For more Free Printables, Homeschool Worksheets and Free Lesson Plans, go to Homeschool Websites Homepage

Who knew Woolly Mammoths were so popular?! The following is an edited repost from a popular homeschool post from 2009.

Homeschool websites with free printables and educational online games about Woolly Mammoths are useful for early grade science lessons to coordinate with the news about the successful genome sequencing of the Woolly Mammoth.

Discovery Kids, National Geographic, and National Geographic for Kids are first-class resources for any science homeschool lesson. Discovery Education has a link with free lesson plans for almost every subject - including art, music, reading, grammar, spelling, poetry, social studies, geography, and more. They also have free printables and a worksheet generator for all grade levels on all school subjects.

Snuggled within those educational links is a link for students on Woolly Mammoths, including a history, their migration path, and links to a couple of virtual Woolly Mammoth Museums.

Enchanted Learning, which has many free printables within their educational website, also has a page on Woolly Mammoths. It is a little dry, but it does contain links to some free printables on Woolly Mammoths, Elephants and Mammals. The website for the movie(s) Ice Age is probably a little more interesting for kids. The popular Zoo Tycoon game has an expansion pack for Extinct Animals that features the Woolly Mammoth, and the Zoo Tycoon 2 Extinct Animals Expansion Packis available at Amazon.

The Scienceschool.org article on Woolly Mammoth extinction brings to light the extinction debate. The Berkley University has a link to lesson plans (lengthy text articles) and information on Learning from Fossil Records, including a a lesson on Building a Topographic Model by Ellen Metzger.


Kidz World has a page on Woolly Mammoths and links on the Ice Age. They're more of a game website (typical stuff) than an educational website, but there are some useful educational links and tidbits. Dragoart.com is an online kids website with "how to draw" tutorials for kids. They have a "How to Draw a Woolly Mammoth" link with step-by-step text, graphic and video instructions, and if you scope around you'll find other links that can be used for homeschool lessons. (Think art, science and geometry in one easy lesson!)

My time is going to become extinct pretty soon so I have to cut this post short - but I'll be editing it and adding more links later. If you've come across any games or links that are useful for homeschoolers learning about Woolly Mammoths post a comment and let us know! I'm also very interested in finding websites with lesson for the early elementary years on genome sequencing. Our young children today will be facing a very different world tomorrow. The way things are going I can't help but wonder if the traditional "dissect a frog" class (which I won't be doing!) is going to be replaced with a "clone a frog" class in the future - and every kid can take home their own cloned pet frog. Our kids' kids will look back on us and say "you mean you actually had to CATCH a frog? Why didn't you just clone it?" Cloning Woolly Mammoths might be a little too large to handle for the average homeschool family - but hey - we are an ingenious bunch.

Post Script November 24th: Found a link to Top Ten Biology Videos from the Wired tech website, including one on high speed genome sequencing - videos are such a great way to get a lesson through the brain fast.

The Woolly Mammoth picture is from the artist's page on Clip Art.org -he also has a "fundraw" website where you can incorporate art and products. I haven't looked into it, but there may be some interesting gift ideas in there!

For more Free Printables, Homeschool Worksheets and Free Lesson Plans, go to Homeschool Websites Homepage

Phonics, Reading and Spelling Help: Online Worksheets and Games for Homeschoolers

I don't have time to keep this blog updated, so if you have any free homeschool website links you'd like to submit that are not existing for the mere purpose of tempting someone to buy something, feel free to submit your links to me and I'll include them. Similarly, if you'd like to submit a guest post that helps others homeschool for free, feel free to email me at writerightforyou at gmail dot com.



Homeschooling offers the early reader and the struggling reader the time to develop their skills without the pressure of teachers, therapists and classmates killing their confidence and love for reading. Struggling readers will quickly learn to hate reading when they are forced to read out loud in front of their peers and are subjected to snickers and rolling eyes at every mistake. Not all parents teach their kids to be understanding and not all parents teach their kids that everyone has different talents and strengths. Success is often touted as being a result of competition rather than progress. Competition will find its way into life naturally.

I have six kids, and their reading levels differ. Some excel, and some struggle. I've seen the public schools make things worse from their experiments with different language programs (one year phonics, another grade "whole word language, and another year focused on repetition or a failing combination). In the public schools, choosing a program to use throughout the year to "experiment" with often ends up failing the children. The public school system offers no opportunity for a teacher to opt out of a program in the middle of the year and say "hey, this just isn't working," and go on to try something else. Nor does it understand (or it may understand, but doesn't apply the fact) that every child learns differently. One child may learn through phonics, another whole word language, another repetition. Others may learn from reading, and other may learn from visuals, such as t.v. or video games. One of the finest blessings of homeschooling is to be able to adapt the educational programs you implement to your child's unique learning needs. You can vary them by day, week or month, and you don't have to stick with anything that's not working. I love it.

The first words of my youngest, after "McDonalds," (I prefer Burger King myself...), was "read the book." And she said it so fast and so often it came out as "readthebook." So I'd roll my eyes and walk around saying "readthebook, readthebook, readthebook," over and over while searching for a pile of ten or twenty pictures books to read her, while she followed pulling at my pant legs. One or two never sufficed. It was always a pile - literally ten or twenty. It was the only time she sat still. We don't have a t.v. in the house - and I raised the kids, except for the first few years with my oldest two, now 24 and 22, without a t.v. in the house. That decision, as well as homeschooling my youngest, was one of the smartest decisions I ever made. Having my kids was the smartest.

Then came the pressures of kindergarten and youth group classes where she had to read in front of others. She hated reading. I could read to her but she didn't want to even sound out one letter. She never stuttered before, but during kindergarten she developed a stuttering problem. As soon as I started homeschooling, it stopped. And I should point out, she is NOT a shy child. Not by a long shot. She was, and now is, an extremely confident child - except for her time in kindergarten. (She enjoyed preschool, and they had beginning lessons, but there was no pressure.) Some kids are well-suited for public schools, others aren't. The best thing I ever did was decide to homeschool her.

