Free Homeschooling

Homeschooling doesn't have to cost anything.  Really.

(Although, I do recommend that every homeschool family have an HSLDA membership.  It's important to protect yourself, and your membership helps keep homeschooling legal in all 50 states.)

I absolutely adore curriculum.  It's really fun to look at and play with and plan for.  But in reality,  sometimes the kids like it.  But more often than not, we spend a whole lot of money on something that looks great, only to find that, after a day or two,  the kids are no longer keen on it, and the haranguing begins.

Cause if I've spent a lot of money on some curriculum I thought was going to be wonderful - well, then we must use it, right?

On the other hand, if I get my stuff for free, then I don't much care whether the kids love it or never want to play with it again.  I have the freedom to let them enjoy it or not.

Please be aware:  While I have personally looked at all of these websites - it is not possible for me to have looked at all of the games/links as there are literally thousands.  Please, please, never let your child access the internet without your supervision.  Computers with internet access should be in a common area, where you - the parent - will be aware of what your kids are being exposed to.  I know of several Christian, homeschooling families who trusted their kids to know what not to look at - and their kids were inadvertently exposed to, and subsequently addicted to porn.  Be careful!!

Here are some free curriculum sites (in no particular order):

MULTIPLE SUBJECT, GRADE SCHOOL AGE GAMES:

Starfall:  Early primary phonics, math, silly learning games.  My kids love it.

Learning Games for Kids:  Like the name says, lots of games in all areas.  Let them choose and you sit back and watch them learn.  :)

Gamequarium:  More games for elementary school age.

Game Classroom:  Kindergarten through sixth grade games in all areas.  These games are developed to match state standards.  (Is that a good thing? - LOL!)

Arcademic Skill Builders:  More K-5 games in all areas.

ABCya!:  Lots more great games.  I like playing the one where you fit the United States in the map, one state at a time.  My high score is 320 on hard.

Fun Brain:  Reading and Math games for grade school age.

Sheppard Software:  Hundreds of educational games, activities, quizzes, articles and more!

Funschool:  Worksheets, online games, craft videos - it's got it all.  But I detest the commercials.

PBS Kids:  Games, coloring sheets, and worksheets associated with all the PBS shows.  Mostly fluff and commercialism, but some good stuff.

HISTORY/SCIENCE:

National Geographic Kids:  Lots of interesting things to do and see.  Plus some learning games.  Warning- definitely a site that believes in evolution and that the world is billions of years old.  If you, like me, believe in young earth and that God created humans - then you will want to be sure your kids understand that this site does not support that.


Answers in Genesis kids' section:  Fun videos, worksheets, coloring pages, crafts, etc.  Love it!


Usborne Quicklinks:  Links to educational websites galore!

MATH:

A+ Math:  Math games, worksheets, flashcards.


Timez Attack!:  Teaches all the multiplication facts, 2 x 2 through 12 x 12.  Fun!!


Manga High:  Lots of math games for upper elementary and middle school students.


Cool Math:  Higher level math games, primarily for older kids (and adults).  


Sum Dog:  Math games that cover 100 numeracy topics at 10 levels.

The Math Worksheet Site:  Make up worksheets and charts based on what your kids are currently studying.

TYPING:  

Learn2Type:  Like it says, free online typing tutor.




SPELLING/VOCABULARY:

Spelling City:  Spelling and vocabulary for all levels.  Use their suggested lists or make your own list and convert it to word searches, games, and tests.  


READING/BOOK LISTS:

Book Adventure:  This Sylvan sponsored site offers both reading suggestions for all ages, and quizzes to check for comprehension.  If your child is an independent reader, you can set up rewards for him/her to get when then read a certain number of books and score well on the tests.  Nice!!


Ambleside Online:  Book lists (some are free online and some you get at the library) and guidelines for the popular Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling.  Great place to get inspired.  


GEOGRAPHY:

Seterra:  Fun online geography practice.  Better than just a quiz - actually helps you learn the major citys,  countries, etc.



Wish you were here!

Asking Questions

Jor Man has been wanting to see the movie, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" for some time now.  We were finally able to rent it.  I think we've watched it five times.  The kids love it - and I thought it was very good.

It is scary.  Uma Thurman is Medusa.  And there is a scene near the beginning that made me jump - something about a fury.  Ugly!!  But if your kids aren't nightmare prone, this movie is a great example of what unschooling can be like.

Following watching the movie, Jor Man was very interested in learning more about the Greek mythological gods and goddesses.  We watched
"The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization" on Netflix.  He loved it.  This is convenient since I intend to focus on the Ancients this year.  And I noticed that there are many more similar titles on Netflix.

We have discussed how these "gods and goddesses" are really false gods or demons.  For more ideas about how to talk with kids about this, see Kids in Ministry Internationals website or their curriculum, "Our Amazing God" - which we used with our family and loved.

Jor Man wanted to know - if when a "god" and a mortal have a baby, it's a "demi-god", what do you get if two "demi-gods" have a baby?  So we discussed genetics.(Although, who knows if it would work that way.  Would "gods" be a dominant or recessive gene?)  For the record, two demi-gods would have a 50% chance of having a demi-god baby, a 25% chance of having a mere mortal, and a 25% change of giving birth to a god.  Hmmm.

So many questions the kids had about the movie - so many jumping off points and learning moments.  It got me thinking - how great are questions?!

In school, kids are told what they SHOULD know, not what they WANT to know.  When my kids ask me a question, I know that they are sincerely interested in the subject and want to know the answer.  This is totally different than them memorizing the answer to a question they never asked so that they will be able to answer the question when they are tested.

