Free Homeschooling Resources

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!

I have been looking for something to help teach my son how to read. The boy is SO super smart, he just doesn't like to learn things that he has to stay still for...the only time I can get him to stop moving is to give him a puzzle, or put him on the computer. Therefore, it has been hard teaching him to read!
Today, I was surfing the web when I came across Starfall. Starfall is a free website that has a vast collection of games and activities to help teach your child how to read, while keeping them engaged and interested.
Here is a screenshot of Starfall's Learn to Read page:

As you can see, Starfall has a ton of options to choose from!! Here's another screenshot of one of their activities:
In this one, your child learns to read by selecting the appropriate letters to create the word matching the picture. My son really enjoys Starfall so far, they have great audio that says the sounds, and helps him sound them out. And, as I've pointed out before, the best way to teach kids how to read is to learn phonics!
They even have alphabet activities for preschool level readers, or younger readers. Look at this screenshot from Starfall:
Here's a screenshot from one of Starfall's reading activities. It's an actual story that the website reads to your child, sounding out each letter first. This is an excellent resource! I can't recommend Starfall enough!!

If any of y'all have experience (good or bad!) with using Starfall to help your child learn to read, let us know!

Reading is an essential skill. Learning to read is the most important (and sometimes the most difficult) thing your child will ever do.

There are so many different ways to teach your child how to read. Many people use sight words; I don't like this method, and I'll tell you why in a minute. Other use Phonics, such as "Hooked On Phonics"...and many teach their children phonics but without the aid of any software. Here are my essential steps to teaching a child how to read.

Reading to your Child

Perhaps the most important step in teaching your child to read is to read to her! Children learn a love for books and stories from the books you read to them when they are little. The initial love for reading starts early. If you read to your children every day from the time they are 2 years old, they will be so excited about learning to read on their own, that it will be easy to teach them to read.

My 2 year old loves books right now! By reading to her, or having one of my older children read to her, this love of books will carry over into her preschool and kindergarten years, and she will enjoy learning to read.

Reading to your child also improves his vocabulary; he will hear new words in each story, and either determine the meaning of the word from the pictures, or he will ask you what the word is. Reading to your child is a perfect way to increase vocabulary!

Of course, reading to your child has other wonderful benefits. It's special time with your child, making your bond stronger. Reading to your child shows her other aspects of her world that she wouldn't otherwise see.

Teaching Phonics

IMHO, phonics is the best way to teach a child to read. The English language is a complicated one; if you teach your child how to read using phonics, they will be able to sound out most words.

Here's how I teach my kids how to read. I start off with the alphabet, of course...the letters, how to write the letters, and recognizing. That's the first step.

Next, I start the individual letter sounds. Once my child has most of the letter sounds down, I concentrate on the vowel sounds, while stressing that all words have to have a vowel in them. We will start forming small words with only 3 letters, and learning how the sounds work together to make a word.

Once my child grasps the concepts of the letter sounds working together, the next step in teaching my child to read using phonics is to start teaching her how paired letters make different sounds. This is when I introduce combination sounds like ch, sh, ai, ou, ow, etc...at this stage, keep the letter combinations to 2 letters only, and only introduce a couple of the combinations at a time.

Once your child grasps the first couple of letter combination sounds, you can begin to introduce simple words that implement one letter combination and simple letter sounds. For example, chin, or ship both have one letter combination; chair would not be a good word to use yet, because it has 2 letter combinations.

Once your child has mastered the words with one 2-letter combinations in it, you can move on to the words that have more than one: chair, chow, shower, chain...and etc.

The next step in teaching your child to read is to move on to other sound combinations. I start off with the vowel-consanant-e rule...the word cave for example. because there's an a, then the v, ending with an e, the a says it's name. I teach this rule because it's almost always true.

Once your child has mastered the above rules, teach your child the more complicated combinations: -igh, -ing, -ight, etc.

Sight Words Don't Help Teach Your Child to Read

I don't agree with the idea of using sight words for many reasons, but the most important reason is that memorizing words doesn't teach reading at all. Too many people pass through school memorizing words, but not being able to read a single thing. Children need to know phonics in order to read. Yes, the English language is tricky, and complicated, but we have to teach our children to read using phonics.

