Homeschool Resources

Have you ever gone to look for something and could not find it because you had too many great resources?  I have.  My 'favorites folder' is so full it is starting to stress me out!  I mean, I do not want to get rid of it because one day I might actually need it.  That is why I put it there to begin with, it was important, right?   So, to destress me a bit I decided to post some of my  free resources that I saved the past few years.  I figure as I go through this home school adventure I will keep adding to the list below.

Enjoy!














Grammar/Language Arts
KISS Grammar - You learn to analyze sentences using classic literature.
KISS Workbook -
Intermediate Language Lessons - Google Books:  Written in 1941 for 4th through 6th graders. It has picture studies, narration, poetry, dictation, outlining, composition, memorization and grammar.
Writing Prompts
Spelling - Dolch words and worksheets
Spelling City -type in your own list for on-line games and worksheets
Handwriting practice sheets
Spelling list by grade at HomeSpellingWords
Daily Grammar for grades 4-6

American History
GuestHollow - 2nd through 6th graders.  Literature based.
Powerpoint Presentation from pppst
On-line movies at Archiving Early America

Science
GuestHollow - Human Body 2nd to 6th grade, can be used up to 8th
Handbook of Nature Study 
Mr. Q - Elementary Life Science curriculum

Living Books
Browse books by grades at Simply Charlotte Mason
Living Math Book List
Applie's Place - Living Science book list
Penny Gardner - Living Science book list
AmblesideOnline Library
A Book in Time 
Classic Scholar- kids books
Penny Gardner
1,000 Good Books

Art
Drawing curriculum from Five J's

Math
TimzAttack

Scott Foresman's Curriculum
Reading
Science
Math

Full Curriculum
Lesson Pathways - You can use this as a full curriculum or you can supplement it with your current studies
AmblesideOnline 

Workbox
Tons of various Workbox downloads at The Beehive blog
Homeschool Share

Lapbooks/Unit Studies/File Folder Games
Homeschool Share
School Express - sign up for the newsletter and each week receive a FREE thematic unit every week
Bible Story Printables


Character Lessons
A variety of weekly character projects at the Doorpost blog
KIDS of Integrity  - "Suitable for ages three to ten, Kids of Integrity is designed for maximum kid appeal! Each lesson features Bible-based discussions plus crafts, games, and object lessons from science, nature and even home cooking." per the Focus on the Family site.

YouTube
School House Rocks 

Homeschool Forums
Hip Homeschool Moms
Homeschool Lounge
Well Trained Mind
Simply Charlotte Mason

On-Line Magazines for Homeschool Parents
The Homeschool Handbook
Heart of the Matter

Meal Planning
Eat at Home - She gives you a weeks worth of recipes and a shopping list!

Electronic Snap Circuits

 The boys love these, I mean LOVE these things.  I bought the snap circuits just because I thought they looked easy to use and fun.  It was going to be a bonus that they would obtain a hands-on learning experience in how electrical circuits run.

The kit includes snap wires and other fun stuff that you snap onto the plastic grid.   No tools needed.  It comes with 'map' type directions to follow. If you do not follow the directions correctly, it does not work.  The boys have made a light switch, door bell and the most favorite is the radio, so far.

Once they have 'mastered' this we can order an upgrade to the kit so they can move to the next level in their learning process. Create their own circuits!

Edible Meteorites!

Dirt and Rocks left by comets and planets are floating in space.  These are commonly known as meteoroids.  Once these meteoroids enter the earth's atmosphere they burn up.  We now call them a meteor (shooting star).  It does not matter what it was called or what it was in space once it falls through our earths atmosphere it is called a meteorite.  Most of the time these meteoroids burn up or land in the ocean.  Every once in a while they land on land and can range in size from very small to very large.  

What are meteorites made from?  The easiest way to describe it is into three classifications of stony, iron and stony-iron. We decided to look at stony meteorites with chondrules (mineral deposit) and stony meteorites that do not contain chondrules which are called achondrites.

Our meteorites were made from marshmallows, chocolate and pecans.   We made some yummy 'rocks' to eat after our school work: Rocky Road, Brownies with large chunks and Pecan Clusters. 

We sliced them so we can observe the inside of each 'meteorite'.  




