Education Websites

Find answers to virtually any subject at these sites:

First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts - First-School features free fun preschool lesson plans, educational early childhood activities, printable crafts, worksheets, calendar of events and other resources for children of preschool age. The preschool crafts, lesson plans and activities are appropriate and adaptable for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarten level (ages 2 to 6). First-School's content is ideal for home schooling, preschool and kindergarten teachers, daycare, child care providers, after-school and babysitters. (Y)

ThinkQuest Library - Over 7,000 websites created by students around the world who have participated in a ThinkQuest Competition. Arts & Entertainment, Books & Literature, Business & Industry, Computers & the Internet, Geography & Travel, Health & Safety, History & Government, Math, Philosophy, Religion & Mythology, Science & Technology, Social Sciences & Culture, and Sports & Recreation. (Y, M, O, T)

ProTeacher.com - (T)

BJ Pinchbeck's College Companion - "All Things College". This site will act as your companion to Internet links that will prove valuable while preparing for and attending college. (O, T)

SchoolExpress.com - SchoolExpress has a variety of educational materials. We have lots of FREE items and an online store. Teachers, homeschooling families, parents, children, and grandparents use our site. (T)

Innovative Classroom - The resources found on Innovative Classroom are quality and in depth. There are a few unit studies, several lesson plans, teacher tips, activities and reproducibles. (T)

Smithsonian Education - Mixed in with resources for sale on this site are the Smithsonian's free lesson plans (PDF downloads), virtual tours, activities and more on a variety of topics. You may search by topic, grade level, and keyword to find specific resources. (T)

Mineral Information Institute Teacher Resources - This science website has an enormous amount of information and downloadable resources for teachers. From the site: "The purpose of MII's educational programs is to help you teach your students about the importance of our natural resources - How we use them every day and usually never bother to think about where they came from... The Mission of the Mineral Information Institute (MII) is to provide information and materials to teachers and students that result in an understanding that mineral and energy resources are essential to society and are produced in an environmentally and socially responsible manner." 1. A Study of the Earth. 2. Everything We Have and Everything We Use Comes From Our Natural Resources - Food, Clothing, Shelter - Where do they come from? 3. Everyday Uses of Minerals - Our Dig A Little Deeper Series. 4. Creating a Universe - How we use the elements for life and for living. 5. Natural Resources We Use - Food, Fiber, Fuel and Minerals, Where Do They Come From. (T)

Web English Teacher - Children's Literature (Y,M)

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - "Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is a categorized list of sites useful for enhancing curriculum and professional growth. It is updated often to include the best sites for teaching and learning." (T)

High School Ace - The Academic Homepage for High School Students (O,T)

AskJeeves For Kids - I have mixed emotions about this search engine - it gives safe results for kids, but it hasn't been very useful in our specific searches. Try it and see if it helps your kids. (Y, M, O, T)

Smithsonian Education - A gateway to Smithsonian Educational Resources. For educators, families and students. (Y, M, O, T)

Enchanted Learning - This huge site contains activities and lessons for all elementary students. With sections for holidays, explorers, dinosaurs, crafts, calendars, printouts to be labeled and colored, maps, world flags, geography, nursery rhymes, animal printouts, science projects, and more! (Y, M, O, T)

Freebies from Teacher Created Materials - Free monthly activities including calendars and teaching tips can be found at the TCM website. The best find is the free weekly lesson plans, activities, and brain teasers. All of the archives are posted as well, so there are hundreds of free printout resources! (Y, M, O, T)

Yahoo Kids - Comprehensive site for kids. Seems to have replaced Yahooligans. News, Help, Play Games, Watch Music Videos, Check Out Movies, Learn About Science, Read Jokes and Send Ecards (Y, M, O, T)

Reach Every Child - Welcome to Reach Every Child. Horace Mann and nationally recognized teacher, Alan Haskvitz, developed this site of educational resources for teachers and students. It includes lesson plans to make reaching students and using technology easier. Learn more about the site. (T)

Thinkfinity.org - Thinkfinity.org is the cornerstone of Verizon Foundation's literacy, education and technology initiatives. Our goal is to improve student achievement in traditional classroom settings and beyond by providing high-quality content and extensive professional development training. (Y, M, O, T)

Easy test Maker - EasyTestMaker is a FREE online test generator to help you create your tests. With Easy Test Maker you can create multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true and false questions all on the same test. You can also insert instructions and divide your test into multiple sections. (T)

Heart of Wisdom - After a dozen years of examining different teaching philosophies, learning styles--and most importantly--what God's word says about teaching children, I designed an approach of teaching based on much prayer and my experience above. I call it the Heart of Wisdom approach from Psalms 90:12, Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Not only must we renew our thinking about the context of what is taught but also the method of which is taught (Joshua 24:23, Proverbs 3:5-6; Matt 6:19-21; Romans 12:22). The Heart of Wisdom centers all teaching on God's Word. (T)

