Martha’s Favorite Homeschooling Links
To the best of my knowledge, all of these sites have some useful features that are free. Some of them also charge for some features, or for unlimited access. Some require registering, with varying amounts of personal information. Please read the privacy policy before registering. Some of the nonprofit ones are very grateful for donations.
Art and Art History
Artchive: View famous works online. Secular.
Bible Study and Christian Growth
Search God’s Word: Search many different Bible translations, including two in Spanish, and do word study in the original languages of the Bible. Also commentaries, concordances, dictionaries, and encyclopedias on Biblical topics.
Bible Gateway: Another great Bible study site, with a number of different versions to search, and a “verse of the day.”
Bible History Online: Abundant historical background of the Bible, including maps and drawings. The author is a Christian, but the site contains links to secular sites also.
Pockets magazine for children (Christian)
My Utmost for His Highest: Daily Devotional
One-page biographies of hundreds of great Christians, some famous, some almost unknown
Voice of the Martyrs (Christian): The group who supplied much of the information for the recent book Jesus Freaks. Current information about our suffering brothers and sisters.
Guideposts Magazine for Kids (Christian-friendly)
Wonderzone for kids, by Child Evangelism Fellowship (Christian)
Focus on the Family: Articles, online magazines for everybody, and more
Homeschool With the Web: Bible study and resources for kids, with comments
College Admissions
Common Application Form: Accepted by many colleges
Fastweb college and scholarship search service (free)
Hobson’s guide to Christian colleges
Info on government financial aid
Directory Sites
Clicking through long lists of links to find what you want can be tedious, but I include these so you can do some exploring on your own.
Delta County Home School Educators (Christian): A good short list of resources for homeschooling parents.
Christian Link’s homeschool sites: Assorted items including a virtual tour of Bible lands, and a site for Bible-teaching game software.
KidsClick! (secular): A directory to informational sites on many topics, intended for kids. Secular, includes some possibly undesirable sites. Has an excellent tutorial on finding things on the Web that even adults can benefit from!
Internet Public Library (secular): Links to fun educational sites, sorted by topics
Search the card catalog at the Escanaba Public Library, and request books from other libraries. (Secular)
A to Z Homeschooling: A very broad resource relating to homeschooling. See especially the section titled Religion and Cultural/Christian Fundamentalist. Secular as a whole.
Eclectic Homeschool Online (Christian): Magazine and resource center for homeschoolers. Lots of links.
Kathi Kearney’s Free Firewood (Christian): Links to many sites (some secular) offering free or for-cost instructional materials in English, foreign languages, old-fashioned textbooks, and college advanced placement.
Surfing the Net with Kids: weekly newsletter with reviews of good web sites, different topic each week (secular)
Cross Guide (Christian): A large directory of homeschool sites
EduLinks (Christian): A comprehensive listing of Christian and secular sites for many content areas, including math, Bible, social studies, and foreign language.
Field Trips
To find a trip to any place you are interested in, type into your favorite search engine the phrase “virtual tour” and the name of the place. It will probably turn up.
The British Museum: Tours for children of artifacts from world cultures
Jerusalem: Tour by Hebrew University.
The Pentagon: Requires RealPlayer
The Forbidden City in Beijing
Foreign Language
Two sites, and a list of sites, offering online language lessons, free. Secular.
- http://www.learnspanishtoday.com/
- http://www.studyspanish.com/
- http://www.ignitethefire.com/foreignlang.html
General Interest
Eclectic Kids: Games, projects, and more, from Eclectic Homeschool Magazine.
British Broadcasting Corporation’s kids page
Bob the Builder games: In English or other languages!
Bonus.com: Lots of arcade-style games, some educational, as well as quizzes and online field trips. Secular, with a lot of ads.
Geography
Free maps: Some labeled and some blank for quizzes.
Geographia – Info and photos on interesting places around the world. Secular.
The British Museum: Site for children to explore world cultures. Secular.
Grammar, Writing, and Language
Mad-Libs: Make up wacky stories while practicing parts of speech
Syvum Spelling: A spelling practice game
Tips on good writing, written for journalists (secular)
Instruction and exercises in writing (secular):
Bartleby.com: Reference works –dictionaries, thesauri, usage guides. Also a large library of classic literature, available free online.
History and Civics
American Christian History: Articles from a Christian perspective on various topics in American history.
Heroes of History: Life stories illustrating the heroism of Christian figures in history.
History for Kids (secular): Info on a wide variety of topics in history.
The White House kids page: Also has games
Photos of historical objects such as letters, campaign buttons, gas masks, etc., arranged by era; also audio of famous speeches. Secular.
Links to history and current events sites of interest to kids. Secular.
Links to historical sites, more aimed at middle/high school. Secular.
Lessons in US history from the Immigration Service; everything you need to know to become a US citizen. Take the test and see if you pass!
Library of Congress educational page: Lesson plans and activities, some involving the Library’s collections. Secular.
