#Free academic resources for kids

[justsaying4041]

Free online resources that can support our children academically

In today’s digital age, there are countless free online resources available to help support children academically. Whether they need extra help with subjects they find challenging or want to explore new areas of interest, the internet offers a wealth of opportunities for learning and academic growth. Here’s a guide to some of the best free online resources for students that can support their…

[rebellum]

Basically whenever you see something that gives evidence which makes you think "yeah, exactly! I always knew it!" you should look more into it.

This is re: the calorie post I just reblogged, but is also about that post from a year or two ago where people were like:

"LOOK THIS STUDY BLATANTLY SAYS NO DIETING EVER WORKS, YOU CANT LOSE WEIGHT FROM CHANGES IN FOOD INTAKE"

and the conclusion of the study was like "after studying these 8 fad diets we concludesd that the rate of weight loss evens out after 18 months"

so people were literally just straight up lying, and everyone reblogging it thought "this person says this study proves what I already think is true (that dieting can't work), so it must be true"

[19catsncounting]

I Got Really Into Anti/Proship Discourse And Read +30 Academic Studies - My Findings

(It’s a Yapfest but the whole post is a very long essay and study on morality and fiction and children’s safety and rape culture with a fuckton of freely accessible academic articles and resources on the subject, and I want to talk to other people about it. For a shorter abstract with all the articles and more easily ignored yapping, see my shiny new Carrd:)

It’s been a little shocking lately to have certain discussions with some parts of fandom. I spoke about shipping/harassment and how that contributes to the death of fandom on TikTok assuming that younger folks are just really, really intense about preventing sexual violence, but the more I saw the words “morally wrong” and “disgusting” and “addiction,” the more I thought about this guy-

That’s Jerry Falwell, and I fucking hate this dead guy. You see, Jerry Falwell was a preacher who hated porn, feminism, and homosexuality. And I'm seeing his rhetoric and reworked quotes a lot.

Jerry would say stuff like:

“Pornography hurts anyone who reads it - garbage in, garbage out.”

“Someone must not be afraid to say ‘moral perversion is wrong.’ If we do not act now, homosexuals will ‘own’ America!”

Jerry wanted people to believe that it’s possible to see so much sexual content that it warps your sexuality, because he was gay and wanted to think that was due to thinking about gay sex too much. Jerry did not have a lot of evidence to prove that homosexuality was harmful, so he relied heavily on how “morally distasteful” it seemed to be to suburban Americans.

I spent the majority of my teen years arguing against Jerry’s rhetoric for the right to live as a lesbian online, and I never thought I’d see morality rhetoric in people I’m otherwise very politically aligned with. And I definitely never thought fandom of all things, in all its beautiful subversive glory, would seriously start advocating for censorship, anti-porn, and to consume fanwork with moral purity.

So, I’d like to have a deeper discussion on it, both here on Tumblr and on TikTok, but that does mean checking a few things at the door:

Personal feelings decide your personal life. What you feel is valid for you, not anyone else.

In general, things that do not cause direct and undeniable harm should not be broadly prohibited just because they’re weird or distasteful to the majority of folks. Ex. Loitering does not cause harm and is a tool of systemic oppression.

The discussion of “fictional CSEM” is the most inflammatory fork of this and it is often used to derail these kinds of conversations. This is all I will say on it - the legal status of explicit visual depictions of minors is muddy. In the US, there is just one dude in Utah who pled guilty for possessing explicit lolicon he bought by mail order without also possessing CSEM with real children, and explicit writing about fictional minors has been settled as protected free speech. Dedicated organizations from the NCMEC to Chris Hansen have asked that fictional content is not reported as CSAM as it is not actionable and clogs up finite resources. 90% of NCMEC reports were not actionable last year. There are studies suggesting that virtual CSEM or other non-victim alternatives could reduce actual child harm, but there is need for further research.

We’re all in agreement that untagged NSFW is not cool, and kids deserve kid-only sections of the internet. People who are triggered by or dislike problematic content deserve to be able to not see it. 👍

 (I’ve seen the argument that blocking tags/people should not be required - sorry, PTSD still requires that you manage your triggers, up to and including swearing off platforms just as I have sworn off bars/soap brands/etc to avoid my triggers.)

I have found a lot of accessible and free articles and studies that I will link throughout so that we can discuss the fact-based reasoning, in an effort to have a civil conversation.

(Also because we are not flat earthers, we are Fandom, and if we’re going to be annoying little shitheels in an “Um Actually” contest, we’re going to have the sources to back it up.)

Minors and Explicit Material

I’m not supporting minors engaging with explicit material. I have such little interest in the subject that I’m not even going to bring in articles, but you can feel free to. I personally engaged with explicit material as a preteen of my own free will and did not find it to be harmful, and the majority of people throughout human history have been exposed to explicit material at an early age with varying degrees of harm. There are undeniable legal and harm-driven differences between a 12 year old girl looking at Hustler on her own, a 14 year old boy being sent nudes from a grown woman, and a 6 year old viewing PornHub. (And I think the guardians of that 6 year old should be charged with grooming just like the woman, tbh.)

Personal Disclaimer

I’m an adult survivor of CSA and incest. I’m a happily married adult. I don’t personally like lolicon/shotacon/kodocon. I don’t like kids. I don’t like teens. I’m personally not attracted to underage fictional characters. I have family, the idea of fucking any of them makes me want to throw up and die, so I don’t write or read RPF of my family.

I am really, really fucking intense about preventing sexual violence, supporting survivors, and fandom, which is where this all comes from.

I read and love problematic fiction - my favorites are ASOIAF, Lolita, and VC Andrews. The most “problematic” thing I’ve personally written are Lucifer/Michael fics from Supernatural back in 2012. They are “brothers” in CW Christ, not blood. They do not have any blood.

Gen Z and Online Grooming

In 2002, a survey of 1500 minors from 10-17 found that 4% had been solicited for sexual purposes by an adult online.

In 2023, that number increased to 20%.

While the linked 2023 Thorn report suggests that the vast majority of these inappropriate interactions happened on platforms that allow for interpersonal communication, which by and large minors were greatly discouraged from and had less access to in the early 2000’s, a trauma-informed approach does not allow for blame to fall on the children. The guardians of those children have monumentally failed to restrict and educate before giving children the means to access those platforms.

It is my uncited but personal opinion that the increased rate of grooming, as well as an increased interest in combating rape culture, has led to well-intentioned individuals to become digital vigilantes attacking those who they hold responsible for their traumatic experiences in a search for catharsis and justice denied for themselves as well as a desire to make the internet safer for other children, whom they are increasingly aware are entering online spaces unsupervised at distressingly young ages.

Is harassment and bullying bad for perpetrators of it?