There are so many online resources for early readers online. I was going through some old bookmarks and wanted to share some homeschool websites that have beginning reading links, reading worksheets, and early games. I have zillions of them, and I keep all the websites we go to on an Excel spreadsheet. (Just bookmark them in the same folder whenever your child goes on an educational websites in case you need homeschool records for your state - or to just keep records in case you ever need them for the future. We live in a small rural area, and homeschooling is accepted. But I've read stories about problems in bigger cities. If you're worried about any challenges to your chosen program - keep records.)

My ultimate favorite reading website for early reading is Starfall. If you're an avid researcher for educational websites you've surely stumbled upon it. But I just think it's the most wonderful program in the world. I even broke down and bought the board game. (I avoid buying things with lots of pieces - to my surprise it's stil intact - can't say that Monopoly or Scrabble had the same luck - Checkers doesn't stand a chance..I think Checkers and a deck of cards end up on my shopping list at the dollar store every month.)

My daughter still visits Starfall for fun and to print her monthly calendars. Here's the link to the Starfall Store, I don't receive and commission or anything, just posting it in case anyone is interested in the board game - which I highly recommend for teaching phonics. It also has a reverse-board for teaching the alphabet and beginning letter sounds. The phonics game currently goes for $14.95 at the Starfall Store. The starfall printing workbook was great because it focuses on basic consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and some easy dolche (sight) in simple, non-intimidating methods in basic block print style. It's currently listed at $1.95 for level one. (It's worth FAR more than that - they keep things simple and environmentally friendly though, so these are printed on newsprint style paper - not the fancy plastic covered stuff. Yet, the pictures and content are friendly enough so it doesn't look like a stodgy old workbook.)

Wow - this post is getting too long. Okay, let me share a few websites here:

You may have stumbled on Internet4Classrooms in your search. If you haven't you're missing hundreds, if not thousands, of valuable resources for Grades K through 8. The Internet4Classroom First Grade links have many educational links to online games (often very simple) and worksheets. Most of the links you visit will have links to other educational resources, then the fun begins. Some of the games are very dry compared to today's standards (and they aren't much different than doing a worksheet) but there are a lot of really wonderful links in there. So take some time to dig through the website. It's one of those websites you can refer to often for quick worksheets and assignments that grow with the grade level. I found the dot-to-dots counting by 2s, 5s and 10s very useful. I have it on my speeddial (Opera Browser had it long before Google's Chrome browser!).

Get Ready to Read doesn't have a lot of links, but it has a page for printing reading activity cards in English and Spanish, for an individual or a group. Keep your eyes out when you click to download the pdf, because one is for instructions, and there is a separate link for the activity cards pdf.

Our favorite page on the website is the one for three free online phonic games. These are read-aloud stories in a video with phonic "choose-the-picture or word" participation by the user. I think they were about "Gus and Inky" underwater and out in the Wild West - and to keep with the times there is a hip-hop rhyme. Ha! that rhymes and I didn't even plan it! My daughter is 8 and she loves it. (A little easy for her..but she likes the characters.) It's fun, lively, and educational.

The Get Ready to Read Website has links to the RTI Action Website which focuses on Response to Intervention programs in schools. This program is part of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. The RTI network has links on developing formal intervention plans if you require one for your district or prefer a more formal method of homeschooling. The National Center for Learning Disabilities promotes issues that I don't necessarily support, but it is a resource for government information. Here are some links on developing an Individual Education Program (IEP) and links to information on Dyslexia, and many other K-8 resources for teachers and parents, including a link to information on your legal rights.

Back to the fun stuff. Many times I'll get lucky and find some great websites with lots of links on college websites, websites from other schools, or library websites. Here's a list of Homeschool Links from Duluth Public Library.


The Navesink Elementary School has a list of good homeschooling links, many of which I've been to before. (You have to read them and retype them in the URL, they are not hyperlinked.) This Reading Online Website has some links for parents, and if you scroll down you'll see some links to websites with kid activities on it. The Marks English school has a list of online phonic games which is from the MES website. The BBC Schools spelling and reading page is one of my favorites - BBC and PBS are my personal favorites. This Central Elementary School page has quality links. You must visit this! They work for first grade, second grade and third grade. Addams Elementary School has some online games, none of which I tried, but I might take a look later. Davis Thaver Elementary School also has some educational links for elementary students.

Magic Keys has a long list of links to online stories and reading websites,as well as online games and parent resources. Of course, there's always the classic websites, like Clifford at the Scholastic website Games Page. They also have a page for free printable worksheets. They also have a link to free clipart that could some in handy. There's only 3071 clip art pictures to choose from...it says you have to subscribe to print (not free) but I just saved it as a jpg and printed it right now as we speak without subscribing.

The Adrian Bruce website has more than a few useful phonic links, printables, including poster printables, as well as other fun stuff for early readers. And I just stumbled on this blog called Lesson Plans, it looks like they might have some decent links if you dig into it. (I love the graphic!)

This ESL Teacher's Website looks a little dry at first, but the banner links and text links on the side are definitely worth visiting. I haven't gone to the ESL Teacher's Website before, but I have found some of the links she has listed useful. For instance, the MES English website has lots of free printable worksheets, and their "Alphabet Soup" link leads to a list of websites that offer free printables. Granted, many of these will try and sell you something, but many of these websites offer so many valuable homeschool links they are worth the visit. (I have no relation to these websites.) Originally I thought the Alphabet Soup link was to the Alphabet Soup game on PBS, which is a decent early reader game. PBS Kids Games is another permanent bookmark for us. PBS Lions Games were a big help over the last couple years (don't forget to click the down arrow for more choices), but they've gotten a little too easy for her now. It's a wonderful website for when your child is in the CVC stage, or even alphabet stage.

The Synthetic Phonics website has resources for phonics lessons, although I haven't quite examined them all yet.

Here's a link to lyrics for simple phonic songs with a download for the piano music only. (I was hoping it was a download for the song with words.) But they also offer the sheet music, great for music lessons. The home page for this Garden of Praise website has tons of links, and some for music lessons and art lessons which are a little harder to find. (Starfall also has some art stories for kids.) It's run from an experienced teacher who's been doing this since 1999.

Well, I've been writing far too long, (with many interruptions), so excuse me for any inconsistent flow in writing! I would love to hear anyone's comments on any of these websites, what's great, what to avoid. If you have other great links for phonics for early readers, please leave them in a comment for other readers! Anybody have a favorite website for phonics? I'd love to hear your opinions. Meanwhile..Happy Reading!

