Resources for Homeschooling & Afterschooling

Perhaps you want to homeschool, are homeschooling, preschooling, or would like to supplement your child’s education with afterschooling. There are several free resources available for homeschooling, preschooling and afterschool families, for a variety of subjects.

Reading – Starfall (www.starfall.com) has a beginning reading program for young children. This includes ABC’s, phonics, early readers’ stories, and stories for more proficient readers.

Literature & Poetry – The Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) has a variety of classic literature available online, including ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and modern literature. Some are text files and some are audio files.

Foreign Language – You can find free foreign language lessons at http://www.openculture.com/2006/10/foreign_languag.html/ or http://www.elanguageschool.net/

History – for history lessons from ancient through modern times, visit Bringing Up Learners (http://bringinguplearners.com/mosaic/)

Math – free materials and lessons can be found at Cultivating Dharma (http://www.freemontessori.org/) and the Math Album (http://faculty.fullerton.edu/syen/mts/math/_link.htm), both of which are Montessori-based

Science – to work on science at home, try K-12 Science Ed. Resources (http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/edu.html) or Interactive Educational Science Games (http://www.apples4theteacher.com/science.html)

Art – to work on creating art, try Kinderart (http://www.kinderart.com/) or KidsArt (http://www.kidsart.com/quick.html). For a look at the classic pieces, Art at the Getty (http://www.getty.edu/art/) has lesson plans and plenty of pictures from their exhibits.

Music – getting started in music appreciation is as simple as visiting the library for CDs of Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, and others, or download tracks from Classical.com. You might listen to certain famous pieces or do an in-depth composer study, a la Charlotte Mason (http://www.amblesideonline.org/ComposerSch.shtml).

Some general sites to visit for ideas for lesson plans and activities are Scholastic (www.scholastic.com), Crayola (www.crayola.com), Discovery Kids (www.discoverykids.com), or the Play-doh site (http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/en_US/).

Last, but certainly not least, the Osan Library has many books available in their juvenile section, including the DK and Eyewitness series. These are full of colorful pictures with information suited to a child’s attention span and the phase during which most children absorb knowledge (ages 5 to 8).