Thursday, February 25, 2010

Free Comic Books in PDF Format

Comic books are too interesting to be school related. At least, my kids seem to think so. That's fine with me. I get the learning in any way I can. :) So, today I did some searching. And I have found a few comic books that I plan on printing out for the children.
Of course as with all materials online, you will probably want to read over the free comic books first and then decide whether or not you want to print them out for your family. Enjoy!
I'll add more links as I find them.
Here are some how to's on comics.
I am particularly interested in printing out the amateur radio comic books. Several years ago I printed out the first (and at the time the only) book for my oldest (and at that time only) child. He read it over and over again. After awhile, he even started drawing his own comics. I just told him that there are now seven ham radio comic books. Good thing we just stocked up on ink.
Conserving Ink and Paper
Printing free comic books from the internet can use up a lot of ink. So I use the quick (draft) print on my printer. I also print on both sides of the paper. That can be a bit of pain depending on the printer you have. But it saves paper and the comic can be stapled together or put in a three prong folder so it an "actual" book.
Posted by Cookie at 10:29 PM Links to this post
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Coloring and Activity Books in PDF Format

Here are some free coloring and activity books in PDF format. The books are on a wide range of subjects. Some of my children are not big on coloring. They would rather do activity books. So that is why I separated the two. Now, most of the activity books can be used as coloring books as well. So that's a plus.
PDF Coloring Books
*Coloring book links updated 7/18/2011.
PDF Activity Books
*Activity book links updated 4/1/2010.
Lesson Plans
I'll probably move the lesson plans links at some point. But I've only come across a few so far. So they'll remain here for the time being.
Posted by Cookie at 10:26 PM Links to this post
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History of the Alphabet - Video

I admit it. I always liked the educational movies that I watched in school when I was growing up. OK, OK. I still like them. Which is probably why I scour Archive.org several times a week looking for the aforementioned videos. Today I found a gem of a movie made in 1968 called The Alphabet: Mark of Man. This movie is not in the public domain but the owner of it, Penn Museum, has made the video available as long as no footage from it is used without permission. 

I know my 11 year old will enjoy this one. I'm not so sure if the others will be as enthused. But I suspect my five year old will also like parts of it since the movie shows a lot of letters; and, he's a beginner reader.
Anyway, I'm thinking of showing this film and then letting the children work on an alphabet coloring and activity book.
Posted by Cookie at 10:25 PM Links to this post
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Making Your Own Handwriting Worksheets for Free

A few months back I started teaching my five year old to write. So, I started looking for some handwriting worksheets and I quickly discovered Start Write.

It was exactly what I was looking for. And the software really is reasonably priced for all it does. However, I ALWAYS try to find a frugal (code word for free) alternative. I haven't found anything that does everything that Start Write does. But I have found a few free handwriting worksheet generators that suit our needs.

Soft School's handwriting worksheet generator is my favorite. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. But I can save the pages I create in PDF format. Love that! I am in the process of creating copywork pages for the Swinton's Primer. Once I've typed up all of the copywork I am going to print the pages and compile them into a notebook for Dil. And I can just print out a new notebook for my two youngest when they get to that stage.

The ESL Writing Wizard would be my favorite if I could save my pages in PDF. That's huge with me. But other than that this free worksheet generator is the best. There are several writing styles, line patterns, and letter sizes to choose from. And there are also some good instructions on the homepage of how to make a paragraph style worksheet. I used those instructions for the Soft School generator, with great results. You used to be able save the links to the pages you created. But that feature has been temporarily disabled.

Kid Zone also has a handwriting wizard that produces what the site calls "custom tracer pages." What's great about this one is that if you choose the cursive font then the letters of the words on the page are actually connected. The other two sites do not have this capability. Soft School doesn't have a cursive option at all. The ESL Writing Wizard does but the letters are separated. So I will definitely use the custom tracer pages once my younger ones start learning cursive.

Despite it's name, I'm not that impressed with the Amazing Incredible Handwriting Worksheet Maker. (I wonder if I could say that quickly three times.) But the one feature that I believe comes in handy for a brand new writer is the starting dot that is generated on each letter on the worksheet. That's a definite plus for little ones who are at the very beginning stage of writing.

By utilizing the sites listed above, I can pretty much produce the type of handwriting worksheet that I need.
Posted by Cookie at 10:23 PM Links to this post
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More Interesting Videos from Archive.org

An (overly idealistic, perhaps) look at life in the 1950's and 1960's.
Posted by Cookie at 10:22 PM Links to this post
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Free Primers, Readers, & Spellers

First off, let me give a shout out to Old Fashioned Education. I really admire Miss Maggie homeschooling for just the cost of paper and printer ink. I believe that I first found out about the McGuffey Readers on her site. Since then I have been on the lookout for other primers and readers for my children. I was surprised at how many there are on Archive.org. Today I printed out the Swinton Primer and made a copybook using a free handwriting worksheet generator. Here are some more that I may print out in the near future.
Aldine Readers - color illustrations
Appleton's School
Barne's New National
Black's Graded Readers

Christian Brothers
Dale
Kendall Readers
Kingsley, Smedley, Olson - color illustrations
Horace Mann Readers (Walter Lowrie Hervey) - some color illustrations
McGuffey New Eclectic
Newson - color illustrations, drawing lessons
Summer's Readers
Swinton's
Thought Reader
Wheeler's Graded Readers
A Primer: Day by Day with Sam and May
Posted by Cookie at 10:20 PM Links to this post
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Free Movies for Homeschool

Many of these links are from Archive.org. Obviously, these films are dated. But there is still a lot of educational value in them. The children and I discuss the film after we watch it. We discuss what's outdated and what's still relevant. And we talk about the "funny parts", as my children say. Most of these are for my middle schooler. But if the subject matter is light enough then I may let all of the children watch, depending on whether the younger ones are sleeping or not.
Other videos are from You Tube or Google Video. I try to find movies that are pretty accurate and add value to our school.
I'll add more as we cover various subjects.
Health
World History
Science

Posted by Cookie at 8:47 PM Links to this post
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