Fun Educational Websites!

Below is an article that I wrote for Healthy Valley Magazine's April 2012 issue. It's a compilation and descriptions of some awesome websites that parents and students can take advantage of, and all of the sites are FREE!

Kids Know It is “the Internet's most popular educational website since 1998.” Children can find educational activities, products, movies, music, games, articles, text books, learning programs and worksheets. There are even posters and podcasts available. http://www.kidsknowit.com/

"FunBrain is the #1 site for online educational games for kids of all ages.” It offers games, books, comics and the lost art of Mad Libs. The site helps students improve their math, grammar, science, spelling and history knowledge in fun, versatile ways that keep kids wanting to play, without realizing that they are improving their academic skills. http://www.funbrain.com/

Starfall is a wonderful site dedicated to literacy that teaches children to read with phonics. Its systematic approach and phonemic awareness practice are perfect for preschool through second grade students as well as those in special education and English language development programs. Starfall keeps literacy fun and motivating, so it is a site that also appeals to struggling readers. http://www.starfall.com/

Jefferson Lab, also known as JLab, comes from a world-class research facility in Virginia, and is considered a highly valued partner by the local, regional and national education community. JLab focuses specifically on science and math through a collection of science videos (produced by Jefferson Lab Science) and recorded lectures, both via the Science Cinema portal. Students can learn math and science through games and test their knowledge and receive specific feedback through the SOL Tests section. http://education.jlab.org/

Smithsonian Education offers to students so much knowledge about just about everything. Unlike most educational sites, this site does not focus solely on academic knowledge; although there is plenty of it. It invites exploration because it is full of cool stuff that kids are unlikely to discover and experience without traveling around the globe. http://smithsonianeducation.org

Coolmath-games is all about math. As the names suggests, many cool math games can be found here, but not only that. There are math lessons from basic arithmetic to pre-calculus that are simple to understand and that go step by step. The lessons are short, so students have to spend a lot of time to be successful. The three sites that make up Coolmath are http:/coolmath.com/, http://coolmath4kids.com/, http://coolmath-games.com/.

Signed,
Lora the Stucy Coach

Translation Stick-Ups YouTube Video

I hope this blog finds you doing well and being successful in your studies. I want to let you know that another Lora the Study Coach video has been posted on YouTube. This one is entitled "Translation Stick-Ups" and uses Math as the sample subject material. Of course, this activity, like all the others, is useful to study and learn information for any subject. I hope you like it and find it helpful.

Here is the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubi_R9CRpBY
You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel with this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/LoraTheStudyCoach?ob=0&feature=results_main

Signed,
Lora the Study Coach

YouTube Video Showing Columns Activity

I hope that you are doing well and are enjoying this second, and perhaps most challenging, semester.

Because this semester is chock full of state assessments, I have recently uploaded a Lora the Study Coach video on YouTube.com for you. It demonstrates the “Columns” activity found in The Study Coach’s Easy Study Manual and gives attention to the small details that make this a very effective activity for learning vocabulary in all subject areas; historical dates, events, and people; scientific theories and laws; mathematical theorems and equations and their variables; and more. I hope that you find the video useful!

Link to Lora the Study Coach “Columns” video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNIMhPlHH8c
You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel with this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/LoraTheStudyCoach?ob=0&feature=results_main

Signed,
Lora the Study Coach

Wisdom

Wisdom is more than knowledge. It's knowledge coupled with proper judgment, which generally comes with life experiences. We often consider grandparents as wise, because they seem to know all the tricks to getting something done right. Grandparents have lived for such a long time that they have learned what to do and what not to do through their copious experiences. They are so capable of taking in so much information and coming up with the right answer. This is not knowledge; this is wisdom.

Here is what the Bible has to say about wisdom in Proverbs 3:13-16.
13 Blessed are those who find wisdom,
those who gain understanding,
14 for she is more profitable than silver
and yields better returns than gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.

I am not pretending to be a Biblical scholar, but let me sum this up. Wisdom is more precious than any other riches a person could think of.

In my opinion, wisdom keeps you alive and helps you make good choices in life.

With that said, go and do your best in school. Take from your teachers all the knowledge that they have to give, because without knowledge, you can't have wisdom. And wisdom is the key to many of life's great riches.

Signed,
Lora the Study Coach

Do You Leave Scars?

A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take out a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stomp on it, and really mess it up, but not to rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out, and look at how scarred and dirty it was. She then told them to tell it they were sorry. Now, even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind and that those scars would never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix the paper. That is what happens when a person bullies another person - they may say they’re sorry, but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home. ~ Author Unkown (shared by Charlene Freed-Geimer)

Signed,
Lora the Study Coach

It's Thanksgiving!

Wow! It's hard to believe that we are already at this time of year, to me the time of year to give thanks for all the little things. This year, I encourage you to give thanks for your brain, your health, the food that gives you energy, the roof over your head, and for the clothes that keep you covered. Yes, there are many things that we are not thankful for or that we feel we are lacking, but think how life would be if you didn't have a brain that worked, if you were too ill to live a meaningful life, if you were literally starving to death, or if you had no clothing to cover up with.

Food, shelter, clothing, responsibility you can handle (not too much or too little), free time, and friends. If you have these, then you have it all and are lacking nothing.

Signed,
Lora the Study Coach

But I Don't Want To!

Every day for the past few weeks, I've thought I have to write a new blog for the web page. Have I done it? No, not until this very moment. It just seemed like too much work to actually press the link on my toolbar. And then I'd have to log in and wait. Then I'd have to actually write something short. Wow, it could actually kill me!

Guess what. I'm not dieing. And you won't die either when you finally decide to do what must be done. It can be so hard to get going on something that you just aren't interested in, but all you have to do is force yourself to get started, and then you'll be done before you know it. Well, if you don't get it completely done, at least you'll have a good start on it.

With school work, it never pays to delay. (Hey, that's a great slogan!) Sure, you can copy from a friend, but come exam time, you'll wish you had just done the work yourself. And if you delay too long, all you have is a pile of work that is impossible to complete with any sort of quality. School work is just like exercising for some of us: we want to exercise, but it takes more effort to get started than it does to actually exercise.

Signed,
Lora the Study Coach