Showing posts sorted by relevance for query preschool. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query preschool. Sort by date Show all posts
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Free Academic Preschool- Kindergarten Printables
Childcareland.com has many free letter, shapes, numbers, language, and matching hands-on printables which you can cut and paste onto cardboard. You can certainly find free letters and shapes off old food boxes and other print media to cut out on your own(no need for a printer), but if you'd rather have it all laid out for you, this is quick and easy.
By the way, a laser printer rather than an ink jet printer really is the least expensive way to go for low printing costs in the long run. I got an inexpensive rebuilt b/w laser printer online, the one recommended by Robinson Homeschooling. I've had this for almost two years, and still haven't had to purchase a new drum, and I do a moderate amount of printing.
Free paper: My husband brings home recycled paper from work, and I use the blank side for printing. Just place it print side up in the printer tray and it will print on the blank side.
I printed out these free learning printables(pictured above), pasted them on the back of frozen pizza boxes, cut them out, and used recycled bill envelopes for the pockets to hold loose pieces. I had my daughter do some of this in order to help her learn to cut and paste. For the letter matching boards, I pasted and taped pockets on the back and front. The cardboard is difficult to cut with small scissors. Get yourself a pair of heavy duty scissors to cut the glued cardboard pieces, or you'll end up with sore hands.
My favorite is the shape matching game, but my daughter likes matching and sorting the letters. So far I've only done the upper case letters, but they do have lower case printable sheets for file folder learning. I think the letter sheets are suppose to be glued into a manila folder, holed punched and put in a ring binder, but I did it my own way. My three year old action oriented daughter would have just ripped these out, so I modified them into a board game-like presentation.
Here's the template for the elephant(from my picture) which can be printed, cut and pasted together. There are eleven pieces for the child to match together from the picture. This was from First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts. I used this site with my son, many moons ago.
I store all these homemade educational items in recycled dry food boxes which can be decoupaged if you have the time, or if your little ones are so inclined. It's a great way to learn fine motor skills - learning to use scissors can be a real challenge. My daughter has picked it up fast, but my son took forever to learn to use the scissors.
I've also found some printable puzzles online. These are fun to print, color, cut and paste onto cardboard for an instant homemade puzzle. The pieces are really big, so it's not like a jigsaw puzzle. It helps teach visual/spatial thinking skills for the preschoolers - good pre-math skill builder as well. It's not pictured here, but we did a little three piece duck when my daughter was younger. I put a little yarn bow around it's neck - too cute, but she keep pulling it off. Maybe I'll teach her to tie it back on!
So save light cardboard boxes from your dry goods, old envelopes, and paper that is blank on one side, and you've got most of what you'll need for an almost free preschool-kindergarten! Free preschool websites will guide you in content, and you can improvise off of this.
Crafting your own preschool materials is a bit time consuming, but if you have your children help, it does double duty as teaching fine motor skills. I'm all for efficiency, what mom doesn't want the shortest route from A to B, so I do use those big fat $5.00 preschool workbooks(huge value!) for Walmart, and educational hands-on games from the Dollar Tree. They work just as well to teach, but when I make the time, crafting the materials is very satisfying and relaxing. There is nothing like something handmade to personalize the educational experience and make warm memories.
Not all printables but, here is a nice link farm for children's free educational games and activities.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Christian Preschool At Home
My daughter is almost four and is just now getting interested in workbooks or formal learning. We are using the Rod & Staff's Preschool series($9.00 for set). My son used this series as well, so it's been fun to revisit it. Great memories! These are wholesome "old fashioned" black and white workbooks published by conservative Mennonites. Simple rural living features prominently in these workbooks. When you click through to the link, each individual book can be viewed for content.
For older preschool children and kindergarten:
Sample lessons here.
More preschool posts here.
For older preschool children and kindergarten:
Sample lessons here.
More preschool posts here.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Free Printable Short Stories, Audio Read-Along Option with Mini-Worksheets
3/3/08 Update: Sites were down over the weekend, but they are up again. Also I found another site which offers Lit2go audio files - Learn Out Loud.com, but no printouts.
Lit2Go has reformatted short vintage stories from public domain texts in a printable PDF along with a human read optional audiobook. There are short lessons as well. I make my own story sheets by copying and pasting vintage texts or portions of texts(see my library ) into Google Documents, but the audio reading is a great bonus! The reader is very clear and pleasant.
