Technology is constantly advancing and there are many ways you can use it to your advantage as a homeschool parent. If you have an Amazon Alexa or Echo, you may be surprised to see some of the ways it can improve your lessons. While you can’t say, “Alexa, teach my kids for the rest of the day,” here are a few ways it can add to your school environment.
Play Music
Amazon Alexa can connect to different streaming services or keep you connect to Amazon Music for a monthly fee. Here you can access virtually any song, podcast, or recording in the world. This is great for music lessons in particular, but will add to almost any part of your curriculum. Teaching a lesson on Mozart? Have Alexa play The Magic Flute. Want your kids to wind down? Play some meditation or classical music. You can also find many homeschool curriculum audio disks online that can be streamed through these devices.
Set a Timer
Homeschool teachers use timers for everything from quizzes to breaks. Instead of pulling out your phone and distracting your young ones, simply say, “Alexa, set a timer for 15 minutes.” It makes the process super easy.
Help With Math
Alexa has options to enable a variety of learning resources. If you could use help when teaching math, whether for yourself or to keep your kiddos engaged, turn to this device for help. Alexa Skills like 1-2-3 Math and Math Facts allow your kids to play math games and ask questions with the device. Read up on these Skills so you know how to use them efficiently when the time comes.
Answer Questions
Alexa is your hands-free connection to the internet. Kids are notorious for answering questions we don’t know the answer to, so use Alexa to help you out the next time this happens. This is much faster and less distracting to your kids than you pulling out your computer and going down an internet rabbit hole.
Science Projects
Another great Alexa Skill to enable is Busy Hands. This includes a step-by-step process for six different science projects. Ask to start one of the projects (“Alexa, what do I need to make slime?) and you will be told what supplies you need and how to proceed. It will also share fun facts about the project if you ask.