Making a Puzzle Activity Book

I used to buy activity books for my oldest (and then only) child when he first learned how to read. I'd get the books from Dollar General that contained activities like dot to dots, word searches, and secret messages. It really helped him become a fluent reader quickly because he enjoyed reading the instructions and then working through the activities on his own.

Today, my (latest) 5 year old picked up a coloring book and started working on a word search in it. He completed a lot of it by himself. He sounded out the words in the word list and then looked for the word in the puzzle. I helped him whenever he got stuck.

I had forgotten what a great learning tool these puzzles are. I was temporarily tempted to head out to the Dollar General and pick up a couple of the above mentioned books. But that would be going against my belief that most educational materials can be found for free online. So, I'm compiling some links to some good sites where I can print off some puzzles and put together a homemade activity book.



Free Printable Crossword Puzzles @

• DLTK-Teach- several themes and each theme has several levels of difficulty
• Free Printables - various levels
  

Free Printable Dot to Dots @

• Coloring Crafts
• Activity-Sheets.com - easy #'s 1-20
• PrintActivities.com
• Kids R Crafty - A-Z, by 2s, 5s, and 10s
• Coloring.ws - arranged by order of difficulty

Free Printable Hidden Pictures @

• Highlights Kids
  

Free Printable Mad Libs (ish) Word Games @

• Family Fun
  
• Classroom Jr
  

Mazes @

• Kids R Crafty - 3 different age levels: 3, 4, and 5 year olds
• DLTK-Bible - Bible mazes, varying levels of difficulty

Free Printable Word Scrambles (Anagrams) @

• DLTK-Bible - Bible anagrams
• DLTK-Kids - lots of themes and levels
  

Spot the Differences @

• Kids Front
  

Word Search Worksheets @

• DTK-Teach - lots of themes and you can choose either easy or hard puzzles in color or black and white
  

How to Tell Time: Free Resources

My 4 and 5 year old feel like they know how to tell time because they can read a digital clock. So, we will definitely be covering how to tell time this year. As a matter of fact, that subject and money are two of the first topics we will be covering.

Teaching Clocks
I am making two clocks using this clock template glued to a paper plate. That way each child can practice on his or her own while I'm working with the other individually.

I remember there being a fun teaching clock in class when I learned how to tell time in school. I like the fact that those clocks keep the hour and minute hands in the right relationship to each other. So I contemplated purchasing this teaching clock.

But in the end I opted for this real clock that we can use permanently as our classroom clock. This will allow me to get rid of the digital clock in our school room and replace it with one that the children can use to help them master telling time. When we are studying the clock during class time I will just take it off of the wall and use it during our lessons. And then I'll just set it to the correct time when we're done and place it back on the wall.
Free Telling Time Curriculum
Learning Page is an excellent resource for teaching basic skills in your homeschool. You have to register to use the printables but everything on the site is free. Once you sign up you can print out the telling time worksheets. I am printing out the entire set and placing the sheets in a pronged folder to make workbooks .

I think that covering just one page a day will be more than enough. I don't want to overwhelm or bore the children. So I'll take my time teaching the clock. Of course, if they are very enthusiastic about covering more than a page a day then we'll do that. But there's no rush.

Printable Telling Time Games
The children have a lot of fun when we play educational games. I try not to let on that the children are supposed to be learning. So, I'm looking forward to printing out the Telling Time Family Man Game and using it during math time. We'll be able to use the game once the children have completed their telling time workbooks. But we can start playing the Telling Time Bingo Game (scroll to the bottom of the page) after the first few lessons.

Online Clock Games
The following games look like something the children will enjoy. I think I might let them do the games a couple of times a week for a few minutes once they've completed the page in their workbooks.

• What Time is It?
• Interactive Clock
• Time Teller

School Songs for Little Ones

These are the songs we will be singing at the start of class this year. For some of my children it's review and for others singing these songs will present another opportunity to learn some more basics. Once everyone knows these pretty well (or we've tired of them) then I'll find a new set.

The Alphabet Song



A Counting Song



Days of the Week Song



Months of the Year Song



I'm also going to add a gospel "song of the week."

Learn How to Type Online

I wanted my 9th grader to utilize one of the free sites where you can learn how to type online. After a little searching, I believe I have found a site that will work for our homeschool this year.

Learn How to Type Online with Peter
Peter's Online Typing Course is what we will be using. The site is pretty basic. There's nothing flashy about it. But I like that. I want to keep distractions to a minimum so that my son can concentrate on his lessons and get the most out of them. We are going to start with the preliminaries an then work through the exercises in order.

Work at Your Own Pace
One of the benefits when you learn how to type online is that your accuracy and speed is tested during each lesson. So, I will allow my son to go through the lessons at a pace that works for him. And I'll stress to him the importance of not moving on to the next lesson until the current one has been mastered.

