Online Learning Resources

Committed to providing quality educational choices, HCOS subscribes to a number of online learning resources. Below is a short description of the many educational resources available to our students this year.

United Streaming

Heritage Christian Online School is offering students a subscription to United Streaming at no cost.  This online video library contains more than 5,000 full length educational videos.  It has Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Magic Schoolbus, Bill Nye, and much, much more.  You can search through the library easily to find what you’re looking for.  This is a great supplement to every student’s education.  There are videos covering a huge variety of topics in arts and music, science, language arts, health, and social studies from grades K through 12.   Check out www.unitedstreaming.com for more information.  If you would like a subscription please email your teacher for sign-up information.

Encyclopedia Britannica

http://newsletter.onlineschool.ca/archive/images/eb.gifWe have now subscribed all of our students and families with the Encyclopedia Britannica- Online. Please contact your support teacher for your login and password.

Enchanted Learning

All HCOS students and families have access to Enchanted Learning, a safe, family friendly educational site with over 20,000 pages of resources! Please contact your support teacher for your login and password.

netTrekker

A safe educational search engine is now available from HCOS through netTrekker. This trusted search engine provides peace of mind to families as their child searches the net for online resources. The search engine is organized by readability and grade level and is even aligned to the provincial outcomes. Contact your support teacher for a username and password.

Town-to-Town Canada

HCOS’ subscription with “Town-to-Town Canada” provides middle and high school students with information on Canadian civic and public affairs. It link students to web sites “relating to government, law, education, social economics, current events, public policy, and living and culture.”  Please contact your support teacher for a username and password.

WHAT IN THE WORLD?

WHAT IN THE WORLD? is a Canadian current events resource covering events and issues with geography. It is designed for students in the intermediate grades and is available in English and French. Contact your support teacher to request monthly links and passwords which will connect you to each new issue. 

TeachingBooks

Explore award winning youth books and their authors. HCOS provides you with access to thousands of resources and multimedia programs through its online subscription with TeachingBooks. Short movies, audio book readings, and book discussion guides are some of the rich learning resources available through this subscription. Contact your support teacher for a username and password.

YourTeacher

YourTeacher.com is an online multimedia math resource for Middle and High school students. Each lesson includes video examples, interactive practice, and self tests. Through HCOS school subscription you will receive a year’s access to Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, or Algebra 2 for only $25. Please contact your support teacher to receive a personal username and password, and arrange payment from your curriculum budget.

“Reading A to Z” and “Writing A to Z”

Finding reading and writing learning resources is now just a click away! HCOS is offering access to “Reading A to Z” and “Writing A to Z” resources at a discounted price. “Reading A to Z” has thousands of printable learning resources that support guided reading, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, reading fluency, and alphabet and vocabulary learning. These professionally developed resources included downloadable ‘levelled’ books, lesson plans, worksheets, and reading assessment material. The “Writing A to Z” site provides hundreds of downloadable writing resources which include “core writing lessons grouped by genre and text type; mini-lessons targeting key writing skills; and writing tools for organizing and improving writing.” The resources are designed for K-6 learning level. These resources will save you time and money as you search for a resource specific to your child’s reading and writing ability. Through HCOS school subscription you will receive a year’s access to these excellent resources for only $25 each. Please contact your support teacher to arrange payment from your curriculum budget and to receive a username and password.

Volume 3 - Edition 8 - May 2007

From Moscow with Love

by Greg Bitgood

Hello HCOS family. I am sitting in a one room apart in Moscow, Russia thrilled with how I perceive God using us. Remember that prayer we all pray at some time in our Christian experience, “God use me”? At times it seems that I can recall every time I prayed this way and I am experience one of those moments right now.

We live in amazing times! Here I am on the other side of the world (11 time zones) helping people that just 25 years ago we believed were part of an evil empire. Now I have come as a consultant to help them find ways to spread Christian education throughout the largest country in the world. Through the miracle of the internet and digital technologies these people have become our close neighbor. And we know what Jesus commands us to do with our neighbor.

...read more

Your Best Investment

by Sarah Bennett

This is the time of year when many people start curriculum shopping for the new school year. Everyone is researching curriculum options and trying to figure out the best way to invest their education budget. We want quality materials that will help to equip our children for God’s calling on their lives. I spent more hours than I can count researching and putting together the HCOS Curriculum Packages this year. I wanted them to be perfect. They must cover PLOs, yes, but – more importantly – I wanted to find quality Christian materials that would inspire a love of learning in the home. I was looking for the perfect curriculum.