Before we get into how ship-related hate campaigns do not affect predation or combat rape culture, we should acknowledge that it’s actually pretty harmful for the people who cyberbully. Not just in the legal/social consequences, but people who participate in cyberbullying and cyberhate campaigns have higher rates of depression, estrangement from their parents, self-effacing habits, social anxiety, lower empathy, and so forth.

One study suggests that the treatment and prohibitive for cyberbullying, which contributes to a culture of cyberhate and a lower likelihood to report or confront other incidents of harassment or toxicity online, can be combatted with media competency to increase empathy along with other important life skills.

Some Common Pro-Censorship Myths

“Pornography is Addictive/Consumption of Pornography Leads to Increasingly Hardcore Imagery And Ultimately Real-World Violence” - The American Psychological Association does not recognize Porn Addiction as real and the DSM-5 does not classify it as an addiction. Additionally, many methods used in articles claiming that porn is addictive or causes users to seek out more hardcore material were flawed or biased. There is actually some evidence that compulsive porn use, the closest you can get to a porn addiction diagnosis, is associated with shame and the user’s belief that pornography is morally wrong, which sex-negative attitudes encourage.

“Jaws caused shark culling” - That's unfortunately a simplification that ignores a LOT of surrounding context. WW2’s modern naval battles with an increase of ship sinkings and thus contact with sharks prompted the invention and use of shark repellant by aviators and sailors in the 1940’s. The most deadly and famous shark attack of all time was the USS Indianapolis sinking in 1945, which led to 12-150 deaths. The 1974 book Jaws by Peter Benchley, which was the entire basis of the movie, was inspired by One Fucking Dude who started shark hunting tours and overall seemed to have a really immaculate vibe. The interstate highways that finished in the 1950’s increased beach tourism in the 60’s and onwards, inspiring the American surf culture, further increasing the cultural desire to purge sharks for the new swath of beachgoers and their fondness for using surfboards which make them look like seals to sharks. Additionally, 1975’s Jaws inspired a huge desire for education about sharks, and the relationship between problematic media and education will be the core of this yapperoni pizza.

“The Slendermen Killings/Other Fiction Inspired Crimes” - The ACLU states that “There is no evidence that fiction has ever driven a sane person to violence.” Inspired crimes are indeed no less tragic, and thankfully rare, but people who suffer from inability to discern reality and fiction do not necessarily need fiction to commit violence. The “Son of Sam” murder spree was not inspired by a book or movie, but instead Berkowitz’ auditory hallucinations.

“Violent videogames DO cause violence” - After a great deal of funding and study, the American Psychological Association has concluded that teens and younger may have increased feelings of aggression and not necessarily physically violent outbursts as a direct effect, but older teens and young adults do not encounter statistically meaningful rates of aggression.

“Your brain can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality” - Factually incorrect. Children as young as 5 years old can tell the difference, and they can even be more suspicious about “facts” that come from sources they know also host fiction, such as TV shows.

“This stuff shouldn’t be online because it can be used to groom a child” - While I could not find specific statistics on how often pornography is used to desensitize child victims, nor how often that is specifically used in online grooming, and especially not how much of that pornography is made from fictional characters - out of a mixed group of convicted offenders with adult and child victims, 55% of offenders used pornography to manipulate their victim. I would never refute that explicit fanart or fanfic could be used to desensitize a child, but that is by far not the only tool (asking about sexual experiences/identity, making jokes, etc is extremely common grooming behavior), and there is no evidence to suggest that it is used to a statistically significant degree. In my own anecdotal experience, normal vanilla legal pornography is used with far greater prevalence, and there isn’t a similar movement to shame its production for that possibility. Nor should the creators of any material, pornographic or otherwise, share blame in the actions of a predator.

The Fiction Affects Reality Carrd

(No hate to the person who made it, in fact I give props to them for trying to find unbiased sources, I just want to point out that their interpretations of their articles are kinda flawed and one of their studies is a kind of a perfect example on small and culturally biased samples.)

Reading Fiction Impacts Aggressive Behavior - (I cannot access the full study but this article is the primary source used in the Carrd and it goes into detail) - A study showed that 67 university students were more annoyed with a loud buzzer after reading a short story about a physical fight between roommates compared to a story with nonviolent revenge. However, this study was conducted at Brigham Young University, the same campus where we got a whole video series of hot ethical takes like “I’d rather shoot a kitten than drink coffee,” so uh. Yeah. Kind of a prime example on why it’s important to have large and culturally varied sampling. (Another BYU study with 137 BYU students being odd about moral ambiguity in fiction, just because I’m starting to add Dr. Sarah M. Coyne to my list of “Sarah’s That I Dislike.”)

Your Brain on Fiction - a NYT article that describes Theory of the Mind and how fMRIs captured how readers’ minds would light up centers of muscle control when reading sentences like “Peter kicked.” The quote “The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated” is speaking of motor functions. Emotional centers of the brain were not included in the study.

How Fiction Changes Your World - a Boston Globe article that actually describes how people who read more fiction are more empathetic and tend to believe in a just world. It does not state that the empathy a reader feels for fictional characters extends to corrupting their moral compass. In fact, there’s such a thing as a “fictive license” to explore taboo themes more thoroughly because it is not real - 123 participants were interviewed after watching two actors play the part of detective and murderer being interviewed, and participants who were told it was fake had more varied and inquisitive responses.

The Social Impact of Books - Actually reuses the previous study about the just world, so point remains. Empathy is understanding, not mirroring.

Is Problematic Fiction Good for Survivors of Trauma?

It absolutely depends on the individual.

Writing expressively about traumatic experiences has been shown to be effective to reduce depression, or more effective in reducing dysphoria and anxiety than talking to fellow survivors, and Written Exposure Therapy is broadly prescribed to survivors of trauma, with one study centering on car crash survivors finding that WET resolved their PTSD symptoms and continued to be effective after a year.

In this study, which sadly is not available online but it is too important to leave out completely, survivors of CSA were given fictional novels about CSA and in closely reading and analyzing those stories, were able to understand their own experiences and were indeed drawn to write about their own experiences as well.

Engaging in problematic fiction, like all fiction, allows for consent as well as control. If at any point a survivor does not feel in control or wishes to stop, they can at that instant. They can even rewrite their narratives and take control of their story in fictionalizing and changing the account. They can even try to understand what their abuser felt through fiction, which is helpful considering that the vast majority of survivors had a relationship that had been positive and even loving with their abusers at times.

Is Problematic Fiction Good for Everyone Else?

It again depends on the individual.

Antis might be a little right that most people don't want to read problematic stories. In a study exploring whether fiction can corrode morals, 83% of study participants stated that they would prefer not to read a short story justifying baby murder if they had the choice, even if that exploration isn’t inherently harmful.

This very small sample study of 13 participants discussed how young women interpreted sexual themes in writing, including explicit fanfiction, and how that was beneficial and informative to explore sexual desire and examine healthy and unhealthy relationships in a safe and controlled environment.

