ALEX/ACCESS Assignment

Let me just start by saying, WOW! This assignment may very well be the single most helpful, yet mind blowing one I have ever done! My mother started homeschooling me when I was in the 5th grade and to say it was hard at times on both of us would be a HUGE understatement. We had no idea about any websites like these. I can only imagine the time and headaches we both could have saved if we would have been aware of ALEX or ACCESS or any of the links you can get to from ALEX's home page!

One thing that really stood out to me to be the main difference between these two sites is it seems that ALEX is going to be more "separated" from the classroom itself in the sense that it is for teachers, parents, students, etc. There is something for everyone; whether it is trying to make lesson plans, find activities for children on rainy days, assist your children with spelling, grammar, math, or even just trying to find educational activities for your child to do during the summer to keep them up-to-date. Do not think that it is out of the question to use in the classroom though, it covers everything. ACCESS is more of an "in class" tool for the kids who are eligible or in need of classes that are not offered in their school or even close enough for them to travel to. With this program, the student only needs a computer; you have your instructor online. If you are interested in Alabama's stand point on trying to make sure that all of our schools are equipped with this option, click here AlabamaSchoolsInfo.

Since I obviously missed the help from this site in the past, I can promise you I will not miss out on it in the future. My goal is to be an Elementary teacher, (hopefully somewhere between Kindergarten and 3rd grade) so I am geared more to the links for the younger classes. Once I started clicking on different links, I couldn't stop. The site that is themed from the children's show, BetweentheLions is amazing. It actually makes learning into an educational game. Since I am also the mother of a 14 month old and I am very determined to give her a head start, I can promise you that we will be spending lots of time on this site! I would definitely suggest ALL parents check into this as it is not only be geared to preschool ages.

Another tool that stood out to me was the grammar link. Especially with every child over the age of 2 now carrying a cell phone around and texting, our children's grammar and spelling has hit rock bottom. I know most people think that it is not that big of a deal, but these habits are not just staying in the text messages. In my opinion, the transformation from texting to writing a paper for school is almost impossible for a lot of kids. Now, there is a site for these children to go to and ask specific GrammarQuestions with a quick response. To see some of the activities for spelling click here SpellingActivities .

I believe that if we could make everyone out there aware of this site, we could help our children more than ever before.