Free Internet Resources for Home Education

Home education is expensive. Many families only have one income. The children are at home more and so there is more wear and tear on the house plus additional heating. Of course, the educational resources themselves aren't cheap. The fact that one of my most popular posts is 14 ways to save money on home education reflects these pressure.

This is a short list of free resources that we either use or plan to use soon. I hope that you find something helpful and new on it. These resources would also be useful for schooled children especially if they are bored in the long summer holidays!

• Classics for Kids. This is a site from the US with short podcasts about classical music. We used it some years ago with Middle Son. More recently, I have been looking round at music appreciation resources, some of which are really quite expensive and remembered this site which is ideal for our needs.

• Seterra is a geography site. This, again, is something that we used some years ago and have started to play again. I find it a little frightening to find the holes in my geographical knowledge!

• Librivox is a free audio book site. Buying audio books is not cheap. Librivox books tend to be older and so out of copyright. The narrators vary in standard and obviously, there is a complete mix of books not all of which will be suitable. 

• Project Gutenberg is well known and similar to the Librivox but for ebooks. It is worth checking here for older books before buying them. Do make sure that you load the correct format for your ebook reader. I've learned by my mistakes!

• Unlike the previous resources, I haven't used this yet but hope to use the art lessons and ideas from Concordia Experience.

• From time to time, we use Poetryline for new poems or to hear poets read their own poems. Some poets read their poetry brilliantly but certain poets are a little disappointing. 

• MEP (Mathematics Enhancement Programme)is a complete maths curriculum. Strictly speaking, it isn't free as worksheets need to be printed. MEP didn't really work for us but that was more a function of our circumstances than the programme itself. Worth checking out.

• We have used the Khan Academy, in the past, for explanation around maths concepts.

• Nrich Maths is something that we use from time to time, often around the end of term. The best game that I have found for adding and subtracting with negative numbers was on this site and involved a hot air balloon!

Obviously, there are many more resources out there. Please do leave a comment about those that you find helpful.

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5 days of England: the countryside

Welcome back to the last post in this series on learning about England. I hope it will be useful for those of us who live in England and want resources to help our children learn more about their native land as well as those from abroad who may want to visit either in reality or virtually.

Day 1: Introduction
Day 2: History
Day 3: Food
Day 4: The language

Today, I'm writing about the lovely countryside but really mean any green or seaside outside space. England might not be large but there are green areas everywhere. Cities have plenty of parks, allotments and other green spaces. 

This is on the outskirts of London

Morden Hall Park is less than ten miles from Trafalgar Square, in central London.

A London park

Not everyone will agree with me but, in my opinion, the weather is such that it is possible to go out most days. Warm, waterproof coats and wellie boots are part of my essential home education equipment. We wouldn't go out if there is a severe weather warning but otherwise try not to let weather deter us.

The sea is always relatively close: never more than 70 miles away from any point in England.

Some websites about nature in the UK:

Nature Detectives: this has many activities for children. There is a paying section but there are also many free activities on the site.

RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) has a bird identification section, nature reserves and an annual Garden Watch.

London Wildlife Trust runs nature reserves in London as well as having a section, on its website, about different habitats and species in London.

Woodland Trust has information about woods around the country.

Some of my favourite outdoor places:

The Long Mynd in Shropshire

North Downs in Kent

Morden Hall Park in London

Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door in Dorset

Lake District (definitely best out of season)

The Cotswolds

This is just a short list: there are so many more beautiful places. Please write about your favourite outdoor places in England in the comments.

Some of my fellow Schoolhouse Crew members are also taking part in the 5 days blog hop, this week. Do visit these blogs
Ellen @ Grace Tells Another Story ~ Making Homeschooling Fun!
Marcy @ Ben and Me ~ Helping Children in Uganda
Wendy @ Simplicity Breeds Happiness -- International Meals
Melanie @ FinchNWren ~ Finchnwren's Fabulous Family Movies
Sarah  @ Delivering Grace ~  learning about England
Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart ~  Connecting with the Creator through Nature Study
Joanie @ Simple Living Mama ~ 5 Days of Charlotte Mason Preschool
Gwen @ Tolivers to Texas ~ A Happy, Peaceful Home
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses ~ Homeschooling 4 FREE resources
or click on the banner for even more topics.
 

If you enjoyed this post you may like to follow Delivering Grace by Google Friend Connect, G+,Facebook, Pinterest or e-mail.