This meta-analysis further discusses how problematic and sexual themes in YA literature are useful to illustrate what sexual violence looks like, and begin educational conversations through those depictions to break down harmful myths such as “if she didn’t scream, she wanted it.”

Empowered by the “Fictive License” previously cited, problematic fiction can be beneficial for anyone who desires and is capable of consuming and analyzing it.

This study analyzing abusive aspects of three films - Beauty and the Beast, Twilight, and 50 Shades of Gray - concluded that these abusive themes should be discussed to increase recognition and awareness, not censored based on those problematic themes.

This study of 53 women were asked to read different versions of fictional intimate partner violence flags, or “toxic behavior” like surveillance, control, etc. In every version of the story, whether the female or male had those behaviors either courting or committed, the women recognized the behavior as wrong.

Another study that reading allows for the moral laboratory to explore morality in fiction without decisive impact to corroding moral permissibility.

Is There Ever Any Point Where Fictional Interests Definitively Speak On Someone’s Morality?

In short - not really. Loving Jason Vorhees does not put you at risk of murdering campers as long as you know he’s not real. Writing Wincest does not mean you look forward to family reunions, as long as you know incest isn’t okay in the real world. The real world, where real people are harmed, is where you find the measure of someone’s character.

This Psychology Today article is the best source I could find for quotes from a fantastic book ‘Who's Been Sleeping in Your Head? The Secret World of Sexual Fantasies’ by Brett Kahr regarding taboo sexual fantasies and how they are not only common, but not inherently harmful.

There are people who enjoy problematic media in an entirely nonsexual sense, of course. I myself don’t get off on problematic media - I think it’s just interesting to explore different experiences, and I think that can be revolutionary.

Additionally, fantasies in general have almost always been in the vein of “things you don’t want to really happen in reality.” In a study of 351 asexuals, more than half reported that they fantasize about having sex, but that doesn’t mean that they actually want to. You can fantasize about dating Billie Eilish - it doesn’t mean that you’d be happy dealing with celebrity culture.

(I personally fantasize about the internet being just for adults, but in practice I think that would be incredibly harmful and isolating for at-risk youth and LGBTQ teens) Fantasies always pluck out only the bits of reality that you want to engage with.

If You Get Off On Fictional Kids, You’re Attracted to Something About Them Being Kids

Not inherently, surprisingly. Wearing a schoolgirl uniform is a pretty common roleplay, and it’s not meant to “fool” the participants into thinking they’re indulging in pedophilia. There’s a wealth of emotional and sexual nuance in that specific kink - innocence and virginity play, tilted power dynamics in ‘scolding’ the uniform wearer for dress code violations, even the concept of a sexually provocative “teenager” can be played with without shame, because the world of fetish and fantasy is separated from condonable actions for the vast, vast majority of adults. (The only study I could find on this is this small study of 100 white guys found on Facebook, which itself states it is not definitive, found that while there might be correlation between attraction to children and interest in schoolgirl uniforms, there is no proof of causation. AKA, the rectangular pedophile might indeed like square schoolgirl uniforms, but not everyone - in fact, the majority at nearly 60% in this very survey - that likes square schoolgirl uniforms is a rectangular pedophile.)

Even sexual age play between adults is not indicative of pedophilia because it exists in a setting between two adults who fully understand that the mechanics are completely fake, allowing the power dynamics that would be abusive between an adult and child to be ethically explored.

I don’t have an official-looking study to cite, but I have asked people who like content about underage fictional characters why they do so. Overwhelmingly, a lot of the ones who like underage age gaps like the fantasy of an older and more experienced character taking a younger one under their wing, to have the opportunity to commit violent and blatantly objectifying harm and yet try to create what inevitably does not truly pass as consent, but seems near enough to the characters. Some think that the characters themselves have an interesting chemistry. Some read underage fic and still imagine the characters as adults. Some like to explore the feelings of shame that the older character must feel and how they mentally compartmentalize to go forward with the relationship, and how the younger character found themself in that vulnerable position - which is exploring a harmful situation through fiction to understand how it could play out in real life.

People who like fictional incest like exploring the shameful components of that taboo relationship - and I have seen a lot of works that compare how bad incest could be to other harms, like the Gravecest route in a game with parental cannibalism. And then there are folks who like analyzing the codependency of having one person fulfill every social need - family, friend, lover, AKA Wincest.

What makes a predator if it’s not just sexual attraction?

90% of CSA survivors know their abuser, discrediting the still-entirely-too-popular Stranger Danger myth. And shockingly, only 50% of abusers are pedophiles.

That means 50% of child molesters do not have sexual interest in children because they are children, but they victimized children because they are more accessible in lieu of adult partners, with increased rates of incest.

While I could not find a specific study on the relation between dehumanization/objectification of child victims and child molesters (and if you find one, please send it to me!), this study speaks on dehumanization as a precursor to adult sexual violence.

This study, conducted on convicted child molesters in prison, showed that child molesters tend to fantasize about children while in a negative mood, further contributing to the theory that child victims are dehumanized prior to abuse.

This very small sample study found that in a mixed sample of internet only/contact crime/mixed offenders, offenders who had contact with children had lower rates of fantasizing about children.

In short, half the time a child predator is someone who wants to offend against a child regardless of attraction to the fact they are a child.

Resources To Recognize Grooming/Abuse Victims/Predators

I would absolutely be remiss to not share my collection of resources to help detect signs of abuse/grooming as well as warning signs of a predator who may be targeting elders/women/teens/children:

Darkness 2 Light is a fantastic resource overall, this page details stages and signs of grooming.

RAINN personally helped me through my PTSD journey, and this article detailing the signs of sexual trauma in teenagers is thorough and non-judgemental

Signs of abuse as well as warning signs of predation that does not use gendered language nor play into the Stranger Danger myth.

Education, not Censorship

I think a lot of the energy against taboo content among young people still has a lot to do with the desire to end rape culture. The tools that we Millennial Tumblrinas gave you Gen Z kids were snatches of leftist theory, deplatforming, and voting with your dollar, so it’s reasonable to think that removing taboo content like pedophilia, incest, rape fights rape culture.

It doesn’t.

Rape culture is fought by education. Comprehensive sex education, education about consent. Talking about what consent looks like, what sex can look like, what rape can look like.

There should be more taboo content to talk about these things, to show all the shades it can look like. From a violent noncon to fics that aren’t even tagged as dubcon yet still are in shades that are hard to suss out, we should talk about it.

A Non-Empirical Example Of Good Media Analysis and Education to Combat Rape Culture

Let’s use the example of Daemon and Rhaenyra Targaryen’s relationship in House of the Dragon. Canonically, in both the book and the show, they have a romantic relationship that appears for the most part to be positive (the show being more contentious but I dedicated an aside to Sarah Hess and our beef at the bottom of my Carrd, but feel free to ask how I feel about writing producers with any variation of the name ‘Sarah’) despite an age gap, a sexual relationship that began while Rhaenyra was a minor, and incest - the problematic hat trick if you will.

