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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Short On Cash? There Are Plenty Of Free Resources Perfect For Homeschoolers

There are sooo many choices when it comes to educational resources for the homeschooling family!  Some are worth paying a little extra for, but at times people pay for resources when there are perfectly good and free alternatives.  You just have to know where to look (like the Journey North Kids Site that I mentioned yesterday).
For instance, are you looking for a phonics program? Starfall is a completely free four stage phonics program.  I loved it and have used it with my younger two now.  Not only is it an awesome interactive phonics site, but if you peruse the Download Center and the Scope and Sequence Page you will find a wealth of printable material.  Also when using the site look for a picture of a little printer at the end of the interactive books and activities for even more free printable worksheets.   (Only one word of caution about Starfall:  They also offer a Kindergarten curriculum which includes in it’s readers a book about Darwin.  Being a Christian, I wasn’t too keen about that to say the least, but there was nothing like that at their phonics site, as far as I know and it’s free.  I’ve looked it over pretty well, but look it over for yourself as well.)
Literactive is also an awesome site for reading AND spelling fun and interactive books, as well as printable activities.  Spelling City is another site for learning to spell as well as games to reinforce what you are learning to spell.  Speaking of Spelling City, if you use AVKO’s Sequential Spelling books, you should know that AVKO's spelling lists are on the Spelling City page!  (For those of you who don’t know about AVKO, I highly suggest that you watch the video demonstrations on their website.  This educational research foundation was founded by dyslexic Don McCabe, so their materials are especially helpful for others with dyslexia, but they are for everyone learning and/or struggling to learn to spell and read!)
Well, now you have a taste of the free and valuable resources bookmarked in my Language Arts bookmark (or favorites) folder.  I’ll try to give you more to “chew on” later.
God Bless!
1-1-2007 12-08-11 AM_0117 Hubby and the kids pretending to be run over by a train rendered stationary long ago.  Fun, fun ;)

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the resorces (saved this in my email, for future use) I'll be hitting you up for more of these before next summer! <3

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  2. We use Starfall and love it!! We are new homeschoolers and its overwhelming because there are SO many resources out there!! I've spent so much more money than I ever thought I would! Ha.

    I love that picture!!

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