Senari's curriculum design helps parents/teachers to individualize lessons to meet their needs and those of their students. Teaching the same concept to all the students at the same time (at their appropriate levels), saves preparation time, and provides interaction among the students. Using this approach, many parents have lowered the stress level in their homes. At the same time, their students have become more independent learners!

On this page you will find downloadable presentations, online course demos, and descriptions of some of our products. Many of our clients have found the short exercise in curriculum design helpful.

Downloadable Lessons
Downloadable Presentations
Demos for Senari Academy's Courses
Curriculum Development
Product Types

Downloadable Lessons

World Geography Maps - Archipelagoes

These programs will be a part of the World Geography CD when David completes the rest of the interactive maps. Each of his programs has two versions. The "easy" version has the Prime Meridian and Equator marked in red and a hint to help the student find the location on the map. David, the programmer, is a 15 year old home-schooled high school student. We hope you enjoy it!

To use the program, download it and unzip it to a convenient place on your hard drive.

Area Bingo

The bingo game has 30 playing cards, a calling card, and a sheet with the formulas needed to compute the areas of squares, rectangles, paralellograms, circles, and triangles. A proven way to learn the formulas needed for the study of geometry, the bingo game can be fun for a family, classroom, or any other group.

Lines Study Unit
Triangles Study Unit

A 15 year old student who was taking a Geometry course made these study units. The objective was that she learn the definitions and present them in a way that parents and beginning readers could understand them.

She used the definitions from Senari's Geometry Cheat Sheets, although the definitions and drawings can also be found in the Montessori materials, or in any high school Geometry textbook. In the process, she learned to make compact graphics (using Windows Paint program), place the material on Word templates and organize the study unit for ease of use.

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Downloadable Presentations

Using a Study Unit

This presentation describes the use of our study units for a wide range of student ages and abilities. Each study unit consists of a lesson plan, a booklet for writing practice; name, information and picture cards of the various parts of the subject. We have grouped study units on CD-Roms such as the Vertebrate Combo and the Microbiology CD.

Making a Study Unit

Many study units have been prepared by students ages 10 - 14. The format allows students to do the research and prepare lessons for their younger siblings. Some older students have made "games" for their high-school and college courses. They were then able to use them to tutor other students.

Teaching the Basic Math Facts

The presentation shows how manipulatives can be combined with our printed materials to help students learn the basic math facts. These students used Montessori beads, but you can adapt the process to use other types of manipulatives.

Making Self-Correcting Math Materials

For many young students, a whole page of problems is quite intimidating. This presentation shows you how to cut the worksheets down to an appropriate size, and make them self-correcting as well.

The Stamp Game - Unlocking Addition

This presentation shows you how to make and use inexpensive manipulatives to help your children under the concepts of carrying and borrowing. The presentation illustrates column addition, but you can use the same materials and structure for subtraction.

The Hierarchy of Learning

"Upper-level thinking skills" are popular in the current educational jargon. This presentation describes the theory in common-sense terms. We have used the presentation with students to help them understand the process of learning.

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Demos for Senari Academy's Courses

US Geography Demo Class Page

Go to the the description of the United States Geography and History Course and CD-Rom.

World Geography Demo Class Page

See the description of the World Geography course and download the Table of Contents of the CD-Rom.

The Vertebrates Demo Class Page

Look at the overview and contents of the Vertebrates Course and download the table of contents of the CD-Rom.

Microbiology Demo Class Page

Click here to see the description of the Microbiology CD-Rom.

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Senari Products

Printable Worksheets and Bingo Games
Computer Generated Manipulatives
Interactive Software

Printable Worksheets and Bingo Games

Worksheet Generators:

Each of the six programs produce unique math worksheets with accompanying answer sheets. Math worksheet generator topics include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, and problem solving (word problems). Algebra worksheet generators produce worksheets correlated to the topics in The Algebra Class CD-Rom.

Cheat Sheets:

These worksheets give the student concise procedures that help them master the concepts of fraction, geometry, problem solving, problem solving strategies, algebra, and sentence diagramming. The downloadable demos include lesson plans, a table of contents, and sample cheat sheets.

Bingo Games:

Each bingo game has 30 cards which may be printed on tagboard and laminated. Math bingo games come with an instruction sheet and 5 worksheet/answersheet combinations that may be used for practice and/or as calling cards for the bingo game. Chemistry and geography bingo games can be found on the Science and Geography Pages. Each Bingo Game demo has at least 3 bingo cards. Download one and try it out!

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Computer Generated Manipulatives

Study Units:

These single topic science units combine worksheets and manipulatives in a single package. They are ideal for homeschoolers with children of different ages. Each child can use the activities that are appropriate to his or her age/grade level and ability.

Each study unit consists of a lesson plan, a booklet for writing practice; name, information and picture cards of the various parts of the subject.

Cork Board Maps:

World geography becomes a game with these activities. Each set has a map, a map answer key, a list of the places on the map together with their locations, in terms of latitude and longitude, and their descriptions. A lesson plan is included. It details a variety of ways to use these activities with students of all ages.

Cork Board Diagrams:

Science diagrams are used in a game format similar to the cork board maps. Each set comes with a diagram, an answer key, and a set of labels, and a sheet of terms and definitions. Students learn by matching the terms and definitions, and labeling the diagrams. A lesson plan is included.

Classification Lines:

While the classification of animals is a topic usually covered in High School Biology, our classification lines provide much younger students with a visual chart on which they can place pictures of animals in their appropriate groups. Each illustrated classification line comes with complete instructions and suggestions for activities to use with students from kindergarten through high school.

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Interactive Software

Senari's interactive math software is designed so that students can work with little or no adult supervision. In addition to the practice mode, one or both of the following modes is available for each concept.

Show Me mode is a tutorial that a student may use at any time. This mode is not scored.

Steps provides a way for students to work through the entire process of solving the problem on the computer. Many students go directly from the Steps to solving math problems in their heads. All parts of a problem must be correct for the problem to be correct and add to his score.

Downloadable demos have all the features of a program, but limit the user to 3 examples each time he enters a concept. Demos are available for:

• The Math Class
• The Pre-Algebra Class
• The Algebra Class
• The Geometry Class

The interactive grammar software, The English Class, provides practice and instruction in color-coding and diagramming sentences. It is an excellent complement to the Grammar Manipulatives, and the Diagramming Cheat Sheets. The SAT Vocabulary programs provide students with a way of studying vocabulary as it relates to grammar.

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Curriculum Design Exercise

A textbook or a curriculum is a set of lessons and lesson plans usually developed by professional educators. If you have experienced difficulty getting through all the lessons in a curriculum or have had difficulty motivating your children to get their lessons done, try this experiment with another adult or one of your older children.

• Copy the table of contents of a science or social studies textbook. (This is actually the outline that the author used to write the book.)



• This outline, in educational jargon, is the "Scope and Sequence" for the grade level of the textbook.

Now, decide what you want for your children.

• Cross out all the topics that are reviews or topics that your child already knows.



• Cross out the topics that are inappropriate for your child.



• Write 2 topics from the list on a sheet of paper, one on each side.



• Ask your partner to make a list of ways to learn each of the topics.



• Using the outline of the textbook as a starting point, make your own curriculum for the year. I would suspect that it will have more depth than the textbook's and it will be more interesting for you and your children.

Remember that your curriculum, just like any other plan, is a map to guide you on your way -- don't let it prevent you from exploring other things along the way!

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