I have seen anti-Daemyra shippers condemn Daemyra shippers for “Condoning grooming, age gaps, pedophilia, and incest.” Which is not just a broad, inaccurate, and harmful statement, it’s not at all constructive or educational analysis.

It would actually be beneficial to say “Daemon is grooming Rhaenyra as a teenager with gifts, devoted attention that takes advantage of her isolation and vulnerability, frequent nonsexual touches, the extreme desensitization to sexuality in the brothel visit,” etc etc. And even so, it is not useful to say that people cannot still ship the relationship and acknowledge those aspects. They might want to further explore the issues of consent in their dynamic in fiction, they may want to strip away some of them with narrative reimagining. Some might want to ignore the taboos completely and indulge in the fantasy entirely, and some might find the actors hot as hell - AKA, anyone who watches the show.

It’s honestly a little similar to me in how Jerry Falwell would tell his followers not to watch or read or take in any media that dealt with homosexuality unless it was condemning it - even Will & Grace was on Jerry’s shitlist. And so, Jerry’s followers missed out on a lot of media that could have educated them about queerness, could have humanized queer people for them - and that did not make queers go away. Just like ignoring or shutting out media about incest, rape, and other forms of sexual violence doesn’t make those things go away - it just tends to make you less informed, and little less capable of empathy towards people affected by those subjects.

So let’s stop shaming those that ship a complicated dynamic - you get less fanworks exploring those taboos, and less of a discussion overall. You shut down the morality lab of fiction, and to be honest, it’s wet sock behavior.

Some FanFiction Specific Studies

How dubcon fanfiction can flesh out the intricacies and messiness of realistic consent

A review of darkfic written about Harry Potter in 2005 (which, I will personally attest has never been outdone in how profoundly taboo those works were)

Interviews with 11 Self Insert writers who wrote on themes of rape, abuse, control, yandere, etc, and how that was beneficial to some who had experienced sexual violence themselves

Conclusion:

H…holy shit, you actually read all of that?? Congrats dude! That is a lot of time and brain power to dedicate to any one thing!

By the way, I am not really gifted at writing articles or any of that junk, and I tried to make my hyperlexic ass a little more accessible instead of bringing out all the $5 words. I am literally just an autistic who took a couple technical writing classes over a decade ago and really wanted to sort out my thoughts and try to have a platform for discussion. Also, I am really fucking bad at math. I failed two different college level statistics classes twice each. Gun to my head, I could not tell you what a standard deviation is, which is why I worked entirely with the percentages.

And I do want to have a discussion! I would in fact like to not report anyone for sending me gore or death threats or any of that stuff! I don’t think everyone will agree with me, in fact I’m certain that you could find studies that contradict some of mine, and I’d love to discuss them!

I’m sure it will still be tempting to throw around accusations of pedophilia because sometimes, confronting your previously held beliefs is incredibly uncomfortable. If you could not do that, that would be great? I don’t like being compared to someone who profoundly abused me just because I have a different opinion on how to combat rape culture and empower survivors. If you can do that, I’ll do my absolute best to be cheerful and welcoming and respectful as well. 😁

PS - I’m also not really going to be phased if you call me weird or cringe - I am. Always have been. Cringe, weirdness, and autism have made me do and capable of doing some fantastically neat and impressive stuff. But if you try to say something like “proshippers are too yucky and weird to be in fandom” - I’m going to have to refer you to your similarity to Kate Sanders of Lizzy McGuire fame, you “prEpz >:(“ - [My Immortal, legendary author unknown]

[dreamdolldeveloper]

back to basics

mostly free resources to help you learn the basics that i've gathered for myself so far that i think are cool

everyday

gcfglobal - about the internet, online safety and for kids, life skills like applying for jobs, career planning, resume writing, online learning, today's skills like 3d printing, photoshop, smartphone basics, microsoft office apps, and mac friendly. they have core skills like reading, math, science, language learning - some topics are sparse so hopefully they keep adding things on. great site to start off on learning.

handsonbanking - learn about finances. after highschool, credit, banking, investing, money management, debt, goal setting, loans, cars, small businesses, military, insurance, retirement, etc.

bbc - learning for all ages. primary to adult. arts, history, science, math, reading, english, french, all the way to functional and vocational skills for adults as well, great site!

education.ket - workplace essential skills

general education

mathsgenie - GCSE revision, grade 1-9, math stages 1-14, provides more resources! completely free.

khan academy - pre-k to college, life skills, test prep (sats, mcat, etc), get ready courses, AP, partner courses like NASA, etc. so much more!

aleks - k-12 + higher ed learning program. adapts to each student.

biology4kids - learn biology

cosmos4kids - learn astronomy basics

chem4kids - learn chemistry

physics4kids - learn physics

numbernut - math basics (arithmetic, fractions and decimals, roots and exponents, prealgebra)

education.ket - primary to adult. includes highschool equivalent test prep, the core skills. they have a free resource library and they sell workbooks. they have one on work-life essentials (high demand career sectors + soft skills)

youtube channels

the organic chemistry tutor

khanacademy

crashcourse

tabletclassmath

2minmaths

kevinmathscience

professor leonard

greenemath

mathantics

3blue1brown

literacy

readworks - reading comprehension, build background knowledge, grow your vocabulary, strengthen strategic reading

chompchomp - grammar knowledge

tutors

not the "free resource" part of this post but sometimes we forget we can be tutored especially as an adult. just because we don't have formal education does not mean we can't get 1:1 teaching! please do you research and don't be afraid to try out different tutors. and remember you're not dumb just because someone's teaching style doesn't match up with your learning style.

cambridge coaching - medical school, mba and business, law school, graduate, college academics, high school and college process, middle school and high school admissions

preply - language tutoring. affordable!

revolutionprep - math, science, english, history, computer science (ap, html/css, java, python c++), foreign languages (german, korean, french, italian, spanish, japanese, chinese, esl)

varsity tutors - k-5 subjects, ap, test prep, languages, math, science & engineering, coding, homeschool, college essays, essay editing, etc

chegg - biology, business, engineering/computer science, math, homework help, textbook support, rent and buying books

learn to be - k-12 subjects

for languages

lingq - app. created by steve kaufmann, a polygot (fluent in 20+ languages) an amazing language learning platform that compiles content in 20+ languages like podcasts, graded readers, story times, vlogs, radio, books, the feature to put in your own books! immersion, comprehensible input.

flexiclasses - option to study abroad, resources to learn, mandarin, cantonese, japanese, vietnamese, korean, italian, russian, taiwanese hokkien, shanghainese.

fluentin3months - bootcamp, consultation available, languages: spanish, french, korean, german, chinese, japanese, russian, italian.

fluenz - spanish immersion both online and in person - intensive.

pimsleur - not tutoring** online learning using apps and their method. up to 50 languages, free trial available.

incase time has passed since i last posted this, check on the original post (not the reblogs) to see if i updated link or added new resources. i think i want to add laguage resources at some point too but until then, happy learning!!

