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All children need to learn about United States history. But many of the textbooks are quite expensive. However, here at Loving Learning in the Home, we have found a great FREE resource for American History.
American Journeys is a website that has thousands of eye witness accounts of American History. From 1000 AD to 1806, you'll find information on explorers and important facts about US History. They have documents, images, lesson plans and more! And the best part is that use of the site is FREE!!!
This website is perfect for teaching children about the original explorations of North America.
The Teacher's section includes topic ideas, lesson plans, information on geography and more. If you're looking for primary sources to teach your students early American History, we definitely recommend American Journeys.
Have you used this site before? Tell us about it! Share your experiences in the comments below.
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Many high school aged children read
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
in high school. If you're looking for a free novel study so your high schooler can study themes in this Mark Twain classic, check out the following sites!
Book Rags - Book rags has chapter summaries, discussion on 3 different themes throughout the book - conformity, humanity and picaresque - and information on the plot, characters and author. There are some discussion questions, but they're pulled from Yahoo answers, which you could do on your own.
SCORE - I like this site a little better, simply because they have a variety of different assignments to choose from. Combined with the summaries from Book Rags, this could be a good resource for a study guide.
Glencoe - Glencoe offers a PDF file complete with vocabulary, discussion questions organized by groups of chapter. I like the fact that there are questions and assignments for every few chapters, but I do think that they are at a somewhat lower level than we should expect from high schoolers. The questions, IMHO, are aimed at a much lower audience, and let's face it, younger kids are not going to be reading about Huck Finn!
Spark Notes - I have left the best for last (but of course you should check out each one, in case your preferences are different than mine!). Why do I like this site so much? Well, they have chapter summaries, discussion questions AND essay topics. They also cover the plot and character analysis, explanations for several quotes from the book, and a list of key facts about the book. I definitely recommend this resource!
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http://lessonopoly.orgI have found a great new site for
free lesson plans! Lessonopoly.org allows you to set up a free account as a teacher, parent or a student. Create plans, browse their library of lesson plans, participate in groups and more.
The best part is that you can create a schedule for your classroom. Choose lesson plans (your own, or pick one from their library) and add them to specific dates. It's a great way to keep all your plans in one online calendar. :-)
The site has
free lesson plans for all grade levels, and a variety of subjects including:
- Arts
- Language Arts
- Foreign Languages
- Math
- Science
- Technical Career Exploration
- History & Social Sciences
- Physical Education & Health
Grade levels range from Pre-K all the way up to 12th grade.
Check them out today!
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If you are looking for great, FREE homeschooling curriculum, you have got to check out this FREE American History Curriculum!
Created by an experienced homeschooling mom, this FREE American History Curriculum is easily adaptable to grades 2nd through 6th. It was created with a literature-based theme, but tries to incorporate some other subjects as well.
American History Curriculum Contents
This Mom has it together!! :-) She includes everything you will need to implement her American History Curriculum:
- Complete list of books and materials needed;
- Week-by-week schedule of when you need each book/material;
- Book notes & study guides;
- Daily Schedule;
- Topics list;
- Timeline;
- A variety of worksheets.
I love this free American History Curriculum!! I am definitely going to use it for my younger 3 children. I've been looking for an American History Curriculum, and I give high kudos to this Mom for hers.
Especially since she included a daily schedule plan; let's face it, even with all the free curriculum materials available online, it can't be difficult to decide what to do on what day and in what order! On the flip side, purchasing curriculum is extremely expensive!
American History Curriculum Topics
This free American History Curriculum covers the following topics:
- 7 different Indian tribes;
- Discovers, including Erickson, Columbus, Cortez & Pizzarro, and Lewis & Clark
- Incas, Mayans and Aztecs;
- Pocahontas, Jamestown & the Pilgrims
- Colonies & Ben Franklin & George Washington
- French & Indian War
- Revolutionary War
- Constitution & New Government
- First President, New Country & Johnny Appleseed
- Monroe Doctrine & War of 1812
- Andrew Jackson & The Trail of Tears
- Inventions
- The Alamo
- The Gold Rush
- Pioneers & Moving West
- Lincoln, Slavery & the Civil War
- Transcontinental Railroad & George Washington Carver
If you have been searching for free curriculum, I highly recommend Guest Hollow's FREE American History Curriculum!!!
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Amber recently asked me why we had a heartbeat. Why do we have a heart? So, I decided it was time to learn about the heart and our circulatory system.
I found a great resource for learning about the heart and circulatory system. Check out this heart and circulatory system learning guide.
On that website, you will find entire curricula on the heart and circulatory system for kindergarten and grades 1 - 6. When I say entire curricula, I mean they have lesson plans on the heart and circulatory systems, and worksheets to help kids learn about the heart and circulatory system.
In this post, I'm only going to discuss the 2nd grade portion, because that's what I'll be using for Amber. But remember, if you're looking for lesson plans or worksheets on the heart and circulatory system, look here first!
Heart and Circulatory System Lesson Plans
The first lesson plan for second grade answers the question "What does the heart do?" This heart and circulatory system lesson plan covers exactly what the heart is for, and covers the basic anatomy of the heart.
