Posts tagged ‘free’

Even though our homeschool is on a break from our normal schedule, we still try to take advantage of learning opportunities, whenever they may arise.  As we prepare for our New Year’s celebration, I thought it would be an ideal time to share a few ideas with our readers. Here are some links you can use to create your own “on the fly” New Year’s Unit Study:

Learn About New Year’s Around the World

Turn your New Year’s Eve celebration into a multicultural one!  Have you children pick a country or two to learn about. Locate them on a map, read about their New Year’s traditions and prepare some food from that country.

New Year Around the World Facts:
Read this interesting,  fun collection of facts about traditions from around the world.  You’ll learn about customs in Greece, Columbia, Scotland & many more countries!

Traditions from Around the World:
Find out even more about the history and traditions of New Year’s. This site offers and extensive list of countries. We just wrapped up a study on our heritage, this will be a great tie in for us! Find the country you are interested in and click on the link to learn more.

How to Say “Happy New Year”:
Have fun learning how to say “Happy New Year!” in other languages.

Lucky New Year’s Eve Food Traditions from Around the World:
Read about food traditions and try to prepare some yourself for New Year’s Eve.  NOTE: There are a lot of pop-ups on this site.  Be sure to have your pop-up blocker on for a better experience.

Calendar Concepts

What better time to reinforce time and calendar concepts, or even learn something new about the history of the calendar? If you kept a family calendar this year, you can review the events of the past year and have your children create a time line.   You can print calendar pages and have your children decorate each month, filling in the special days and holidays.

Calendars: Counting the Days:
This site is just a wealth of information about the calendar!  Read through the different pages to learn about the history of the calendar, how to measure time and the different types of calendars used today.

Assignment Discovery:Days and Months:
Watch this short video to learn how the moon is connected to the calendar.  A nice, quick and to-the-point lesson!

Printable Calendars:
If you want your children to create calendars, this is a nice place to find printable ones for coloring or customizing.

Just Plain Fun

Maybe you’re just looking for some good, old-fashioned, coloring pages, printables and crafts?  There’s lots of fun and learning that can happen with paper, pencil, scissors and glue!

New Year’s at Danielle’s Place: A nice collection of ideas.  My favorite is the FREE printable “pop-up” New Year’s card to make.  Let your kids make a few for friends and neighbors.

New Year’s Word Search:
Just print and circle the words!

Bright New Year Mobile:
This fun craft project, from Crayola, will liven up your home on New Year’s Eve.  You probably have all the supplies you need on hand: construction paper, colored pencils, gel pens, glue & glitter glue, scissors, hole punch, ribbon and recycled foam trays.

Will you be doing some fun learning this New Year’s?  Or, do you have a learning idea or resource for New Year’s?  Share it with us in the comments section below!

This post was written by Christina S., a LessonPathways.com Team Member and  homeschool mom of 10 years.  She lives with her husband and two daughters in Detroit, Michigan.

Whether your children are educated at home or in a classroom setting, its likely most of them will not have scheduled school work this coming week.  When they get antsy for something to do, help keep their minds and hands busy this week by assembling a fun holiday workbook using these FREE resources:

Printable Christmas Quiz

A fun quiz about Santa!

Printable Christmas Quiz for Older Children

Print this quiz for your older children and allow them to use the internet to find the answers.

Christmas Tree Dot-to-Dot

This dot-to-dot will reinforce counting skills.

Santa Claus Word Search

Find & circle the words in the grid — they all relate to Santa Claus!

Christmas Crossword Puzzles

Choose easy, medium or hard for your child.

Christmas Around the World

Print this poster to learn how to say “Christmas” in different languages.

Decorate a Gingerbread Cookie

Color, cut and glue the decorations for your gingerbread boy or girl!

Reading Comprehension – Making Christmas Ornaments

Read the recipe and directions for making the ornaments.  Answer the questions and try making some of your own.

My Family Christmas – A Rebus Story

Print this page for your young reader.

The Internet is full of great resources.  These are just a few of our favorites.  Share your favorites in the comments section!

If you’re looking for some insightful articles on homeschooling, be sure to check out The Homeschool Connector newsletter. It’s FREE to subscribe too!!! This month, they are featuring the following articles:

• Top Ten Reasons to Homeschool
• Homeschool Field Trips – 7 Essentials on How to Plan and What to Take
• How to Enjoy Homeschooling
• Technology in the Homeschool Classroom
• And More!

