ABCya: A Great Library of Educational Games

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative, Just For Fun, Technology

Published with Permission
Written by Andy Harris
www.aharrisbooks.net
www.TOSMagazine.com

Computer games are here to stay. There’s no denying it. There is something extremely compelling about video games, especially for today’s kids. Some games are not appropriate for kids, and it is right to be nervous about them. However, some games can be useful reinforcement tools for your lessons. If you can find a fun way to reinforce skills in math, reading, typing, or science, maybe you should reinforce them.

ABCya (abcya.com) is a website containing dozens of games written by frustrated schoolteachers who could not find quality educational games easily and couldn’t afford the few quality games they found. The games are available for free on the website and are grouped by age level and topic. The site does feature Google ad-word advertising, but the ads are small and unobtrusive and are mainly visible on the home page. Each game page hosts an ad, but I didn’t see anything objectionable as I used the site.

Although the quality of the games varies, they are all well made, and most are quite entertaining. They were created with the public school audience in mind, so there are a few themes (there’s a Halloween game in the K–1 section) you’ll want to be alert to. All the games use Flash technology, so they’ll work fine on any reasonably modern computer. They should play on Android devices (although many games rely on the keyboard) but sadly will not work on iPhones or iPads. A few of the more popular games have been converted to apps and are available for 99 cents each. (more…)

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MyCollege – Make College Work for You So You Do Not Have to Pay for It!

Informative, Preparing for College, Single Parents, Technology

Published with Permission
Written by Clifford Stumme
www.TOSMagazine.com

High school graduation is the pinnacle of home school success, but what comes after? You have set your child up for success. From reading lessons at age 3 to finding just the right math curriculum for algebra in high school, you have done everything that you could to make graduation successful and to prepare your child for the “real world.” However, some time, around ninth grade perhaps, something began looming on the academic horizon. You thought, “How will we ever have that much money?” and “Will he be able to pass the ACT or the SAT?” and “For that matter, which test should he take?” and “Where can I get financial aid?”

This unspeakable fear was . . . college.

Most people believe that a four-year degree at a cost of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, is the only way to do college. For years, parents and students have subjected themselves to outrageous tuition fees and years of loan repayment, but there is a way to escape all of that. (more…)

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Free Music Software

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative, Technology

Published with Permission
Written by Andy Harris
www.aharrisbooks.net
www.TOSMagazine.com

This month we look over a number of wonderful free tools for creating and enjoying music. Quite a bit of excellent free software is available.

Audio Mixing With Audacity

The most straightforward class of audio tools involves recording and manipulating sounds. Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) is a marvelous tool for this job. Use it with a microphone to record music or speech, import audio in wav, mp3, or ogg formats, and manipulate the sound waves directly. Once you have recorded or imported a sound, you can tweak it in hundreds of ways: add digital effects play it backwards, cut out parts you don’t need, and much more.

Audacity is a multi-track editor, which means you can record several different audio samples and place them in layers for interaction. (more…)

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