This is a great literature supplement source for preschool - early elementary(K- grade 3). The data base is searchable by grade, title, key words and author. There are a few stories/poems for other grades as well, all the way through grade 12.
I'm working on making my own book(binder) with these free print outs; I'll burn the audio onto a CD to make it a read-along. I'm putting together a read-along preschool- K book with nursery rhymes for my daughter. A very neat resource.
This site also offers free clipart for school children. Basically they have collected and reformatted vintage online public domain book images(black and white) and categorized them. I recognized quite a few of these. It's a handy resource for everything related to learning. I love their categories. If you want to retrieve the original public domain images(not copyrighted), go to Google Books and try searching for it. Lit2Go indicated that the images are copyrighted because they cleaned them up a bit, therefore making them original work. I think they look the same(!), but the site does offer the convenience of not having to search for images yourself.
Up to fifty images are free without a license.
Lit2Go has reformatted short vintage stories from public domain texts in a printable PDF along with a human read optional audiobook. There are short lessons as well. I make my own story sheets by copying and pasting vintage texts or portions of texts(see my library ) into Google Documents, but the audio reading is a great bonus! The reader is very clear and pleasant.
This is a great literature supplement source for preschool - early elementary(K- grade 3). The data base is searchable by grade, title, key words and author. There are a few stories/poems for other grades as well, all the way through grade 12.
I'm working on making my own book(binder) with these free print outs; I'll burn the audio onto a CD to make it a read-along. I'm putting together a read-along preschool- K book with nursery rhymes for my daughter. A very neat resource.
This site also offers free clipart for school children. Basically they have collected and reformatted vintage online public domain book images(black and white) and categorized them. I recognized quite a few of these. It's a handy resource for everything related to learning. I love their categories. If you want to retrieve the original public domain images(not copyrighted), go to Google Books and try searching for it. Lit2Go indicated that the images are copyrighted because they cleaned them up a bit, therefore making them original work. I think they look the same(!), but the site does offer the convenience of not having to search for images yourself.
Up to fifty images are free without a license.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Television: Content Matters, No Kidding
It seems morally wrong and abusive to expose preschool children to violence for the sake of a study. This is nothing but common sense; however, it puts the "science" behind it, and we value and put great emphasis on the social sciences in our society :
When preschoolers watch educational programs instead of violent TV shows, they tend to be more compassionate and less aggressive, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. The study
About 600 families were recruited and assigned to one of two groups. Parents in the first group were encouraged to substitute violent shows with educational and pro-social ones - shows that stressed compassion and cooperation.
Families were given monthly TV guides listing educational programming for their area: shows such as "Dora the Explorer," "Super WHY," "Sesame Street" and "It's a Big, Big World." Parents were also encouraged to watch TV with their kids.
The children went from watching a half-hour of violent programming a day to 23 minutes. Parents then increased educational viewing from about 30 to 43 minutes a day.
Families in the second group did not change their viewing habits.
"This is the first study to try to modify the viewing habits of preschool kids," says Dr. Vic Strasburger, spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. "That's one of the significances of this study."
After a year, researchers found that children watching less violent and more child-appropriate shows scored better on tests that measured cooperation, a willingness to share or compromise. They also had fewer incidents of aggressive behavior such as yelling and hitting.
"Although television is frequently implicated as a cause of many problems in children, our research indicates that it may also be part of the solution," the study notes.
Read more here.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Free Templates for Felt/Flannel Board Pieces
Felts are creative and fun hands-on learning for preschool - kindergarten. They can be made into story boards to go along with classic stories and popular children's books(language arts), and used for learning the alphabet, counting, shapes, weather, health, learning about community helpers, early math, spelling, early reading/phonics, you name it.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? Farm Theme
Five Green Shamrocks(counting)
Five Little Snowflakes(counting)
Alphabet Templates(I'd size these down)
More here with hints, tips, and directions.
Humpty Dumpty with wall
Felt board tutorial with templates
If you are lazy like me, you can order sets that match many of the books(found at the library) from the Before Five in a Row(homeschool reading list/curriculum for age 2 -4) on ebay. They are are some very crafty ladies selling these complete felt kits for a few dollars a set. I've also got a few counting and food sets, like the pizza pictured above. The sets I have are at least six years old, used when my son was in Preschool/Kindergarten. They seem to last well, but I did have to glue a few googly eyes back on from pieces in the shape set.
If anything, looking at the sets on ebay can give you ideas for making your own. If you bid/buy at ebay, click through Bigcrumbs.com for cash back.