I'm working on teaching my son how to read...and I came across these Word Wheels. Not surprisingly, I found the word wheels on Super Teacher Worksheets! I love that site!

What is a Word Wheel?

A word wheel is 2 circles of paper (I used card stock for my word wheel) pinned together with a paper fastener. A "window" is cut out from the side of the top circle, so that you have a little view of the bottom circle. When you spin the top, you view different letters that are printed on the bottom circle.

Printed on the top circle, next to the window cut-out, are two letters, such as "at" or "it". The letters that appear through the "window" are the first letters in the word.

I know, it's hard to explain...but the battery on my camera is dead, other wise I would put a picture of my word wheel on here. I'll do that soon. ;-)

Let's say you have "at" printed on the TOP circle of your word wheel. Letters in the "window" (printed on the BOTTOM circle of your word wheel) could be "p" (p-a-t), "c" (c-a-t), or "m" (m-a-t).

The word wheel is a fun way to teach your child how to sound out words. My son loves it! Anyway, go check out the word wheels at Super Teacher Worksheets. Try them with your preschooler or kindergartner today!

Peter and the Wolf is an absolutely awesome way to introduce small children to music, symphonies and classical instruments.

I used it for Dakota and Amber. The others listened in, but only because it was on. However, the other kids liked listening for the different instruments on Peter and the Wolf, and associating the instruments with the Peter and the Wolf characters.

Each character in the story Peter and the Wolf is represented by a different musical instrument. For example, the bird is represented by the piccolo, Peter is represented by the clarinet and Peter's grandfather is represented by the bassoon.

Parents can easily use Peter and the Wolf to introduce instruments to children in Kindergarten, first grade and second grade. Get your copy by clicking the link below!

Do y'all use something other than Peter and the Wolf? What are some of the ways you have introduced music to your children?

Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out how to teach your preschooler basic math skills. There are workbooks galore that offer different preschooler math activities, but many of them are just that: workbooks. How many 3-4 year olds do you know that want to sit down and actually work in a workbook?

Many preschool math skills are difficult to recognize as math skills: shapes, sorting, and size. I will offer activities that your preschooler will enjoy, and won't even realize he's learning!

Shapes

Start with basic shapes: square, triangle and circle. These are probably the most basic shapes your child should learn first. Once these are mastered, get into rectangles, diamonds, etc. But for the basic shapes, you can try these preschooler math activities.

If your preschooler eats sandwiches for lunch, alternate between cutting their sandwich into squares and triangles, giving them the choice. My 3 year old loves doing this!

When you're reading a book, going for a walk, playing with toys, just about anything, point out the shapes in the objects around him. For example, look at the square window, or the tires on your car are circles.

Childrens' games such as Candyland are great for shapes AND colors. Have your child tell you what shape the color is in on the cards.

Sorting

Sorting is an important preschool math skill. It teaches a child how to differentiate between objects, which is one of the first steps to logical thinking. (It's also a great way to keep your child busy and learning at the same time!) Here are a couple of ideas for preschool math activities:

>li>Grab a couple of handfuls of loose change, and give your child 4 containers. Have them sort the change into separate piles.

• Another great preschool math activity can occur at snacktime. If your child snacks on animal crackers, M&M's, Skittles, colored Goldfish, anything with different shapes or colors, have them sort them into different shapes/colors/sizes.


• If your preschooler is anything like mine, he'll love to color. You can have him sort out the colors, or put them in a certain order (such as a rainbow).

Size

Size, or measuring, is another preschool math skill your child will need to learn. This can include telling the difference between larger, smaller, etc. or arranging objects according to size.

For preschool math activities, there are several different ways to teach your preschooler measuring skills. If your child is sorting money, you can discuss the different sizes, and discuss with him which ones are bigger than the others.

In everyday conversation, introduce the concept: "You are bigger than your baby sister" or "Our car is smaller than that truck" or (if your child is like my son) "Look at the big truck!"

When reading your child a story, introduce these same concepts. "Look at how big Clifford is!" or "Are real birds as big as Big Bird?"

If you know of any other preschooler math activities that are fun for preschoolers, please let me know!