[globaljusticefanfic]

Okay hot take I guess, but I don't think the last stand invalidated any of the hard work The Bad Kids put into school work junior year.

Brennan said the reason they had those two "free passes" on exam questions was because Gorgug earned it through his studying. Mechanically yes, they work as free passes, but storyline-wise Brennan said they represent "academic resources," which The Bad Kids wouldn't have access to unless they had studied so hard.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

Is your smart Freshman struggling with school? Thinking about “maybe taking next semester off” ?

Most kids find that the biggest change from high school is the increased volume of reading college requires. Many well regarded public high schools encourage using technology including Wikipedia and boast that all their students have electronic devices. Oy vey. This school board led fascination with the trendy leaves kids ill prepared for a college world of extensive book reading. Make that books, plural.

Fortunately the most demanding universities also have excellent resources to help students succeed. I successfully use these two free tools. Any average college student or graduate student can benefit from them. Links are below.

1. SQ3R.

The most successful students employ SQ3R to help them navigate the volume of reading college courses demand. This has been around since the 40’s. SQ3R forces thinking-something called meta cognition- I use it today.

2. Cornell Notes.

In lecture intensive introductory courses, the Cornell or Outline method of note taking is ideal. If your child’s professor talks quickly, all the better. This forces students to think and translate on the fly, an excellent skill to master. Yep,I use this one, too.

The key to both methods

is writing- not typing. Typing is transcribing; writing requires thought and reflection, this is where learning takes place. Buy notebooks. The kind with paper pages.

Some Freshman year classes combine lectures with extensive reading assignments. In these cases invest in a third notebook and synthesize the SQ3R notes with your lecture outlines. Again, writing- not typing is crucial.

These free, easy to understand and apply resources (below) will help you help your child.

SQ3R at Harvard

Academic Resource Center at Harvard

Cornell Note Taking

Photo of my fall semester notebooks.

[marvelsmostwanted]

Anyway, Trump intends to abolish the federal Department of Education this week. That’s a messy proposition that will involve legal challenges, and an act of Congress that probably (?) won’t pass, and most schools do not rely exclusively on federal funding anyway, but it would put federal education programs at risk and the very idea should be enough to have Democrats out in the street rallying.

Is no one interested in standing up for public school students or teachers, who surely have suffered enough in the past few years - from the pandemic, dealing with anti-vax parents, having to remove banned books from classrooms, trans kids being targeted and teachers being told we’re turning kids trans, doing active shooter drills and facing frequent threats, teachers being chronically underpaid, and students dealing with mental health crises and academic needs that schools are not always properly resourced to deal with? Anyone care? Hello? And that’s not to mention issues in higher education, from the cost to the unfairness of legacy admissions (actual DEI) to Republicans claiming “free speech” is being attacked and someone should be fired every time someone says something they don’t like.

Democrats should be champions of public education, especially since Republicans clearly have no issue exclusively supporting private and religious schools and “school choice” (a coded term for people who miss when schools were segregated). This should be a key issue and it should be easy for us to win. Everywhere Republicans put school choice vouchers on the ballot, they lost in 2024. Voters want good public schools. They want public funds to go to public schools. We just have to show up and fight for that.

I could go on for days on this topic - like, can we talk about how we can be a pro-science, pro-education, and pro-intellectual party and also the relatable, pro-worker, pro-people having jobs without a college degree party? What happened to talking about free community college, btw? I could go on!!

But I’ll end with this - there are elected Democrats who are former public school teachers - Tim Walz and Elizabeth Warren, to name a few. Where are they? Who’s leading the charge here? We’re just going to sit around and pretend things are fine while Republicans put Bibles in our publicly funded schools?

Far from the first person to say it in the past few weeks, but what the fuck, guys? Where are we on this????!

[copperbadge]

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways to Give:

alirhi and her sister have been homeless and struggling for over a year, and while they've now moved in with a friend who is helping them with housing, they're behind on bills with little hope of catching up before they lose their only mode of transportation and thus the only way to get to work. You can read more and reblog here and support the fundraiser here.

songspinner9 linked to a fundraiser for Chris, a disabled MSW student who works with kids; all of her belongings were in a storage unit that was recently damaged badly by rats and water leaks, which they only discovered when she finally managed to get safe housing. Most of her income is currently going towards rent, but she now needs to replace a lot of items and nothing can replace her childhood photographs and family treasures. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for Scarleteen, which offers inclusive, feminist, queer-friendly and youth-centered sexual education online; they're fundraising to cover operation costs and hopefully to pay their staff a living wage. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

News to Know:

Technically this is a little outside the purview of Radio Free Monday, where the goal is generally to support individuals and orgs related to our community, and where I try to vet the fundraisers, but I do think that if you read Radio Free Monday and enjoy community giving, it may be a good resource. Anon linked to the #emergency commissions tag on Tumblr, where posts have spiked since August, fundraising for people facing homelessness, abuse, wage theft, academic costs, and other issues often highlighted here. Please note that while posts may claim to be vetted, I can't vouch for what is or isn't, so this is a situation where you may need to do your own legwork.

Recurring Needs:

memprime linked to a fundraiser for a friend, virtualalternative, who needs help with cat vet bills after their cat had several blockages; you can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

loversdoom has recently been diagnosed with PCOS and needs help to afford the prescribed birth control pills on top of living expenses; you can read more, reblog, and find giving information here or give via paypal here.

onedollopofsourcream is fundraising to help support a large family including young children during a difficult time; they particularly need funds for needed medication, and hopefully eventually to get out of an abusive living situation. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.

[thatbadadvice]

Help! My Girlfriend Bought Me A Million Dollar House And Raised My Kids And All I Got Was This Million Dollar House And Someone To Raise My Kids, When Is It Finally Going To Be My Turn To Get A Break??????

