Review: Wild Life

Review: Wild Life tells of being homeschooled in the African wilderness and dealing with mean girls in American schools

The newly released Wild Life: Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs tells the fascinating story of Keena Roberts’ life growing up partly in her parents’ research station in the middle of an African reserve and then part time in an affluent American suburb. The publisher, Grand Central Publishing, describes the memoir: Keena Roberts […]

Fun hands on poetry exercises

Poetry Fun: 5 Creative Exercises to Get Kids Writing Poetry (and liking it)

Looking for a fun way to introduce poetry in your homeschool? Also want to sneak spelling, penmanship, vocabulary, antonyms and parts of speech into the play? Here are some creative poetry exercises that will fit the bill. Revised rhymes: Get out a book of nursery rhymes or short poems (try e.e. cummings or Emily Dickinson) […]

Review: Study with Me Gives Bullet Journaling Inspiration for Homeschoolers

A newly released #studygram inspired book offers great inspiration for students to use bullet journals for studying, and can also be used by homeschool parents for bujo ideas for kids. Study with Me: Effective Bullet Journaling Techniques, Habits, and Hacks To Be Successful, Productive, and Organized was released this month and I was lucky enough […]

Free Online Ojibwe Language Class

Here’s a fantastic free resource for foreign language learning. The University of Wisconsin Au Claire allows anyone to view their live or archived Ojibwe (Chippewa) language classes absolutely free. The University says: Welcome to our Online Ojibwe Language Program, where anyone can watch our live or archived classes for free. Archived classes can be found […]

Kids Can Learn History, Mythology and More With FREE Superhero Course with Late Stan Lee

Kids Can Learn History, Mythology and More With FREE Superhero Course with Late Stan Lee

Here’s a fantastic opportunity for kids who like superheroes like Spider-Man, Iron Man and the Avengers that will help them learn history, mythology and more.  Before his death, comic book legend Stan Lee contributed to a class on superheroes that’s now available for free on edX. The SmithsonianX course, titled “The Rise of Superheroes and […]

Free Printable Weather Tree for April

Free Printable Weather Tree for April

Here’s a fun way for kids to track the weather and sneak in some math!  Have them color a weather tree this month, with each color representing a different kind of weather. I make up a weather tree for each issue of Wild Kids Magazine, a free monthly nature magazine for kids and their grown […]

Bullet Journals for Homeschoolers that are under 5 dollars

Awesome Bullet Journals on eBay for Under $5 (with free shipping!)

Bullet journals can be fantastic tools for kids and adults alike for everything from tracking days they’ve done math to planning next year’s curriculum choices to keeping track of the year’s read-aloud books. We’ve been using bullet journals in our homeschool for a couple of years now and the kids and I all love them. […]

February weather tree

Free Printable Weather Tree for February

Weather trees are great ways to incorporate art, nature studies, science and even math into a fun daily project.  Here’s a free printable weather tree for February to help your kids track the month’s weather. Kids can assign a different color to each weather type, then color one leaf each day to show that day’s […]

Fantastic college scholarships that are open to homeschoolers

10 Fantastic College Scholarships That Are Open to Homeschoolers

Is your homeschooled teen college-bound and looking for financial help in paying for college? Scholarships are a great way to pay for college without going into debt and many grants and scholarships are very homeschool-friendly. Here are 10 great college grants and scholarships that are homeschool friendly, with a little information on each. Federal Pell […]

IHA offers free U.S. History textbook online

IHA Offers FREE U.S. History Textbook Online

Here’s a great resource for high school or advanced middle school level American history. USHistory.org offers its entire U.S. history textbook free online. The 60-unit textbook covers our nation’s history “From Pre-Columbian to the New Millennium,” with chapters beginning with Native American Society on the Eve of British Colonization and ending with Toward a New […]

TypingWeb offers free trackable typing program for homeschoolers

TypingWeb Offers FREE Trackable Typing Program for Homeschoolers

Here’s a great typing resource for homeschoolers. TypingWeb offers typing lessons and games for all ages, along with the ability for parents to track typing progress and improvement. Some of the features of TypingWeb include the options to: Create classes and add students Track student progress Monitor student lessons and improvement Calculate words per minute […]

Free curricula in every subject for your 3rd grader

Free Curricula in Every Subject for Your 3rd Grader

Continuing in our series of absolutely free curricula in every subject for every grade, here’s a round-up of resources for math, science, history, language arts and more that are absolutely free for third grade. (Note from Alicia:  This post was compiled as part of a series for my homeschooling column at Examiner, which is no […]

Around the Horn Gold Rush Game

Print Out the FREE Around the Horn Game to Learn About the Gold Rush!

Here’s a fun way for kids to learn about the Gold Rush and have some fun family time along with it.  My husband developed the game “Around the Horn” to teach our kids about the Gold Rush and the little-known route that many Americans took out west — by ship.   He explained: When gold […]

Free Curriculum for Homeschooling 7th Grade

Free curricula in every subject for your 7th grader

  Homeschooling in the middle school years doesn’t have to be expensive. There are many outstanding curricula for math, science, history, language arts and more that are absolutely free. Here are some of the best free resources for 7th graders in each subject. Note: This is a tiny fraction of what’s available online for free […]

Free 700-page middle school chemistry course available online

Free 700-page middle school chemistry course available online

Looking for a comprehensive chemistry course for the middle school level? The American Chemical Society provides their entire 691-page curriculum for free as a PDF download or online resource. Middle School Chemistry: Big Ideas About the Very Small is designed to be an 8-10 week course, with each lesson requiring about 45 minutes to one […]

Free 9th Grade Animal Biology Curriculum Fat Dogs and Coughing Horses

Free 9th Grade Animal Biology Curriculum

Here’s a great freebie, courtesy of Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.  They offer their 9th grade curriculum, “Fat Dogs and Coughing Horses,” absolutely free online. They say: The 9th grade biology curriculum is already full and teachers often feel pressured by trying to cover everything during the course of the school year. With that […]

Free Printable Bird Guide

Here’s a wonderful freebie for your nature studies.  The Cornell Institute of Ornithology offers its 12 page BirdSleuth Explorer’s Guidebook absolutely free to download and print. The full color booklet includes lots of great stuff for identifying birds, including some fun activities and worksheets to fill out. Pages include: Wake up your ears What’s a […]

FREE printable botany plant ID cards

FREE Printable Botany Plant Quiz Cards!

Here’s a great freebie for nature studies and botany lessons.   Go Botany, a fantastic web site that has all kinds of plant identification tools, offers these printable cards.  They say: Practice your identification skills with these handy plant quiz cards! Even when you cannot get outside or sample live plant specimens, you and your […]

What's That Feather? Great Tools and Books to ID Unknown Feathers

What’s That Feather? Great Tools and Books to ID Unknown Feathers

We checked out a fabulous book from the library yesterday and it got our youngest daughter, Fiona, excited about finding and identifying feathers. Plume, written and illustrated by Isabelle Simler, was New York Times selection for Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2017 and you’ll be able to see why.  I just find it enchanting and simple, […]

A Year of Forest School

Review: A Year of Forest School

Forest schools and other outdoor learning environments are becoming increasingly popular, not just in the United Kingdom but in the U.S. and around the world. A Year of Forest School: Outdoor Play and Skill-building Fun for Every Season, by Jane Worrell and Peter Houghton, gives parents and teachers ideas for nearly 40 seasonal activities suitable […]