Pianist Aaron Tomberlin put together a great “Introduction to Piano” course that is freely available on YouTube. Each of the 14 video lessons runs about 20 minutes, and is appropriate for students ages 10 and up. You can start with the course overview video we have linked to here. These are very well done.
Aaron also has lots of other music “how to” videos, so if you like these, be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel.
In the bestselling manual The Kitchen Primer, your young helpers will learn:
The fundamentals of kitchen safety, cleanliness, and manners
How to read and follow recipes
How a cook should properly measure ingredients
How to decorate and set the table
How to wash the dishes so they will really get clean
How to make delicious snacks and meals …and much more.
It’s the perfect “hands on” cookbook, textbook, & learning guide for any students (boys or girls) ages 8 – up who can act responsibly in a kitchen environment and can follow step-by-step recipe directions, written by Martha (Marmee) Greene. (158 pages, PDF)
Jennifer Flanders at flandersfamily.info created this fun and flexible “Reading Challenge” printable. Here’s what she says about it:
“I love reading. I love making lists. I love challenging myself (and my children) to reach new goals. And I love pretty vintage artwork. So this summer, I decided to combine all those likes and create a Reading Challenge that can be easily adapted for any age: You should be able to find many of these titles at your local library, but if you are given to re-reading your favorites as often as we are, you may want to add a few to your own collection.”
This is a fun way to get your children to read a wide variety of books in categories you might not otherwise think of.
CLICK HERE to go to the download page!
Many writers, observers and philosophers have written about the value of good manners throughout the ages. Their comments contain a wealth of insight, humor and wisdom, and have application for our kids even today.
This unique little compilation of great quotations can be used for penmanship and copywork practice, memorization, or to print out and stick some choice quotes on your refrigerator door! Check it out!
To download this PDF, RIGHT CLICK HERE then “save link” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key then click the link and save to your Mac.
Here are over 180 different visual, performing and literary Arts related lesson plans from the ArtsEdge program at the Kennedy Center. These downloadable lessons cover a huge range of arts topics – from writing haiku to Irish Dance to creating comic strips.
You can search the lessons by keyword, arts subject, and grade level. Use the blue “Lesson Finder” box and fill in the specifics to find what you’re looking for!
CLICK HERE to go to the download page!
Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies (OBIS) is an outdoor program that offers young people fun and challenging opportunities to investigate ecological relationships in their local environment.
OBIS was developed in the 1970s at the Lawrence Hall of Science to help adults (teachers, parents, community leaders) take young people outdoors to experience ecological principles in their local area.
The 97 OBIS activities in this PDF collection are meant to increase environmental awareness, and can be used individually or in combination. These simple experiences then act as a gateway for children and adults to explore and understand their local environment.
Click Here to go to the download site
The Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching over in the UK has put together this GREAT collection of brain-stretching mathematical problems and shape related teasers (including printable tangram puzzles, sliding blocks, pentominoes, and dissection puzzles). There are dozens of them on this page, all designed to get your students thinking mathematically and using their problem-solving skills!
Click here to go to their math challenges page!
Learn Greek Free.com offers a complete 13 lesson video course (along with dozens of free downloadable handouts & review sheets) to enable students to read the New Testament in the original language. No other resources or books are required.
As explained by instructor D. Eric Williams:
“The method of instruction employed at LearnGreekFree.com is designed to begin the learning process as quickly as possible. The lesson plan will enable you to read the New Testament Greek after a few hours of study. Rather than burden students with morphological technicalities right off the bat, the pupil will learn Greek grammar in the same way he learned his mother tongue; in context and as the need arises. In this fashion the learner is able to make quick progress and the learning of the Greek becomes a joy, not a burden.”
Click here to check it out!
Here’s a complete 30 lesson spelling course especially designed for students grades 6 to 8, with a complete course outline, lesson plans, dictation, answer key, and more. Good stuff!
Says the author, Marie Rackham:
“Spelling, like grammar and punctuation, is a technique of English. Spelling is an important communication skill. In my opinion, since the advent of the Internet, it is even more important because words on a web page may determine what people think of you and your abilities. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors will make you appear less credible to your audience. Good luck and have fun with the course!”