Pay Dirt, Slate, 17 April 2023:

Dear Pay Dirt, My longterm girlfriend and I disagree about whether a $30,000 inheritance left to her by her great-aunt should be “her” money or “our” money. She wants to spend a large part (almost a third!) of it on expensive supplies for her hobby. I think that we should save most of it and use some of it on a vacation since we both find traveling extremely romantic. My argument is: 1) I don’t care about her hobby, but we’ll both enjoy a trip abroad; 2) we’ve lived on only my (admittedly low, since it’s academia) income for over a decade, so according to her own rule about entitlement to “her” windfall, shouldn’t she technically have been entitled to none of my wages all these years? Her argument is: 1) she had to put aside her hobby for many years to raise our children (it’s not a safe art form for young kids to be around) and yearns to return to it; 2) she paid entirely in cash for our $950k house at the beginning of our partnership (though my income pays the property taxes and maintenance costs), therefore she alleges that we haven’t actually been living on solely my income because I’ve been saving on rent all these years. I feel resentful of the double standard about control over finances and hurt that she would rather prioritize her own joy over our shared joy. She feels impatient to reconnect with her hobby and hurt that her contributions to our lifestyle are unseen. How do we reconcile our different viewpoints? How should the money be allocated? Is there something that we’re missing? —I’m About to Glass(Blow) a Fuse

Dear About to (Glass)Blow a Fuse,

I hope you don't mind that I corrected your very clever parenthetical sign-off! You're understandably dealing with a lot of hurt right now at the hands of the cruel and self-absorbed girlfriend who bought you a million-dollar home and abandoned her beloved hobby to raise your children, so I totally get why a brilliant, overworked, and under-appreciated academic genius such as yourself would fuck up something so incredibly simple and obvious, you poor thing. Really speaks to the distress you're in as the victim of this woman's sordid scheme to steal every ounce of joy from your life by experiencing some of her own after decades of managing your household for you for free.

Great relationships are built on the exactly equal division of all resources, and it sounds like your girlfriend has trouble grasping this because she seems to believe that the home you live in and the time she has invested raising your children for you have value, when of course they do not. The only thing that has value in this world is cash money, which is why we call it money. If parenting were valuable, you'd be able to trade it on the stock market! And what was your girlfriend going to do, not live in a house? These are things she'd have done with her life anyway, and they don't get to count toward her contribution to the household just because she did them for and with you instead of expressly and specifically pursuing her art. Whereas who knows what you could have done with your life if you hadn't been locked into a free house and a partner dedicating herself full-time to keeping your children alive for you?

Now, after all these years of being nothing but a worthless freeloader whom you support out of the generous goodness of your kind heart, your girlfriend has finally acquired something of value, and she wants to keep an entire third of it for herself? To do something that doesn't directly benefit, enrich, or entertain you personally? That's not equity, and it's certainly no way to repay you for periodically writing checks to the plumber. Isn't it about time you finally got something out of all of this for your trouble?

What benefit is there for you in having a partner who enjoys the sweet satisfaction of creative fulfillment after years of yearning to express herself? What kind of weirdo wants their girlfriend to have her own interests? And what kind of ungrateful hussy doesn't jump to spend thousands of her own money on a romantic vacation with someone who actively resents even entertaining the possibility of the idea of her doing something that makes her artistic spirit sing?

The balance sheet of this relationship is indeed all out of whack, and it's too bad that it's taken this long for your girlfriend to see just how uneven your bargain has been. If we're going to get technical about what has "value" in a relationship — and it does seem like your girlfriend is an inveterate bean-counter in the worst way around this stuff — the best way to reconcile your mutual account, as it were, is to present your girlfriend with an itemized bill for all the services you have provided her over the years, such as allowing her to buy you a home, permitting her to forego a wage-earning career, and gifting her with the opportunity to abandon her favorite hobby. That should pretty swiftly put everything you're "missing" in stark relief, and solve the question of how she should allocate her money in the future.

[kleyamarki]

I’d love to hear some library stories!

Okay friends here is my support your local public library manifesto:

I have worked in a public library for a little over a year now, and I worked in an academic library for a year and a half. They’re two different beasts, and I love both, but public libraries will always have a special place in my heart.

Lately, as I’m sure you know, public libraries in the US have been under attack by people who really don’t understand public libraries and all that their employees do.

So, here are some of the things that I’ve done in my year of public library work that people outside of it might not think of:

1. I’ve taught several older adults how to text on their iPhone for the first time, and how to use their smart phones generally.

2. I led teens through a library orientation to show them all we have to offer (which is pretty important when we regularly have 50-60 teens hanging out at my branch after school).

3. I’ve helped people over chat reference locate information and obituaries for their relatives. This involved looking through old newspapers and databases — it was really cool and the patrons are always extremely thankful!!

4. I helped a woman locate her many-greats grandfather’s civil war records using our local history collection.

5. I’ve printed countless tax forms for people and made appointments for them to get their taxes done at the library for free.

6. I’ve developed relationships with the local community college and a local university to get more college students to use the public library and to get them out into their community. (Let me brag here: this is in the strategic plan to be completed by fiscal year 2026, and I, a 23 year old library associate, have already been doing this, teehee)

7. I set up 4 all-ages displays and 2 adult displays this year alone, and I have 2 more I’m setting up in September.

8. I’ve helped kids locate materials for homework in books and using our online resources.

9. I’ve helped with our branch’s Lunch at the Library program, which feeds any kid up to age 18 for free every weekday during the summer.

10. I’ve helped people young and old with resumes, job applications, and helped them find career readiness and test prep materials countless times.

Libraries are SO much more than just books!!!! We have online resources, puzzles, board games, cameras, fishing poles, cake pans, and so much more!! We have programming for ALL ages! I specifically program for 20s-30s! Check us out!!!!! And don’t forget: public libraries are some of the last spaces that you can exist in without having to spend money. They need to be protected, appreciated, and most of all VISITED!!!

Go get a library card and check us out!!!!!!

[dearestkong]

reflections // end-of-year exams🍓

it's the return of dearestkong~~ i finished my last exam yesterday, and i'll begin daily updates soon!! it's nice not to be in panic-study mode, but I still have a ton of work to do for university applications. here are some things on my mind.

the good (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

when it came down to it, i could face the inertia head-on. during the short hiatus i was studying 6 hours a day, most days.

utilising resources: notion has been a godsend!! it used to scare me, but then i realised i was putting too much pressure on myself to make it look nice. a bare-bones table is fine.

it was a tough week (weeks), but i got through it and only cried a few times.

tried to take good breaks. saw a lot (!!!!!!!!!!!!) of beautiful things and ate delicious food.

today i had the whole day free; that's incredibly rare because there's always some sort of obligation going on. so i spent the morning reading, i took a walk, i finished my book in a cafe. i went back to my tutoring job and saw the kids again. i watched tv while cleaning my room. i turned off my phone-- i was determined not to waste the gift so i ended up having a much more fulfilling time than i normally do. and as i think back on it, i was being so stupid. there's nothing that special about today. every day is a gift! if i can do that once, i can do it always.

the not-so-good (.◜ᯅ◝)

felt burned out within the first week of revision but i didn't feel like i was working hard enough. i never feel like i work hard enough, and the problem is that's backed up with fact in my head because i never managed to complete my to-do list-- i went into exams knowing that i didn't do enough question practice or only briefly skimmed some topics.

was overconfident on some exams and underconfident (?) on others. cried before one because all the stuff felt alien to me, but it wasn't even that bad fr. i need to chillax

accidentally met someone incredibly beautiful and was struck with longing during the whole week which is not exactly what you want uring a time of academic pressure, you know?

realised that even when i'm not actively relapsing, i'm still doing a lot of self-destructive things. sleeping at midnight before an exam, choosing my phone over the book i really want to read. staying in bed too long or skipping exercise to rot.. i know all those things will make me feel bad, but i do them anyway. i'm too mean to myself.

in conclusion I MISS POSTING. idgaf if this takes time out of my day, the self-examination really helps me. in the process of writing a new introduction because my pinned has kind of aged out of relevance, but we'll see how it goes. !!! onwards!!!