P.S. November 12, 2008: I just have to add GenkiEnglish.com to my list of free phonics homeschool websites. There are online phonic activities for early readers and a host of other free resources on other subjects. Definitely worth exploring!

Black and White Stack of Books Photo at the top Credit to Austenevan



For more Free Printables, Homeschool Worksheets and Free Lesson Plans, go to Homeschool Websites Homepage





For more Free Printables, Homeschool Worksheets and Free Lesson Plans, go to Homeschool Websites Homepage

Homeschool Websites for December Lesson Plans

December already! Last thing I remember is the kind of September when life was slow and oh so mellow. (Yes, I stole that from a song that randomly popped in my head. Obviously the writer wasn't homeschooling when the inspiration for the lyrics hit.) The mere fact that it's December makes it easy to come up with homeschool lesson plans for the final month of the year. Last year I did a post on "Homeschooling on the Holidays about the Holidays" that has educational links that can be used for homeschool lesson plans on calendars, holidays, geography, traditions, culture, math, reading, etc., that can be incorporated into any subject. This post probably won't be that long nor as informative. If you're looking for heavy duty December lesson plans for homeschooling, head on over to that link.

I was trying to fix my search engine that searches only free educational online games and came across some cute sites I wanted to share, so thought I'd do a post on December Lesson Plans. I couldn't get results from Abc'ya to show up as much as I wanted to for certain searches - and I have much to learn about annotations and xml before I ever figure it out. Abcya has a lot of free online games and worksheets that are lifesavers in the December rush.

What I thought was really cute was a simple math game for first grade, second grade or third grade students that rewards the child with a number of Christmas lights that can be used to decorate a house using the mouse. (Not to be confused with the house where not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.) The mouse can run all over the house and there's flashing lights and jingle bell chimes when your child is done decorating their house with Christmas lights. (I think when you hit "go" the lights and music begins.) There's even a link that preschoolers and kindergarteners can use to escape the math lesson "clause" of the game and just have fun putting lights on the house. (Poor attempt at a joke. Legal clause. Santa Clause. Nobody thinks this is funny but me do they?)

Another simple Christmas game for kindergarten and first grade students (heck, my fourth grader still likes these) is a simple drag and drop "decorate the Christmas tree" game for the little ones. Just look at it as a homeschool lesson plan on Christmas traditions that can keep the little ones busy while you hide in the bathroom to sneak a piece of Christmas candy. I love these simple things that don't have all the fluff and dander of webkinz, but still entertain with their simplicity. If you type "Christmas Games" (without the quotes) into my search engine for educational games you'll see a few pages of Christmas Games from reputable, educational websites.

A December lesson plan for elementary homeschoolers to learn the calendar months can always be supported on a daily basis with Starfall's educational virtual calendar activity. Pbskids.org has a December calendar of special days, such as December 3rds "handwashing day" and December 5ths "International Volunteer Day" as well as some "more stress free" days that homeschooling moms can use as an excuse to relax or get organized. (Does getting organized relax you?)

For homeschooled children who have already learned the months of the year, homeschool December lesson plans can include studying historical December events and December holidays and traditions around the world. Homeschoolers can also create December lessons plans on weather in December locally or internationally or historically, and of course these can lead to lessons plans on water, snow and ice - or global warming. You get the idea.

Finding December events to instigate a lesson plan can go way beyond looking at a calendar for the major federal and religious December holidays. BrainyHistory has a free online December Calendar that allows you to click a date and see a list of events for that December date going back to years that are pre-1000's. You will find national and international December events, sports and political December events as well as historical moments in space and memorable weather records.

I chose to look at December 9th, and wondered why Pearl Harbor Day wasn't mentioned. DUH. Today is December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day. So, let's look at December 9th. Looking at Brainy History we see that this is the day that in 1688 King James II's wife and son flee England for France (lesson plan: explore why - better food maybe?); in 1753 Noah Webster established the American Minerva, New York's first daily newspaper (I never new that! Compare Ben Franklin and Noah Webster.); On December 9th, 1805 a comet approached Earth by "0.0366 AUs" (lesson plan on comets and learning what AUs are - don't ask me, I'm clueless); On December 9, 1851 the first YMCA was established in North America; In December 1931 Spain became a republic (geography, social studies); and there are too many December war dates to mention, on December 9th, 1941 Hitler ordered US ships to be attacked, and on the same December date in 1953 GE orders all communist employees to be fired. (Wow, hard to imagine that these days! Where were all the lawyers? I'll have to look that one up.) On December 9, 1963 Frank Sinatra was kidnapped, and on the same day two years later Charlie Brown Christmas went on the air on December 9, 1965. (Music lessons.) I could go on and on, and I didn't even delve into sports, theater and weather statistics. (Arizona got 3 inches of snow in 1985.) ENDLESS opportunities for December homeschooling lesson plans!

If you need a heads up on history yourself before you give your lessons, always remember the History Channel and BBC History for text and video educational resources. My 9 year old has loved watching documentaries for a couple years now, and it's amazing how much information she retains.

Personally, I like to make lessons more fun. I think I'm going to go with the lesson plan on the History of Toys and Games at Education World. They even have a special section devoted to Holiday lesson plans, and an archived holiday page for you to choose holiday lesson plans by month and theme. Then we'll read the history of candy canes and make some candy cane recipes.

Here's some websites that have a list of December, Holiday or Winter lesson plans that can be used for holiday homeschooling:

Teachnology is worth a visit. Here you'll find an amazing amount of free worksheets, free lesson plans, free printables, some educational games and downloads. Teachnology has December listed as "read a book month" and "graph" month. They also have a page dedicated to December Lesson Plans.

AtoZ Teacher Stuff has a page dedicated to Christmas Lesson Plans. These include free worksheets, Christmas and Winter lesson plans, songs, poems and stories.

HotChalk Lessons Plan Page (always a great source for ideas) has a list of Christmas and Winter lesson plans for elementary students covering many subjects - English, Social Studies, Math, Art and Music are all covered with an assortment of ideas.

You'll find some simple elementary free printable worksheets for homeschooling that are "winter themed" (translate: picture of winter clipart on standard worksheet) at the Kidzone Winter Math webpage. I like the fairly large print they use for their numbers.

