101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum

...not my top picks--I haven't been homeschooling long enough for that! I'm talking about Cathy Duffy's 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum.

When I was planning The Boy's kindergarten year, an earlier edition of this book was THE number-one best resource that I found. I checked out this new edition from the library as soon as it was available--partly because I wanted to use it to help me plan The Boy's next year, and partly just to see what's new.

The first few chapters of the book help you get yourself together--figuring out your homeschool philosophy, your learning/teaching style, your children's learning styles, and so on. I always want to skip those chapters, but I plow on...because the work you do in those chapters is important for using The Chart.

(That's just what I call it, capitalized like that. Because I love The Chart. A lot.)

The Chart is the next section of the book. It has each of the top picks listed by subject. The top picks are a pretty good mix of curricula I've heard of (Saxon Math, All About Spelling) and curricula I haven't (Genevieve Foster books?). And then The Chart rates each top pick, on a scale of 1 to 5, on all kinds of things--what learning styles it works for, which homeschool philosophies fit with it (told ya that you should do those first chapters!), how easy it is to use, how much writing it requires, whether it has religious content...and more.

After The Chart, you'll find the actual reviews of each of the top picks, with more details about how each program works. I've only read the first few chapters of this new edition, and I'm so excited to plan this next school year (our "year" starts in April) that I might explode or something.

Or...instead of exploding, maybe I'll just make myself a Super Nerd t-shirt and call it good. Hmm...yeah, probably that.

My 10 Best Websites for FREE Homeschool Printables

[photo by tonx]

I'm going to be totally honest, okay? My husband and I have no money. We're on public assistance. Not very conducive to homeschooling, right? Especially when public school is free.

So how do we do it? (Why we do it is another topic entirely.) Well, we spent part of our tax return this year on some curriculum--mostly used, and what we couldn't get used, we bought through Rainbow Resource. We also use the library a lot. But that's only part of what I use to teach The Boy. 

The rest comes from the internet. 

Honestly, I don't know if I'd be able to homeschool if I didn't have internet access. There are so many awesome free resources out there. In fact, when we were doing preschool, all of our materials and ideas came from the internet.

I obviously can't point you to all the free homeschool stuff on the internet. But I want to show you my most-used sites. The Boy really likes worksheets, and he's currently doing schoolwork that's either kindergarten or first-grade level, so this list is biased toward those areas. But a lot of these sites have materials and activities for multiple ages and abilities, and some of them aren't even homeschool sites--they're for educators of all kinds. Awesome, right?

Here they are, full of free resources, with my most-used sites toward the top:

• Education.com--tons of stuff here. I usually go to the "Worksheets" tab or the "Activities" tab, and then do a search or just click on "kindergarten" or "first grade." 
• Lesson Pathways--used to be a paid site, but it's free now. Technically, you can use this site to design a complete curriculum. It doesn't have its own materials; just links to other sites on the web. But it has them organized into different subject "pathways," from K through 5th grade. Again, I usually just do a search for whatever topic I'm looking for.
• Classroom Freebies--SO MUCH STUFF here, from PreK through 12th grade. Put together by classroom teachers, but most of it is adaptable to whatever purpose you want.
• Kids Activities--good for classrooms, homeschool or just family activities. Ranges from PreK to middle school.
• Mr. Printables--if you're going for originality and cuteness, this is the place. They tend toward younger kids. Not a blog, but they seem to update pretty frequently.
• Watch Know Learn--videos! Says for ages 3-18, but they seem to mostly be for older kids. Do a search with the search bar, instead of using the links in the sidebar. I find more interesting stuff that way.
• Homeschool Share--exactly what it sounds like. I don't use this site as often; I tend to forget it's there. But it's full of good printables, especially if you're into lapbooks.
• Homeschool Creations--Jolanthe is pretty much a celebrity in the homeschool blogging world. Her printables are awesome. I really need to use this site more often.
• Confessions of a Homeschooler--another homeschool-blogging rock star. Erica's blog covers all kinds of homeschooling topics; her Teeny-Tiny Tot School ideas are awesome if you have toddlers running around.
• And, last but not least...Pinterest. I'm serious! Just in the last couple weeks, I've used this, this, this, and this. And I'm thinking about doing this. [Note to self: You also have a million homeschool pins that you have not used.]

So, there you have it. Don't forget to enter our Getting Started Giveaway, if you haven't yet. It still has only a few entries, so your chances of winning are very good. And art supplies make really good Christmas gifts for kiddos.  

Preschool on the Go

I'm gonna tell you a secret about home schooling:

You don't have to actually be at home to do it.

I know, revolutionary! Ha. We do school at home 99% of the time, because...well, we're home a lot. And usually when we're on the go, we skip school for the day.

But once in awhile, if we're going to be in the car and Little Boy will be sitting for a long time, we take a little school with us.

{Note: No, he's not wearing a seatbelt in the photo. We were in a parking lot, waiting for Isaac.}

I love clipboards, by the way. Best school-away-from-home tool ever.

Tip: Remove Old Dry-Erase Marks

{photo source}

Sometimes I put Little Boy's worksheets in page protectors (the smooth kind), so he can do them over and over again with dry erase markers. Works great.

Except when you forget to erase it. And discover it several days later.

Then it's stuck.

So I turned to good ol' Google and started working my way through suggestions for removing dry erase marker.

Vinegar: didn't work much better than water.

90% rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer: I'm pretty sure that would've worked, but we were fresh out of both.

White toothpaste: worked like a charm.


You do have to wipe the toothpaste off with a little water, of course. I don't know whether toothpaste will work on other surfaces, but it does work on Little Boy skin--he managed to get a little bit of dry erase marker on his chin while I was working on toothpaste-ing his page protectors.

{cross-posted at Teach Me to Walk}