Posted By Faith and Family Books on March 4, 2010

Our homeschool supplies have been dwindling over the past year, which is a good thing and a bad thing. We haven’t been able to replace our usual curriculum choices due to lack of finances. I didn’t even take advantage of back to school sales last summer because I didn’t think we could afford to. We have survived without all the usual stuff and made do with what we had or simply bought in single quantities as we have run out. But you know what? Children can live without glue and tape for an extended period of time! Bet you didn’t know that or at least didn’t think it could happen today.

In the past month or so I have used free online resources and the children have loved it. Now it does cost printer paper, but then it is still small in comparison to buying 3-4 workbooks. Our laser printer has been saying for a year now that the toner is low; I am finally starting to believe it! We haven’t replaced our toner in two years, so that expense is a lot to lay out initially, but it lasts so much longer than our old inkjet did.

Our reading book got misplaced – there one minute and gone the next (kind of like what happens to a plate of food at our house, disappearing so fast you don’t know what happened to it). Regardless, I was determined to get some of our students back into a phonics program to see if the brain connection was connecting this time. Saying and writing the alphabet hasn’t been a problem, it’s been connecting the sounds with each letter that has been.

Here are the websites that I have found helpful; our children are asking to do school every day now! One of the advantages of technology, eh?

http://www.kidzone.ws/ – this has been a fun site to explore and has lots of activities, coloring pages, and prepared lessons for younger children. Our children love the animal section!

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/learning-letters/ib-book-b.htm – I love these itsy books with the individual consonant letters and corresponding story that teaches the sound of the letters too. It also incorporates coloring and cutting.

http://www.kidzone.ws/tracers/farm/index.asp – These have been great to create practice sheets for names, thank you notes, address and phone numbers.

http://www.haelmedia.com/basic_fact_sheets/index.html – This has given our children a break from writing, which my boys get tired of easily. It has given them a chance to practice math facts on the computer, which is a treat.

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/play.htm? – This has been fun for the children. The activities are interactive and I like that they can do this on their own, especially when I might have work to do.

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/calendars.html – I needed this so I could print out practice sheets of filling in the calendar, etc. Plus you can choose seasonal themes too, which is fun for the children.

http://www.first-school.ws/theme/printables/days-week.htm – Practice sheets for handwriting the days of the week.

http://www.zaner-bloser.com/educator/products/handwriting/index.aspx?id=4296 – This one we haven’t used too much, but it is on my list to explore.

http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphabetp2.htm#b – This page we’ve only used a couple of times, as the Kidzone site has been providing for our current needs.

http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/ – A friend just passed this along to us so we are looking around this site this week to see what goodies they have to offer.

http://wxxi.org/education/k12/ondemand.html – This one was just passed on to us recently too, so we have yet to explore these videos. There is a general passcode required. If you are really interested, email me for the passcode.

Categories: March 2010
Tags: Children, Coloring Pages, Education, Educational Websites, Freebies, Handwriting Pages, Learning, Online Activities, Reading Activities, Teaching