Just One Semester
The typing class will take place everyday, Monday through Friday. So I doubt that it will take an entire school year to learn how to type online. So, I am scheduling this as a one semester class. Of course, if it takes longer than that for my son to become proficient in typing then I will extend it through the whole school year. But again, I don't think that will be necessary.

A Short Class
I'm not sure yet how much time should be allotted to learn how to type online. But this definitely isn't an hour long class. Even 45 minutes seems like it might be too long. So for the first week I'll schedule it as a 30 minute class. I'll tweak the time, if necessary, once I get a feel for how much time works.

Not Just for Homeschoolers
Obviously, Peter's Online typing course isn't just for home educators who want to learn how to type online. Anyone can use it. When I was in high school I taught myself how to type using a book from the library. But I stopped once I'd mastered the letters. I never bothered to truly learn the numbers. So I plan on doing that in the near future.

Abraham Lincoln Mini Unit Study

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and lived from February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865. The following links will help your children learn about him.

Various types of Books About Abraham Lincoln

• Abraham Lincoln coloring book
• The Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People: Told in Words of One Syllable
  
• Abraham Lincoln mini book - children can cut out and put together themselves

Abraham Lincoln Crafts

• Putting Together Abraham Lincoln - paper craft - pages 3 - 6 of the printable excerpt
• Lincoln log cabin
• Lincoln penny pendant

Abraham Lincoln Videos

• Abraham Lincoln: Preserving the Union
• The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
  
• Looking for Lincoln
  
• The Real Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Historical Documents

• Abraham Lincoln papers at the Library of Congress

Encyclopedia Entries about Abraham Lincoln
These are online encyclopedias that anyone can edit. So you may not want to rely on the information in them too heavily.

• Abraham Lincoln on Wikipedia
• Abraham Lincoln on Answers.com
  

I plan on using these links during the first week of school when we'll be concentrating on the letter "A".

Homeschooling without Purchasing a Curriculum

Wasting Money on Curriculum
I have tried using a curriculum with my early students but I have never found one that we have stuck with. I always wind up supplementing to the point that the supplements replace the main lessons. I have always believed that you don't have to have a set curriculum to teach basics like phonics, money, colors, shapes, and time. But almost every year I succumb to the inner voice that tells me that I must have an actual textbook to make sure I'm covering everything. I buy the book and then it goes unused for most of the school year.



No More Guilt
My children learn all year but it's from materials that I put together from the library and from various free resources on the internet. I feel weird admitting that as big as I am on not paying for homeschool materials, I keep falling into the trap and doing it. Well, no more.

Free is for Me
I am not purchasing a single book or program for my 3, 4, or 5 year old children this year. Instead, I am focusing on the three R's: reading, writing, [a]rithmetic. I am making a list of what each one needs to learn and we will go down that list and take as much or as little time needed for each child to master that skill. And then I will use free resources to help the children learn what they need to know.

3 Year Old

• reading - learning letters, phonics
  
• writing - not yet
• math - counting, recognizing numbers

4 Year Old

• reading - fluency using reading primers (specifically the McGuffey Primer)and beginner reader books from the library
  
• writing - learning to write with penmanship worksheets
  
• math - counting by 2's, odd numbers, 5's, 10's

5 Year Old

• reading - fluency by using the Day by Day with Sam and May primer
  
• writing - writing legibly
  
• math - money, telling time

No Need to Model "Traditional" Schools
I taught my oldest (now 11) this way and it worked just fine. But as I had more children I kept feeling like I needed to set up our home more like a traditional school so that everyone would learn to the best of their ability. But I'm over that now. So far, three children have learned how to read just fine without the purchase of a phonics program. And I have 2 children so far who can write just fine despite me never purchasing a book to teach handwriting. And by the end of this year I'll have a third child who will be able to write just fine as well.

Do Whatever Works for Your Family
Now, I definitely believe in the power of textbooks for middle school and beyond. But the little ones, uh-uh.

I'm only speaking for myself here. I'm not knocking buying materials for homeschool. I'm for doing whatever works for your family; and, I'm for not feeling weird or wrong because the way my family homeschools isn't the way that other people do it.

8/8/10 Update: I'm adding the links for the free resources that I'm using for future reference.

Cleaning Up Cookie's Domain

I am finally going to make Cookie's Domain about all things homeschooling. Originally, this was my everything blog for all aspects of my life. But I agree with my husband and a friend of ours that the site should be devoted exclusively to homeschooling. So, my goal is to turn this into a fabulous site exclusively about educating at home.

So please bare with me as I clean things up and remove all of the posts that aren't related to the theme.