Homeschoolers have a hard life that is often marred with being a social outcast and leaves the child socially stunted as an adult. The most they can hope for is a decent education, so here are a few home schooling gadgets that you may buy in order to encourage or inspire a little bit of learning. The list is in no particular order, and contains things that are either necessary for a home education (such as the scientific calculator), and things that make home learning a little more engaging or fun (such as the digital projector).
1 – The scientific calculator
You need a scientific calculator, even in high school and even if you are not doing higher level math. This is not just a “best” gadget, it is an essential one. You are going to need to know how to use one when you get into the working world, plus they are loaded with mathematical numbers, functions and equations that you are going to need from time to time.
2 – Online education courses on your PC
Online education has come a very long way, to the point where a person may earn a real and legitimate online degree if they sign up for a legitimate course. As a gadget goes, your PC is your best friend anyway, but the fact that is now has online educational courses to help you makes it all the better.
3 – Movies that you can watch on your TV or PC
It is staggering how many young people cannot remember the book they were supposed to have read for English class, and yet can croon all the words to “High school musical” 1, 2 and 3. However, you can take advantage of this by letting your child watch one of the many movies based on books. Studying some books in school has become easier due to the fact that Hollywood has gone ahead and made movies about them.
Sure, some of them have taken very big chunks of poetic license from the proceedings, such as “Braveheart” (great movie) and “Troy” (greater movie). But, a lot of these movies have stuck to the original text pretty closely, such as “Of Mice and Men” with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich, or “The Merchant of Venice” with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons.
4 – Online video tutorials on a laptop
These are a little different to the educational courses. These are just single videos that you can watch on a laptop, PC or tablet. If there is a subject that you have trouble with, or a certain principle is giving you trouble, you can use one of these gadgets, log on to the Internet and find a video that explains it fully and correctly.
5 – Educational videos on DVD or for download
Going online to find legitimate teaching material is difficult, but it is not impossible as there are some legitimate sources out there. However, even teachers in a classroom use educational DVDs or download to teach children. They are sometimes a welcome break from the norm, plus there are some subjects, facts, principles and ideas that are hard to teach in a classroom or home school setting, so these sorts of tools are of great benefit.
6 – An MP3 player and headphones
Put on your headphones and you can listen to educational seminars all day long. You can listen to language tracks and learn as you do your daily housework or go jogging. The mere exposure to the language is going to help you learn it and absorb it into your mind. If you are the teacher, then you can have museum tour playing in the headphones as you visit a museum.
7 – Science kits
There are a very lot of them on the market, and some of them are very good for hands on experience. They allow children to see the basic principles of science coming to life in their hands. You can also relate simple physics, chemistry and electronics to more complicated issues later on.
8 – Notes from lessons on your tablet app
Taking notes in note books is not a bad idea, but a home school child has more options. If the home school child is able to make very good and legible notes on a tablet, then why not?
9 – A digital color projector
This is going to inspire some real enthusiasm. It is hundreds of times better than the blackboard, white board or paper hand-outs. And, it is more exciting than rolling the TV into the room.
10 – Flashcard apps on your Smartphone
Flashcard apps are very common, and there are a lot of pre-made flashcards on the market. The reason they inspire students is because it is not really like learning. It is more like watching a really crappy TV show, except that at the end the child has learnt something.
Kate Funk is a freelance writer at http://getanycontent.com. She is mainly focusing on technology, gadgets and all the latest trends which are interesting for networking enthusiasts.
