Archive for the ‘ Free Homeschool ’ Category

What’s YOUR Favorite?

I know. It’s been awhile since we have posted on Momma’s Choice. However, we are thinking about trying to start it up again!

We seemed to have gotten a little off course, so we would like to return to our original mission.

What moms want…and NEED.

Although I know many of you love just sharing your lives, we would like to clean up this blog and make it as USEFUL to you as possible.

How? Well, we would love any input or suggestions from you! Until that happens-at least until we see what works out, we want to share everything we find that we think you might LOVE.

What I thought I would start out with is favorite p.

Soooooo….what should we start with? I asked my son, Ben, and he suggested toilet paper! He was just trying to be funny, but I thought it was a good idea.

Sooooooo-

WHAT”s YOUR favorite toilet paper?

Free Lesson Plans From Microsoft

A gem of a find, Microsoft has a decent offering of lesson plans that are free for the using. Many of the lessons involvemomwithson using Microsoft programs (surprise!) like Word, Powerpoint, etc, which I’m sure will serve them well in the future. One example is using M & M’s to chart a graph, another is using synonyms to make your writing vivid. There are lesson plans for all the major subjects; Geography, History, Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science and Technology and are very well done.

Definitely worth checking out!
Microsoft Education >> Lesson Plans

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Looking for an online geometry course or resources to supplement what you may already have? Here you go!

Ed Helper offers a wealth of information for elementary to  high school, from weekly lessons to printables to charts and more:   www.edhelper.com/geometry.htm

An interactive geometry website: http://www.learner.org/interactives/geometry/index.html

A full 9th grade online geometry course: www.freeworldu.org/Flashcards/BrowseFlashcardCategory177.aspx

The Teacher’s Cafe has a list of geometry resources and worksheets for grades 4-12:   http://theteacherscafe.com/Math/Geometry_Worksheets.php

The Geometry Junkyard - just like it says, it’s a dump of miscellaneous resources, clips, ideas, worksheets, etc for teachers:  http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/

Internet 4 Classrooms – I’ll let you do the digging, this is a great site for any parent or teacher that’s involved with their child’s learning.  http://www.internet4classrooms.com/

If you know of more to add, please leave it in the comments. Thanks!

Classics You Can Download Free

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It’s that time of year when homeschoolers are making sure they have all their curriculum for the coming homeschool year. I know one of the items I would often overlook until later would be the reading books required for whatever English curriculum I was using. If you live in a big city, the library is a reliable source of books like Pride  & Prejustice, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, or A Tale of Two Cities, but with the growing numbers of homeschoolers, they are often already checked out…indefinitely.

Now you can download them, and it doesn’t cost a thing at Project Gutenburg. You can print them out, or simply read them on your computer. If you are really up with the times, you can download them into what is known as a ‘reader’.

Have you ever tried Amazon’s Kindle?

Readers like Amazon’s Kindle are becoming more popular, and even predicted to replace real books someday.  Books are like good friends and will never be replaced in MY house, although I would love to own one of those Kindles. So Kindlemany times I see a book I want on Amazon that is less than half the price if I had a Kindle to download it to. It might take some getting used to, but I like the search option that you can use with it.

Anyone had experience with one? I did a quick search on which reader is the best, and it appears that the Kindle is cornering the market currently, being the easiest to use and adaptable to most downloads. Seems to be a favorite for college students, too. Saves big on textbooks.

As for finding the cheapest prices on a Kindle, save yourself some time and just buy it at Amazon NEW and get the free shipping and warranties. I’m the last one to recommend buying something new, but this is definitely an exception.  Everyone I searched claiming to have the cheapest price on a Kindle was either offering a re-conditioned one, or the shipping charge drove the price up over Amazon’s. Amazon is so reliable, and will back up their product without question. If you watch the used category and find a good one as it’s listed, you might find a good used one. If you buy it new, just be sure you are actually buying from Amazon…and not a seller on Amazon. BIG difference! You’ll see the Super Saver logo if it’s actually Amazon’s.

Find free downloads at  http://www.gutenberg.org

The #1 Kid’s Activity Site!

SLbracelet-lgOK, so that’s my opinion, but I think you’ll agree. While Disney’s Family Fun website is full of great ideas and fun stuff, half your time is spent dodging the commercials!  We discovered Activity TV on Comcast’s On Demand, and my youngest son (and his parents!) love it. You don’t need to have Comcast to get onto their website, but a high speed connection is necessary to play the videos.

If you don’t have high speed internet, you can still print the recipes and how-to’s because everything is detailed for each project….all the way to a list of supplies needed. You can even sort projects by difficulty and age level.

Some of the fun you’ll find:

~Making paper airplanes

~Recipes that kids love and can make themselves!

~Making jewelry

~Crafts of all kinds

~Fun Party Ideas

~Making Music (as in making your own instruments)

~Easy Room Projects

~Homemade Gift Ideas (and how-to, of course!)

~Games & Trivia

~Holiday Ideas and Projects

~Science Projects

~Cartooning

This has been one of our favorite sites to find fun projects for school. Hope you enjoy it, too!

ActivityTV.tv