St. Mary's school has a list of Christmas, Winter and Holiday links to explore that include December lesson plans, activities, stories and other goodies for elementary students.

Homefires, a homeschool online journal, has a list of holiday activities and links for December lesson plans, and very interesting tidbits on the physics of Santa Clause.


Easy Fun School has a long list of December activities and homeschooling ideas.

I love to fill December up with a fun Christmas reading list from new and classic Amazon Christmas books. We were excited to find Magic Tree House Christmas in Camelot at the library and can't wait to read it.

Homeschooling parents know that children should be learning about all Holiday traditions around the world. You can look at the History Channel for Hanukkah, and find Hanukkah and holiday lesson plans at Cloudnet, and find Kwanzaa resources at those websites as well.

Hotchalk has a couple lesson plans on Kwanzaa, and a lesson plan on holidays around the world. You'll find Kwanzaa activity ideas at Apples4theteacher, and daily Kwanzaa traditions at Mr. Donn's website.

A lesson plan and list of international December holidays can be found at Suite101, here you'll find brief Hindu, Muslim and Mexican holiday information and a holidays around the world lesson plan. DLTK has a good page for elementary students with free worksheets and activities on December Muslim/Islam holidays.

Christmas movies become December traditions, and of course homeschool music lessons and sheet music are free on the internet. A day (or night) can be filled with Christmas caroling using free Christmas Carol ebooks and free Christmas music mp3 downloads.

Homeschooling December language lesson plans can include Christmas Poetry and Winter poems from Canteach's free elementary lesson plans. There are endless opportunities for wintry December crafts and handmade gift-giving opportunities that cover art class requirements.

Here's some Christmas and Holiday gift-giving craft idea websites. A lot of these are "tried and true" and I've seen my other five kids bring many of these home for the holidays from their public school elementary classes (long ago and far away...). But there's some cute stuff I haven't heard of, like homemade lip gloss. (Wonder if my homeschooled youngest's teenage sisters will wear it? Think we'll try that.)

DLTK is a craft site for kids with holiday crafts as well as free printables, and has a link for very simple kids crafts for younger children.

Activity Village has a good list of crafts kids can make for holiday gift-giving.

Creative Kids at Home has some cute ideas for kids crafts that the family will adore.

Crafty crafters will no doubt find some great ideas at All Free Crafts.

At Amazing Moms you'll find the traditional crafts that kids make in public school, as well as some unique ideas.

I take back what I said about Homeschooling on the Holidays about the Holidays having more links than this post. It now appears that you'll find more December lesson plan links from this post than my previous Holiday Homeschooling post. But there's some funny bizarre holiday links at the old post that you should take a look at if you need a smile.

The best December lesson plan for homeschoolers is the lesson of giving. Give to the Salvation Army and make some real-life math problems out of it. Learn about world-wide poverty around the world and sponsor a child. Study history, geography, science and war, and send Christmas cards to the soldiers. Learn about the community and domestic shelters, food pantries, clothing pantries and religious organizations. "Adopt" a child or family from the community for Christmas, and subtract the sacrifice of spending from the joy of giving. Make every day in December a giving day. Give your time, knowledge, strength, words, smile, hug, music, crafts, services or even money to a family, neighbor or charity every day.

Giving is the best December lesson plan of all. Ask Santa. He knows.

The adorable (copyrighted) picture in this post was created by T-Koni using colored pencils. Her colorful, adorable artwork can be found on her Flickr profile.



For more Free Printables, Homeschool Worksheets and Free Lesson Plans, go to Homeschool Websites Homepage

Homeschool History: Create Elementary Lessons on Germany and Berlin Wall for Elementary Homeschoolers

Homeschool history lessons are far more entertaining and memorable than a classroom lecture and textbook reading assignment. "Open your 700 pound book and turn to page 7276 and read the chapter on German History and the Berlin Wall" (zzzzzz - snore -zzzzzz - snore) doesn't have to start your child's day when you're homeschooling. Instead, your kids can wake up to you in your jammies staring over them with an excited wild-eyed look holding a steaming hot cup of coffee in your hands screaming and cheering "let's make like the Germans today and knock down a wall!" while ripping the blankets off their comfy warm body and sounding a bugle horn with your spare hand. Okay, truthfully, we know nobody would do this until at least one cup of coffee was finished. Does anyone else get this excited over lesson plans? Neither do I. But in my wistful images of myself being a homeschool maniac mama I do imagine myself getting excited over larger-than-life homeschool projects on Germany and the Berlin Wall.

I remember picking up my highschoolers' social studies textbooks and reading and thinking (yes, I can read and think at the same time), how on earth do they expect kids to learn from reading nothing but one bland fact after another? I read my elementary school daughter's friend's social studies books and have the same disbelief. Haven't we gone beyond the 1950's textbook learning methods? Are we not in the 21st century? Why do we even have textbooks? I thoroughly understand why I found history boring when I was in high school, and why my kids either hated it or struggled with it during their highschool years. However, I love history now and find it fascinating - probably because I found out there is life beyond textbooks.

The kids are growing up in a global world. In order to bring up open-minded children, I feel it's important for them to learn about the "big wide world" (all countries, not just America) while they still have an open mind and a big imagination. I envy my sister who taught her kids the alphabet by naming a country for each letter before they were even close to entering Kindergarten. I was lazy and sang the traditional A is for Apple instead of A is for Afghanastan. (Usually because I was falling asleep while singing them to sleep with the alphabet and I knew more names of foods than I did names of countries. My kids are in college now. We're still workin' on the abc's.)

Technology and media have created extraordinary opportunities to meet the learning styles of different students. Homeschoolers can blend hands-on history activities with learning technology to bring history to life and make it memorable. Is your child going to learn more about the Berlin Wall from reading about it in a textbook, or by using an easy art lesson to build a wall that divides two towns created by the student, creating grafitti, putting up soldiers and townspeople, drawing maps, cooking German food, and watching videos of the Berlin Wall?

Forget textbooks, an exciting interesting story on the Berlin Wall from a kid's point of view, is more likely to be read with interest, and a Caldecott Honor Picture Book will at least get a non-reader a visual glimpse of the event. A Berlin Wall lesson can be lengthened to include a compare and contrast lesson on all the famous walls, and videos can be watched to support realistic interpretations of the event.

