Thursday, June 5, 2008

Monster 150+ Homeschooling Link List... Everything, Anything, & Then Some


If you have more time than money, you'll find the internet to be your most valuable homeschooling resource. Below is an extensive list of homeschooling tools, articles, support systems and advice, supplements, free printables and resources, study aids, online encyclopedias and learning sites. If you're short on time too... this monster list will likely become a must have resource.

We've done our very best to select only the online resources that aren't trying to sell you a product or service. While some of these sites do have paid versions of their products or may sell merchandise relating to homeschooling, we've carefully selected sites that primarily cater to those of us not wishing to spend anything at all. Furthermore, we've done our best to only list those sites we find truly beneficial to homeschoolers of children through the 6th grade.

Discipline & Behavior (free printables)
Chart Jungle
Great resource for free printable behavior charts, rewards, certificates, diplomas and behavior bucks, homeschooling charts, calendars, day care printables, home budget, baby sleep charts, chore charts... just to name a few. Colorful and attractive with good quality resolution.
Latitudes
Great behavior chart for very young kids. Colorful, quality resolution, attractive design.

Calendars, Lesson Planners, Forms, & Teaching Tools (free printables)
Highland Heritage Forms
Countless homeschooling printables including such things as: teacher planning & organization sheets, reading forms, spelling forms, math and science forms, awards, forms for music and art, and field trips.
The Home School Mom Free printable homeschool planners and organizers including menu planners, chore charts, school records, and planners.
Donna Young Free printable school calendars, study plans, grade forms, book list forms, lesson planners and more.


Free Online Homeschool Planners/Organizers/Record Keeping
Homeschool Tracker Offers a free basic version and a paid version. Online record keeping of student assignments, attendance and hours, scheduled activities, and reports.

Home School Incorporated Offers a free online record keeping program/planner. We're currently experimenting with this now. :)

Activity Calendars
Reading is Fundamental offers some great printable calendars, providing daily activities for your homeschool. You'll find the Leading to Reading category for ages birth to 5 and the Reading Planet category for ages 6-15. I highly recommend taking a peak!

Free Lesson Plans
Reading is Fundamental offers a handful of free lesson plans.

Homeschooling Legalities
HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association
Must have resource for all homeschooling families

Homeschooling Curriculum Reviews
HomeSchool Reviews
HomeschoolingTogether

General Homeschooling Websites
Homeschool Dads
Homeschooling About

Curriculum Swap
Curriculum Swap

Free Curriculums
Old-Fashioned Education Christian based, offers books for sale or free online downloads. Complete curriculum for grades K-12.

The Book Samaritan Free books and curriculum to low income homeschooling families.

Graduation Supplies
Josten's for Homeschoolers
Rings, diplomas, caps & gowns and more

Homeschooling Fun
The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
JanBrett.com Scores of free printables from author/illustrator Jan Brett. Coloring pages, activities and projects.
Family Education Printables Center Great assortment of free printables... holidays, art and music, puzzles and games, coloring pages, skill builders, forms and charts. Free registration.

Special Needs
Another Path
Homeschool for the deaf
Autism in the Christian Home
Homeschooling advice and information for children with Autism
Born to Explore
The Other Side of ADD/ADHD
BrightWord
10 Steps to Successfully Homeschool Children with Special Needs (article)
Includes a list of resources and suggested reading.
Homeschool Diner
Strategies for Teaching Children with Asperger's.
NATTHAN (National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network
Christian families homeschooling children with special needs.

Homeschooling Methods

Unschooling
John Holt: Unschooling
The Natural Child

Charlotte Mason
Ambleside Online Curriculum guide and booklist following Charlotte Mason's method
The ABC's of Charlotte Mason
Simply Charlotte Mason.com Top notch Charlotte Mason site, includes a free eBook, planning tips, time savers, events and more.
HomeHearts

Classical Education
The Well-Trained Mind

Classical Christian
Classical Christian Homeschooling

Eclectic Homeschooling
EEclectic Homeschool Online online magazine

Waldorf Education
Christopherus Homeschooling Resources

By State
Alabama Home Schooling
Alaska Private and Home Educators Association
Arizona Families for Home Education
The Education Alliance (Arkansas)
CT Homeschool Network, Inc. (Connecticut)
Christian Home Educators Confederation of Kansas
Christian Home Educators Fellowship (Missouri) Network of MO support groups
Families for Home Education (Missouri) Lobbying group for all home educators in the state of MO. Shares legal requirement for homeschooling, special events, and general information.
Texas Homeschooler
My Mississippi Homeschool


Homeschooling Support
Home School Foundation offers funds and scholarships to homeschoolers, including those for special needs children
Homeschool Central offers support and advice to homeschooling families (includes state links)

Homeschooling Research
NHERI (National Home Education Research Institute
Provides statistics, reports, demographics obtained through high-quality research on homeschooling.