Your Homeschool Connection

In case you missed any of the other giveaways, there are THREE more chanced to win a FREE YEAR of Lesson Pathways!

SecularHomeschool.com is hosting a giveaway for three free subscriptions to LessonPathways.com. You can find all the details and enter HERE! Good Luck!

Be sure to stop by the The Work of Childhood between now and November 4th to find out how to win a FREE one year subscription to LessonPathways.com!!!

While you’re there, check out the archives to read about their family and adventures in homeschooling!

“FREE Flashcards”

If you like using flashcards, you know all too well how easy it is to quickly run up a tab when purchasing them! They can easily run anywhere from a $1 a pack to over $5 a pack, and one pack is never enough. You “need” a pack for this and for that and for the other thing. You’re quickly swimming in a sea of flashcard frenzy!

Having seen the price for a pack of flashcards, I quickly decided there was no way I was going to pay the price they were asking when I could easily create flashcards for my daughter with little to no cost at home. What could cost me up to $5 (or more) to buy, I can easily do in as little as ten minutes at home.

How do you make flashcards for FREE? Grab the following supplies and do these quick and easy steps to create your very own free flashcards!

Supplies needed:

• Empty cereal box (or other cardboard)

• Marker

• Scissors

• Bag or rubber band (for storage when you’re done)

(The example in the pictures is for matching numbers to their names.)

The Process:

#1 – Open the cereal box and use the inside “blank” part to write on.

#2 – Use the marker to write/draw out the text/picture you want on the flashcards.

#3 – Use the scissors to cut apart the flashcards.

You’re DONE! See how easy that was? And free, too!

The best part is that when your child loses them (and we all know that flashcards seem to disappear into thin air), you aren’t out any money and you can easily replace them for free!

I’ve used this idea to create puzzles, flashcards, matching games, and more. The sky’s the limit!

This post was written by Ashley P., homeschool mom and Lesson Pathways team member.

Can you say “Frugal Fall Family Fun” five times–fast?

I absolutely LOVE this time of year. Fall is definitely my favorite season.

One of the great things about fall is all the frugal family fun you can have! I’m going to share just a few of my favorite fall activities with you to get the juices flowing in your head, so you can brainstorm additional ideas for frugal family fun!

#1 – One of my all-time favorite fall activities is going to a football game. I grew up going to our local high school’s football games every Friday night. Many schools have family passes you can purchase if you’ll be attending multiple events, but a one-time ticket is usually only $4 or $5 for adults (less for students).

#2 – If going to a game isn’t in the budget, you can experience the fun of football at little-to-no cost, right in your own backyard! Grab the kids, the neighbors, your friends down the street–whomever you can get–and put together a game of 2-hand-touch football. The rules are simple: each team gets up to four tries (known as downs) to get the ball to the “end zone” (mark with Frisbees, jackets, cones, whatever you have on hand). If the person with the ball is touched by a player from the other team with both hands, he or she is “down” and the play stops. Make your field as long or short as you like (I’d suggest 10-20 yards), and play as many sets of downs as you want (or play to “x” number of points). Make sure each team has an equal number of turns trying to get the ball to the end zone.

#3 – There’s nothing I love more about fall than looking at all the beautiful colors in the trees. And what’s more frugal than taking a nature walk/hike? Grab a camera, bag (for “treasures”), notebook and pencil, and a book about trees/leaves. If you have young kids, have them look for the biggest leaf, the smallest leaf, an acorn, a stick, and any other fall treasures. Then, have your kids put their treasures in a bag to take home. (See #4 for what to do with the treasures.) Older kids can use a notebook and pencil to sketch what they see while walking, or they can use a camera to capture pictures of the colors. A book about trees/leaves can help older kids learn to identify various types of trees/leaves and could even be part of a science unit. Use your camera to take fall pictures of your family among the beautiful background of colors.

#4 – Creating a fall-scape with your nature walk/hike treasures is a fun way to bring fall inside! Grab a piece of cardstock or plain paper and use your treasures to create a beautiful picture. Draw an outline of a tree with a marker/crayon and glue leaves and acorns to it. Place a sheet of paper over a leaf and use a crayon to color over it, bringing out the leaf’s vein on the paper. Have older kids create a leaf collection by identifying various leaves (and the trees they came from) and creating a leaf book. Laminate the leaves with clear contact paper or use an iron to melt wax paper around each leaf.

