Free Homeschool Materials

In an effort to help you with your homeschool budget, I wanted to share with you some resources you might enjoy that you can use to homeschool that are FREE!

• Ambleside Online is a free online curriculum. Sometimes you need additional books. Sometimes you can find these books for free online! The curriculum has plans for history, literature, some science, art (artist study), music (composer study) and Bible. It asks you to find a math curriculum.
• The Baldwin Online Literature Project contains online copies of many books used in Ambleside Online. You can search by author or title. The books are free because their copyrights have expired. The site also sells paper copies of the books if you want them.
• Librivox has books (beyond copyright) that have been read outloud and recorded by volunteers. It is completely free. It's a great resource, but unlike a normal recorded book some books have different voices for the different chapters!
• Math Mammoth has lots of free math materials, but not a complete year's math curriculum.
• The Potter's School looks like a complete curriculum, and it's completely free! You just need to register and you are in. You can use it for part or all of your subjects.
• Supercharged Science offers a booklet with 30 fun science projects for free. Also, when you subscribe, Aurora sends out regular notices of free science classes that she televises periodically. 
  
• Tapestry of Grace has two 3-week units available for free! Egypt  and The New World.
• Kiss Grammar is a completely free site with a progressive grammar program for your students. 
• Compass Classroom has a bunch of free downloads. 
• Spelling City has free resources to help your child's spelling and vocabulary. 
• Enrichment Studies offers lots of great freebies! 
• Fortuigence has some free writing programs for high schoolers.

Well, that's all I have time for. I hope you find something you can use!

Zane Education: A Schoolhouse Crew Review

In mid-June I was selected to be a part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew's group to review Zane Education's online educational video program.

I had never heard of Zane Education, but once I visited their site it was easy to get excited about what their goals and methods are and all that they have to offer. Their online educational video program utilizes what they call "The Missing Piece", which is subtitles. Studies have shown that subtitled videos significantly improve comprehension, as well as reading and literacy skills.

The scope of this video program is amazing!  Before I cover that, though, let me back up. Upon arriving at  Zane Education you are presented with some information about the product. This online educational video program is one of a kind, with a program to meet state educational standards for K-12, to supplement classroom education or a homeschool program, in a way that permits each student to learn at their own speed.  In addition to covering all grades, Zane Education tries to cover all required subjects. Subject offerings include: Art, Science, Geography, Health, History, Mathematics, Music, Literature, Religious Studies, and Social Sciences.

Cool Links to Help your Home School

I was listening to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo last week (the one put on by CIndy Rushton previously, and was hosted by Felice Gerwitz this time). I actually purchased a ticket, but you can listen to a lot of the sessions for this type of thing for free if you can listen at the time it is taking place -- very challenging to do with a busy life. The normal price for the expo is $39, but it is still on sale as I write this for $24.95 (not that that is a small chunk of change, if you weren't planning for it). I love the HSE, and so I was saving for it. I was actually pleasantly surprised to get the sale price, because last year I paid full price!

I like the UHSE because I miss a real home school convention.  I used to live in a state that had a great convention every year that was three days long and had speakers and seminars galore. You had to pick and choose. I haven't had that for ever so long, but now that I have the home school expo (which cost me less than going to a convention), I don't have to miss ANY of the seminars, because they are all recorded and provided to me in download form! My biggest challenge becomes making time to listen to them, and then that's another story.

Anyway, I heard about some websites I hadn't visited before, and I wanted to share them here.

• My Audio School is a subscription site, but the site also has lots of stuff that is free. The nice thing is that it is a "safe" site, so you know the kids are not going to unexpectedly see something objectionable. Yesterday I really enjoyed watching a video put out by Scholastic about Martin Luther King, Jr., and I'd have to say that I learned stuff myself about him that I hadn't known.
• Another website I learned of and subscribed to through the UHSE is one put up by Lorrie Flem called Eternal Encouragement. When you first get to the site there is a pop-up for a free newsletter -- that is what I subscribed to.  As it's title suggests, Lorrie has a heart to encourage the moms. At the expo she gave a wonderful talk. I haven't had my coffee yet, and the content of the talk is niggling at the back of my brain, but I really couldn't give it justice if I tried to tell you what it was about right now. I need to relisten to it. At the time I was listening to it my household was being very loud and I was having difficulty hearing her...

Those were the two links I had saved from the USHE, but in addition to that I daily get new links for free stuff available on the internet, so I will blog about some of them here and let you know how you also can get links to good stuff sent to your email daily.

• SCIENCE: Aurora Lipper, from SuperChargedScience, sends me letters regularly with free science experiments in them.  This week she sent a link to a page full of summer fun science experiments: e-camp Activities and Experiments . 
• Free Flight on the Young Eagles 'Learn to Fly Day' on May 21st (US, Canada):   On May 21st, the Young Eagles program welcomes your family to a free flight at a local airport for International Learn to Fly Day.  Why would they do that?  Here's their reason: "International Learn to Fly Day was announced in 2009 as an effort to increase interest in flying and to encourage the aviation community to get others involved in Aviation." [This information provided by Lori Seaborg on her Freely Educate blog, to which you can subscribe.]
• FREE TEACHER APPRECIATION KIT:  This free Teacher Appreciation Kit can be sent to your e-mail inbox monthly. The above links to a sample page which shows an idea of the materials they will send you for free every month.  At the top of the page is a link to subscribe (look for "ADD"). I'm about to subscribe myself; looks "yummy" for my homeschool! This information came to me from Jacquelyn at the "WherecanIfindit" Yahoo Group.  
• MUSIC APPRECIATION: Piotr Tchaikovsky - Music Appreciation posts by San Francisco Smyphony on their "Keeping Score" website. The home website (just linked) has a great selection of major composers. This looks like a real "keeper" of a site.  "Keeping Score" is apparently a PBS television show -- I didn't know that, not having cable and barely watching television at all myself. This information provided to you by Diane Keith Flynn, who sends me a daily e-mail which you, too, can subscribe to. Go to her website, ClickSchooling, and subscribe in the upper right-hand corner.  

Well, I guess that's it for links for today. I will still be trying to post about narration later today.

D

Cool Links to Help your Home School

I was listening to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo last week (the one put on by CIndy Rushton previously, and was hosted by Felice Gerwitz this time). I actually purchased a ticket, but you can listen to a lot of the sessions for this type of thing for free if you can listen at the time it is taking place -- very challenging to do with a busy life. The normal price for the expo is $39, but it is still on sale as I write this for $24.95 (not that that is a small chunk of change, if you weren't planning for it). I love the HSE, and so I was saving for it. I was actually pleasantly surprised to get the sale price, because last year I paid full price!



I like the UHSE because I miss a real home school convention.  I used to live in a state that had a great convention every year that was three days long and had speakers and seminars galore. You had to pick and choose. I haven't had that for ever so long, but now that I have the home school expo (which cost me less than going to a convention), I don't have to miss ANY of the seminars, because they are all recorded and provided to me in download form! My biggest challenge becomes making time to listen to them, and then that's another story.



Anyway, I heard about some websites I hadn't visited before, and I wanted to share them here.

• My Audio School is a subscription site, but the site also has lots of stuff that is free. The nice thing is that it is a "safe" site, so you know the kids are not going to unexpectedly see something objectionable. Yesterday I really enjoyed watching a video put out by Scholastic about Martin Luther King, Jr., and I'd have to say that I learned stuff myself about him that I hadn't known.
• Another website I learned of and subscribed to through the UHSE is one put up by Lorrie Flem called Eternal Encouragement. When you first get to the site there is a pop-up for a free newsletter -- that is what I subscribed to.  As it's title suggests, Lorrie has a heart to encourage the moms. At the expo she gave a wonderful talk. I haven't had my coffee yet, and the content of the talk is niggling at the back of my brain, but I really couldn't give it justice if I tried to tell you what it was about right now. I need to relisten to it. At the time I was listening to it my household was being very loud and I was having difficulty hearing her...

Those were the two links I had saved from the USHE, but in addition to that I daily get new links for free stuff available on the internet, so I will blog about some of them here and let you know how you also can get links to good stuff sent to your email daily.

• SCIENCE: Aurora Lipper, from SuperChargedScience, sends me letters regularly with free science experiments in them.  This week she sent a link to a page full of summer fun science experiments: e-camp Activities and Experiments . 
• Free Flight on the Young Eagles 'Learn to Fly Day' on May 21st (US, Canada):   On May 21st, the Young Eagles program welcomes your family to a free flight at a local airport for International Learn to Fly Day.  Why would they do that?  Here's their reason: "International Learn to Fly Day was announced in 2009 as an effort to increase interest in flying and to encourage the aviation community to get others involved in Aviation." [This information provided by Lori Seaborg on her Freely Educate blog, to which you can subscribe.]

Listen to Audio Books for Free

Did you know that you can listen to audio books for free? I don't mean just from your library; I mean there are resources on the internet.

