‘Tis the season to have a little fun with holiday math and science carols! Here’s a big assortment to sing with the kids. Test Tubes Bubbling(Sung to Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) Test tubes bubbling in a water bathStrong smells nipping at your nose.Tiny molecules with their atoms all aglowWill find it hard to […]
Looking for some hands-on ways for kids to work on history, geography, government and more? There are so many great ways to work on these skills with kids besides boring lesson plans and textbooks. Here are 50+ great ways for kids to learn social studies from fun, games and real life: Volunteer at a historic […]
Looking for some hands-on ways for kids to work on multiplication, fractions, ratios, algebra and more? There are so many great ways to work on these skills with kids besides worksheets and textbooks. Here are 50+ great ways for kids to learn math from games and real life: (Note: This was supposed to be 50, […]
Looking for some fun ways to sneak in some geography this week? Here are all kinds of ways to help kids (and you!) learn about countries, maps and regions. Note: Affiliate links to Amazon are provided when helpful. Purchases from our links earn us a small commission to help keep the lights on here. I […]
Welcome to week one of our 12-week free art lessons for kids course here at A Magical Homeschool! This week the kids will be learning about the art of Wayne Thiebaud (pronounced TEE-bo) and following along with five days of fun and easy art projects using a variety of media. Who was Wayne Thiebaud? Wikipedia […]
All five of our homeschooled kids are now great spellers, but they weren’t always great. They learned in different ways that suited them, but in the end they all ended up becoming excellent spellers — without worksheets, drills or a curriculum. How? It was easier than I thought it would be, once they learned in […]
Have you heard of The French Tutorial? It offers a full French course absolutely free online. The website, which has been around since 1999, says: The French Tutorial is a web-based step by step lesson covering basics, pronunciation, but also grammar, vocabulary and everyday French. It offers audio and video support for better oral comprehension, […]
Is your child interested in learning American Sign Language? There are some really wonderful free resources for kids of all ages to learn ASL. The American Sign Language University offers wonderful free online ASL classes. They provide four levels of classes for free, with each course building on the last and comprising of 15 in-depth […]
If you don’t follow a boxed curriculum, it is easy to design your own Language Arts (English) curriculum for 9th grade. You can create an excellent master plan with a thorough list of recommended reading and accompanying work to focus on writing and communication skills. Ninth grade is a good year to focus on American […]
Here’s a wonderful free resource for adults or kids to learn indigenous languages. 7000 Languages is a nonprofit website and app that teaches native languages such as Dakota, Cree, Balinese and Ojibwe, absolutely free. 7000 Languages explains: We create free online language-learning courses in partnership with Indigenous, minority, and refugee communities so they can keep […]
Have your kids played on Artsology yet? This free site uses a wide range of games and activities to teach kids about famous art and music, from Georgia O’Keefe flower puzzles to Salvado Dali hangman to virtual graffiti tagging and jazz musician name scrambles. This is a site we visited with our older kids years […]
Here’s a way for kids to be creative, spread awareness to protect our oceans and coral reefs, and possibly earn scholarship money through their art right now. The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation’s Science without Borders® Challenge is an annual art contest open to kids 11-19 years old, with scholarships of up to $500 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
One of the most moving events in American history has been all but lost to our history books — the heroic journey of the Fool Soldiers to rescue a group of women and children during the Minnesota Uprising of 1862. The Minnesota Uprising, also referred to as the U.S.-Dakota War and the Great Sioux Uprising, […]
Here’s a way to have a little fun with the kids and work in some Shakespeare. Shakespeare online has a Shakespeare Fortune Teller that lets you pick from 7 questions to see which Shakespeare quote will tell your fates. The questions are… Will I be prosperous? Will I get married? Will he change after marriage? […]
Here’s a fantastic science freebie! The innate immune system is your first line of defense against many pathogens. BioLegend is offering their newest poster on Innate Immune Signaling, which covers TLR, NOD, Lectin signaling pathways, and more. You can learn more about innate signaling with their webpage and request this FREE poster and many others […]
Looking for some great resources to help teach physics? The American Physics Society offers a wealth of great resources for kids of all ages — free. The APS’s PhysicsCentral provides physics-related comic books to read online, along with coloring books, activity guides, podcasts and vodcasts, physics games, book suggestions and more. The comic books, which […]
It can be very hard for some children to sit still and pay attention, even into the teen years. While it’s a common misunderstanding that this is always a sign of an issue like ADHD or that the child is not trying hard enough, there are actually many reasons kids can have trouble concentrating. Among […]
Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” has a new passion, encouraging teenagers to rethink college and their career paths. He’s challenging the old notion that teens should “work smart, not work hard,” saying that hard work is more important than ever today. Rowe says: “We’re Lending Money We Don’t Have, To Students Who Can’t Pay It […]
Here’s another great free science curriculum that homeschoolers can take advantage of. San Diego State University has developed a full curriculum of biology lessons for prospective or practicing teachers, complete with experiments, discussion questions, teacher guides, and more. Note as of 7-17-14: The links to this curriculum are currently not working at the SDSU site. […]
Looking for some resources to help teach algebra? There are some really phenomenal ones online, absolutely free. Here are some of the best. (Note that some sites offer multiple types of resources, but are listed in the section of their greatest strengths. For instance, CK-12 is listed under free textbooks but it also provides free […]
Here’s another helpful science resource that’s free online. The American Chemical Society offers a free high school level curriculum on energy that contains lesson plans, handouts, experiments, video links and more. The curriculum can be viewed online or downloaded as a 152 page PDF file. ACS says: Energy Foundations for High School Chemistry is a […]
Here’s a wonderful site to help kids learn all kinds of world geography, absolutely free. Lizard Point Quizzes offers interactive geography games that teach everything from countries in Africa to Canadian provinces to geophysical regions of the United States. In addition, they also provide features like merit stamps and give teachers the ability to track […]
Here’s a wonderful resource to help teach evolution. The National Academies Press offers all of its evolution-themed science publications free online. One of the most helpful books is the NAP’s 88-page Science, Evolution, and Creationism, which was written by a team of experts from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences and Institute […]