#5 -Decorating with nature is another great frugal fall family fun activity. Use the fall-scapes to decorate your home, as greeting cards, or to frame individual leaves and create a beautiful display. Grab a hot-glue gun and a piece of cardboard. Glue leaves and acorns to the cardboard to make a wreath or frame to hang on the wall. Create a garland by stringing acorns and leaves with a needle and thread.

#6 – Fall is known for being a season of harvest. Grab the family and head to a nearby apple orchard or pumpkin patch. Often, these venues will have opportunities for hayrides, apple/pumpkin picking, and fun family photos. I love the taste of a freshly picked apple and fresh apple cider. I love carving jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins too!

#7 – If you asked my daughter what her favorite fall activity is, she’d tell you she LOVES to jump in the leaves. What is more frugal than that? Grab a rake, make a pile, and jump for joy!

#8 – Another favorite fall activity is sitting (or standing) around a big bonfire! Grab the blankets and camp chairs and grill hot dogs and marshmallows over an open fire. If the weather is less than welcoming, grab a bunch of blankets and make a fort in the living room. Create a “bonfire” with flashlights and colored paper.

#9 – Make s’mores and popcorn in the microwave and put in a fun family movie from the library (or from your own movie collection), or grab a board/card game. (you can also check out Redbox movie rentals. Just $1 per night!)

#10 – We’re headed to a Fall Festival tomorrow (weather permitting) in a local small town. Small towns (and big ones too) often have Fall Festivals. Check your local paper or your municipality’s webpage to find a festival near you.

These are just a few ideas for Frugal Fall Family Fun. I hope they get your creative juices flowing. Be sure to share your ideas in the comments section–I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

This post was written by Ashley P., homeschool mom and Lesson Pathways contributor.  Read more about her and our other great blog contributors by clicking the “Our People” tab.

We’re hosting our first contest! Thanks to the generosity of Susan Marlow, you could be the winner of this ‘tween-friendly book and corresponding lapbook!

You could win…

Susan Marlow’s Book, Andrea Carter and the Dangerous Decision

The second book in the Circle C Adventure series for kids (http://www.circlecadventures.com/Books.html), Andrea Carter and the Dangerous Decision is sure to entertain!

Click the book to read the first chapter

Andrea “Andi” Carter never tries to get into trouble, but somehow it always manages to find her.  Living on the Circle C Ranch near Fresno, California, in the 1800s–the heyday of the Old West–provides Andi with more than her fair share of adventures.  Andi’s life is never boring.  Her hair-raising escapades always end up teaching her valuable lessons about life, friends and family.

In this book, Andi nearly tramples her new teacher in a reckless, impromtpu horse race down the main street of Fresno, California–not a good way to begin the fall 1880 school term.  Her troubles multiply when she must decide whether she should deliberately walk into a dangerous situation to rescue the teacher’s mean-spirited, trouble-making daughter.

In addition to this delightful book, the winner will also receive the Journey Through Learning lapbook!

Tie history and literature into the Circle C Adventures by using lapbooks by A Journey Through Learning. (www.AJourneyThroughLearning.com) Each lapbook is made using three colorful file folders. The packet includes everything students need to create the lapbook: study guides, full-color pictures for the mini-booklets, the file folders, and detailed instructions on how to put them together. Each lapbook takes about a month to complete.  Extra study pages, such as School in teh 1800s, Proper Etiquette of teh 1800s, Cowhands, Ways of Transportation, What is a roundup?, What is a Corral?, Horse Safety, Psalm 121, History of Baseball, History of the Sheriff and Much More!

Susan K. Marlow is a 20-year homeschooling veteran of four and the author of the Circle C Adventures series for “tweens” from Kregel Publications. She combines her love of teaching and her passion for writing by teaching writing workshops for kids online and at homeschool co-ops. She and her family make their home in Washington State.

To learn more, please visit Susan Marlow’s website: Circle C Adventures.

Entering the contest is easy!

To enter, leave a comment.  Remember to leave your email address so we can contact you (it won’t be visible to others and it won’t be shared either).

For extra entries, do one (or all) of the following, come back and leave a comment for each one you complete:

• Subscribe to our feed
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The contest will be open through Tuesday (October 20th), 11:59pm EDT.  The winner will be announced on Wednesday, October 21st.  Good Luck!

Julie of the Clark Chronicles Blog recently announced the winner of the one year FREE subscription to LessonPathways.com. Is it you? Head over to Julie’s blog to find out!