This first heart and circulatory system lesson plan includes worksheets so your second grader can reinforce what she's learned.
The second lesson plan offered by this site covers heart healthy eating habits. This teaches kids that what they eat affects their health, and makes them realize that proper nutrition will help their heart stay healthy.
The final heart and circulatory system lesson plan teaches kids how exercise relates to a healthy heart.
In addition to these 3 heart lesson plans, the site also offers several illustrations on the circulatory system. Kids can also listen to a heartbeat!
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Ashley (my ninth grader) is studying The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I wanted to share with you what I'm using for our The Grapes of Wrath novel study.
This Grapes of Wrath resource site has a lot of information useful for a The Grapes of Wrath novel study. The website is a mess, and isn't organized very well, but it does have a lot of information that you can use in your The Grapes of Wrath novel study.
I am using this novel study guide for her The Grapes of Wrath discussion questions. The pdf file has a LOT of questions, so you can pick and choose which ones you want to use in your novel study.
Cornell has a great list of Grapes of Wrath essay topics. Have your student write a one or two page essay on one or more of these The Grapes of Wrath discussion questions.
Also worth of note is Cornell's Grapes of Wrath blog and their Grapes of Wrath Reading Project. The Grapes of Wrath Reading Project includes valuable information on the Dust Bowl, Steinbeck, and more! You will find Cornell's Grapes of Wrath website very helpful in your high schooler's Grapes of Wrath novel study.
| Need a copy of the book? Click the link to the right to purchase your copy of The Grapes of Wrath. Use it with the links I've provided above to broaden your homeschooler's horizons! | |
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Elementary Grades Free Math Curriculum
I have started creating my other kids' curriculums for the coming school year. Ashley's math curriculum isn't complete; she's going to take Geometry, and I haven't found a resource for that yet. :-( So in the meantime, I decided to work on the younger kids' math curriculum.
I found a wonderful FREE elementary grades homeschool curriculum that I plan to use for Kiara, Amber and Dakota. The site offers worksheets, lesson plans, even a suggested daily schedule for the lessons.
I think the neatest thing about this free math curriculum is that it teaches in a "cyclical" method. I didn't understand this at first, but basically what it means is that it cycles through each of the several different elementary grades math categories, teaching a lesson from one category the first day, then the next category the second day, and so on. It's actually a good way to teach elementary kids math.
By teaching elementary grades math in this cyclical manner, all the material is fresh in their minds, and by the end of the year, they will have absorbed more of the material. Just my personal opinion of course! ;-)
So if you're looking for free elementary homeschool math curriculum, I highly recommend the CSMP program.
If you check it out, let me know what you think of it!
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I am currently working on creating Ashley's 9th grade curriculum, and I realized that I don't have any ideas for her journal entries...sometimes she has a hard time deciding what to write about. Therefore, I've been looking for English writing prompts for her journal writing, and I found some great ones to use that I wanted to share. I was surprised when I found ones that I can use for some paper assignments too!
This is a link to a pdf file that offers several suggestions for paper assignments. It includes the following types of high school writing prompts:
- Cause and effect;
- Definition (speech writing);
- Expository and Informative Writing Prompts;
- Persuasive Essay;
- Descriptive Essays;
- Persuasive Essays;
- Narrative Essays;
- Literature;
- Non-fiction;
I really like this site for high school writing prompts. Write On has an entire list of different types of writing prompts, although the link that led to the high school specific writing prompts is broken. I think a lot of the other ones could still be used for some high schoolers.
There aren't too many listed on there right now, so I don't have a full year's worth from this site, but there are several that I can use.
I've saved the best for last I think! This one has 329 different writing prompts; some are rather simple, some are challenging, but they're all perfect for journal writing!
I hope that this list helps some of you; let me know which writing prompts sites you like and which you don't, or please let me know if you know of some that I don't!
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My oldest daughter is starting high school this fall. I am trying to find a good secular curriculum for high school. It's not easy! I've been having a really hard time!
Until I found this web site. It has a wealth of links to free high school homeschool curriculum. Here's a list of what this website offers for homeschool high school curriculum:
- High School English
- English Composition
- English Grammar
- Literature
- Creative Writing
- Screenwriting
- Journalism
- Debate
- High School Math
- Algebra I
- Geometry
- Pre-Calculus
- Calculus
- Probability & Statistics
- High School Science
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Physics
- Environmental Science
- Forensics
- High School Social Studies
- American History
- American Government
- Free Enterprise
- Western Civilization
- Physical Education
- Computers
- Computer Literacy
- Programming
- Computer Science
- Electives
- Foreign Language
- French
- German
- Icelandic
- Italian
- Ancient Greek
- Modern Greek
- Social Sciences
- History of American Religion
- Science
- Fine Arts
- Music Theory
- Music Appreciation
If you are looking for free homeschool high school curriculum, Hoagies' Gifted is the perfect resource for you! I found an entire full high school curriculum for my daughter, and I am so excited!! It's not going to cost me a thing!! Well, some of the courses do require text books...but, some of them are really cheap on Amazon, and I'm sure it will be cheaper than a "traditional" curriculum which would cost a LOT more!!