Current events – news channels, searchable for your topic (secular)
Townhall: A conservative slant on the news
Track current legislation in Congress
Instructional Materials
Web Quests (secular): A Webquest is an activity guiding students to designated web sites to discover information and analyze a topic. San Diego State U has a long list of webquests, and directions for creating your own.
Brain Pop (secular): Fun 2-minute movies on dozens of elementary school topics, plus experiments and quizzes
Internet Usage and Safety
Internet basics: how-tos
Filtering software reviews: Some comments on filtering software. Does not cover filtering services, which I consider a better way to go. Secular.
National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families: Reviews a large number of filters, both software and services (slightly dated)
Math
Homeschool Math: Offers practice worksheets and games for elementary school math. Customizable for the area and level your child is working at. Secular.
Homeschool with the Web’s math links (Christian)
Interesting topics, some animated, in advanced math. (Secular)
MathScribe: A free computer program that replaces a graphing calculator. Very valuable for advanced algebra, physics, and calculus. (Warning: I have not tried this out.)
Multiple Subjects
Dositey: Offers worksheets and activities in math and language arts for grades K-8, and some games. Also has pages where students can publish short pieces. Secular.
Syvum: Educational topics and games, interactive pages
Enchanted Learning: Worksheets and coloring pages for many elementary subjects, including foreign languages.
StudyWorks: Assorted on-line activities, puzzles, and animations teaching concepts in math and science. Secular.
About.com: Like a huge encyclopedia. Try searching it rather than following the index. A general directory of popular topics on the web, intended for teens to adults, but includes a homeschooling section and many other useful topics. Secular.
Music
Classical Music Archive: Hundreds of complete recordings of classical music, free! Not played by real instruments, but in MIDI format. Secular.
Homeschool with the Web's music links
Parenting
Scriptural meditations on how our relationship to our children can be based on how Jesus did things. Christian.
Big Red House (Christian): Learning styles and curriculum choices, online classes, and more
Publishing Students’ Work
Pockets Magazine: accepts poems and artwork by children. Christian
List of secular link sites that accept and publish student writing
Reading and Literature
Three collections of classic children’s stories, mostly nineteenth century, online, free for public use. The sites are secular but some of the books are Christian.
- http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/subjects/subjects-young.html
- http://palmm.fcla.edu/juv/
- http://www.icdlbooks.org/
Poems of famous authors, by the bushel. Secular.
Project Gutenberg: An awesome collection of complete texts of classics in literature.
Science
All Info About Science: A great deal of information about many science topics, and lots of activity ideas with instructions. Also has links to other sites providing more in-depth information. Secular.
Reeko’s Mad Scientist Lab: Instructional pages, activities, experiments to do, and a place to ask questions. Fun! (Secular)
NASA’s kids page: Has games
How stuff works: Describes the workings of many of the gadgets we live with. Secular.
Janice Van Cleave: Fun science facts and experiments
Cell biology, with interactive worksheets and microscope photos
High school/college biology, including animated lab simulations
Beautiful pictures and recordings of songs and calls for birds of North America
A college student’s project; An animated lesson about the digestive track. Download the swf file to get the lesson and the games.
Dissection videos: See video of interior workings of a cat, from U of Alberta
The Color and Genetics of Horses
Institute for Creation Research: One of the big “names” in creation science. The archive of articles covers some fascinating topics.
Dr. Dino: Kent Hovind’s creation website
Answers in Genesis: Ken Ham’s website
Evolution Cruncher: Facts and arguments (of varying quality) for creation
Search Tools
Choose the best search: Lists many search and directory sites, with their particular strengths. Secular.
Good secular search engines – you probably know some of these already:
Christian web directory/search sites (not in Google’s league yet, but useful):
Special Needs
Homeschooling Kids with Disabilities: Searchable list of resources in many areas: ADHD, autism, speech therapy, adaptive technology, and many more. Links to webrings maintained by homeschooling families with special needs children. Secular.
National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network (NATHHAN): A Christian site helping children with learning differences.
Teacher Resources
Homeschool Convention (secular): Like an online homeschool conference. Audio of popular speakers, and vendor pages.
Home 2 School: Gives you scope and sequence of what schools in your state are teaching for your grade. Secular, requires registration.
Spark Notes (secular): Ever assign a book you haven’t had time to read? Here’s a summary to help you out, with plot, characters, themes, important quotes, and discussion questions. Supplied by Barnes and Noble.
Federal department of education: Sample achievement test questions.
Placement tests you can print out, for upper-level math and English
Lesson plans: These sites have tons of original ideas for activities. Most are submitted by classroom teachers, but many can be adapted for homeschool.
- http://www.ofcn.org/cyber.serv/academy/ace/
- http://www.education-world.com/a_tsl/
- http://www.lessonplanspage.com/
Scholastic (secular): The school book-club company also offers many online and interactive activities in many subject areas.
Textbook Shopping
Check out the list of publishers and suppliers on our group’s web site
Miscellaneous
Learn to type (Christian): Free online typing lessons
Just for fun: A collection of cartoons focused on church and the Bible (Christian)
Movie reviews with a Christian basis. Check here before you go to a movie.
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