Homeschooling Forums
Everything Homeschool A general forum for homeschoolers
Homeschool Spot Meet other homeschooling parents
My Parent Connection Christian homeschooling forum
Wahm.com Wahm.com’s homeschooling folder

Home School Inc Global community of homeschoolers providing encouragement and support


Homeschooling Magazines
Home Education Magazine Homeschooling info, resources, and support
Home School Digest Family Discipleship
Home School Enrichment Encouragement, teaching ideas, and inspiration
Homeschool World Practical homeschooling, also includes news and political information effecting homeschoolers
Homeschooling Horizons Encouragement and advice
Homeschooling Today Christian views and resources for homeschoolers
Life Learning Unschooling magazine
Practical Homeschooling Homeschooling articles, methods, contests, product reviews and more
The Link Product information guide, articles, getting started, learning styles, Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, and more. Free of charge.
The Old Schoolhouse “Like a convention in a journal”, quarterly publication, information and inspiration for homeschoolers
The Teaching Home Christian perspective, free newsletters by email

By Nation
Homeschool Australia
Christian Home Education (UK, South Africa & Australia)
Christadelphian Home Schooling UK

Writing
Young Writer's Workshop Story starters to help your children build writing skills. These starters are provided as free printables that include a graphic and lines for writing out the remainder of the story. You may submit your child's completed story to this site for a chance to win a published author T-shirt. :)

Phonics
Starfall
BBC Ok, this is a cute site. I especially recommend the Poem Pack... it may load slow, but just consider it a lesson in patience, something we can all use more of. It's worth the wait. You'll find an excellent audio/video for teaching consonant clusters, long vowel sounds, high frequency words and more! It reminds me of Starfall somewhat. This site also features free printables. This site is targeted towards children ages 5-7.

Homeschooling Poems
Lovetolearnplace.com
BestHomeschooling.org Poem, "I Took His Hand and Followed"

School Themed Poems for Kids
PoetryTeachers.com Not homeschool mind you, but some are cute none-the-less. For additional poem themes, visit the main page.

Sites on Poetry
Shel Silverstein Includes printables, games and the tools for your kids to practice being a poet. A fun site for children of reading age. Their site offers a printable bookmark, poetry kit and drawing and activity book… all free!
CanTeach Songs and poems for young learners. Seasons, holidays, animals, vegetation, food, math, family and friends, language arts, school, and more! This site makes it easy to add a dose of rhyme or song to your school lessons!

Writing Poetry
GigglePoetry.com A wide assortment of poetry classes to choose from.
Poetry Forge For older children and parents, but this is a great interactive to generating poetry and lesson plans. The poetry generator is fun to use. On sight forum allows you to discuss ideas.
Poet's Corner

Songs that Teach
Schoolhouse Rock No sound here, but you'll find the lyrics to all those educational songs of the 70's that you may remember from your own childhood. You'll also find the links to most of the video's stored on YouTube.

Homeschooling Quotes
Homeschooling Quotes
Great collection of quotes on homeschooling

Budgeting Homeschool
Budget Homeschool
Homeschooling on a Shoestring
Christian WAHM's Homeschooling on a Budget, mostly a links list

What it Costs to Homeschool (article)
This is an interesting read, but quite honestly... you don't need to spend even close to what they project you will. Don't let their figures scare you out of the decision to homeschool. Although our kids are young, we're only spending about $500 a year. Some of the things on this list would likely be an incurred expense whether you were to homeschool or not. It's all part of raising kids... am I right? I speak of things like gymnastics classes and bookcases. That's not outside the norm for any family with children, regardless of how or where they're schooled.
How to Homeschool on a Budget (article)
Obtaining Homeschooling Curriculum When Your Budget is Tight (article)

Written from a Christian perspective
Access my Library article and a handful of links

Lapbooking
NotebookingPages.com Free templates, mini-books and cutouts to print. Great resource.
Lapbooking on Squidoo
Let's Try Lapbooking
Digital Lapbooking
Minibook instructions for lapbooking
Lapbooking Ladies
Homeschool in the Woods

Lapbooking Freebies
All About Me Free lapbook project in PDF from Live and Learn Press
Egyptian Studies Lapbook Free project in PDF from Lamp Stand Press

Free Online College Courses
10 Colleges and Universities offering free history courses online just in case you want to take a class!

