free
Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading - Strategy guides for grades 2-5
Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading is an integrated reading and science curriculum for elementary school classrooms designed by the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California. The complete curriculum is not available to homeschoolers, but "strategy guides" are available online for free. The strategy guides are lesson plans for teaching reading, text analysis, and research skills along with science via 63 different books, from relatively simple picture books to reference books.
BBC Primary School Languages: French, Spanish & Welsh
The BBC has fun resources to help elementary aged kids learn French, Spanish and Welsh. These are the first free resources I've found that go beyond the absolute basics (i.e. colors, numbers, and a couple phrases) while remaining fun and appropriate for younger kids.
Children's Poetry Archive
The children's section of the Poetry Archive section, this site features wonderful poems either written for children, or appealing to children. Most include a recording of the poem recited by the poet, and are serchable by keyword, author and form. Also includes biographies of the poets.
A fun site to browse with your kids, and a great way for non-readers to get to experience poetry.
Khan Academy- a goldmine of free math, science and economics videos
Khan academy is an amazing resource. It's a HUGE collection of videos, all featuring a smart man with a gift for clearly explaining the complex, carefully going through a wide range of topics, all clearly organized. There's everything from classic brain teasers, to arithmetic, to high school level math, including calculus and differential equations, to biology chemistry, physics, and economics. The graphics in the videos are fairly simple, and the tone is very friendly, conversational and often funny.
Mathematics Enhancement Programme- free curriculum for all ages
This is a complete mathematics curriculum available free online, including printable practice books, lesson plans, and copy masters. It was developed for the UK, and goes from "Reception", which seems to be analogous to kindergarten in the US, up through year 11 (similar to 11th grade). There are 2 versions of the 10-11th year curriculum, only one of which seems to be for college-bound students. The collegebound version includes guidance for customizing the curriculum for advanced students. The version of the 12th year intended for collegebound students is not
"Fieldwork" hands-on high school level marine biology for/by homeschoolers
A homeschool mom is generously sharing the marine biology course she's developing for her kids. Alas, the marine biology course isn't for those of us who live far from the ocean, but it's a very cool program for coastal families.
"Geography4kids.com" an introduction to physical geography
Physical Geography deals with Eartch Science and why the Earth is the way it is, it doesn't deal with political boundaries, or humanity much at all. Geography4kids is friendly, thorough website with lots of pictures that teaches about physical geography. Ideal for an enthusiastic upper elementary level student up through adults.
"The Mechanical Universe and Beyond" free online Physics course
This course was designed to provide the equivalent of a college freshman physics course, and was produced by CalTech in 1985.
Description from the website:
A video instructional series on physics for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 52 half-hour video programs and coordinated books
"Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish" A free video course for high school
A description from the site:
World Maths Day 2010
The annual free online math competition is back! World Maths Day is an international competition open to all children from age 5 to 18, and is a great way to get competition-oriented kids to work their math skills.
The official competition is during a 48 hour period that includes March 3 worldwide, but kids can play head-to-head with children from all over the world anytime.
A description of the contest from the official website:
