James asks…
What is a good interactive learning site for kids?
I have a soon to be second grader who had difficults in 1st grade. So something that would attract her into learning. Math and English.
Michelle answers:
Hi there is a hampton brown website..just google it that is good for math…funbrain is also a good one for reading…starfall is good too.. Read to her every night that will motivate her to want to read. Pick a chapter book from the library the Magic Tree House serious are pretty good. Have fun
Sandy asks…
Can anyone tell me what school supplies I need to home school my sixth grader?
We have a very low income. Last year I homeschooled him for the first 9 weeks of the year and used this book I have called “Home Learning Year by Year”, which I still will be using, a few second hand A Becka books (don’t have any now that are grade appropriate), and (mostly) a lot of library books and videos. I also copied worksheets out of one particular library book with a copy machine at the library. I need to do this as cheaply as humanly possible, and other than the limited guidelines my book gives me I have no idea about curriculum and worksheets and such. We are in Tx, in case that matters. I also will need something to help him practice times tables (he forgets them all over again whenever he goes longer than a week w/ out practicing, and to help him practice the names and capitals of states. I had flashcards for those things, but can’t find them now. He is behind his grade level, which is why I want to homeschool. Last year he caught up a LOT after the 9 wks homeschool.
P.S. Last year I would have homeschooled him all year, but finances forced me to go back to work, and I was already attending college. I’ve found that I can do any two of the following three; homeschool, work, college, but not all three at the same time.
O.K. There are too many really great answers for me to pick just one, so I am putting it to a vote! I can’t choose one w/ out feeling like I shortchanged the others!
Michelle answers:
Book Samaritan helps homeschoolers with free curriculum,
http://www.booksamaritan.com
Also try
http://www.homeschooldiscount.com
http://www.rocksolidinc.com
http://www.kn.att.com
http://www.wxdude.com
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/star
http://about.com/education
http://www.freeworksheets.com
http://teacher.scholastic.com
http://www.tlsbooks.com
http://www.mathsisfun.com
http://www.coolmath.com
http://www.dltk-kids.com
http://www.auntlee.com
http://www.funbrain.com
http://www.brainpopjr.com
http://kidsites.com
http://www.eclectichomeschool.org
http://www.rainbowresource.com
http://www.donnayoung.org
http://www.triviumpursuit.com
http://themathworksheetsite.com
Some of these are free and some are just reasonably priced. There may be a few that are geared toward younger kids, I think I weeded them out of the list, but I might have missed a few.
Jenny asks…
Do you know of any free good site for printing out home work sheets for the kg2 level children?
Michelle answers:
I answered a question about this the other day, and did a lot of hunting for the answer. Instead of hunting it all down again I thought I’d just paste the answer in:
Often you can’t get it all in one place if you want it totally free. The library is a wonderful resource though.
Try http://oldfashionededucation.com/index.html there are links to lots of sites.
Also consider spending the small fee for enchanted learning
http://www.enchantedlearning.com
One site that has some neat free activities is:
http://www.starfall.com
You might want to try checking out this website:
http://dorioakes.tumblr.com/
It links to lots of free and low cost homeschool stuff.
Here are some other sites you might check out, some are free, some have a mix of free and low cost, and some are just regular old on-line catalogs with things for sell, they are all helpful.
Http://www.starfall.com
http://www.handwritingforkids.com
http://www.enchantedlearning.com
http://www.homeschooldiscount.com
http://www.sonlight.com
http://www.abeka.com
http://www.homeschoolstockroom.com
http://www.rocksolidinc.com
http://www.christianbook.com
http://www.earlychildhoodlinks.com
http://www.kn.att.com
http://www.first-school.ws
http://www.wxdude.com
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/star
http://www.members.aol.com/don
http://about.com/education
http://www.freeworksheets.com
http://teacher.scholastic.com
http://www.tlsbooks.com (THIS ONE HAS LOTS THAT ARE COMPLETELY FREE)
http://www.mathsisfun.com
http://www.coolmath.com
http://www.dltk-kids.com
http://www.auntlee.com
http://www.funbrain.com
http://www.brainpopjr.com
http://kidsites.com
http://www.spelltime.com
http://www.eclectichomeschool.org
http://www.rainbowresource.com
http://www.donnayoung.org
http://alphaphonics.com
http://www.triviumpursuit.com
http://themathworksheetsite.com
http://startwrite.com
ALSO CHECK OUT THIS BLOG, THERE ARE LINKS TO LOTS OF FREE AND LOW-COST HOMESCHOOLING MATERIALS:
http://homeschoolingforfree.blogspot.com/
OOOH! Here is another I just found, again, completely free as far as I can tell, I didn’t run into anything I couldn’t access:
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/about.html
One more site, the goal of which is to provide a free emergency curriculum for homeschoolers who find themselves in a financial bind:
http://dorioakes.bravehost.com/index.html
*******One last edit. If you really want to homeschool nearly free, don’t look on-line for a complete curriculum for each grade level. Instead, figure out what you want to teach and look specifically for worksheets on that. For example, you decide your first grader should learn about the solar system, go the sites with free worksheets and search for all the information on the solar system. I did that for my 1st grader and I have over 50 pdf files sitting on my computer waiting to be used, all free.
If you need a guideline to know what topics to look search out for each grade, go to http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum and follow those guidelines.
Also, be sure to use your local library, often you can even find complete workbooks on math and things like that. Just cover the pages with a plastic sheet protector and let your kid use a wet erase marker to write on the plastic cover rather than the page.
William asks…
What are some teen girl books about summer camp?
I just finished reading sleepaway girls and I am looking for a similar read! So if you know of any books about teenage girls at summer camp please let me know!! 🙂 Thanks so much!! I will pick a best answer!!
Michelle answers:
Camp Confidential is okay. It’s online at http://www.funbrain.com/books/natalie/book.html
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