I did make my own flannel board with a large piece of light blue felt wrapped around and stapled onto the back of a very heavy piece of corrugated cardboard. That has lasted at least six years as well. A good and frugal investment for our homeschool.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? Farm Theme
Five Green Shamrocks(counting)
Five Little Snowflakes(counting)
Alphabet Templates(I'd size these down)
More here with hints, tips, and directions.
Humpty Dumpty with wall
Felt board tutorial with templates
If you are lazy like me, you can order sets that match many of the books(found at the library) from the Before Five in a Row(homeschool reading list/curriculum for age 2 -4) on ebay. They are are some very crafty ladies selling these complete felt kits for a few dollars a set. I've also got a few counting and food sets, like the pizza pictured above. The sets I have are at least six years old, used when my son was in Preschool/Kindergarten. They seem to last well, but I did have to glue a few googly eyes back on from pieces in the shape set.
If anything, looking at the sets on ebay can give you ideas for making your own. If you bid/buy at ebay, click through Bigcrumbs.com for cash back.
I did make my own flannel board with a large piece of light blue felt wrapped around and stapled onto the back of a very heavy piece of corrugated cardboard. That has lasted at least six years as well. A good and frugal investment for our homeschool.
Monday, June 03, 2013
Kindle Fire for Homeschool/Early Learning
I finally decided to try the Kindle Fire android after our laptop broke. I liked it so much for reading, browsing the web, and keeping up with social media that I bought two. My husband uses one for audiobooks and movies. The other was for me, but I quickly discovered many educational apps that were free or very low cost for homeschool. I saw many Amazon apps for older children, but I am primarily using the first grade apps for my daughter.
I found apps for read-along books, math, science, spelling, phonics, and reading. A few of my daughter's favorites:
Starfall Learn To Read
Monkey Word School Adventure
Monkey Math School Sunshine
Abby Sight Words Games
Flash Cards vol 1: Kids Learn to Read - Learning Reading Adventure
Reading Rainbow (Kindle Tablet Edition)
Peter Pig's Money Counter
MathOpen Cool Math Kids Game.
Preschool to 5th Grade Kids Learning Games : Preschool, Kindergarten and 1st Grade
Math Bugaboo
Montessori Phonics Long vowels, Blends and Digraphs for Kindergarten Kids
Butterfly Math
Bubble Words
Phonics and Reading With McGuffey
First Grade Learning Games (Full Version)
First Grade Kids Word Play - Word Find, Sight Word Memory, Phonics & Spelling Games
Fox In Socks - Dr. Seuss
Sight Words Sentence Builder
iStoryBooks
Let's Do the Math
Body Organs 4 Kids
My First Money Tablet
Math BINGO
Pink Pig (Miss Rhonda's Readers Set ONE)
I also got a subscription to the FreeTime Unlimited app on Kindle Fire which is wonderful! It's a children's program with video, read-along books, and learning apps protected with a password so that the child does not wander off the FreeTime page. A time limit can also be programmed. My daughter's reading has greatly improved with the read-along books. We worked on a phonics and a learning-to-read program that worked for my son many year ago, but she is learning much more easily with computer based programs. We've ordered so many wonderful read along books, easy readers, and mom- read books since having this Kindle. I never have to ask her to do school work; she does it willingly, and throughout the day and evening.
Now my teenage son wants one. I'll wait until Christmas and pick out the larger Kindle with 4G for him. Academic school books and Classic books are free or low priced via the Kindle. If it breaks, the replacement is free with the one year warranty, and an optional two year extension for $49.99.
We got this Kindle Fire(below) for $159.00 with a subscription to FreeTime via Amazon Prime for $2.99 monthly. I just noticed this sale for Father's Day: $20 off Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire HD 8.9", or Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G. Enter DADSFIRE at checkout. Expires 6/8/13.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Printable Early Math Cut and Paste Shapes/Tangrams
We worked on a few of these this morning: circles, triangles, rectangles, pentagons, hexagons, and octagons. These are fairly easy tangrams, suitable for preschool-early K.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Experiences Homeschooling a Speech Delayed Child, Part II
I am not a speech therapist or doctor, just a mom sharing her experience. It is always a good idea to consult your pediatrician if you suspect a speech delay. Part I is here.