It doesn’t exist.

...read more

Historica Fairs – Could you? Should you? Why would you?

by Pat Mackesy

Historica Fairs – Could you? Should you? Why would you?

Don’t you love it when it turns out you were right? Especially when you’re the teacher! With permission, I’d like to share one family’s journey to Historica Fair:

You’ll catch on to the thread in our emails: blue is the parent’s (Cecile), red is the teacher (Pat Mackesy)

...read more

Looking Ahead to the JAMES Challenge!!

As many of our families are looking forward to next fall, and planning ahead, we would like to announce that in the fall we will begin our James Challenge!!

This will be a 36 week challenge. By memorizing 3 verses a week, the book of James will be memorized. Again we will have a 1, 2, and 3 or more verses per week challenge. For the younger students (K/1) to participate in the Scripture Memory Challenge we thought of a scripture outline following the ABC’s.  You are welcome to create your own list of favorite ABC verses, we only ask that a standard version rather than a paraphrase be used.  We will give a suggested list from HCOS that you are welcome to use as well.  The letters of the alphabet provide a great prompt and really assist in mastering the verses. These students will also memorize the Lord ’s Prayer and Psalm 23 to bring their total to 1 verse per week as well.

More details to follow!

 

Grad Program and Funding

by Ted Gerk

One of the most confusing aspects of the legislative changes that took place last year surround the grad program (Grades 10-12) and the funding of that program.

While it opened some exciting opportunities for families and students throughout the Province of British Columbia, it has been a source of confusion for many of those same families and students.

...read more

 

 

I was so embarrassed – I knew I knew those verses very well, but here I was stumbling over them as I said them to my friend! What was going on? I had had a long day, where my brain had worked overtime, but still, driving in the car, those verses had been smooth! Upon reflection on what had happened, I realized that while I was reciting my verses I had started to concentrate on the details, and began to second guess myself. What I needed to do was concentrate on the big picture – on the flow of Philippians, and then the details would fall into place. I started to do this in my recitations of my verses in the shower, in the car, wherever I had a few quiet moments – and it worked! I’m now ready to try saying Phil to a friend again – hopefully with better results!

I encourage each of you to think ‘big picture’ during these last few weeks of memorizing Philippians. Say it all in a big chunk as often as possible – starting off where you left off last time. This will help with the flow of the book.

It is amazing to think we are on the homeward stretch for the Philippians challenge – what a rich experience it has been! Here are a few reminders as we reach the grand finale of the Philippians Challenge:

  • Be sure to report to your teacher by June 12 when your child has recited 35/ 70/ 105 (book of Philippians) or 140 (Philippians + 35 verses). Their names will then be entered into a draw for the prize.
  • Who does the child say their verses to before June 12? A non-family member can listen to the verses and then as a parent you will report that to your teacher, and their name into the draw for their category. If you choose to, the child may say their verses to their teacher.
  • Do all the verses need to be recited at once? Yes
  • How word perfect does the memorization need to be? We want the verse to be memorized as close as possible to the translation the person is memorizing from. In other words, just saying the gist of the verse won’t be counted, nor your own paraphrase – the person listening to your verses needs to be able to tell that you have worked hard at memorizing exactly what the Bible says. We want you to remember these verses for life! Mistakes such as ‘And for this I rejoice’ instead of ‘And because of this I rejoice’ would not be counted as a mistake. If several verses got missed, that would be a prompt that is needed.
  • Do we need to know the references? For those who have chosen to memorize equivalent verses outside of Philippians – yes for each new passage. People memorizing the 35 chosen verses in Philippians need to be able to say Phil 1: 6, Phil 1: 9 - 11 etc. For individuals memorizing chapters, you will just need to know chapter breaks.
  • How many prompts can I have? We want to have a high standard and yet be reasonable. Again the ‘listener’ will need to use discretion – is the child ‘winging it’ (especially on the last verses) or do they have it memorized? If all but one section is passable, the listener needs to tell them to practice some more and try again later. 2 prompts per chapter should be all that are necessary. If you feel this isn’t enough for your child, please let your teacher know, and we can be in discussion on this. Aim for excellence! (But be reasonable!)

If you have further questions, please feel free to ask!

 

Congratulations to each one who is one the last leg of the Philippians Challenge – you have done well to stick with it for the year! Finish well!

Join the now!