Trivium Pursuit - A recent discussion about the stages of childhood according to Dorothy Sayers' interpretation of the mediaeval scheme of education, or the Trivium, reminded me that many parents are not familiar with the basics of a classical education. Harvey and Laurie (T)

Hillbilly Housewife - I have seen more people recommend this website on my Yahoo groups than any other. Miss Maggie, the creator of the website, is a homeschool mom who has written many articles for well-known publications and websites. The Hillbilly Housewife website, where s (T)

Free homeschool resource newsletters - The Old Schoolhouse magazine offers many great homeschooling newsletters, including ones for topical unit studies, support group leaders, military homeschoolers, single homeschoolers, and more. (T)

National Geographic EDNET Resource Library - This National Geographic community page provides a wide variety of teaching materials and resources, including grade specific lesson plans, news articles, classroom companions, photos, videos, and more. (Y, M, O, T)

School Express - Free Thematic Units and Activity eWorkbooks (Y)

MarcoGram - An on-line newsletter created for educators, principals and teacher trainers. Has on-line lessons on varying subjects. (T)

Poets Org. - The Academy is a nonprofit organization with a mission to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry. Poets.org is one of several programs presented by the Academy of American Poets. April is national poetry month. (Y, M, O, T)

Knowledge Hound - Knowledge Hound is a large portal site with links to information about just about everything. Want to know the history of baseball or how to avoid investment scams? It's all here, organized in logical topic-oriented lists. Each results page also offers links to topics related to the topic you searched for, making it even easier for you to get lost on rabbit trails! Note that although the site has much information that would be useful for kids' studies, it is not a children's site and might contain links to information you would deem inappropriate. Please preview the site before letting your children use it. (T)

America's Story from America's Library - This Web site is brought to you from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the largest library in the world and the nation's library. Entertaining and fun to use, the site was designed especially with young people in mind. There are great stories for people of all ages, and we hope children and their families will want to explore this site together. You can meet "Amazing Americans", "Join America at Play," "Jump Back in Time", "Explore the States," and experience "See, Hear and Sing." (Y, M, O, T)

Web Quests - A webquest is "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet". They are excellent tools for unit or topical studies when combined with lessons about how to evaluate the reliability of online resources. Webquest.org is an online database of WebQuests maintained by San Diego State University that currently contains over 2500 WebQuests. The database can be searched by keyword or browsed by grade level and/or topic. (T)

Can Teach - CanTeach was created to assist teachers in finding and using elementary resources online. The resources are broken up into two categories. There is a section of Elementary Resources which consists of lesson plans and resources, as well as a section of annotated Links. The site is useful for anyone but Canadian educators will appreciate the focus on resources for them. (T)

Homeschooler Network - Pearson Education has put together a large homeschool resource section with over 5,000 free articles, lessons, and printables. The nicest feature of the site is that it is not limited to elementary resources like so many sites are. You will find lesson plans suitable for students preschool through high schooler. There are many excellent articles and descriptions of homeschooling styles - this site is not dedicated solely to textbook learners. There are many activities and lessons related to holidays, so this is a good place to look when you want to integrate the origins of holidays such as Labor Day into your lessons. (Y, M, O, T)

BBC Children - BBC has one of the best children's sites on the web. It has long been my favorites for their flash games, but the site is large and has much more to offer. School Day 24 connects kids all over the world, particularly kids living in areas of conflict. Science, nature, history, and more are covered in ways that get kids engaged. The site also includes movie reviews, articles, and links to other areas of the BBC site like health and sport, cooking, and more. (Y, M, O, T)

Evaluating Web Pages - With so much information available online it can be confusing to figure out just what is reliable. This Teaching Library Internet Workshop from UC Berkeley teaches how to evaluate the authority of information using such criteria as the URL, the content, and referring websites. This is a skill that every student should learn and Evaluating Web Pages is an excellent breakdown of checking reliability. (T)

Textbook Revolution - "Textbook Revolution is the web’s source for free educational materials. This is a student-run, volunteer-operated website started in response to the textbook industry’s constant drive to maximize profits instead of educational value... At Textbook Revolution, you’ll find links to textbooks and select educational resources of all kinds. Some of the books are PDF files, others are viewable only online as e-books. Most books are aimed at undergraduates, but there are at least a few resources at every level, from kindergarten to post-doc. All of the books are offered for free by their respective copyright holders for online viewing." (Y, M, O, T)

