Ah, September. For me, September, more than January, was always the start of the new year. I’m still a recovering academic, so I may need to go out and buy some new pencils and a notebook just to curb the shaking. For those of you with kids going back to school, here are a few useful sites to extend and enhance classroom learning:
The New York Times Learning Network has articles on current events, geared for grades 3-12, with vocabulary words and placenames (optionally) linked to definitions and maps. It also offers a Daily News Quiz, a Word of the Day, the Test Prep Question of the Day, and more. Test yourself: “How is chewing gum made? Does it have a natural source?” “Why don’t woodpeckers damage their brains?” Can’t answer? Have a curious child? Find the answers in the Science Q & A section.
The San Francisco Exploratorium site also has numerous fun modules on a variety of science topics, from biology to space science to the physics of music.
On the humanities side, Old Sturbridge Village, a replica 19th-century village in Massachusetts, has an extensive online collection of artifacts, documents, and more related to life in early America. Go to their homepage, click “Education” and then “Learning Lab.” (There’s no direct link.) This could be a lot of fun for kids interested in this era, and perhaps even useful for a term paper.