Links

Here are some links to websites that I have found useful. It is not a complete list, by far, since there are tons of websites dealing with curriculum, education, and homeschooling. It's just a list of sites that I frequent, or for curriculum that I am planning on using, or for discussions about education-related topics that interest me.

Curriculum Reviews

Retailers
  • Christian Book - lots of stuff, good prices
  • Timberdoodle - lots of unique stuff, hand-selected material, good prices
  • Rod and Staff Books - Rod & Staff and other similar curriculum, Pathway Readers; conservative, inexpensive, multi-grade-classroom-friendly material
  • Anabaptist Bookstore - more Rod & Staff material, very similar to the above site, but they each have sometimes different but complementary curriculum descriptions and samples
  • Amazon  - of course
  • The Homeschool Buyers Co-op/Club - homeschooling organization for both new and veteran homeschoolers; membership is free and confidential, and entitles homeschooling families to discounts from over a hundred educational suppliers (like Evan-Moor); they also sponsor "Group Buys" for curriculum packages that save you lots of money (like Explode the Code Online); lots of free information, such as databases of free curriculum, field trips, and educational contests and scholarships

General/Multi-Subject/Unit Studies
  • Lesson Pathways - free year-long lesson plans/study units with internet links, for grades preK-5th; covers science, history, reading, phonics, language arts, and math
  • Head of the Class - free online curriculum for preK-5th, including games, animations, activity suggestions, etc.
  • Keepers of the Faith - (not sure what category to put this under) info about a club for girls or boys, plus lots of good, wholesome reading material
    - clubs are similar to scouting, but with a Christian bent; character-building and lots of good, old-fashioned, crafty-type activities; may be a bit too conservative for some, especially relating to gender roles
    - books are very character-building, including some workbooks specifically for character development; guidelines for what children should read may be too restrictive for some, but these can still be great books to add to your collection
  • Intellego Unit Studies - multi-grade unit studies for K-8th grades, with individual units for history, economics, civics, geography, science, art, culture, music, baseball; highly rated, well-designed pdf files with continually updated internet links; secular, so some subjects and studies may not be desirable for some families

Math

History
  • TruthQuest History  - Christian commentaries for various ages of history, literature lists
  • History Odyssey - daily lesson plans for a repeating 4-year cycle, 1st-12th grades, literature-based, hands-on activities
  • Sonlight - I put this under history, since that is the core, but it includes Bible, literature, and so much more!
  • Saxon Homeschool History  - several teacher/student kits available; more social studies than history for younger grades

English
Phonics
  • Explode the Code - info about Explode the Code Online, as well as the workbooks
  • Funnix - phonics/reading software with narration, animation, printable workbook pages
  • Starfall - a great, free site for phonics and beginning reading!
  • ClickNRead - an online subscription site with animated phonics lessons

Reading
  • Hubbard's Cupboard - good for early readers, free mini-booklets to print out, some with full-color teacher versions and activities to go along with them - we use a lot of these for practicing reading
  • Mighty Book Jr. - free animated children's books, lesson plans, games
  • We Give Books - free online books, charitable donation site
  • Internet Archive - archive of free digitized books from various sources; this is a great site where you can search for and download pdf or Kindle or other versions of lots of public domain books

Handwriting

Science
  • NOEO Science  - multi-grade, hands-on, literature-based curriculum for approximately 1st-7th grades, covering biology, chemistry, and physics (one per year in a cycle), with geology, astronomy and weather integrated in when appropriate
  • Elemental Science - several multi-grade, hands-on science courses: intro to science for preK-K; biology, earth science/astronomy, chemistry, and physics for 1st-4th grades; biology for 5th-8th grades; more to come?
  • Peterson Field Guides  - great video podcasts on birds, free
  • Science Kits  - kits for various levels and types of science, correlated with specific curriculum
  • Glencoe Science - Texas - online learning center for Glencoe science textbooks, including lots of things you can use for free without the textbooks (virtual dissections - eww!); you can also get to other states (click on "Home") and other subjects (see left-hand column)
  • Holt Science - similar to above, but for Holt textbooks
  • Saxon Homeschool Science - several teacher/student kits available

Old-Earth / Young-Earth Discussions
I do not presume to know the absolute answer to the puzzle of how and when God created the universe, Earth, and humans, and do not want to state that I believe one way or another, since I just don't think there are enough scientific observations or Bible verses to conclude anything definitively. I don't believe the answer is critical to salvation, though strong belief on one side or the other can influence and affect the salvation of some people. I believe that there are God-fearing, true Christians in each of the different "origin, Earth age" camps: young Earth, old Earth, theistic evolution, creationism, etc. (I don't even know the names for all the permutations). I do believe that science and the Bible cannot be in conflict when both are understood and interpreted correctly, which is probably an impossibility on this side of heaven. I think an open, non-critical, non-disparaging discussion is important, and that we should teach our children about all sides.

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