Reading
Top 100 Books for Children
Categorized by age. Lists book title and author.
American Folklore
Free stories online! Examples include Brer Rabbit, Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill as well as nursery rhymes and tongue twisters. The site also offers free lesson plans, ghost stories, States lore, Native American stories and more!
Children's Books Online
Free stories online! The Rosetta Project Library is yet another source for complete stories, organized by reading level.
eBooks for Young Readers
Free stories online! Use your discretion here... some books may not be appropriate for young children (this despite the web pages title!). The site offer such classics as Little Women, Aesop's Fables, A Little Princess, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol, The Jungle Book, Adventures of Tom Sawyer and more. I had a bit of trouble trying to open the offered e-book links, but had no problem with the web versions.
Just So StoriesThis is more like an eBook, in that it’s a book of stories, but it’s not in PDF format. The stories are over 100 years old, offering your kids different style of story telling than what they’re likely accustomed to! The stories are fun and each includes a rhyming poem towards the end. The Just So Stories are recommended as part of the Charlotte Mason program.

Handwriting Practice
Home Education Resources Reference shees, printing, cursive writing, and more using Abeka fonts.
Amazing Handwriting Worksheet Maker print from home, worksheets to aid in basic print, D'nealian style or cursive.
Writing Wizard Create your own writing practice worksheets

Field Trips
eField Trips I've not registered for one as of yet, but they appear to be free!

Science Notebooking
NeoScience Cool!! Free printables for your science notebooks.

Science/Nature
Hurricanes
Links for all grade level, photo gallery, storm history, online tracking, lesson plans and more
Kids National Geographic What a great site! Great information and activities for grade school aged children. I also strongly recommend the magazine, National Geographic for Kids. We make it a part of our science curriculum by reading a portion of it every Monday. It’s proven to be a highlight to the kid’s day!
Children’s Butterfly Site Great for young and more mature kids alike. Even adults will love the photos and butterfly information on this site!
Songs of Insects Listen to the songs of a variety of crickets. Sure to please even the youngest of learners!
The Gorilla Foundation Kids can write to Koko the gorilla, learn about animal preservation and about the Maui Ape Preserve.
Nature Journal Explore nature with your kids! Print free Nature journal forms along with scavenger hunts, seasonal poetry, folklore, Bible verses, weather data collection sheet, and more.

K-12 Science Curriculum Offers free online curriculum, great resource!

Planet Earth A Discovery Channel site, with some cool visuals, videos and information on animals, climate and environment.



Science Fair Projects/Science Experiments

Science Buddies Free science fair project ideas. First rate site! Each experiment is ranked by rate of difficulty (includes grade level recommendation, K-12)
Steve Spangler Science More free science fair project ideas.

Recycling
Freecycling- find a new home for what you'd otherwise toss into a landfill. Make a family project out of sorting through yesterdays treasures, while teaching your kids how to love the environment.

Astronomy
Amazing Space Best suited for Jr. High and High School, but you can incorporate some of the information found here into lesson plans for younger kids as well. Offers free downloads, teaching tools, homework help, for learning astronomy basics.
The Size of Our World Great reference for comparing the sizes of the planets in our own solar system to one another, to our sun, and to larger sun’s outside the Milky Way. This site is appropriate for all grade levels.
Hubble Heritage Image GalleryBreathtaking images of galaxies. Great for building an appreciation for Astronomy. Images include “fast facts” to build knowledge of constellations, planets, nebulas, and so forth.
Photon-Echoes Beautiful photographs of our solar system.

Lunar and Planetary Institute This is a pretty extensive site, rich in information suitable for homeschooling, however... if you're teaching from the young earth perspective, you'll want to be prepared. This site provides a fascinating timeline of what they call the evolution of our solar system , which theorizes that the universe is 4600 million years old.

Answers in Creation The perfect spot for Christians who reject the theory of macro-evolution
RobGendlerAstopics More Beautiful shot of the Universe
NASA

General Science
USGS Science resources for grades K-6. First rate site for supplementing education on biology, geography, geology, and water. Middle School through High School, visit same site at USGS Secondary.

Beautiful Photo's of Planet Earth
Scuba Photography beautiful underwater paradise

World Geography
Alphapedia Online
Full color maps (free downloads), key facts and stats from around the world. This site is easy to navigate and serves as a great resource.
Outline Maps Free printable maps of US and World

Expeditions
National Geo
Lesson Plans (K-12), activities, atlas and an interactive museum!
USGS Earthshots
Satellite images of environmental changes

Countries of the World Coloring Pages

US Geography
KidSpace The Internet Public Library
Stately knowledge (this site additionally offers countless other subjects)
Mapmaker
Grade levels 6-12, learn to evaluate historical and geographical info through map study... comparing maps spanning 16th- 19th centuries. Will also create their own maps.
Enchanted Learning
State Map Printables (portions of this site are free, others require membership, but it's well worth the price)
World Atlas Travel
Stats from around the globe including population, wealth, size, tallest mountains, deepest lakes, driest and wettest inhabited places on earth, language, temperatures and more. WorldAtlas.com's homepage... there's a lot there.
Reliable Answers
GoogleEarth-Virtual Geography
This site also offers a wealth of homeschooling articles and information.

