Category: Homeschool: Useful Resources (websites books etc)

Mentioning Some Favorite PreK – K Websites For Creating Themed Units 0

Mentioning Some Favorite PreK – K Websites For Creating Themed Units

I’ve been kicking myself because several of my favorite websites were not in my sidebar (or in my bookmarks) and I just spent ten minutes trying to remember what one of them was called. Argh!  So, I’ve added them in but I’ll mention these in a post too if you’re not familiar with them.  If I’m getting a themed unit together for any of my kids even my second grader...

Planning and Preparation for the New Year 10

Planning and Preparation for the New Year

We’ve pretty much resorted to ‘natural learning’ these past two months as we travel from state to state making our way to our new home.  But in the meantime, I have been planning and preparing for the new school year to come. We use a smattering of curriculum resources which I distribute into workboxes and centers. While we do most workboxes, most days we don’t have a set orders to...

Free Montessori Downloads 0

Free Montessori Downloads

I was browsing through Montessori Spanish’s blog this morning and she shared a wonderful resource:Goldmark Montessori. This Montessori teacher has shared some of the cards and activities that she has made for her classroom. I checked it out and was impressed by her 3-part nocturnal animal cards. I can’t wait to move to a new home and resume the regular routine of homeschooling.  We’re still in limbo (we’re staying with...

Free Life Science Curriculum (early elementary) 2

Free Life Science Curriculum (early elementary)

I just learned about a science website called The Lab of Mr. Q. Wow! What a find!  This 8th grade science teacher created a science curriculum for the young elementary ages.  He offers the Life Science student and parent texts for FREE!  His Life Science curriculum includes these units: 1) Basic Needs 2) Biomes 3) Life Cycles 4) Classification 5) Food Webs 6) Senses 7) Body Organs 8) Cells 9)...

A Day in the Life of Our Homeschool 4

A Day in the Life of Our Homeschool

I wrote up a detailed post about our homeschool routine (I hesitate to even call it a schedule).  I took notes all day so I could show what a real homeschool day looks like here at the homeschool den. The link is in the right sidebar or click here. We have various ways we keep our homeschool materials organized.  We use workboxes for most of our academic things (math, math...

Cursive Writing; Homeschool ID Card 4

Cursive Writing; Homeschool ID Card

Someone shared this wonderful link to an article on the benefits of teaching kids cursive writing http://www.donpotter.net/PDF/Cursive%20First.pdf Also, if you need a homeschool id (for teachers or for students) card, you can make one (free) at the homeschool buyer’s co-op. I need to update ours before we go on travel and thought I’d mention it here in case you hadn’t heard about them. The homeschool id card was beneficial when...

Science Resource List and Writing Continuum (K-8th grade) 0

Science Resource List and Writing Continuum (K-8th grade)

Someone in one of the yahoo groups I’m in shared this science resource: http://www.school4all.org/index.php?view=article&catid;=56%3A2009-02-26-13-13-12&id;=341%3Abooks-on-science-maths-activities&format;=pdf&option;=com_content&Itemid;=70 I briefly checked out some of the links.  Some didn’t seem to work for me, but I did enjoy this science comic on the auroras:  http://vidyaonline.org/arvindgupta/cawsesaurora.pdf which had a cute comic strip explaining the aurora borealis and included photos from NASA and elsewhere. I’ll be checking out more of the links soon. Someone else shared link...

Online Addition Games 0

Online Addition Games

Here are some quick online games LD has played to review his math facts the past few days (some are pretty easy, but some such as ghostblasters, you can work on any sum up to 50). Addition Games http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/ghostblasters2/gb2nores.html http://www.mathmastery.com/cyberchallenge/http://www.coolmath4kids.com/addition/number-monster-addition-basics.htmhttp://www.coolmath4kids.com/addition/math-lines-10.htmlSpace Shuttle Addition:http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/shuttleLaunch/shuttleLaunch.htmMore Easy Addition GamesColor a butterfly with addition:http://www.kid-adventures.com/Game3_1.htmlBirthday Party Present Math:http://www.kid-adventures.com/Game4.htmlPop the addition balloons:http://www.kid-adventures.com/Game5.html

Handwriting Resources 0

Handwriting Resources

During this break I’ve been looking into handwriting skills.  I have a few minutes and thought I’d quickly share what I’ve come across lately. I found an extremely useful 32-page article about handwriting.  It’s a handwriting resource for (pre-K and kindergarten) teachers in a Maryland school district.  You can find it here: http://www.fcpsteach.org/docs/Handwriting.pdf It has some suggestions for building handwriting skills from a young age (preschool) such as activities that...

Mom’s Holiday Reading — The Read Aloud Handbook 4

Mom’s Holiday Reading — The Read Aloud Handbook

I’ve been reading lots of books this holiday.  Among other things (several novels, some science experiment books for kids and things like that), I’ve been re-reading one of my favorite  resources, The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease.   I find this book inspiring and I recommend it to anyone who has children whether you homeschool them or not.  It gives so many amazing statistics, facts, and real-life examples about why...

First Grade Math Games Online 0

First Grade Math Games Online

I came across this website this evening that lists some simple, but cute computer math games appropriate for first graders. I’m not that great about having LD use the computer for these kinds of things, but I think I’ll make a more concerted effort to make games like these available for him.  I think he’d enjoy them. http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_1st_math_new.htm Here are some examples of games listed at this website: 1)  Your...

Sunflower Schoolhouse 0

Sunflower Schoolhouse

I raved about Honey’s website a couple of days ago, but wanted to mention a couple of pages I found particularly useful that I don’t think I mentioned before. She had a very useful post about the websites she likes that have activities for toddlers: http://sunflowerschoolhouse.com/toddler-activities/ Also, I printed these brick building cards (Lego projects) and cut them so that there were two cards on each piece of paper. The...

Homeschool Planners 0

Homeschool Planners

Free Homeschool Planner (for daily/weekly planning) And, if you are looking for some printables to create your own Homeschool Planner, you might want to check out our free Homeschool Planner. This unique homeschool planning packet is currently FREE to download! It is nearly 100 pages! Not only does this packet include daily and weekly planning pages, checklists and record keeping pages, but it also includes various homeschool journaling pages… think...