School is going to look a lot different this year. Whether you are “going to school” remotely, in person, some combination of both or home-schooling, Westlake Porter Public Library (WPPL) has resources to assist you in the learning process. While this is not an exhaustive list, it will help to get you started. If you are in need of something other than the listed materials, please feel free to contact the Youth Services Department at 440-250-5471 or connect with us via email.
Books/Workbooks
Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Creative and Comprehensive Homeschool Curriculum by Rebecca Rupp
In Home Learning Year by Year, Rebecca Rupp presents comprehensive plans from preschool through high school, covering integral subjects for each grade, with lists of topics commonly presented at each level, recommended resource and reading lists, and suggestions for creative alternative options and approaches. Included, along with all the educational basics, are techniques and resources for teaching everything from philosophy to engineering, as well as suggestions for dealing with such sensitive topics as sex education.
Extraordinary Parenting: the Essential Guide to Parenting and Education at Home by Eloise Rickman
In this warm, accessible book, experienced parenting coach Eloise Rickman tells you everything you really need to know about parenting and educating your child at home. Whether you’re planning to make a permanent move to homeschooling or you’re temporarily balancing it alongside paid work, Extraordinary Parenting shows that you don’t need a huge house, endless free time, or a host of expensive resources to unlock your child’s potential.
The Home Education Handbook: A Comprehensive and Practical Guide to Educating Children at Home by Gill Hines
The Home Education Handbook covers everything from the socialization of home-educated children to advice on supporting the motivation and resilience of all involved. This is a book that every parent who is considering home education or flexi-schooling, or is simply keen to ensure that their child gets the best education possible, needs to read.
Reading Basics for all Teachers by Lin Carver and Lauren Pantoja
Reading provides the foundation allowing students to access and analyze information. However, it is not just a single skill. Students’ comprehension is impacted and supported by solid foundational skills in oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension. This book analyzes the skills needed in these areas and strategies and activities to support their development. It expands teachers’ skills and strategies to help them make a significant difference in their students’ lives.
Kids Have All the Write Stuff by Sharon A. Edwards
You can open up a world of imagination and learning for children when you encourage the expression of ideas through writing. Kids Have All the Write Stuff: Revised and Updated for a Digital Age shows you how to support children’s development as confident writers and communicators, offering hundreds of creative ways to integrate writing into the lives of toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary school students–whether at home or at school.
The Dad Lab by Sergei Urban
In this mind-blowing book, Sergei Urban takes the challenge off-screen with fifty step-by-step projects, including some that he has never shared online before. Each activity will go beyond the videos, featuring detailed explanations to simplify scientific concepts for parents and help answer the hows and whys of their curious children. Learn how to:
* explore new fun ways to paint;
* make slime with only two ingredients;
* defy gravity with a ping-pong ball;
* produce your own electricity, and more!
Math the Easy Way by Anthony Prindle and Katie Prindle
Topics covered in this detailed review of algebra include whole numbers, fractions, percentages, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, word problems, probability, and statistics. Math: The Easy Way includes a diagnostic test to identify strengths and weaknesses so students can pinpoint their trouble spots, plus a practice with answers so students can test their knowledge.
The Physics Book by Jim Al-Khalili
This diverse and inclusive account of physics includes Pythagoras’ observations on music, Galileo’s experiments with spheres, and Isaac Newton’s theories of gravity and the laws of motion, unlocking Albert Einstein’s insights into relativity, how the accidental discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation confirmed the Big Bang theory, and the reasons most of the Universe is “missing”. Showing how each idea and breakthrough came about, entries examine the history and wider developments in areas such as energy and matter, electricity and magnetism, and quantum, nuclear, and particle physics.
The Spectrum® Series
The Spectrum® Series of workbooks for Children in Grades K-8 cover core subjects of Language and Math and feature materials for test prep and practice.
Skill Practice (Grades 1-5) by Imogene Forte, Marjorie Frank, Kathleen Bullock, and Brenda Tropinski
These books are filled with worksheets and activity pages to reinforce curriculum subjects. Students strengthen basic skills while having fun. Skills Practice books were developed by a team of experienced educators. Skills Practice includes carefully researched skill sequences; age-appropriate, high-interest exercises; and skill tests for practice assessment.
Westlake Porter Public Library has extensive non-fiction and biography collections in books and dvd’s and also some learning cd’s.
If we don’t have what you are looking for, we would be happy to attempt to find a suitable replacement through SearchOhio or OhioLink.
Launchpads/Playaways
STEAM Kits/Early Literacy Kits
Playaway Launchpads are preloaded learning tablets. Device does not have Internet connectivity.
Playaway Views (Playviews) are dedicated video media players and have a variety of topics, both fiction and non-fiction.
STEAM Learning Kits
Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math Learning Kits provide lessons/experiments in various STEAM subjects.
Sprout Early Literacy Backpacks
Each themed backpack includes books and activities with easy-to-follow activity guides that make learning fun! All materials are developmentally appropriate for young children and reinforce early literacy concepts needed for school success.
Downloads/Streaming
Downloads/Streaming for Kids and Teens may be found on the Kids & Parents section of the WPPL website. Included in this section are Hoopla Digital, Kanopy, Overdrive and Tumblebook Library.
Hoopla offers streaming movies, television, music, eBooks, audiobooks, and comics!
Kanopy Kids features a diverse selection of educational and entertaining content that ranges across Movies, TV Series, Animated Storybooks, Live Action, and Animated favorites.
WPPL offers eBooks and audiobooks from OverDrive.
TumbleBooks are animated, talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they’ll love. Have fun with reading in a whole new way!
Databases and Subscriptions
Databases and Subscriptions may be found on the Kids & Parents Section of the WPPL website.
Watch here for a brief tutorial by our Young Adult Librarian, Aaron, of three of these databases, Explora, Kids Infobits, and Tutor.com.
Also included on the WPPL Website is a section for Government Documents where you can find Ben’s Guide to the Federal Government, a service of the Government Publishing Office (GPO), designed to inform students, parents, and educators about the Federal Government, which issues the publications and information products disseminated by the GPO’s Federal Depository Library Program.
Another excellent resource for making the most of every child’s educational experience is the Ohio Department of Education’s Parents Page. This page includes information about Preschool through High School, including current standards and practice tests.
Happy learning from all of us at Westlake Porter Public Library!
