Another confession (AND the Top 100 Educational Websites for 2012)

When I was a new mom, I told myself that I'd never let my kids watch TV or play computer games at a young age. Like fellow homeschool/work-at-home mom Blessie, I wanted my kids to "play outdoors, read books, and build things from scratch." (Yes, we homeschool moms are of the idealistic sort, aren't we?! LOL! ;-)


But, as most people probably know by now (through reviews I've written, like the ones here, here, here and here) I DO let my kids watch TV/DVDs (*gasp*) and I DO let them use the computer! In fact, I don't think our homeschool life would be as frugal and fun without it (the computer, at least!) *NOTE: The key word for our family now is frugal! He, he! :-)



Don't get me wrong though - our kids, like Mommy Blessie's, still get to play outdoors, read books (well, have books read to them at this point in time - two favorites are "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and "The Runaway Bunny"), and build things from scratch (or recyclable items). We also like listening to audio stories, especially from The Story Home.


However, I believe in the need for balance. And, since I still haven't achieved my ULTIMATE dream of being a fulltime stay at home teachermama (I work from home most days of the week), most days I need time to work and so I need to keep the kids occupied - and A LOT of times, this involves the TV and computer! (Please forgive me!)

Photo source here.

So it pleased me a lot when fellow homeschool mom Racquel recently posted about the top 100 Educational Websites for 2012, which came out on the Homeschool.com website. I browsed through the list (you can do so too by clicking here), and found some of our own favorite websites listed there, among which were:


http://pbskids.org - Tim LOVES playing "The Cat in the Hat" games here! Seussville is another favorite site! Yes, we're Cat in the Hat fans! ;-)


www.starfall.com - I LOVED how Tim learned a lot of his phonics just by exploring the website - so much that I even wrote a review about it here! ;-)

www.dltk-kids.com - When we were still in Timor, I printed a lot of worksheets and fun activity pages and got a lot of craft ideas from this site.

http://www.coolmath.com - Tim likes playing the games for preschoolers.

www.MathUSee.com - We're praying that we'll be able to get the Math-U-See (MUS) Primer or Alpha set for Tim sometime this year - pray with us, too, please! (By the way, MUS has local representatives here in the Philippines i.e. Noel and Tasha Mison, who may be contacted through mathuseephil@yahoo.com, or mobile numbers 0922-8118378, 0918-4324661.)

www.kidshealth.org - I let Tim explore this website sometimes. Though I need to be available for any questions or difficulties he might have, especially with reading instructions. ;-) *He can only read CVC words and some sight words now.

http://totallytots.blogspot.com - These have cool, fun ideas for toddlers! ;-) I got inspired to do some sensory activities for Rysse and some fun transferring activities from here!


If you want to check out the other recommended sites, click here. 


Also, Mommy Blessie (it's SO obvious that we're friends, huh?! haha!) wrote a good post about "Making the Computer Child-friendly," which you may find helpful. She provides links to other good sites for kids, as recommended by fellow Catholic homeschool mom Abby Sasscer (who, incidentally, wrote a book for Catholic Heritage Curricula, the curriculum we are trying to follow using! he he! ;-)