5 days of learning about England: the language

Welcome back to this series on learning about England. I hope it will be useful for those of us who live in England and want resources to help our children learn more about their native land as well as those from abroad who may want to visit either in reality or virtually.

Day 1: Introduction
Day 2: History
Day 3: Food
Day 4: The language

It didn't dawn on me for many years that I might have an accent. After all, isn't the way that I speak normal? When I went to medical school, I was teased about my Kentish accent particularly dropping the last g on words so, for example, working became workin. My children still notice that I say yer rather than year.

Still, I was a bit shocked when I listened to an audiobook version of Anne of Avonlea. Surely, Anne couldn't have a Canadian accent?

More recently, using some US curricular materials and working with the mainly US ladies on the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I have become a bit more aware of my British English and yes, there are a fair few differences (US/UK):

• pants/underpants
• chips/crisps
• jumper/pinafore dress
• sweater/jumper
• -ize/-ise
• silverware/cutlery
• flashlight/torch
• color/colour
• favorite/favourite
• check/cheque
• store/shop
• airplane/aeroplane
• truck/lorry
• freeway/motorway
• trash/rubbish
• eraser/rubber
• dishwash/washing up liquid
• all purpose flour/plain flour
• gas/petrol 

I still am a bit puzzled about SUVs. I know they are some sort of car but what? Any answers from US friends?

We happily used the Five in a Row study guide and books for sometime but when we looked at Truman's ant farm the play on the words ant and aunt just didn't work. We say aunt as unt and ant as, well, ant! This didn't stop one of the children loving the book but he had to have the issue with words explained.

Do you have an accent? What version of English do you speak? Please feel free to add to my list. I know there are many more words that aren't quite the same.

Some of my fellow Schoolhouse Crew members are also taking part in the 5 days blog hop, this week. Do visit these blogs
Ellen @ Grace Tells Another Story ~ Making Homeschooling Fun!
Marcy @ Ben and Me ~ Helping Children in Uganda
Wendy @ Simplicity Breeds Happiness -- International Meals
Melanie @ FinchNWren ~ Finchnwren's Fabulous Family Movies
Sarah  @ Delivering Grace ~  learning about England
Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart ~  Connecting with the Creator through Nature Study
Joanie @ Simple Living Mama ~ 5 Days of Charlotte Mason Preschool
Gwen @ Tolivers to Texas ~ A Happy, Peaceful Home
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses ~ Homeschooling 4 FREE resources
or click on the banner for even more topics.
 

If you enjoyed this post you may like to follow Delivering Grace by Google Friend Connect, G+,Facebook, Pinterest or e-mail.

5 days of learning about England: introduction

Welcome to this five day series on learning about England. I hope it will be useful for those of us who live in England and want resources to help our children learn more about their native land as well as those from abroad who may want to visit either in reality or virtually.

Today, I've collected together some introductory resources.

First, some terms are sometimes misused.

England is part of the United Kingdom which has four countries:

• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. 

Great Britain is the main island comprising England, Scotland and Wales.

The British Isles includes Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Eire.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy.  

Information about the Royal Household and Parliament is found on these two sites. It is possible to visit Parliament and educational materials given out on these visits explain the function of Parliament clearly for children.

The capital, of course, is London. This is the official visitor site. I haven't looked at every page! If you plan to visit London then Transport for London is a must visit site. I do find this site slightly irritating as they don't always include what would seem to be the most logical route.

England is divided into counties. This can be a slightly vague concept. Some of the counties are linked to local government areas although this isn't always the case.

The Visit England site has links to places and things to do. I haven't done many of the things listed and there are some that I have no intention of trying out alongside others that I would love to try.

Do join me tomorrow to learn more about my fascinating country.

Some of my fellow Schoolhouse Crew members are also taking part in the 5 days blog hop, this week. Do visit these blogs
Ellen @ Grace Tells Another Story ~ Making Homeschooling Fun!
Marcy @ Ben and Me ~ Helping Children in Uganda
Wendy @ Simplicity Breeds Happiness -- International Meals
Melanie @ FinchNWren ~ Finchnwren's Fabulous Family Movies
Sarah  @ Delivering Grace ~  learning about England
Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart ~  Connecting with the Creator through Nature Study
Joanie @ Simple Living Mama ~ 5 Days of Charlotte Mason Preschool
Gwen @ Tolivers to Texas ~ A Happy, Peaceful Home
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses ~ Homeschooling 4 FREE resources
or click on the banner for even more topics.

If you enjoyed this post you may like to follow Delivering Grace by Google Friend Connect, G+,Facebook, Pinterest or e-mail.