and translate short stories in French within just a month! I love the gamification elements included into each lesson with points added for each activity that could later be redeemed as special boosters. There’s a limited amount of lives (attempts) to pass each assignment and an instant in-lesson grading system.
So far you can learn French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Swedish and Danish language with Duolingo (plus English if you are not a native-speaker). This year, the developers plan to add Russian, Polish, Turkish and Romanian languages.
4. BrainPop
BrainPop was launched back in 1999, yet it’s still one of the best educational resources out there! Fun interactive classes are available in numerous subjects from sciences to basic engineering. Learning goes in fun and engaging manner with knowledge presented in form of short animated movies and quizzes. The most difficult concepts are broken down to simple points and topics introduced by the website characters.
BrainPop has been successfully used in numerous schools around the US and gotten numerous praises from parents homeschooling their kids, along with top accolades from prestigious educational institution and the government. Prices vary depending on the type of subscription you choose.