Granted, public elementary school classes do have more hands-on classes than highschoolers, but time doesn't allow projects to be ongoing, personal, or to develop into bigger, smaller or different subjects. Not only can a homeschooler build a wall for social studies class, they can determine the walls structure and physical properties and examine basic structural components for their science class, and study how the Berlin Wall was broken down to be recyled for new roads. Then of course there are measuring (the wall was 103 miles) opportunities, word problems (the 103 mile wall blocked in 103 million people), percentages (261 people died trying to cross - names available at the Internet Archive), and other mathematical elements that can be blended into math lessons. Here's some metric figures to work with from a University of Berlin professer and his personal webpage of (dry, but informative) facts on the Berlin Wall and Berlin:

* The border between West Berlin and East Berlin and the GDR had a total length of 166 km, and there was a deeply staggered system of barriers. There was a wall with a length of 107 km at this border. Finally, the border area looked about as follows: First, there was a wall which was made up of concrete segments with a height of 4 m, usually with a concrete tube on top of it. Behind it (at the "eastern" side) there was an illuminated control area (also called death area). Refugees who had reached that area were shot without warning. A trench followed which should prevent vehicles from breaking through. Then there was a patrol track, a corridor with watchdogs, watchtowers and bunkers, and a second wall.

* On August 13 1998, a wall memorial was inaugurated at the Bernauer Strasse (at the corner to the Ackerstrasse, city districts Wedding/Mitte). It consists of a remainder of the Berlin wall with a length of 70 m, provided with slits in the inner wall and steel sheets at the ends.

* The border cut through 192 streets, 97 of them leading to East Berlin and 95 into the GDR.

From the EU Infrastructure website page on the Construction of the Berlin Wall:

The Wall was expanded into a staggered system of barriers; firstly there was the primary wall which stood 4m tall and was topped with a smooth pipe, intended to make scaling it more difficult. Behind it on the Eastern side, there was a control area, dubbed the 'death area', in which over 116 watchtowers were built. Anyone found to be there trying to escape were shot without warning. Trenches followed to stop vehicles break through and this was further protected by 10,000 border guards on patrol tracks, bunkers and a second wall.

The Wall that ran through the city center was 43.1 kilometers long, but further border fortifications separating West Berlin from the rest of Soviet-controlled Germany totalled 111.9 kilometers long. In the 28 years that the Wall stood, over 239 people were killed trying to defect across the wall.

The EU Infrastructure Construction of the Berlin Wall webpage has an interactive infograph that you can click on and it will highlight more detailed facts and diagrams. For instance:

It took 45,000 separate sections of concrete that were 12 feet high and 4 feet wide and was topped with a long pipelike channel.

There were 302 watchtowers and 20 bunkers staffed by 2 to 5 soldiers around the clock.

If you have a budding builder or future scientist, mechanic or architect, it might be worth your time to bop around the EU Infrastructure website to get some ideas on real-time news events to build lessons around.

The architectural construction of the wall, the security, and the methods used to cross the wall might be interesting for international spy wannabes, and attempting to jump or climb a wall would be an interesting gym class or lesson on basic physics.

The BBC has an exquisite collection of archived videos, pictures, transcripts and documents on the Berlin Wall. I actually found that link from a tutor2u blog that has extensive links on historical information and resources - albiet for adults and highschoolers - it's still a good resource for parents to read up on what they're teaching before they teach it.

For further studies that can incorporate geography and graffiti, the graffiti.org website has an incredible compendium of graffiti artwork from around the world, including a link to graffiti in Europe, Germany and Berlin. You and your kids can flip through some of the artwork, then you can interrogate your child - er, I mean, discuss with your child - the social rules of graffiti and the artistic elements of graffiti. A great outline for doing so is at the haringkids.com link to a lesson on graffiti. Even if you don't visit their website for their graffiti lesson, they have a database of over 100 lesson plans for elementary students, middle school students and highschool students on all subjects. The website is definitely worth touring.

A simple Google Video or YouTube search for Berlin Wall videos will get you tons of links to videos depicting the tear down, and documenting its historical significance. All the major news websites will also have indepth historical information and likely personal accounts of the event. If you're tired of Google and YouTube, you can take a look at the video websites listed on the freetech4teachers blog. Mathtube even has math problems using the Berlin Wall as an example! If you're into technology and media, you'll enjoy the blog so click around.

I couldn't find any free educational online games about the Berlin Wall specifically, so here are some rather boring geography games that can support your homeschool studies on Europe and Germany, countries and continents:

SheppardSoftware.com has online geography games on Europe, the continents and America, as well as the capitals and some helpful downloads and free printables.

Yourchildlearns.com has an interactive map that can be used to test your homeschooled child's accuracy at identifying Germany and other European countries.

Kidgeo.com has a game on latitude and longitude, a click and drag map games of Europe, and a similar drag and drop world map, and US and continent map games as well. Playkids games has similar puzzle and drag and drop geography games.

If I hadn't had to reboot twice (once to the dog turning the power strip to "off," and the other to the router having to be rebooted), I'd look for more interesting geography games. If I ever come across more interesting geography games or if anyone has suggestions, I'll add them to my search engine (which still needs a lot of work.)

Most of the online lesson plans for the Berlin Wall and Germany are high school level, but homeschool parents have the opportunity to get information from lots of sources, pare it down, and be creative and imaginative. Here's some websites for elementary age-level geography lessons, a some comprehensive lists of useful history and geography links that can help shape your lesson plans on Germany and the Berlin Wall:

Rockford Public School website has a list of links on American History and European history. If you scroll down, you'll see links to Cold War lesson plans, one on Cold War Spies, a powerpoint presentation and others. The ones I went to open were in .doc form. These do look like they are for older kids, but still a valuable source for information.

Pitt.edu has a long list of links on elementary school social studies lesson plans that parents can use to homeschool on history.

Teacher's Cafe has dozens of links on European history, American history and other social study topics, although I haven't personally tried any of them. It does claim to be a free resource for teachers and parents.

Studystack.com has flash cards and simple online word games you can play to learn how to count to ten in German (or talk fluent German). If you want to hear German, visit fonetiks.org and learn how German words should be pronounced!