[mistchievous]

you work in a library! you're living my dream! 💜 do you have a thoughts/opinions on what you would like people to know about libraries? (or top 5 fave authors if not)

Oh God. Please don't ask for my favorite anything. I'm terrible at making lists like that. 😂

But I love working in a library! It's such a chill space!

I think the main thing I'd want people to know is that libraries are more than just books. Like, obviously books are important (and if your library doesn't have a book on hand, I pretty much guarantee they can get it for you via ILL), but they generally have so much more to offer. And I don't mean e-books, though those are a thing too! You should look into your local libraries' resources and even the resources of library systems around you and around your county/state/etc. Plenty of places have online resources and databases that you don't even have to live in the area to access.

And also, they're FREE community spaces. You can go there and just be without anyone expecting anything of you. You don't need to buy a coffee or justify your existence. Need wifi? Go to the library. Need to use a computer? Go to the library. Need a study room? Go to the library. Need to make copies or fax? Go to the library. Need a large meeting room for a performance or gathering or anything at all? Go the library. Does your library system have maker spaces? Go use sewing machines, 3D printers, and more. One of our branches even has a professional recording studio that you can book and use for free, and it provides recording equipment and premium software.

Wanna stream movies or tv shows without having to pay or pirate, check a site like www.justwatch.com which will tell you if library provided resources like Hoopla or Kanopy have them available allowing you access with just your library card number. (Or just go check out the DVD!) There are often expensive databases available for free as well. Like Westlaw which many people in law pay through the nose for. Or Freegal where you can download music for free. Or Tutor.com which allows you free live professional academic assistance. My system has well over a hundred different databases for all age groups. Kids, teens, young adults, adults, and seniors.

Not to mention, libraries offer community programming for all age groups as well. It's not just Book Club, though we have those too. We do story times for kids. Crafts, STEM programming, performances by local and national performers (especially in the summer), etc. We show movies using large projector screens, have video game and TTRPG programs, and offer prizes for programs such as our Summer Reading Program to encourage people to read. We also have a lot of cultural and historical local archives that house information and photographs and the like that can't be accessed anywhere else in the world.

This answer is getting long, and I've really only scratched the surface, y'all. Libraries are important spaces, and they're one of the few truly free and open community spaces still available. It's infuriating when you have people who think we're obsolete and can be replaced by paid services like Audible and Kindle Unlimited. It makes me want to scream.

Support your local libraries, okay? They matter.

[withinkandquill-aa]

Do any of your muses celebrate Christmas or a fantasy variation? If so, elaborate please! // anonymous

NO ONE on this blog celebrates Christmas like Anya does!

Of course, this only applies to verses in which she is free from her father and has discovered the holiday in the first place but once those boxes are checked, she celebrates as much as she can. In verses where she’s still on the streets or inhibited by an adult guardian or caretaker (5 yr old & 14 yr old verses), she celebrates in small ways, making use of whatever she can get her hands on. Broken ornaments and discarded tinsel can still be hung on trees and bushes in local parks or outside city limits and stealing is always an option too. As an adult, she celebrates as much as she can financially despite it just being her most of the time; her and one or two other people at most so far. It’s not much, but she has a tree and decorations and strings of lights are liable to end up on any surface she sees fit.

Scarlet celebrates Christmas in a more casual way, minimal and traditional. It’s either just her and her grand-mere or her and Wolf so she doesn’t feel the need to go all out. Like her grandmother, she’s very practical and very busy with life on the farm.

Roxane, Brianna, and Rosanna celebrate Christmas in small ways as they do not have the money or resources to make a big feast or give many gifts. Roxane makes it as fun as she can for the kids but she is very limited by this.

Verity celebrates a holiday that could be compared to Christmas, though they have a week-long celebration worshiping the sea god Pontus. They call it Churning, I believe, because it’s when Pontus stirs the seas and brings about the changing of the seasons.

Cardan may celebrate some solstice-based holiday but not mortal Christmas. Unless a mortal or Vivi have anything to do about it.

River likely celebrates with the crew of the Serenity and is limited to what they can do on board.

Emily doesn’t celebrate. She sees it as a waste of time and money, and does not understand the value having no family herself. Sometimes she opts to work and more rarely, she spends the day reading for pleasure. It’s likely still an academic text though, and always about faeries of course.

Mischa, Aydan, Oaklynn, and Melody also celebrate Christmas though child!Mischa, Aydan, and Oaklynn are limited to their adult guardian’s version of celebration and adult!Mischa and Melody celebrate in small, cozy ways as they don’t have much if any family to celebrate with.

I’m not sure about Elphaba and Jinx as their canon is very different from the real world and no holidays are ever mentioned.

[beginningspod]

It's time for Beginnings, the podcast where writer and performer Andy Beckerman talks to the comedians, writers, filmmakers and musicians he admires about their earliest creative experiences and the numerous ways in which a creative life can unfold.

On today's episode, I talk to musician and academic Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings. Originally from Stevens Point, WI, Dylan is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. As an academic, he received his Masters from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and is currently completing his PhD. He's also on the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board and is associate director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College. As a musician, Dylan began singing at pow-wows when he was a kid, in drum groups like Midnite Express and IronBoy, with fellow singer Joe Rainey. But it wasn't until 2015, when he and Joe were given free reign to do what they wanted at the Eaux Claires Festival that Bizhiki was born. Their first album Unbound was just released on Jagjaguwar in July, and folks, it's great!

(Photo by Finn Ryan)

I'm on Twitter here and you can get the show with:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Amazon Podcasts

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[nykloss]

stumbled across some of your posts about a code lyoko ttrpg

i am interested please tell me more 😭

ive been wanting to run code lyoko dnd for so long but i dont have the smarts to change dnd to make it feel code lyoko

Hey there! I'm super excited that someone's interested in this because it's such a passion project of mine haha, I'm sorry in advance if this answer is more than you bargained for!

To give you the rundown, I ran a very brief and experimental dnd 5e hack for Code Lyoko a couple of years ago for some friends. It was a lot of fun, but the system was SO badly Frankenstein'ed that we ran into a lot of technical issues, especially regarding the Lyoko/reality split and how it effected different builds. The old guide for that hack can be found here for free, but please take note that it is very informal and poorly optimized!