You can download or listen to free audio books online at OnlineAudioStories.com, Librivox.org, Storynory.com, AudioBooksForFree.com, and TheStoryHome.com .

There is also a weekly online storytime at BarnesandNoble.com. These are apparently picture book level, and are read showing the pictures, with music playing in the background. Very captivating for the little ones.  This month, the story is Charlie the Ranch Dog, read by the author and featuring the illustrations from the book.

Aren't these links amazing? My kudos go out to Molly Green (of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine) and her Econobusters blog  for her tip and her Freebie Friday entries each week (on Friday, of course). I love her blog!

Diana

Experiments in Atmospheric Pressure

From the Bizarre Labs website:

Collapsing a can with air pressure

Atmospheric pressure is strong enough to crumple a metal can. This can also be done using an aluminum soda (pop) can. Put a little water in it (app. 3cm) and heat on a hot plate until it begins to steam. If you must do this over a gas or other flame, don’t use a very high flame or an empty can; the paint may burn or, worse, the aluminum may melt. Using tongs, quickly flip it upside down into a small tray of ice water, which should be 6 or so inches (15cm) deep. The water will prevent the outside air from entering. A little of the ice water will be drawn up into the can, but not enough to equalize the pressure, and the can will crush.

Egg in a bottle

There are plenty of things to do with eggs, one being the egg in the bottle trick. Use a shelled, hard-boiled egg. The egg needs to be free from cracks in the white and smooth. Find a bottle with a neck just small enough that the egg won’t fall in (a carafe, milk bottle, or some baby bottles–possibly an ice tea bottle). Wad up a little piece of paper and drop it in the bottle (you can also use 2 or 3 wooden matches). Light the paper or matches, allow to burn out, and immediately put the egg in the bottleneck, where it should be sucked in (making a very interesting sound in the process). Actually, the egg isn’t sucked in, it’s pushed. The fire heats the air, causing it to become less dense and to rise out of the bottle. This causes a decrease in air pressure inside the bottle. The higher pressure outside the bottle pushes the egg in.



A reader recently reminded me that you can easily get the egg out again by turning the bottle upside down and blowing into it very hard. When you take your mouth away, the egg should pop out due to the increased air pressure in the bottle.

Free Ideas for "Bible Time"

Okay, I’m going to put together ideas for Bible time for your free homeschooling.

Ambleside Online format of daily time, that I have been using for many years, constitutes (1) Bible reading (you could consider Penny Gardner’s scripture highlights from Old or New Testament, or Bible Gateway); (2) Bible Memory, and (3) Hymn.

I just found a great Bible reading plan that is entirely free, where you go through the Bible in four years. It comes with discussion questions and periodic tests. My hyperlinks aren’t working in this post… Go to the AnchorCross website (http://anchorcross.org/books.shtml) and scroll down to "Through the Bible with my Child". Paragraph 3 says “The entire content of Through the Bible with My Child can be downloaded and read from this website free of charge. To view the book in pdf format, click here.” Click on the word “here” on that web page and a pdf document will download for you to use for your daily Bible time.

Today I also got a really great suggestion from a blog of doing the daily Keys for Kids each day, to keep it fun for the kids. I don’t know how that will work with my ten-year-old (going on 30 in his head), but I might give it a try.

Free English Grammar Curriculum

Okay, I know I had seen this site previously, but for some reason I never made a blog entry about free grammar resources. I'm sure this is not the only one out there (in fact, I KNOW of another one too, but don't have the website handy...). But I was looking at this one today, and it looks quite good!

This site is made in a way that an established student, say... beyond elementary, maybe... could work through the lessons alone, daily, and progress at his/her own speed.   However, in my opinion it could also be adapted to use with younger ones, with mom at the side, reading to the little'un, and asking questions, then filling in the provided (by young'un) answers.

This is intended to be used, used, and re-used forever, to completely cement all the correct grammar issues into the student's brain. It could be all you ever need for grammar. It even has tests.

It also has a "Premium" selection (a.k.a. you must pay something) that also looks great, like it gives immediate feedback and probably grades tests, etc. for $40/year, which is incredibly reasonable. I don't think I'll use that this year, cause the free stuff alone is amazing enough for me. But I might consider it for next year. (My kiddo is 5th, btw, with a reading level of reading whatever he wants and refusing to read what he doesn't want... So I'll sit with him on this one.)

So, give it a look-see. That web-address again is:
http://www.englishgrammar101.com/

[Disclaimer: I am listing all sites for my own and other homeschoolers' benefit. I get NO kick-back, nor affiliate privileges.]