If you like flashcards, hangman,crossword puzzles, matchups and the like, this website has helpful tools for an incredible amount of subjects and standardized tests. Visit studystack.com's home page to view available topics.

Want some modern pictures of Germany? Check out The German Way, and National Geographic's Berlin Photo Gallery. You can also learn about the five main themes of geography at the National Geographic website which also lists ideas for lesson plans and activities on geography. (Location, Place, Human Environment/Interaction, Movement and Regions in case you're wondering. I admit. I didn't know there were five main themes until today.)

Mr. Donn.org has some elementary links on the five themes of geography that homeschool parents can use for geography lessons, including a cute little website with more than a few free clip art pictures on geography, social studies, and other elementary school subjects.

The Educator's Reference Desk has a long list of lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school studies on geography and world history.

I've found Professor Sass's Cloudnet website with zillions of educational links very useful in locating educational homeschool websites that can't be quickly found in a Google search. They have a long list of geography websites you can skim through. At the top, the geography page looks a little spammy because of the link ads, but once you scroll past those there's a wealth of information. (That's the pot calling the kettle black! I need some work on my own blog!)

It also looks like Kidinfo.com also has a nice list of websites that can be used for homeschooling about Germany and the Berlin Wall - and all other moments in history.

CosmoLearning is a new website I've just discovered, free videos and education resources - it's for the upper grades - middle school, high school, college and adults - but you'll find tons of videos on history (including Germany and the Berlin Wall) and all other subjects. It looks like a great site, dedicated to free online courses. Every homeschooling parent should look at this and spread the word.

BBC is awesome, and not only do they have extensive archives on the history of the Berlin Wall, they have a BBC history for kids section in their website with online games and educational activities for elementary students.

Hope I've helped you dig up some resources to develop homeschool lesson plans that complements the anniversary of the Berlin Wall Fall. (The wall falls in fall. Hmm, easy phonics lesson for the Berlin Wall.)

Time for me to teach instead of type. Guess we'll have to knock down some walls tomorrow!


Berlin Wall Picture found at Mariya Ivancheva's informative essay on the Fall of Socialism.

Find Maps and Geography Maps, Globes and More at S&S Worldwide Craft and Toy Store!








For more Free Printables, Homeschool Worksheets and Free Lesson Plans, go to Homeschool Websites Homepage

Homeschool Science Free Printables and Lessons on Woolly Mammoths

Homeschool websites with free printables and educational online games about Woolly Mammoths are useful for early grade science lessons to coordinate with the news about the successful genome sequencing of the Woolly Mammoth.

Discovery Kids, National Geographic, and National Geographic for Kids are first-class resources for any science homeschool lesson. Discovery Education has a link with free lesson plans for almost every subject - including art, music, reading, grammar, spelling, poetry, social studies, geography, and more. They also have free printables and a worksheet generator for all grade levels on all school subjects.

Snuggled within those educational links is a link for students on Woolly Mammoths, including a history, their migration path, and links to a couple of virtual Woolly Mammoth Museums.

Enchanted Learning, which has many free printables within their educational website, also has a page on Woolly Mammoths. It is a little dry, but it does contain links to some free printables on Woolly Mammoths, Elephants and Mammals. The website for the movie(s) Ice Age is probably a little more interesting for kids. The popular Zoo Tycoon game has an expansion pack for Extinct Animals that features the Woolly Mammoth, and the Zoo Tycoon 2 Extinct Animals Expansion Packis available at Amazon.

The Scienceschool.org article on Woolly Mammoth extinction brings to light the extinction debate. The Berkley University has a link to lesson plans (lengthy text articles) and information on Learning from Fossil Records, including a a lesson on Building a Topographic Model by Ellen Metzger.


Kidz World has a page on Woolly Mammoths and links on the Ice Age. They're more of a game website (typical stuff) than an educational website, but there are some useful educational links and tidbits. Dragoart.com is an online kids website with "how to draw" tutorials for kids. They have a "How to Draw a Woolly Mammoth" link with step-by-step text, graphic and video instructions, and if you scope around you'll find other links that can be used for homeschool lessons. (Think art, science and geometry in one easy lesson!)

My time is going to become extinct pretty soon so I have to cut this post short - but I'll be editing it and adding more links later. If you've come across any games or links that are useful for homeschoolers learning about Woolly Mammoths post a comment and let us know! I'm also very interested in finding websites with lesson for the early elementary years on genome sequencing. Our young children today will be facing a very different world tomorrow. The way things are going I can't help but wonder if the traditional "dissect a frog" class (which I won't be doing!) is going to be replaced with a "clone a frog" class in the future - and every kid can take home their own cloned pet frog. Our kids' kids will look back on us and say "you mean you actually had to CATCH a frog? Why didn't you just clone it?" Cloning Woolly Mammoths might be a little too large to handle for the average homeschool family - but hey - we are an ingenious bunch.

Post Script November 24th: I found this Search Engine for Kids link on Digg called Kigose, and I did a search for "woolly mammoth" and there were excellent educational links listed. This is a search engine worth looking into for homeschool lessons plans and probably worksheets and games too! (Someday I'll get my search engine for homeschool resources up and going on this blog!) There was also a link to Top Ten Biology Videos from the Wired tech website, including one on high speed genome sequencing - videos are such a great way to get a lesson through the brain fast.

The Woolly Mammoth picture is from the artist's page on Clip Art.org -he also has a "fundraw" website where you can incorporate art and products. I haven't looked into it, but there may be some interesting gift ideas in there!

For more Free Printables, Homeschool Worksheets and Free Lesson Plans, go to Homeschool Websites Homepage

Homeschool Early Reader First Grade Phonic Websites

Homeschooling offers the early reader and the struggling reader the time to develop their skills without the pressure of teachers, therapists and classmates killing their confidence and love for reading. Struggling readers will quickly learn to hate reading when they are forced to read out loud in front of their peers and are subjected to snickers and rolling eyes at every mistake. Not all parents teach their kids to be understanding and not all parents teach their kids that everyone has different talents and strengths. Success is often touted as being a result of competition rather than progress. Competition will find it's way into life naturally. Kids should learn that everyone is different instead of there are "winners and losers."