Recently though, I've been experimenting with non-dnd systems and building my own tabletop games, which is where Warriors of Xanadu comes into play. (This might get lengthy so feel free to skip to the TLDR.)

Warriors of Xanadu is a code-lyoko/garage-kids inspired system that I'm working on myself with the help of a few more experienced friends. It's built off of the Apocalypse World framework (basically a 2d6 system–if you've played Monster of the Week, Masks, or Avatar: Legends, think something like that) specifically designed to work well with the world and story CL provides. That means all the gameplay mechanics are inherently relevant to running code-lyoko-inspired adventures and there's no extra work to be done on your part. It's also a lot easier to teach/learn than something like DnD. (Even the character sheets are designed to be accessible so players could technically make their character with just their printed-off sheets and no additional resources! Much easier than dnd.)

Each non-GM player plays as a "Hero" and chooses a unique combination of a playbook (centered around academic character tropes like cool kid, geek, class clown, etc.) and a class sheet (how they appear on "Xanadu," with options like rogue, mage, warrior, etc.). Then, In-game, heroes go through episodic challenges where they encounter problems in reality caused by "the Virus," and must transport themselves to Xanadu to combat it. There's also a handful of original mechanics relating to social/academic rapport, corruption from the supercomputer, etc. The health/harm system and combat is inspired by Apocalypse World and Monster of the Week, and is meant to inspire a more survival/horror element than what something like dnd would provide. (Essentially the goal is not to engage in and "win" lengthy combat encounters, but to stay alive and usually avoid enemies when possible.)

I feel it's also important to note that it's not 1:1 Code Lyoko; it's very transformative and a handful of ideas are heavily abstracted to be more fun in a ttrpg setting. It's open-ended and customizable enough that you could technically run an unrelated story with it. That also means that there's some fun surprises for folks familiar with Code Lyoko, though, and you could still run something close-to-canon if you wanted.

The first draft of WoX is about 60-70% completed, I just need to finish the GM-heavy parts of the manual, finish some of the moves, and actually put together fillable playbooks/class sheets. I'm hoping to have it completed and ready to playtest by the end of the summer, but that's a loose deadline. Once I've done some playtesting and gotten feedback from others, I'll probably release the first public version on drivethru rpg and/or itch.io as a free or PWYW sorta deal.

TLDR; Warriors of Xanadu is a powered-by-the-apocalypse style trrpg system I'm working on. It's made from the ground up to support a Code Lyoko inspired campaign. I'm almost done with it but still have some work to do!

If you're comfy coming off of anon, I'd be happy to make note of you and send you the playtest version when I'm done with it, or answer any additional questions! (Same goes for anyone else reading this!)

[catholichousehold]

Embracing Homeschooling on a Single Income: Our Journey with The Good and the Beautiful Curriculum

Hello, dear readers! Today, I want to share our story and how we have successfully embraced homeschooling despite living on a very low single income. If you're a low-income family considering homeschooling, I hope our journey with The Good and the Beautiful free curriculum will inspire and encourage you.

Our Homeschooling Journey

Life has not always been easy for us. With a single income, managing finances and providing for our family of seven has been a challenge. However, one thing my husband and I have always been passionate about is giving our children the best education possible. We believe in the value of personalized learning and the nurturing environment that homeschooling provides.

When we first started homeschooling, we were overwhelmed by the costs associated with various curriculums. Initially, our two eldest children were enrolled in Seton Home Study, which provided a very strong foundation in our Catholic faith. We are incredibly grateful to Seton for this, as it helped instill values and knowledge that continue to benefit our family today. However, as money became so tight, we had to stop enrolling them in Seton Home Study.

That's when we discovered The Good and the Beautiful curriculum, and it has been a true blessing for our family. The curriculum covers essential subjects like language arts, math, science, history, and art, with materials that are engaging and well-structured. It aligns with our values and provides a rich, character-based education that nurtures our children's minds and hearts. Despite using The Good and the Beautiful curriculum, we continue to use Seton materials, especially for Reading and Catholic Religion subjects. Thanks to our homeschooling friends here in the Philippines, who have shared their Seton materials with us, we can still incorporate these valuable resources. They are one of the many blessings we receive.

Success Stories: Our Two Older Kids

I am proud to share that our two older kids, who were homeschooled using The Good and the Beautiful curriculum, are now attending senior high school in a regular school setting. The transition was smooth, and they are thriving academically and socially. Their strong foundation in critical thinking, reading, and writing has set them up for success, and I credit much of that to the quality education they received through our homeschooling journey.

Continuing the Journey: Our Three Younger Kids

Currently, we have three children who are still homeschooling: a preschooler, a kindergartner, and a seventh-grader. Each of them benefits from the tailored approach of The Good and The Beautiful Currculum.

Our Preschooler: Learning through play and exploration, our little one is developing a love for learning from a young age. The curriculum's focus on character development and foundational skills  is perfect for this stage.

Our Kindergartner: The engaging lessons and hands-on activities keep our kindergartner excited about school each day. The phonics-based approach to reading is helping build strong literacy skills.

Our Seventh-Grader: The rigorous and in-depth materials challenge our seventh-grader while fostering independence and critical thinking. The curriculum's integration of art and geography makes learning a joy.

Encouragement for Low-Income Families

I know firsthand how daunting the idea of homeschooling can be, especially when finances are tight. But I want to encourage you: it is possible. The Good and the Beautiful curriculum has provided our family with an invaluable resource, allowing us to educate our children at home without financial burden. Additionally, the strong foundation provided by Seton Home Study, which we continue to use in key subjects, has been invaluable.

Here are a few tips to make homeschooling on a low income work for your family:

Utilize Free Resources: Take advantage of free curriculum options like The Good and the Beautiful. There are also many online resources, libraries, and educational websites that offer free or low-cost materials.

Join a Support Group: Connect with other homeschooling families for support and resource-sharing. Many communities have co-ops, Facebook groups, or local meet-ups.

Be Flexible: Adapt your homeschooling schedule and methods to fit your family's unique needs. Remember, homeschooling allows for flexibility, so find what works best for you and your children.

Stay Positive: Focus on the benefits of homeschooling and the precious time spent with your children. Celebrate the small victories and progress along the way.

Final Thoughts

Homeschooling on a low income is not only possible but can be incredibly rewarding. With dedication, creativity, and the right resources, you can provide your children with a rich and meaningful education. The Good and the Beautiful curriculum has been a lifeline for our family, and the strong foundation from Seton Home Study continues to guide us. I hope our story inspires you to take the leap and embrace homeschooling, no matter your financial situation.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Together, we can support and uplift each other as we navigate the beautiful world of homeschooling.

Disclosure: I do not receive any monetary compensation or other benefits from The Good and the Beautiful for writing this blog post. The opinions and experiences shared are entirely my own and based on my personal journey with homeschooling my children. My intent is to provide encouragement and support to other families who may be in similar situations.