Check out these super freebies we found this week!

Currclick American Girl Club
This is a very exciting freebie! Currclick will be offering a club for the American Girl fans! Your child will have the opportunity to meet new friends, learn about history and make arts and crafts while learning about their favorite American Girls. And it’s totally free!

My Job Chart
My Job Chart is an innovative way to encourage a good work ethic in your child. Your child can track the completion of assigned chores online and earn points towards rewards.

TeachersFirst.com
This free site offers links for elementary, middle and high school levels in areas from math to art with ideas on how to apply them to your classroom.

The Totally Free Children’s Learning Network
The Totally Free Children’s Learning Network offers educational, animated movies on various subjects. After watching the videos, there is a quiz to test what your child has learned.

Spring is in the air?
Well, maybe you’re still shoveling snow, but spring is just around the corner! Sign up for the 1066 Country newsletter and receive a free package of butterfly and bee seeds. Thanks to Saving Dollars and Sense blog for finding the great freebie!

Bee Printables
From About.com Homeschooling, bee printables! Incorporate these bee worksheets to learn more about the little critters when your free bee seeds arrive.

Funnix – A Tutor in Your Computer
During January, Funnix Reading Program is available to download for free! (Regularly priced at $249.) The program incorporates 220 daily lessons to take your reader from beginner to a 3rd grade reading level.

White Castle BOGO Printable Coupon
White Castle is offering a printable Buy one Breakfast Sandwich on a Bun, get one free coupon. It’s only valid until 1/22/11, so take advantage of this offer today!

Are you making a New Year’s resolution to save money?

If you’re quaking in the wake of over-spending, or feeling particularly triumphant from your frugal finds, you’re sure to appreciate these sites that will help you save money (and even make a little!).

	Get a handle on your grocery budget this upcoming year with free printable couupons from CoolSavings.com.
	How about earning a little extra money, just for sharing your opinions? GlobalTestMarket Surveys has new openings.  You can earn cash for each survey you take, plus get entered to win prizes.
	Opinion Outpost is another site that will pay you to take surveys.  It’s free to sign up and you can cancel any time.
	UPromise is a great and EASY way to start saving for college.  Every time you make an eligible purchase, one of their partners return a portion of that money back to you. Those earnings accumulate in your Upromise account until you decide to use it to invest in a 529 plan, help pay down eligible student loans or assist with college expenses—all tax-free!  Best of all – it’s FREE!
	Help fight child abuse, homelessness or a variety of other causes close to your heart without spending a dime!  Sign up for free, select an organization and view a little bit of advertising.  Each time you do, the advertiser will make a donation!

Those are some of our favorite ways to save and earn money from home. What about you?

CurrClick just announced they will be launching a FREE Club for American Girl Doll enthusiasts.

If you’re not familiar with CurrClick already, they offer great downloadable resources and online classes for kids.

We are planning a FREE online American Girl Club for girls ages 5-12. The American Girl dolls each represent a period in American History so this club will be a history enrichment club. Each meeting would consist of a unit study, craft, snack (prepared at home by the parent), and anything else our coordinators can think of!

CurrClick is looking for parent coordinators.  If you are interested, just fill out this quick survey.

Are the kids going a little crazy while you’re trying to finish up all of those last-minute preparations today?  Yes, us too!

Here’s a little collection of free stuff to keep those hands and minds busy so you can polish off that to-do list today.

A Present from S.A.N.T.A. eBook
If your family does not believe in Santa or your children have decided that they do not believe anymore then this book is for you. This short book is written around the acronym S.A.N.T.A. It reminds us that Santa is Someone Anonymous, Nice & True All over the world in one night. This book can be printed on regular paper and has amazing, beautiful images on each page

Christmas Trivia, Fun and Games
The OrnamentShop.com offers some fun trivia games, recipes, and other interesting things about Christmas. Test your trivia knowledge while you make some Figgie pudding!

Christmas Printables
Are you looking for some free Christmas printables? Look no further! The Christian Homeschool Hub has a coloring book, math pages, ABCs, and more.

Fun, Interactive Christmas Games
Visit Northpole.com to play interactive games, send e-cards to your friends, check the weather for Santa’s flight and more! Visit the mailroom to send a last minute letter to Santa!

Free Christmas Music
This site offers free Christmas MP3 downloads from independent artists. Check out the artists, download some new music, and enjoy your holidays!

