More on homeschool with new links!

I have heard from several friends on facebook lately looking into homeschool and looking for a good curriculum as well as free or cheap ideas online.  There is so much out there and I have already shared a ton of my favorite homeschool links, scheduling ideas and more so if you haven't already read those you can find them all here.

For anyone wondering what curriculum we are using this year we are doing part of it with an online public school program called COVA here in Colorado that uses the K12 curriculum.  We chose to do math (we like the online games and videos with cartoon instruction that really seems to work well), science and history both of which include fun videos.  We did the whole program the first year and found it WAY too involved for first grade.  We were spending HOURS and HOURS (they wanted 6 plus hours a day for one on one instruction) going over some material that was not necessary.  One of his first history lessons was all about Mesopotamia and the fertile crescent and soon after he was required to have memorized all the Greek gods and goddesses by heart (Poseidon, Hercules, Athena, etc..).  Interesting but a bit intense for first grade.  The art and music were also overboard.  We didn't get to do as much art as learn about all the masters and ancient civilizations art.  I was looking for a more relaxed and enjoyable as well as doable program that has its heart and core focused on Jesus where ever it could.

 After checking out My Father's World first hand with friends doing it I am convinced that is the direction I will go next year while keeping the COVA (k12) online math and Spanish.  My Father's World is a Charlotte Mason style curriculum that is so Christ centered.  A lot of the reading materials are missionary stories, there are Bible stories incorporated and teaching your children godly values is a key part of the curriculum..Academically it seems very rich as well.  I also supplement with a number of online resources such as journaling prompts, game ideas, online learning games, worksheets and videos from Kahn academy.

Khan Academy is an AMAZING resource for adding to your child's learning through instructional videos that have been created for math, science, history, finance and other difficult to grasp subjects in a way that breaks key components down.  This way your child can grow beyond the curriculum as well.  You simply start at whatever level you think you are at and continue through the videos till you have mastered all the lessons (think advanced college level calculus and physics).  Check it out it is really worth adding to your repertoire.

We love doing our sign language lessons with Life Print. Free laid out lessons with videos of each sign.  Very easy to add to your weekly homeschool routine.

For a fun story hour you can use these links

Barnes and Noble story time This one includes all the illustrations from the book in a fun to watch and listen presentation. My kids love it!

Children Story Time

Story Time for me

To just listen with out any visual there a lot of radio broadcast stories. These can often be downloaded on mp3 players and listened to at night as a podcast.  Some are free to download and some are only free to listen to.

Your Story Hour has FREE podcasts of TONS of stories told by "Aunt Carol and Uncle Dan" or you can "listen online" as well.  My kids love to listen to these on trips or as they are falling asleep. This website also offers a GREAT kids Bible learning program called Adventures in the Holy Bible that has a lesson, quiz (online) and rewards you with FREE Cds of dramatized Bible stories as you pass the quizzes one lesson at a time.  They are awesome as we have won some through the program.  I like to use this as a part of my Bible class for the kids.

Paws and Tales My kids listen to this almost every night along with Aunt Carol and Uncle Dans story hour posted in the Your Story Hour link.  Fun characters  and stories that teach valuable lessons.  You can download the podcasts for FREE and there are oodles of them (yes I just said OODLES).

Dan and Louie an all time FAVORITE of mine is a ventriloquist and his "dummie" that tell Bible stories like you have never heard with great questions and answers mixed in by the dummie in a laugh out loud way.  We listen before bed on the computer because I don't have the cash to buy all the stories yet.  I do hope to though as there are 107 stories. You can listen to a limited selection of stories free here at Bible voice.

For great FREE books to download and read or listen to online or on your tablet or smart phone check out these resources.

Maria Lectrix - Huge selection

librivox A great resouce.

Biblesnet has the Bible you can downlad as well as other christian literature to download free.

Free E books has free e books and magazines.  A HUGE selection

Read any book online Another great place to get access to free books.

Check your local library as now there are links they have that you can enter for free with your library card to get books to download for a specific amount of time.  You can get audio books and music as well!

Hope this list helps!  Happy schooling.  let me know your favorite homeschool resources!  I would love to add them to my list!