Click here to go to the site! (There are other courses available for sale on the site, but the Spelling course is free!)
World Maps Online has a great collection of free lesson plans on how to read and use maps, for ages K-3, grades 4-5 and grade 6 and up. They offer their own classroom maps and globes for sale, and they are very good ones too — but honestly, you can probably use any detailed wall map of the US and world that you have handy for most of these step-by-step lessons, which can be read online or downloaded as PDF files. They are a great way to introduce geography to your students!
CLICK HERE to go to the site!
Tammy Dube loves being creative and encouraging kids to be creative as well. Her website Housing A Forest is packed full of fun experiments, art tutorials, educational activities and good old fashioned fun your kids will love.
40+ experiments, including how to make a barometer & how to make a frozen bubble, are here
Over 200 crafts projects, including straw rockets & licence plate rubbings, are here
Over 100 kid art projects, including compass painting & marble painted rainbows, are here
Take some time to browse the site and check out the different project categories too. Highly recommended!
The Good and the Beautiful website offers a great Language Arts curriculum, and Levels 1 thru 5 are currently available as free PDF downloads from their website.
Here’s what they say on the site about this course on their site:
Connects learning to the good and the beautiful: family, God, high moral character, wholesome literature, and the wonders and beauty of nature and human life
Requires no daily prep time—just open the book and follow the instructions, learning and exploring along with your child.
Combines multiple subjects, connecting learning, adding meaning, shortening school time, making learning more enjoyable, and eliminating the need for 6 to 7 different courses. Reading, writing, literature, spelling, grammar & punctuation, vocabulary, geography, and art are all in one course.
Emphasizes literature of the highest literary and moral merit.
Full phonics reading program creates excellent readers. Phonics instruction is included through Level 3.
Strong writing program creates excellent writers!
Thorough and advanced courses leave no gaps! There is no need to supplement.
There are lots of resources on the site (both downloadable and printed) that are available for purchase, but again, Levels 1 – 5 of the Language Arts course are free downloads in PDF format. You will need to go through their checkout to get them.
CLICK HERE to go to the website!
Listen, Write and Read is a multi-sensory series of five workbooks incorporating dictation, writing and reading of simple sight word sentences. Its primary goal is to help students both young and old to read and write.
Here’s what Paul J. Wickham, creator of the series, says about its origin:
For nine years, I taught reading and writing to children and adults in Los Angeles. At the end of each school term, all my students could write clear, coherent sentences and paragraphs that developed a central idea.
The dramatic improvement in their reading and writing skills over a single school term was attributable to the use of dictation exercises I developed to introduce and review the use of high-frequency sight words. Training in the whole-word recognition of sight words is clearly superior to phonics instruction for these words. Learning to recognize these words instantly by sight is essential to developing reading fluency and comprehension.
LISTEN, WRITE AND READ Sentences for Sight Word Dictation is a collection of the specific sentences I used for this instruction, arranged by grade level. A series of five activity books provide students with an illustration of each sentence. The illustrations were designed to have universal appeal to students of all ages.
All five activity books are available free on the website.
CLICK HERE to go to the site!
A Mini Office is essentially a reference file or folder with all a child’s personal important information right at hand. This could be reference charts, handwriting charts, number lines, multiplication tables, vocabulary lists, handy facts and any other useful information. It is a handy way of encouraging children to work independently and to provide the necessary assistance without having to put up visual displays.
Nadene at Practical Pages has put together collections of these reference pages for both younger and older students. They are filled with useful, helpful stuff, and you’re gonna want to download ’em both.
The JUNIOR MINI OFFICE includes:
THE SENIOR MINI OFFICE is a 20-page PDF download that covers a lot of Mathematics, and includes:
CLICK HERE to go to the site!
Have you ever needed a very specific type of graph paper or grid paper for a project or lesson? If so, you’ll understand the value of this very helpful freebie.
Incompetech.com has a great online graph paper generator, that lets you customize pages to your specifications and then download as PDFs so you can print copies as needed. There’s a wonderful variety of designs: Squares, circles, hexagons, brick patterns, etc. — even specialty pages (music notation, accounting ledgers, perspective & more). You’ll find these PDFs extremely useful. Bookmark for use when you need it!
CLICK HERE to go to the site!