Homeschool Speech Enrichment Ideas
The big leap in speech occurred at age six for our son. It was not a leap he would have made on his own, it was the curriculum and one-on-one teaching which got him there. He's nine years old now and doing great, with very little if any speech delay.
Here are a few things we did during the tough years, years when I worried about if he'd ever learn to talk or read, roughly between ages three and six. The time and energy worrying would have been spent more wisely in prayer, but I'm wiser now for having gone through this.
Helpful Stuff For Speech Enrichment:
We developed vocabulary with anything I could think of. I used preschool and kindergarten workbooks, like the big fat ones from K-Mart and wallyworld, and free online printables with picture identification. We went over the same concepts everyday until he got it. It took time and patience. I kept a notebook recording the concepts and words he still needed to cover, and found more sheets online which addressed these areas. I also went back and pulled worksheets which he had trouble answering, and we re-did them. We were able to do this by making reusable worksheets.
One example of a game I made up was a letter game with cut out pictures. I'd have about fifteen small cut out pictures I had collected off the net from free worksheet sites. I'd arrange them randomly on paper, and slide them into a clear plastic three ringed binder sleeve. He'd then place a penny on each thing that started with the letter I selected. I gave him the exact number of pennies that he needed to find the objects. He knew when he was done when the pennies where used up. These could be mixed up and interchanged for variety, and used again with other letters.
We used DLTK letter people which required cutting and coloring. I remember doing letter of the week. It was fun to collect free alphabet resources online each week.
We also used quite a few read along books on tape, and read along books on cd-rom. One particular read along series was very good for car learning: Let's Discover Words. A Troll Picture Dictionary. I purchased this series on ebay...I think it is out of print, but some libraries might still have them. It's worth the search. Each letter has it's own read along book and tape covering words which begin with that particular letter.
Computer learning software was helpful. There are many children's learning programs on cd-rom. Some of our favorites were Sesame Street learning, Reader Rabbit and Dr. Seuss Kindergarten. He did well with this type of visual learning.
He loved puzzles, so we got him puzzle after puzzle. I think he finally stopped at the 1000 piece puzzles. It was great for fine motor coordination, thinking and concentration, and pre-reading skills. When he began to read well around age seven, he stopped doing as many puzzles. The puzzles seemed to help him to transition to reading, so we ran with it. Solid well written literature was important for developing his vocabulary and improved language skills. Written language and spoken language are linked.
He enjoyed puppets, so we did quite a bit of learning with puppets. Sometimes the puppets taught. ;) He also seemed to be receptive to learning with flannel pieces. We used the book list from Before Five In A Row, and bought the matching hand made felt(flannel) story pieces from a few ladies on ebay who sell and auction these at reasonable prices. The visual clues of telling the story with the felt pieces helps engage a speech delayed child. He/she can also get prompts from the story pieces when narrating the story back to you.
We used felt pieces for teaching concepts like up and down, in and out, next to and below, top and bottom, etc. Just by moving felt pieces around the felt board we extended their use. I'd give directions like, put the duck next to the barn, or put the duck next to the cow, and he'd learn in an interactive visual way. This helped with speech enormously.
Here are some ideas I got from Dr. Camerata's web site. He works with late talking children at the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.
Recasting:
- Follows the child's lead
- Recasts the child's immediate verbal utterance or referent of
the child's attention.
- Does not require a verbal response from the child.
- Concentrated Play: Child led play using recasting.
- Modeling Language: Using short language to talk about what is happening now.
Other similar ideas:
- Self talk : Describe what you are doing as you do it.
- Parallel Talk : Describe what your child is doing as he does it.
- Expanding : Add sentence structure to what your child says.
- Extending : Add meaning to what your child says.
More ideas and explanations of these techniques here. There is also a beginning vocabulary list you and your child can work on, and links to verb and nouns phrases, and other developing elements of speech.
These ideas are not just good for speech delayed children, it's wonderful for any young children because you are expanding their language and communication skills in a one-on-one child led situation. You are spending special time with your child, bonding in love. What better way to learn!
Update: Some of the speech enrichment links above are not working as the site has moved, or is in the process of moving. Here is the main link.
More Resources:
Helpful resource for home-based speech therapy. This is a homeschool deaf education link, but the therapies could be useful for hearing children with communication issues.
Support for homeschooling children with special needs: NATHAN, National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network.
Straight Talk - Speech and Language Program to use at home by Marisa Lapish, M.A. Home based speech therapy guides.
