Free stuff

So I have been posting a lot of stuff that costs money. Well here is the freebie's time to shine. Hopefully there will be a few you haven't seen before.

Ambleside Online a Charlotte Mason based program that uses books available for free online

Math Worksheet Generator

Novel Study Guides

Spelling Worksheets

Handwriting Worksheets

Spelling City

Grammar and Writing

Guest Hollow American History

Discover America State by State the lesson ideas are free. You'd still have to find the books at the library or buy them

Time for Kids

Otter's Science

Dance Mat Typing

Touch Typing

Take a Field Trip

Meet me at the corner field trips

Math Games

Nature Study book

different subjects

MEP Math

Science

American History

Ancient history

history

geography

timeline figures

more timeline figures

history books

reading

science

geography

history and science

American history

reading comprehension

k-3 curriculum

vocabulary

science

nature 

nature study

Pinterest

I love this place. It's seriously addicting so I limit my time there. However the ideas I have discovered are too great not to use the boards.

Now if your already using pinterest skip a few paragraphs. this is to explain to someone what it is. Pinterest is like a clipboard to pin things you'd normally bookmark and then forget about or can't find in your bookmarks when you need it. Pinterest can be as simple or as complicated as you want. You can make albums for everything your heart desires and then some. When I first started I had three boards. Cooking, homeschool, and clothes. However I soon discovered I was overwhelmed when going back to look for something so I expanded my albums. I believe I now have close to 50 albums but here is a sampling of how I broke them down. I still have a general cooking album, chicken, beef, breakfast, lunch, dinner, pork, sandwiches, salad, pasta etc. For homeschooling I now have a general homeschool album, homeschool science, language arts, art, math, and history.

You can follow your facebook friends, strangers, or just about anyone who has an account. Several homeschool boards have threads where people post their pinterest page so you can go in and follow them. You can choose to follow just certain albums from someone or all of their albums. Then when you go to pinterest you'll see all the latest things your friends have pinned. If you want to search for some on your own you'll see at the top a place to either do a search or click on various subjects they have listed.

So you may ask what cool things have I found via pinterest. In the interest of keeping this homeschool related I'm going to link to a few fun ideas I have discovered via pinterest.

Teaching Art Headquarters Some fun ideas for teaching art.
Books about Fine Art If you wonder how I found some of those great books I posted about art well here you go.
Map Activities for kids
Lewis and Clark Unit Study
Continent Bags
10 best online Language Arts games for homeschoolers
Math in Children's Literature
Discovery Bottles


Here is a link to me on pinterest. I hope to see you there soon.

Dry Erase Boards

One nice thing about homeschooling is the ability to adjust to the child. I have three kids that scream, kick, and will kill not to actually do any writing if possible. One day I gave each of them an 8x11 inch dry erase board and let them do their lessons on the board. World of difference! They loved writing on the dry erase board. We got in the habit of using the dry erase board for spelling and vocabulary. Sometimes for math lessons and for handwriting practice. They are a hit and something we will continue to use. Utah Idaho School Supply has dry erase paddles on sale. I bought some and intend to use them for review games and the likes. At about $2.50 a pop you can't go wrong with the paddles.

Another way to bring the concept of dry erase to workbooks and the likes are to use some thick sheet protectors (if you didn't stumble across the dry erase pockets Target had a few months ago in the $1 ssection). Slip the worksheet in the protector and now the worksheet is fun because you can use dry erase markers.

Seriously this has been one of the best finds and purchases I have ever made. If your not using dry erase boards in your homeschool I highly suggest you run and buy some.

What concerns do you have as a homeschooling mother?

I think most of my concerns are answered in my previous post but I'll take a stab at it.

Having my kids have friends. However so far this has not been a problem. They make friends anywhere we go. We went to San Diego a few months back and they had friends they made in the hotel. Social issues are NOT a concern however I always do worry in the back of my mind.

Am I giving them a well rounded education is another concern. I swear I ask myself this question daily. However when I compare what my kids do to other neighbor kids I realize they are on par or further ahead of the kids.

I also have concerns with how long I should homeschool the kids. I hated school as a child. I think I would have done better being homeschooled. However I don't for sure know that my kids wouldn't enjoy school. As usual we take homeschooling one month at a time. We all know the public schools won't turn down their chance to save a homeschooled child.

Library Pockets

I love library pockets. I have bought a ton of these over the past year. They look like those old pockets in the back of library books in the 80's where a checkout card sat. Anyway here is just a few ways I use the pockets.

I write the days of the weeks on them and then we have a cards on a stick that say yesterday, today, and tomorrow. A great way to teach the days of the week and the concepts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Jeopardy game. Use the pockets to write the subjects and points and tuck in the questions into the pockets.

Tic Tac Toe game  
I used the game as a basis for trivia questions on things we have learned. You get the answer write you get to place a X or O.

Schedule. I list everything that the kids need to get done and stick them in a pocket. They move them to their done pocket when they finish them and I check on their work.

Use them for storage if you have file folder games with all those little pieces. You can fill the pockets up with all the little pieces.

I also use them for vocabulary word storage in science units. 

Learning place value in math. Make a pocket for ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands. Then use craft sticks for numbers up through 10. Then you can use them to learn place value.

Tracking for a reading reward. Combine the pockets with an old time library stamp card and you can track reading for rewards. 

I'm sure there are a million other ways to use these fun and cheap little things.

What is the hardest thing about homeschooling?

This is a tough one as I think there are many things that are hard but to varying degrees. So I guess I'll touch a little on all the things I find hard about homeschooling.

1. Not spending quality time not teaching to the kids. I think this would be hard even if we weren't homeschooling though. Based on homework neighbor kids bring home I think I'd still struggle to find quality time with the kids that isn't school related. One way we've found fun quality time is Friday night movie night as a family. I make popcorn and we get takeout. We take turns picking out a movie we really want to see and we just snuggle and watch the movie. During the summer we do a Fun Day Thursday. We pick something that is fun and go spend the day doing it. Mostly this year it's been bowling as we found an amazing deal on bowling for the family but in the past it's been water parks, Boondocks, Lagoon, and stuff like that.

2. Being with your child 24/7. Some days it literally drives me nuts. Some days I wish I had more time with the kids. On the days they drive me nuts I notice it's usually a time for some down time for all of us.

3. Not knowing if I am educating them well. I struggle with this all the time. I worry they are behind their peers in education. However my fears usually go away around the time some of the public school kids come over to play and I realize my kids are either on par or ahead of their peers.

4. Money. I wish I was rich so I could take full advantage of all the wonderful programs out there. As it is I pick and choose and a lot of times select the cheaper things to do. However the farther along our journey the more I realize there are loads of free stuff to do to educate your kids.

5. Alone time. I think wow I'd have all this time alone if I sent them to school. Yes I would. Yes my house would be clean. Yes I could workout when I want for as long as I want. Yes I could do all the things my neighbors do whose kids go to school. BUT then I spend time with my kids and I realize how much I would be missing if I did have all that alone time. As my kids have gotten older the more alone time I have now and I am missing the I need mom all the time stage.

I'm sure there are more but I think this is a pretty good start on what is hard about homeschooling.

Kids Discover Magazine

This has been one of my favorite finds of the year. These magazines are amazing. Granted so far I only have a few of the American History ones but I plan on getting a few of the others too. These magazines are short and to the point and perfect for grades 3-6. Okay to be honest they are great for me too. Plus they offer free lesson plans on how to use the magazines.
American History
Culture
Earth Science
Historical Figures
Sale $1.99
And many other subjects

I just noticed they have a section for younger kids too.