Homeschooling Links

I'm always excited when my local library gets in a new copy of Home Education Magazine. This is the magazine that 1st introduced me to homeschooling way back in 2002. It leans toward unschooling which is a philosophy that focuses on child-led learning. I think that there is a lot of value in that and I do try to follow my children's lead when they are interested in a topic. For example, today we looked up what animals eat ducks as well as when ice cream was invented. If they have questions, Google usually has answers! But, I also want to be sure that my children know what they need to in order to pass the standardized test that they are required to take at the end of this year. Hence, we also did worksheets on fact families in math today and did our daily dose of reading practice. (Yes, I know it is summer, but we are doing about 1 hour a day to keep their skills sharp as well as get them into a routine).

In any event, I always get some good ideas from the magazine. This issue offered two good resources I wanted to share with you.

Bingo Card Creator offers free printable Bingo cards suitable for homeschooling or in-class use on a number of topics.

If you have a child that loves card games as much as my son Isaac does, you will want to check out this site: Card Games. I've actually found that playing cards is a very good educational tool for math. Playing simple games is great for little kids in terms of number and symbol recognition and number order. Playing "Blackjack" is great for addition practice.