Plain & Simple Phonics: Created for children with delays that need to move very slowly. According to the website, there is a lot of repetition and no hand printing.
Homeschool Speech Enrichment Ideas
The big leap in speech occurred at age six for our son. It was not a leap he would have made on his own, it was the curriculum and one-on-one teaching which got him there. He's nine years old now and doing great, with very little if any speech delay.
Here are a few things we did during the tough years, years when I worried about if he'd ever learn to talk or read, roughly between ages three and six. The time and energy worrying would have been spent more wisely in prayer, but I'm wiser now for having gone through this.
Helpful Stuff For Speech Enrichment:
We developed vocabulary with anything I could think of. I used preschool and kindergarten workbooks, like the big fat ones from K-Mart and wallyworld, and free online printables with picture identification. We went over the same concepts everyday until he got it. It took time and patience. I kept a notebook recording the concepts and words he still needed to cover, and found more sheets online which addressed these areas. I also went back and pulled worksheets which he had trouble answering, and we re-did them. We were able to do this by making reusable worksheets.
One example of a game I made up was a letter game with cut out pictures. I'd have about fifteen small cut out pictures I had collected off the net from free worksheet sites. I'd arrange them randomly on paper, and slide them into a clear plastic three ringed binder sleeve. He'd then place a penny on each thing that started with the letter I selected. I gave him the exact number of pennies that he needed to find the objects. He knew when he was done when the pennies where used up. These could be mixed up and interchanged for variety, and used again with other letters.
We used DLTK letter people which required cutting and coloring. I remember doing letter of the week. It was fun to collect free alphabet resources online each week.
We also used quite a few read along books on tape, and read along books on cd-rom. One particular read along series was very good for car learning: Let's Discover Words. A Troll Picture Dictionary. I purchased this series on ebay...I think it is out of print, but some libraries might still have them. It's worth the search. Each letter has it's own read along book and tape covering words which begin with that particular letter.
Computer learning software was helpful. There are many children's learning programs on cd-rom. Some of our favorites were Sesame Street learning, Reader Rabbit and Dr. Seuss Kindergarten. He did well with this type of visual learning.
He loved puzzles, so we got him puzzle after puzzle. I think he finally stopped at the 1000 piece puzzles. It was great for fine motor coordination, thinking and concentration, and pre-reading skills. When he began to read well around age seven, he stopped doing as many puzzles. The puzzles seemed to help him to transition to reading, so we ran with it. Solid well written literature was important for developing his vocabulary and improved language skills. Written language and spoken language are linked.
He enjoyed puppets, so we did quite a bit of learning with puppets. Sometimes the puppets taught. ;) He also seemed to be receptive to learning with flannel pieces. We used the book list from Before Five In A Row, and bought the matching hand made felt(flannel) story pieces from a few ladies on ebay who sell and auction these at reasonable prices. The visual clues of telling the story with the felt pieces helps engage a speech delayed child. He/she can also get prompts from the story pieces when narrating the story back to you.
We used felt pieces for teaching concepts like up and down, in and out, next to and below, top and bottom, etc. Just by moving felt pieces around the felt board we extended their use. I'd give directions like, put the duck next to the barn, or put the duck next to the cow, and he'd learn in an interactive visual way. This helped with speech enormously.
Here are some ideas I got from Dr. Camerata's web site. He works with late talking children at the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.
Recasting:
- Follows the child's lead
- Recasts the child's immediate verbal utterance or referent of
the child's attention.
- Does not require a verbal response from the child.
- Concentrated Play: Child led play using recasting.
- Modeling Language: Using short language to talk about what is happening now.
Other similar ideas:
- Self talk : Describe what you are doing as you do it.
- Parallel Talk : Describe what your child is doing as he does it.
- Expanding : Add sentence structure to what your child says.
- Extending : Add meaning to what your child says.
More ideas and explanations of these techniques here. There is also a beginning vocabulary list you and your child can work on, and links to verb and nouns phrases, and other developing elements of speech.
These ideas are not just good for speech delayed children, it's wonderful for any young children because you are expanding their language and communication skills in a one-on-one child led situation. You are spending special time with your child, bonding in love. What better way to learn!
Update: Some of the speech enrichment links above are not working as the site has moved, or is in the process of moving. Here is the main link.
More Resources:
Helpful resource for home-based speech therapy. This is a homeschool deaf education link, but the therapies could be useful for hearing children with communication issues.
Support for homeschooling children with special needs: NATHAN, National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network.
Straight Talk - Speech and Language Program to use at home by Marisa Lapish, M.A. Home based speech therapy guides.
Plain & Simple Phonics: Created for children with delays that need to move very slowly. According to the website, there is a lot of repetition and no hand printing.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Free Worksheet Generators and More
There are a good number of free worksheet sites online organized by topic and grade level, and some have worksheet generators where you can make your own custom sheets.
Kidszone - free worksheets by topic and by grade. Here is an example of their printable tracing worksheets.
Abc Teach: over 12,000 worksheets organized by grade and subject. Free tracing pages, including beginning penmanship. Here are some cute preschool/kindergarten level letter and shape tracing sheets.
Printfree.com: school printables like a teaching clock, custom graph paper, lined paper, and more.
A nice cumulative list of sources for free printables. I've used a few of these, DLTK and Enchanted Learning were my favorite when ds was younger. I'll be using them again when dd gets a little older.
Charlotte Mason manuscript copy work pages.
Worksheet generators, custom worksheets:
Personal Education Press: cards & signs, game boards, study sheets, quizzes, and flash games.
Penmanship worksheet generator(K-First)
Handwriting Worksheet Generator
Handwriting for Kids, includes left handed sheets
Free penmanship paper generator. Customize line spaces, color, paper size and line weight, very neat!
Math Fact Cafe(grade K-5), very nice worksheet generator and some premade worksheets.
Make your own penmanship worksheets by downloading fonts with and without dotted lines from Blue Vinyl. I use the Learning Curve and Print Clearly fonts. You can use these fonts in a word processor which allows you to use downloaded fonts, like your notepad or Microsoft Works. Unfortunately, Google Documents and free Jarte allow only their fonts. I've had limited success copying and pasting into these programs...still fiddling with it. I don't have Microsoft Office, and I'm still trying to download free Open Office(large download for dial up!) to see if their program is more flexible.
Discovery School's Worksheet Generator: These are great if you want to make your own multiple choice, matching, scrambles or word blank quizzes or worksheets. These can be used for anything - after a field trip, book reviews, vocabulary building, etc. There are also sheets for math, and some premade sheets. You can view samples before generating sheets.
Kidszone - free worksheets by topic and by grade. Here is an example of their printable tracing worksheets.
Abc Teach: over 12,000 worksheets organized by grade and subject. Free tracing pages, including beginning penmanship. Here are some cute preschool/kindergarten level letter and shape tracing sheets.
Printfree.com: school printables like a teaching clock, custom graph paper, lined paper, and more.
A nice cumulative list of sources for free printables. I've used a few of these, DLTK and Enchanted Learning were my favorite when ds was younger. I'll be using them again when dd gets a little older.
Charlotte Mason manuscript copy work pages.
Worksheet generators, custom worksheets:
Personal Education Press: cards & signs, game boards, study sheets, quizzes, and flash games.
Penmanship worksheet generator(K-First)
Handwriting Worksheet Generator
Handwriting for Kids, includes left handed sheets
Free penmanship paper generator. Customize line spaces, color, paper size and line weight, very neat!
Math Fact Cafe(grade K-5), very nice worksheet generator and some premade worksheets.
Make your own penmanship worksheets by downloading fonts with and without dotted lines from Blue Vinyl. I use the Learning Curve and Print Clearly fonts. You can use these fonts in a word processor which allows you to use downloaded fonts, like your notepad or Microsoft Works. Unfortunately, Google Documents and free Jarte allow only their fonts. I've had limited success copying and pasting into these programs...still fiddling with it. I don't have Microsoft Office, and I'm still trying to download free Open Office(large download for dial up!) to see if their program is more flexible.
Discovery School's Worksheet Generator: These are great if you want to make your own multiple choice, matching, scrambles or word blank quizzes or worksheets. These can be used for anything - after a field trip, book reviews, vocabulary building, etc. There are also sheets for math, and some premade sheets. You can view samples before generating sheets.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Homeschool Freebie: Vintage Preschool Picture Book/Cut and Paste
Cut and paste, or just for reading, The Children's Object Picture Book, Published/Created: London; New York: F. Warne & Co., [188-?]. Free and in public domain from the U.S. Library of Congress. Fully downloadable or readable online as HTML pages.
Features a home in 19th century London, England.
Features a home in 19th century London, England.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Easy Homeschool Learning for the Preschool/Kindergarten Crowd: Snails, Chicks, and Ladybugs
Lately, I've been greeted every morning with requests for snail related learning materials(with a sprinkling of lady bugs and chicks). I think someone is ready for spring!
The internet(Google image search) had a lot of good free printables. I watercolored the one with the hen and chicks; my daughter(age five) did the others, and cut them out herself(mostly). She decided they needed glitter as well.
The library had some early learning books on snails, including what happens to bugs and snails in winter. Click on picture to enlarge and see titles.
An on-hand basket of shells(collected and dollar store), and a shell identification book from my adolescence, has filled my daughter's day with many hours of fun. She has named the snail shells and made a house for them. They even had a picnic with a watercolored free printable of lettuce which I shrunk to wallet size with Picasa.
Snails mentioned in the Bible:
"As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away." ~ Psalm 58:8
The Snails of all species in the Holy Land are in the habit, not of hybernating in winter, as they do in our colder climate, but of shutting themselves into their shells, and remaining dormant during the dry season. Few Snails can remain long in an active state without moisture. In order to prevent the evaporation of the moisture of the body, all those molluscs which have a thin or semi-transparent shell secrete themselves in dry weather under stones, like the shell-less snails or slugs, or else among moss and under leaves... The chinks and crevices of the limestone rocks are especially favourite hiding-places for many species, while those of the deserts, for instance, where they can find no such screen from the sun's rays, are provided with solid, colourless, and lustreless shells of enormous thickness, the calcareous substance of which prevents evaporation as they hang with their mouths glued on to the desert shrubs.
But, notwithstanding the care they take to secrete themselves, the heat often does dry them up, either by a long-continued drought, or by the sun's rays penetrating to their holes. Thus we find in all parts of the Holy Land myriads of snail-shells in fissures, still adhering by the calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted—'' melted away,' according to the expression of the Psalmist. It is very probable that this circumstance has supplied the metaphor for the passing away of the wicked in the passage quoted above. ~ The Natural History of the Bible(free and in public domain)
Easy and fun delight driven learning! And I didn't have to spend a dime.
A few resources we used:
Google: snail coloring pages, mazes, and worksheets; and look here.
Snail identification and external anatomy page here.
Vintage images to color here.
Snails(symbol of the Immaculate Conception)in Christian art. It was thought that snails reproduced asexually.
Saints and Snails: Saint Lydia
A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and stay." So she persuaded us.
—Acts 16:14-15 World English Bible
and Saint Jerome
The internet(Google image search) had a lot of good free printables. I watercolored the one with the hen and chicks; my daughter(age five) did the others, and cut them out herself(mostly). She decided they needed glitter as well.
The library had some early learning books on snails, including what happens to bugs and snails in winter. Click on picture to enlarge and see titles.
An on-hand basket of shells(collected and dollar store), and a shell identification book from my adolescence, has filled my daughter's day with many hours of fun. She has named the snail shells and made a house for them. They even had a picnic with a watercolored free printable of lettuce which I shrunk to wallet size with Picasa.
Snails mentioned in the Bible:
"As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away." ~ Psalm 58:8
The Snails of all species in the Holy Land are in the habit, not of hybernating in winter, as they do in our colder climate, but of shutting themselves into their shells, and remaining dormant during the dry season. Few Snails can remain long in an active state without moisture. In order to prevent the evaporation of the moisture of the body, all those molluscs which have a thin or semi-transparent shell secrete themselves in dry weather under stones, like the shell-less snails or slugs, or else among moss and under leaves... The chinks and crevices of the limestone rocks are especially favourite hiding-places for many species, while those of the deserts, for instance, where they can find no such screen from the sun's rays, are provided with solid, colourless, and lustreless shells of enormous thickness, the calcareous substance of which prevents evaporation as they hang with their mouths glued on to the desert shrubs.
But, notwithstanding the care they take to secrete themselves, the heat often does dry them up, either by a long-continued drought, or by the sun's rays penetrating to their holes. Thus we find in all parts of the Holy Land myriads of snail-shells in fissures, still adhering by the calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted—'' melted away,' according to the expression of the Psalmist. It is very probable that this circumstance has supplied the metaphor for the passing away of the wicked in the passage quoted above. ~ The Natural History of the Bible(free and in public domain)
Easy and fun delight driven learning! And I didn't have to spend a dime.
A few resources we used:
Google: snail coloring pages, mazes, and worksheets; and look here.
Snail identification and external anatomy page here.
