Actually fun educational games + Activities for late elementary kids?
December 13, 2020 12:57 PM Subscribe
I have some Kids in my life who are doing online school like every kid. They are struggling, and their teacher is... out of her element.
I remember playing a lot of decently fun educational computer games for learning math and english... what are the good ones right now?
I will take all the Math and Reading help we can get!
I remember playing a lot of decently fun educational computer games for learning math and english... what are the good ones right now?
I will take all the Math and Reading help we can get!
My kids like Pet Bingo from Duck Duck Moose & Khan Academy. I'm not sure if the google play app will let you run it on a chromebook; you might need some kind of tablet.
posted by belladonna at 2:07 PM on December 13, 2020
posted by belladonna at 2:07 PM on December 13, 2020
We've been using the hell out of IXL and Prodigy for math.
posted by mhoye at 2:21 PM on December 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by mhoye at 2:21 PM on December 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Oh also the kids are in 4th grade
posted by wowenthusiast at 3:10 PM on December 13, 2020
posted by wowenthusiast at 3:10 PM on December 13, 2020
If you know about digital circuits, The Nand Game is great. It does need a human mentor to put some flesh on the bones, though.
posted by pguertin at 4:00 PM on December 13, 2020
posted by pguertin at 4:00 PM on December 13, 2020
We’re in a similar situation. I second bq’s suggestion of Beast Academy for math.
Literacy is intended to be authentic communication, so I’m less eager to suggest an automated solution there. To help kids build their skills, support wide reading of just about anything they are interested in, even if it’s not your favorite or if it doesn’t feel academic-y. Getting good at reading means doing a lot of reading, and kids will only read at that volume with the kind of enthusiasm necessary to keep reading if they actually are excited about what they’re reading. If they don’t already know what they like as readers, you might do some online research for recent children’s/middle grades titles, giving them lots of options and not taking it personally or requiring them to finish a book if they’re not into it. Borrowing digital books from your library makes this kind of book-sampling do-able and affordable.
For writing, look for opportunities for kids to write for an authentic audience—writing the family holiday letter, writing an email to their teacher when they have a question, posting online reviews of products on Amazon (using your or their guardian’s account, noting that it’s a review by a kid). Feeling like we actually have something to communicate when we write—and that someone is actually going to read it—is a huge motivator for caring about/being interested in learning about/being willing to take direction about improving the clarity and quality of writing.
posted by TEA at 4:44 AM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
Literacy is intended to be authentic communication, so I’m less eager to suggest an automated solution there. To help kids build their skills, support wide reading of just about anything they are interested in, even if it’s not your favorite or if it doesn’t feel academic-y. Getting good at reading means doing a lot of reading, and kids will only read at that volume with the kind of enthusiasm necessary to keep reading if they actually are excited about what they’re reading. If they don’t already know what they like as readers, you might do some online research for recent children’s/middle grades titles, giving them lots of options and not taking it personally or requiring them to finish a book if they’re not into it. Borrowing digital books from your library makes this kind of book-sampling do-able and affordable.
For writing, look for opportunities for kids to write for an authentic audience—writing the family holiday letter, writing an email to their teacher when they have a question, posting online reviews of products on Amazon (using your or their guardian’s account, noting that it’s a review by a kid). Feeling like we actually have something to communicate when we write—and that someone is actually going to read it—is a huge motivator for caring about/being interested in learning about/being willing to take direction about improving the clarity and quality of writing.
posted by TEA at 4:44 AM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by bq at 1:07 PM on December 13, 2020