I am attempting to inspire, delight, and create an environment of wonder and curiosity so compelling that I am inundated with questions!  Mom, how does this work?  Why is it blue?  How come?

Inquisitive kids make great learners.  I wonder if parents are afraid of questions, though?  What if your kids ask questions, and you don't know the answers?

That's when the real learning takes place, as you teach your kids how to find out the answers themselves.  Perhaps you show them how to look up a word in the dictionary.  Or you search for something on the internet.  Or you go to the library, and have them ask the librarian their question.

We want to create life long learners.  Not great test takers.

"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing,
but it is the honor of kings to search it out,”
Proverbs 25:22

Wish you were here!

Chocolate

Cacao growing outside of Tiquisate, Guatemala

There, on the tree.  That football shaped, greenish fruit growing out of the trunk or branch.  That's it.    That's a cacao pod.  That is where chocolate comes from.

I remember seeing it for the first time when I was nine years old, and thinking it was the strangest thing - stuck there on the side of the trunk.

But, oh, how I love chocolate!  Jor Man went through a phase a couple of years ago when he was very interested in making chocolate.  We tried it, and failed miserably.  It didn't even taste good.

I asked my cousin, while we were in Guatemala, to get us one so that the kids could see for themselves where chocolate comes from.  He got us two!!  These were yellow (ripe?).

We played with them a bit, first, of course.  And then we cut them open.

Campster and Sher Bear playing with the cacao pods

They cut very easily, which surprised me.  The skin in hard like a winter squash, but the inside is soft.  It's whitish inside, and then there are little beans, cacao beans in the white.  It doesn't look a thing like chocolate - or taste like it.

Pretty much every kid I know has smelled unsweetened cocoa powder, or unsweetened baker's chocolate and taken a taste. Horrible bitter stuff!  Well, straight cacao beans make that seem yummy!

What the cacao beans look like raw

Jor Man tried tasting one and hated it!!  Before the beans can be used, they are roasted.  Then they add fat and sugar, and sometimes milk.  Well, that's the short-version.  If you want to read about how to really make chocolate, The Story of Chocolate is a great book for kids.  It has information on the history, geography, and manufacturing process.  We read that and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl one year.  Of course we watched the movies, too.  It's fun to compare the old and the new - an opportunity to compare and contrast.  Makes a fun unit study.  Delicious, too!

Wish you were here!

Counting Ping's Family

Yesterday, the girls were reading "The Story About Ping", by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese, again.  It's such a great book.  I love all of the opportunities for learning in it.  We have discussed geography - the book takes place in China on the Yangtze River.  We have found it on our map.  We discussed that this is the same country that the movie "Mulan" is based in.  There is also reference to the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.  So we've talked about directions.  Which way does the sun set at our house?  Yup.  It sets in the west here, too.    It's fun to show them this with a compass.

That's a lot of ducks!

I love that Ping disobeys because he doesn't want to get spanked.  And how he gets lost from his family because of his disobedience.  There is also a boy who disobeys his parents.  Perhaps we could decide that this is a good thing because Ping lives - but the family will now go without dinner!  (Not okay in my book.)  Don't miss the opportunity to discuss the importance of obeying your parents.

In the end, Ping finds his family, but he must decide whether or not to join them, as he knows he will be spanked for being late!  He decides it is worth it.

But the part of Ping that the girls picked up on yesterday was the numbers.  Ping's family is described several times as consisting of Ping, his mother and his father, two sisters and three brothers and eleven aunts and seven uncles and forty-two cousins.  (Love the large family).

Math-U-See Starter Block Set

The girls wanted to know, "How many ducks does that make in all?"  So I asked Campster to get the Math-U-See blocks I bought for her at the MASSHOPE convention.  These are plastic unit blocks in different sizes and colors.  What you can't see in the picture is that there are two layers, and under what you see are four red "100" blocks.  The girls are loving using them to figure out any math problems they come up with.  I opted this year just to get the blocks.  I hear from many friends that the curriculum is wonderful.  But I have not used it myself.  I showed Campster the blocks at MASSHOPE and she really liked them.

Ping, his mother, and his father.

So we started with a 100 block to place the other blocks on.  Then we added one green block for Ping, followed by a green block each for his mother and father.  Don't miss the opportunity to recognize that we now have three ducks.

Two sisters and three brothers

Eleven Aunts

Then we added his two sisters (using the orange 2 block) and his 3 brothers (using the pink 3 block).  How many ducks do we have now?  Campster told me eight.  When I asked how she knew that without counting, she told me that she saw that it was two less than ten, and she knows that is eight.  (Hmm.  Don't remember teaching her that.  Could it be that she is learning math without being taught?)

Next we added Ping's eleven aunts.  Campster knew that eleven would be a ten and a one.  By making the largest block a ten, it shows place value.   Now we have a total of ten and nine - which is nineteen - or twenty minus one.

Seven uncles = Six plus one

Forty-two cousins

Next the Campster wowed me with her suggestion.  Rather than add a seven block for the seven uncles, she suggested that we do a six and a one and fill in the missing block in the upper right corner.  Now we have two rows of ten and six.

Last we added the forty-two cousins.  Campster grabbed four tens and a two.  Hard to "read" it this way, though.  Let's put all the tens together, and then the ones.

Sixty-eight ducks!!

Now we can count six tens and eight ones.  Sixty-eight ducks!  That's a lot.  (We "only" have 51 quail!)  The girls felt happy with their successful counting of the ducks.  Then we put all the ducks (blocks) back in the box for next time we want to do some math.

Isn't math fun?

Wish you were here!