Vintage images to color here.
Snails(symbol of the Immaculate Conception)in Christian art. It was thought that snails reproduced asexually.
Saints and Snails: Saint Lydia
A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and stay." So she persuaded us.
—Acts 16:14-15 World English Bible
and Saint Jerome
Friday, August 08, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Free Vintage Preschool Printable: This Little Piggy
I've made this into a printable page here. These images are from an Edwardian era nursery rhyme book which is in public domain. When printing, set page to portrait and 150% in order to fill page.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Library Finds: Picture Books
Two favorites this week for young children:
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Box Turtle at Long Pond
PreSchool-Grade 2-- A day in the life of a box turtle is rendered carefully in words and lifelike illustrations with a text that respects its subject, avoids any anthropomorphism, and is simple enough for very young listeners. It records the turtle's actions as, slowly but with perseverance, he drinks, searches for food, evades danger, and sleeps. The outstanding gouache paintings in borderless, horizontal two-page spreads are so realistic that one almost reaches out to feel the turtle's textured shell. Although at times the turtle seems to be camouflaged, blending into his surroundings, he stands out clearly once located. The animals he encounters are equally well illustrated--readers will almost hold their breath so as not to frighten the raccoon and chipmunk. The book's design is excellent; even the well-chosen type, superimposed on the illustrations so that there is no visual break from the scenes, is clear and easily read. This is superior nature study for young readers and listeners.
--Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, July 11, 2008
Free Old Fashioned Color-By-Numbers Preschool Sheets
These Mennonite coloring books are so cute! I'm going to order the first one, Color-By-Number For Little Hands - Number 1 (ages 3-5). My two year(2.10) old loved the cat and food sheets. I like that they have a few sample printables(click on "Look in the Book") so you can try them out with your little ones.
There are two others we enjoyed:
Color-By-Number For Little Hands - Number 2 (ages 4-6)
Birds - Color-By-Number
I helped with the more difficult ones, but she really enjoyed matching the colors to the numbers. I think it's because they provide large drawing spaces for very young children, and the pictures are simple, but appealing.
Have you seen the Little Jewel Books? These are wholesome hand drawn Amish/Mennonite books about nature, family values, and Christian lessons for young children. My son loved these, and now my daughters picks them up for me to read, often bypassing our Barney books! It surprised me, but I was glad because they teach as well as entertain.
Maybe it is our strong German background(Pennsylvania Dutch: Non-Mennonite), but we are so drawn to these Mennonite resources. The books feature rural scenes so similar to my grandparent's old home outside of Hellertown, Pa(Wassergas). I love the Pennsylvania countryside; it's in my blood even though I've never lived there. My grandparents sold their "gentleman's farm" in the 1980's, and sadly, have since passed away.
If you like wholesome children's books with simple drawings of farms, rural life, nature and animals, these resources will be a hit. They are very inexpensive as well!
Monday, January 14, 2013
Free All-in-one Homeschool Curriculum for All Grades
Per Easy Peasy — All in One Homeschool:
What this is…
This is my children’s school. It covers reading, writing, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, math, history/social studies/geography, science, Bible, computer, music, art, PE/health, and logic. It uses only free materials found on the internet.
I have finished preschool (getting ready 1), kindergarten (getting ready 2), first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. Third grade is in progress with math finished. Grade levels include all of the English, math, computer and logic. I have also finished two years of all of the other subjects. These are called “program years.” Year 4′s theme is modern history, physics and chemistry. Year 1′s theme is ancient history and biology. I am currently putting up Year 2 which has early American history and zoology for the theme. Grade levels and courses include 180 days of homeschool lessons and assignments.
When choosing a level, look at the “reading” assignments to decide. Then you only have to choose which program year to study.
Your child just goes to Day 1 on his or her level (found in the sidebar) and starts clicking through the assignments! That’s all! Take a look at the “about” and “how to” pages for more info.
And yes, it’s all free. You’ll need paper, pencil, etc. and some minor supplies if you choose to do the experiments and art projects, but all of the reading materials, etc. are all free and online.
My hope is to enable families to continue homeschooling and to help those trying to homeschool overseas.
Click here.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Preschool Counting Freebies: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Read and Color
Click to enlarge and print. From Journeys through Bookland, 1922.
Teaching arithmetic with Mother Goose, teaching ideas from Primary Education, 1918.
Teaching arithmetic with Mother Goose, teaching ideas from Primary Education, 1918.
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