“Merry Christmas” Language Cards
Have fun learning to say Merry Christmas in 108 lanuguages!
Just cut out the cards and have fun trying to say the different languages, some of the cards also include Happy New Year! A pocket is also included to store your cards in.

Build a (Virtual) Snowman
Too cold to actually go outside? Maybe you don’t want to deal with the mess it tracks in the house. Let your kids build their own virtual snowman online. Bonus: it won’t melt!

A Christmas Carol Audio Book
If you have an MP3 player handy, download this classic Dickens tale!

$2 MP3 Credit from Amazon
Let the kids do a little free shopping at Amazon for Christmas music. They have a large selection of free music and now you can get this $2 credit towards paid music too! (Thanks, Bargain Shopper Mom!)

CurrClick is known for offering high-quality resources for homeschoolers and classroom educators.  In addition to great printable downloads, they also offer live classes.  This week, you can try one for FREE!

The class offering is “Active Science” and it will take place on Wednesday at 1:30 Central time.  Your children can enjoy all of the benefits of a classroom experience and you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home!

Calling All Scientists!

We’d love you to attend a free introductory glimpse of “Active Science”. A semester full of hands-on science…perfect for the short-attention-spanned, including younger audiences and children with various mild-moderate developmental delays*.

“Paced Learning” knows that we all learn differently and at our own paces so we’ve incorporated a wide range of teaching styles–vocabulary, experiments, journaling, collecting, drawing, observing…sure to keep your child involved and stimulated.

Join us for a free introductory class where you’ll meet the teacher, get an overview of the semester’s themes, and participate in a sample experiment!

*(ie: ADD, ADHD, ED, LD, Asperger’s/Autism, etc…)

As is our usual custom on Thursday, we’ve got a super round up of Deals and Steals for you!   Our Frugal Fannie team of investigators have done all of the detective work for you to find the best bargains and freebies this week.

Don’t forget to join us on Twitter.  Look for the #dealsandsteals hashtag, because we’ll be sharing more good stuff throughout the day!

This Week’s DEALS

And don’t forget to check out Azulio’s Deal of the Day! (remember, this price is good for today only!)

Inventions that Changed Our Lives: Medicine

The JUST THE FACTS Learning Series investigates the developments in modern technology that have had a significant effect on our lives. This installment explores the astonishing advances made in the world of medicine which have been utilized in fighting everything from the simple infection, to life threatening diseases. Includes archival footage and video clips of actual medical procedures.

Today’s Price: $4.99

This Week’s STEALS

Children of Ancient Rome Free e-Book (pdf reader required): Classic story/history book set in the early years of ancient Rome, providing a fascinating view of that civilization’s early history, through the eyes of children growing up in that historic era. A fascinating mix of Roman history, legends and lore… really makes ancient Roman history come alive.

Online Educational Games: GoGoKabongo develops cognitive skills that are essential to reading such as: attention and focus, memory skills, processing, planning, visualization and comprehension.  Best of all – kids can play in “Laughter Lake” for FREE!

Free Inuit Lapbook: This page is full of resources you can use to make your own Inuit Lapbook.  It includes custom mini-books and numerous links to resources!

Pumpkin Shape Book & Writing Prompts: (pdf reader required) Use this high-quality printable resource for your pumpkin, harvest or Halloween theme unit.  It includes literature connection hints, writing prompts and more!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s featured deals and steals!  Did we miss a goody?  Share the love and tell us in the comments section….

This post was written by Christina S. and Dana A., LessonPathways.com team members and the most Fashionably Frugal Fannies you’ll ever meet.  They met through a homeschool group over 10 years ago and have been fast friends ever since.

There’s been some great freebies out there over the past week or so. We wanted to share a few of our favorites, so our readers and LessonPathways.com users can enjoy the savings too!

History Channel: America the Story of US DVD Even shipping & handling is free!  Public, private and home schools receive this spectacular series shipped right to your door.

7 Secrets to Homeschooling Through a Financial Storm The HomeScholar is offering this special reports that reveals 7 secrets that will help you homeschool wisely and inexpensively.

16 Crafting eBooks These craft books from Interweave include crochet, knitting, beading and even watercolors!

Printable Labels for Folgers Cans Okay, so this doesn’t quite fall under “educational”, but thanks to Robin at the Heart of Wisdom blog, you can repurpose those large red coffee cans into decorative containers and keep everything nicely organized.

Homeschooling & Loving It This hard copy book (not an eBook) is your free, offered by the Laurel Springs store.  You do need to pay shipping & handling ($5.95 for Priority Mail).