Bible Maps
More than just maps, history too!

American History
History Central
Major events in American history, exploreres, civics, Presidential elections, wars, international affairs and more
Historical Tour of White House
Straight from the White House
America's Story from The Library of CongressWonderful site sharing bios on great Americans, history lessons, state information and the history of cartoons and various musical instruments.
The Underground Railroad Teach your kids about slavery in the United States. This is a National Geographic Site.

Native American Rhymes "Where history is fun". Great photos and information to share with your kids.

Teaching Music
Oso Kids See picture of instrument, the sound it makes, a song played with the instrument and a brief overview of the instrument itself.
Homemade Instruments by Nancy Stewart Make your own musical instruments... additionally, check out Nancy's other pages for great music learning games, activities and printables.

NickJr. Make your own musical instruments
Instruments of the Orchestra Let your child hear the sound of a musical instrument, then see if they can identify it's source. Great online tool and works well with the Muscial Instruments Coloring Book that's sold as a part of My Father's World.

SFS Kids Fun with Music Here the sounds instruments make, learn about tempo, pitch, harmony and more!
Songs for Teaching appropriate for all age levels. A homeschooling favorite.
PBS Kids Music including music from PBS kids television programming
Music from Starfall Pre-K through 2nd grade, listen and learn

Instrument Encyclopedia

Arts & Crafts
Creativity Portal Best I've seen for arts and crafts. You'll love this!
Crayola This site being owned by Crayola, will encourage you use their products, but the art lesson plans are free... and um, you can use whatever brand you want! tee hee.
Danielle’s Place Great source for fun crafting projects for young kids. Includes animal, historical, holiday, music, learning crafts and more.
Enchanted Learning
Make Pen & Ink Drawings from Stills Learn to draw people in pen & ink best suited for older students

Early Learning
Abcteach I like this site for the free printables, which are best suited for pre-k through maybe as high as 2nd grade (depending on what printables you're looking at). The must sees here are the printable word wheels.
Sesame Street Great early learning games and activities
StarFall Recommended primarily for first grade, but good for pre-K through second. Teaches your student how to read! Great online resource. You won't believe this is a free site!

Free eBooks
Simply Charlotte Mason "Education is an atmoshpere, a discipline, a life"

Angelfire.com offers these eBooks for homeschoolers:
Learning My Letters Basic handwriting practice (37 pages in length, loads slow)
Learning My Numbers Handwriting practice for numbers 1-20, w/ some letter practice too (10 pages in length)
My Color Crayons Pages to color, with room to practice writing color names (11 pages in length)
From funlearningexpress, we found:
Friendly Gifts Craft Recipes for Kids (recipes for play-dough, clay, finger paint, silly putty, soap crayons, and many baked goods like banana bread, muffin mixes, and hush puppies. (218 pages in length, loads fast)
Shel Silverstein, every kid’s favorite poet offers 2 free eBooks and a printable bookmark. The eBooks include a poetry kit and a drawing and activity booklet!

More links coming!!! If you found this list helpful, please Stumble it!

5 comments:

Jeremy Olson said...

Wow, nice list. My family has been working on a website to help homeschoolers find curriculum, read reviews, and easily obtain the curriculum either at a local library or from Amazon or CBD: Homeschoolingtogether.com

No pressure but if you think the site is useful, we would sure appreciate being on your list.

Wendy said...

Wow Jeremy! Great site! I've added you to my list. :)
Your new site has a wonderful look and feel to it. Love the bulletin board theme. Really cool! Your site is also easy to navigate and looks like a wonderful tool for searching out curriculum, textbooks, and reading material for homeschooled kids. I'm impressed!

Unknown said...

Hi Wendy - what an impressive list of resources you have here.

I am a retired teacher myself and I am sure if my children were young I would be home schooling them. I can fully understand why parents make this choice.

Since retiring I have come accross an online site that is due to launch in September - called Magnum IQ. They wil be offering live online learning for all ages. In addition they will be offering homework help with the use if an interactive whiteboard that both tutor and pupil can use.

I have joined as an agent during the prelaunch phase and I am able to access the live sessions as they go live.

I wondered if you might be interested in having a look and seeing if it is something to add to your list?

The website is http://magnumiq.net/129352

Anonymous said...

Great article! Thanks for posting this all in one place!

Awesome job (as usual)
Nikowa
http://knowledgehouseacademy.blogspot.com/

Sandy Naidu said...

Great list - very helpful. I particularly like the top 100 books.