I have six kids, and their reading levels differ. Some excel, and some struggle. I've seen the public schools make things worse from their experiments with different language programs (one year phonics, another grade "whole word language, and another year focused on repetition or a failing combination. In the public schools, choosing a program to use throughout the year to "experiment" with often ends up failing the children. The public school system offers no opportunity for a teacher to opt out of a program in the middle of the year and say "hey, this just isn't working," and go on to try something else. Nor does it understand (or it may understand, but doesn't apply the fact) that every child learns differently. One child may learn through phonics, another whole word language, another repetition. Others may learn from reading, and other may learn from visuals, such as t.v. or video games. One of the finest blessings of homeschooling is to be able to adapt the educational programs you implement to your child's unique learning needs. You can vary them by day, week or month, and you don't have to stick with anything that's not working. I love it.

The first words of my youngest, after "McDonalds," (I prefer Burger King myself...), was "read the book." And she said it so fast and so often it came out as "readthebook." So I'd roll my eyes and walk around saying "readthebook, readthebook, readthebook," over and over while searching for a pile of ten or twenty pictures books to read her, while she followed pulling at my pant legs. One or two never sufficed. It was always a pile - literally ten or twenty. It was the only time she sat still. We don't have a t.v. in the house - and I raised the kids, except for the first few years with my oldest two, now 24 and 22, without a t.v. in the house. That decision, as well as homeschooling my youngest, was one of the smartest decisions I ever made. Having my kids was the smartest.

Then came the pressures of kindergarten and youth group classes where she had to read in front of others. She hated reading. I could read to her but she didn't want to even sound out one letter. She never stuttered before, but during kindergarten she developed a stuttering problem. As soon as I started homeschooling, it stopped. And I should point out, she is NOT a shy child. Not by a long shot. She was, and now is, an extremely confident child - except for her time in kindergarten. (She enjoyed preschool, and they had beginning lessons, but there was no pressure.) Some kids are well-suited for public schools, others aren't. The best thing I ever did was decide to homeschool her.

There are so many online resources for early readers online. I was going through some old bookmarks and wanted to share some homeschool websites that have beginning reading links, reading worksheets, and early games. I have zillions of them, and I keep all the websites we go to on an Excel spreadsheet. (Just bookmark them in the same folder whenever your child goes on an educational websites in case you need homeschool records for your state - or to just keep records in case you ever need them for the future. We live in a small rural area, and homeschooling is accepted. But I've read stories about problems in bigger cities. If you're worried about any challenges to your chosen program - keep records.)

My ultimate favorite reading website for early reading is Starfall. If you're an avid researcher for educational websites you've surely stumbled upon it. But I just think it's the most wonderful program in the world. I even broke down and bought the board game. (I avoid buying things with lots of pieces - to my surprise it's stil intact - can't say that Monopoly or Scrabble had the same luck - Checkers doesn't stand a chance..I think Checkers and a deck of cards end up on my shopping list at the dollar store every month.)

My daughter still visits Starfall for fun and to print her monthly calendars. Here's the link to the Starfall Store, I don't receive and commission or anything, just posting it in case anyone is interested in the board game - which I highly recommend for teaching phonics. It also has a reverse-board for teaching the alphabet and beginning letter sounds. The phonics game currently goes for $14.95 at the Starfall Store. The starfall printing workbook was great because it focuses on basic consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and some easy dolche (sight) in simple, non-intimidating methods in basic block print style. It's currently listed at $1.95 for level one. (It's worth FAR more than that - they keep things simple and environmentally friendly though, so these are printed on newsprint style paper - not the fancy plastic covered stuff. Yet, the pictures and content are friendly enough so it doesn't look like a stodgy old workbook.)

Wow - this post is getting too long. Okay, let me share a few websites here:

You may have stumbled on Internet4Classrooms in your search. If you haven't you're missing hundreds, if not thousands, of valuable resources for Grades K through 8. The Internet4Classroom First Grade links have many educational links to online games (often very simple) and worksheets. Most of the links you visit will have links to other educational resources, then the fun begins. Some of the games are very dry compared to today's standards (and they aren't much different than doing a worksheet) but there are a lot of really wonderful links in there. So take some time to dig through the website. It's one of those websites you can refer to often for quick worksheets and assignments that grow with the grade level. I found the dot-to-dots counting by 2s, 5s and 10s very useful. I have it on my speeddial (Opera Browser had it long before Google's Chrome browser!).

Get Ready to Read doesn't have a lot of links, but it has a page for printing reading activity cards in English and Spanish, for an individual or a group. Keep your eyes out when you click to download the pdf, because one is for instructions, and there is a separate link for the activity cards pdf.

Our favorite page on the website is the one for three free online phonic games. These are read-aloud stories in a video with phonic "choose-the-picture or word" participation by the user. I think they were about "Gus and Inky" underwater and out in the Wild West - and to keep with the times there is a hip-hop rhyme. Ha! that rhymes and I didn't even plan it! My daughter is 8 and she loves it. (A little easy for her..but she likes the characters.) It's fun, lively, and educational.

The Get Ready to Read Website has links to the RTI Action Website which focuses on Response to Intervention programs in schools. This program is part of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. The RTI network has links on developing formal intervention plans if you require one for your district or prefer a more formal method of homeschooling. The National Center for Learning Disabilities promotes issues that I don't necessarily support, but it is a resource for government information. Here are some links on developing an Individual Education Program (IEP) and links to information on Dyslexia, and many other K-8 resources for teachers and parents, including a link to information on your legal rights.

Back to the fun stuff. Many times I'll get lucky and find some great websites with lots of links on college websites, websites from other schools, or library websites. Here's a list of Homeschool Links from Duluth Public Library.


The Navesink Elementary School has a list of good homeschooling links, many of which I've been to before. (You have to read them and retype them in the URL, they are not hyperlinked.) This Reading Online Website has some links for parents, and if you scroll down you'll see some links to websites with kid activities on it. The Marks English school has a list of online phonic games which is from the MES website. The BBC Schools spelling and reading page is one of my favorites - BBC and PBS are my personal favorites. This Central Elementary School page has quality links. You must visit this! They work for first grade, second grade and third grade. Addams Elementary School has some online games, none of which I tried, but I might take a look later. Davis Thaver Elementary School also has some educational links for elementary students.