Homeschool Planner Forms Get a jump on organizing for the next school year with this collections of printable planner forms at the Heart of the Matter Online blog.  There’s also a few links for free computerized planners too!

Mental Math Secrets This is a series of 6 free online videos (you can subscribe via iTunes as well) for learning how to complete mental math.

Paper Dolls of Ancient History What a great way to add some hands-on learning to your history curriculum!  Practical Pages offers free printable paper dolls for Rome, Egypt, the Elizabethan era and more!

Do you have any freebies to share?  Please tell us about it in the comments section.

Miamiopia (pronounced “mee-yuh-mee-oh-pee-yuh” not “Miami-opia”) is a new virtual world just for kids. This site is totally FREE and totally educational to boot!

From the website:

The World of Miamiopia is where balloons go when they escape from the hands of a human. Once here, these balloons seek to improve themselves by learning as much as they can about the world around them. Each building in Miamiopia is filled with learning games.

Some of these games teach the little Miamiopians about math, others about dinosaurs, biology, animals, music, history, and many other topics. Miamiopians “learn to earn”. Each time they plan a learning game, they earn coins. These coins can be used to buy things in the shopping district.

New Miamiopians get to pick the color of their body, and also the type of eyes that they will sport. As they play learning games, they can use the coins they earn to purchase clothing, wigs, and other accessories.

After watching a rather lengthy introductory video, your child will get to create his or her character (a balloon), which consists of color choice and eye choice. Once in this virtual world, your child’s character will explore different areas of the world and play educational games to earn coins. After earning coins, they can buy “add-ons” such as wigs and clothing for your character.

Navigation of Miamiopia is relatively intuitive. There is a map, and your child will pick where he or she wants to go. There is a zoo, science lab and more.  Once your character enters a building, he or she will look for boxes.  Walk to the boxes, wait for it to open to display the name of the game.

The games are fun and it is very easy to get coins for later spending. We played the “Identi-cell” game, where we had to identify different parts of the cell. What was nice about this was that we got many chances to get the answer right. Not only that, they offered a link in the lower right-hand corner of the game to learn more.

The other game we tried was a counting game, where the “Count” would say a number and we clicked on it.  Each correct answer earned 1 coin, a bonus of 100 coins after answering 20 questions.  This game was definitely for the younger set, but we really had no way of telling until we clicked and read the description.

Since the site is still in “beta mode,” the number of places to visit is still limited, but there should be more coming within the next week or two.  Additionally, I did not notice an obvious “log out” button or link, making it difficult to use with multiple children.  Unlike other virtual-world sites, I did not notice any type of chat, mail or messaging system. While this may be developed after the beta version, I feel much safer knowing that my child isn’t communicating with someone we don’t know.

Kids will love this site because it will give them the freedom to explore the areas they are interested in and parents will love this site because its educational content. While I personally think that a quality educational resource can be used across multiple grade levels, those in the middle school set and above may not like this site, because of its overtly cartoon-ish appearance.

The Bottom Line:

Pros:

• FREE
• Easy to Navigate
• Wholesome, quality educational games
• Entertaining and encouraging

Cons:

• Still in beta mode, limited areas to explore
• No log out button or link
• Unable to gauge activity difficulty until playing

Final Verdict:

Despite the limitations in beta mode, this is a great, wholesome, supplement to homeschool and classroom-based learning.

This post was written by Christina S..  She is completing her 10th year of homeschooling and lives in Detroit with her husband, 2 daughters, cat, dog and turtle.

Wow!  So many freebies lately!  Here’s FREE webinar for parents on homeschooling high school, presented by Kris, of the Weird, Unsocialized, Homeschoolers blog an Lee of The HomeScholar.

These two ladies are sure to bring great advice and wisdom to the table.  Be sure to sign up for this event happening on May 24th.

From the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers Blog:

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be hosting a free webinar with Lee on Monday, May 24!  If you’ve never done a webinar, it’s an online seminar where you can log in and listen to Lee speak.  At the end of her talk, she’ll be available to answer your questions in the webinar chat room!

Make sure you sign up today to reserve your spot for her free webinar on homeschool credits, grades and transcripts: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/701574937!

….I am holding a FREE one-hour MUST-SEE webinar called “Credits and Grades and Transcripts, OH MY!!!” In it you will learn how EASY it is to make EFFECTIVE homeschool records that can gain college admission and secure great scholarships for your children.

Thanks,  Kris & Lee, for putting this webinar together and making it available for FREE!