Next, we drew pictures of our cross-section of the meteorite and labeled if the stony meteorite had was a chondrule or achondrites.

Once we were done with our drawings - we ate the meteorites!  Our favorite was our Pecan Clusters.

The study of our solar system

We did a few visual's today to grasp the concept of how small we really are.  We took our basketball and a peppercorn and put them side by side.  The basketball is our SUN and the peppercorn is EARTH.  The kids as well as Mom were blown away about how ant like we are.  Next, we used the basketball and a marble.  The basketball is now JUPITER and our marble is EARTH.

For fun, we measured the planets our onto our driveway.  Jacob has the acromin below memorized so he was able to let me know which planet came next.  He was more interested in the size of the planet.  Ryan was intrested in how far away from the Sun each one was.   We used the book The Planets in our Solar System by Franklyn Branley for the distance in our driveway model.  We started with the Sun, of course.

My (Mercury) 36,898,000 miles from the Sun --- 2 inches

Very (Venus)  67,084,000 miles from the Sun ---3 inches

Excellent (Earth)  92,752,000 miles from the Sun ---4 inches

Mom (Mars)  141,298,000 miles from the Sun --- 6 inches

Just (Jupiter) 482, 546,000 miles from the Sun ---1 foot, 9 inches

Served (Saturn) 884,740,000 miles from the Sun ---3 feet, 2 inches

Us (Uranus) 1, 779,152,000 miles from the Sun ---6 feet, 5 inches

Nine (Neptune) 2, 787,892,000 miles from the Sun ---10 feet, inch

Pizza'a (Pluto)   3,658,000,000 miles from the Sun ---13 feet, 3 inches

Yes, we realize Pluto is no longer a planet.  But, we like Pluto.

Science - Swimming Creatures!

We are currently on an adventure of the underwater world!

In our first chapter we learned about the various types of mobility. Both the boys and I were having problems trying to remember the technical names for the various types of mobility. For a visual we used SpongeBob for the animals that swim, crawl, sit and drift.

Nekton: Squidward (swim)

Benthos: Mr. Crabs (crawl)

Benthic: Patrick (scoot)

Sessile: SpongeBob (sit)

Plankton: Plankton and Jellyfish (drift)

On Wednesday we went to the local aquarium for their home school days. We were able to see fresh water animals and salt water animals. On our behind the scenes tour we learned how the aquarium makes salt water for the animals on display, what they eat, how they arrive at the aquarium, how and when they are fed, if ill how they are taken care of and our favorite part was walking on TOP of the tanks. The Sea Turtle swam right up to us at the top and boy is he a big fellow! We were not able to take pictures of the tank area behind the scenes due to security. However, here are a few pictures of the animals we saw while walking though the tanks.

Ryan touching a starfish!

A few small sea horses.

A Stingrays beautiful old man face!

A freshwater turtle

The boys in front of a real beaver dam! Check out how tall the dam is.

The boys in the behind the scenes tour - kitchen.

While we were at the aquarium we were able to see all of the various animals with the different types of mobility's we are learning. We all had a great time and hope to do it again later this year.

Amy

Dirty Coin/Clean Coin

Ryan found a very dirty dime. In fact, it was so dirty the rest of us thought it was a penny! After cleaning it up, Ryan was correct - it was a dime.

Want to clean your coins?


What you will need:
Dark colored coins (up to 6)
Plate
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon vinegar

Put coins on plate, if using more than one coin, make sure they are not touching each other. Sprinkle salt on top of coins. Pour vinegar on top of the salt. After a little while they will start to look cleaner. You can also rub the coins around in the mixture.

Why and How?
The coins are not dark because they are dirty. They are dark because they are tarnished. The “dirt” is really a chemical that forms on the surface when it comes into contact with oxygen/air.

Vinegar is a chemical called an acid. Acids also react with metals. The vinegar dissolved the coating on the coins exposing the clean metal. The reaction can happen without salt but the salt speeds up the reaction.

Teeth and Coke

Ryan lost his two front teeth this Spring. We decided to see what happens to teeth that are soaking in Coke.


Well, in less than 24 hours it was light brown.


7 days later is was almost black.

Let's not forget to mention that with in 14 days most of the coke evaporated and a syrup was left. {gross} One would think after this experiment that we would stop drinking pop, we have not.