Magic Keys has a long list of links to online stories and reading websites,as well as online games and parent resources. Of course, there's always the classic websites, like Clifford at the Scholastic website Games Page. They also have a page for free printable worksheets. They also have a link to free clipart that could some in handy. There's only 3071 clip art pictures to choose from...it says you have to subscribe to print (not free) but I just saved it as a jpg and printed it right now as we speak without subscribing.

The Adrian Bruce website has more than a few useful phonic links, printables, including poster printables, as well as other fun stuff for early readers. And I just stumbled on this blog called Lesson Plans, it looks like they might have some decent links if you dig into it. (I love the graphic!)

This ESL Teacher's Website looks a little dry at first, but the banner links and text links on the side are definitely worth visiting. I haven't gone to the ESL Teacher's Website before, but I have found some of the links she has listed useful. For instance, the MES English website has lots of free printable worksheets, and their "Alphabet Soup" link leads to a list of websites that offer free printables. Granted, many of these will try and sell you something, but many of these websites offer so many valuable homeschool links they are worth the visit. (I have no relation to these websites.) Originally I thought the Alphabet Soup link was to the Alphabet Soup game on PBS, which is a decent early reader game. PBS Kids Games is another permanent bookmark for us. PBS Lions Games were a big help over the last couple years (don't forget to click the down arrow for more choices), but they've gotten a little too easy for her now. It's a wonderful website for when your child is in the CVC stage, or even alphabet stage.

The Synthetic Phonics website has resources for phonics lessons, although I haven't quite examined them all yet.

Here's a link to lyrics for simple phonic songs with a download for the piano music only. (I was hoping it was a download for the song with words.) But they also offer the sheet music, great for music lessons. The home page for this Garden of Praise website has tons of links, and some for music lessons and art lessons which are a little harder to find. (Starfall also has some art stories for kids.) It's run from an experienced teacher who's been doing this since 1999.

Well, I've been writing far too long, (with many interruptions), so excuse me for any inconsistent flow in writing! I would love to hear anyone's comments on any of these websites, what's great, what to avoid. If you have other great links for phonics for early readers, please leave them in a comment for other readers! Anybody have a favorite website for phonics? I'd love to hear your opinions. Meanwhile..Happy Reading!

P.S. November 12, 2008: I just have to add GenkiEnglish.com to my list of free phonics homeschool websites. There are online phonic activities for early readers and a host of other free resources on other subjects. Definitely worth exploring!

Black and White Stack of Books Photo at the top Credit to Austenevan



For more Free Printables, Homeschool Worksheets and Free Lesson Plans, go to Homeschool Websites Homepage

Homeschool Elementary School Science Websites

Homeschooling science classes for the early grades is fun and messy - and great for the elementary student that can't sit still. However, I warn every parent from letting your child do too many volcano experiments....the potential of running out of vinegar because your child was mastering explosions does exist. Since I can't find my two fat science experiment books (nor the vinegar), I'll list some homeschooling science websites here as I find them.

Kids Science Experiments has very easy science experiments that homeschooled children can do with simple supplies. For the most part, these are simple every day household items. The topics the Kids Science Experiments website has listed are: Absorption, Balancing & Gravity, Bending Light, Bouncing & Reflecting Light, Curious Colours, Static Electricity, Floating & Sinking Heat, Magnetism, Materials & Properties, Matter, Mixing & Separating, Plants & Flowers, Pressure, Science Facts, Reactions, Science Facts, Starting & Stopping, Surface Tension, Surprising Senses, and Temperature. I'd love to try the chocolate covered rose experiment, but my yard is full of snow and it'll be a few months before I see any rose leaves. I can easily substitute an icicle for the picking up an ice cube without touching it experiment.

The Pro Teacher website has a list of topics and lesson plans with science experiments that teachers have used in their class, as well as links to other science resources. Many of these require supplies that you might have to go out of your way to find - but there are some great ideas. The science website includes topics covering air pressure, physical sciences, light, heat, sun, solar, convection, chemistry, energy, inertia, insulators, properties, sound and momentum. You'll find homeschool science experiments for elementary grades as well as junior high and high school.

If there's any other New Yorkers out there, this is a cache version of New York State Core Curriculum for Science for grade 1, grade 2, grade 3 and grade 4 from the State Education Department at the University of Buffalo. You can download the pdf at this website.

The Julian Trubin website includes lots of links on science fair experiments and science projects on Simple Machines. There's a lot of interesting science experiments here that homeschoolers can have fun with. There are elevator projects, looking at an amusement park, building catapults and a lot more indepth science experiences. You have to click on the red "R" or "S" to go to the link. The text of the science experiment or science projects are not directly linked. It says the science experiments are for grades 4, grades 5 and grades 6 - but my daughter is in grade 3 and she'd enjoy some of these - and it's a good source for getting ideas and brainstorming.

Discovery Education has a link on Forces and Motion. Discovery Education is always a great website for science homeschool lesson plans, and if you haven't been there, you're missing out on some great homeschooling ideas for science!

The Science Spot Kids Zone looks great for homeschooling! They have everything from the physical sciences, to astronomy, life sciences, forensic science, chemistry and more. I'll have to explore this a little more.

The Av Kids website has a list of science experiments that look easy for elementary homeschool students on Forces and Motion and underneath their heading of "Concepts of Aeronautics."

Eanes Texas School District lists information on standards in science curriculum for third grade and other elementary grades.

Park City School District has a list of pdf files to use for science classes in Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, Fourth Grade and Fifth Grade.

I'll have to cut this post short. Hope these science experiment links for elementary kids is of use to other homeschoolers! We're having a whopping 44 degree heat wave so Jess has to get her bike out and enjoy the nice weather while she can!

Have a wonderful day!

You can find more homeschool science links with lesson plans and free printables for science at the following other blog posts:

Lessons on Wooly Mammoths with Biology Links

Lots of science links for physics and studies on simple machines for elementary students. There also many general science links useful for homeschooling elementary students in science.

Homeschool Links for Lesson Plans on Natural Resources for Elementary Students




For more Free Printables, Homeschool Worksheets and Free Lesson Plans, go to Homeschool Websites Homepage (if you're not already there)!