Notebooking Pages - Debra at NotebookingPages.com has a very large collection of free resources available at her site in addition to the resources she has for sale. At NotebookingPages.com, Debra shares how to get started notebooking, gives many pages to get you started, and offers dozens of useful printables. If notebooking is a part of your homeschool, you will enjoy browsing the site for ideas and downloads. If you would like to learn more about notebooking, check out our notebooking page on TheHomeSchoolMom. (Y,M)

42eXplore - Why start with a search engine, when you can find a pathfinder to fit your needs at 42eXplore? When learning something new, it's nice to have more than one resource to explore. This web project provides "four to eXplore" for each topic. On each page you'll find definitions, activities, the 4 good starting points, and many more links and resources for the thematic topic. Go to the About Site page for more information about the website. (Y, M, O, T)

Paperbacks for Educators - Literature list by age, grade, theme (T)

Mister Rogers Neighborhood by PBS - The information in this area can help you better understand the childhood themes in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and the philosophy behind them. You'll also find discussion ideas and suggestions for follow-up activities for children at home, school, or child care. Check out the weekly themes. http://pbskids.org/rogers/parentsteachers/theme/ (Y,T)

George F. Cram Co. Inc. - Map Publishers Since 1867, CRAM offers Free lessons and activities through its Teachers Resource Center. Offers links to United States Maps, World Map & Globe, Landscape Panel, Literature Based Lessons and Geography Terms. (Y, M, O, T)

DebFourBlocks - The Four-Blocks framework --- Guided Reading, Self-Selected Reading, Writing, and Working with Words--- represent four different approaches to teaching children to read. Daily instruction in all Four Blocks provides numerous and varied opportunities for all children to learn to read and write. Doing all four blocks acknowledges that children do not all learn in the same way and provides substantial instruction to support whatever learning personality a child has. (T)

Education Oasis - From forms to book reviews, this site is a wealth of resources for teachers by teachers. Use the navigation bar across the top to find all kinds of downloads and resources. The Curriculum section includes a Teacher's Calendar listing events and holidays for each month of the year to make relating your curriculum to current events easier. Ready Reference in the Resources section includes a list of pertinent sites for just about any kind of research and reference from quotations to statistics. (Y, M, O, T)

Suburban CEO - I love this site. The mission statement on the main page really resonated with me: This site is for every woman who wants to stay at home with her children but has had to reluctantly admit that she often feels frazzled, overwhelmed and not totally fulfilled. This site will help you identify the five missing pieces from modern life as an at-home mom and become CEO of your own life. By doing this you'll be able to: Make staying at home with kids as intellectually challenging (and far more rewarding) than any career. Build a better social network than any of your working friends. Take your house from quiet isolation to being a thriving hub of activity. Set aside your resume: "having it all" does not necessarily mean having a job! By looking at the differences between our lives today and the lives of woman 100 years ago, Suburban CEO draws what I consider to be enlightened conclusions about why women who stay home today are less satisfied and more frazzled than their predecessors. Unlike sites that over-analyze but have no answers, the Suburban CEO has ways to replace what she calls the 5 missing pieces and get you working toward a more fulfilling lifestyle. (t)

Field Trip Factory - August is planning time for the new school year for most homeschoolers. If you are like me and love field trips, you will find the Field Trip Factory a useful resource. Their goal is to offer FREE, life-skill based learning opportunities to educators and community organizers everywhere there is a need. The easiest way to use the site is to use the "What's in my area" search on the left side of the page. Input your zip (or the zip or an area you will be visiting) and see what is available. (T)

Virtual Field Trips - If real life field trips aren't possible for you right now, there are plenty of virtual field trips that can supplement and enhance your studies. From Kim Foley, the author of The Big Pocket Guide to Using & Creating Virtual Field Trips, Field-Trips.org offers a variety of free virtual field trips that have been created by teachers with TourMaker© software, a virtual field trip creator. (T)

Merriam-Webster Online - Not just a dictionary source. Also offers Free games on line such as Daily Crossword, PuzzleWord Game, Daily Buzzword For Kids, Word of the Day and a Daily Podcast (Y, M, O, T)

Encyclopædia Britannica Online - Encyclopædia Britannica - the Online Encyclopedia (Y, M, O, T)

Fact Monster - Brought to you by Information Please © 2000–200p Pearson Education, publishing as Fact Monster. Contains a Reference Desk, information on Math & Money, Science, the World, the United States, People, Computers, Sports, Word Wise, Games & Puzzles and a Home Center. (Y, M, O, T)

Teacher Help - The purpose of this web site is to provide free and low cost resources for school teachers, home school, and Christian children's ministry (T)

The Teacher's Cafe - The Teachers Cafe is designed to, first and foremost, give teachers and home school parents free resources to make their lives easier and to improve their teaching. In addition, it gives parents the tools to aid and tutor their children. Finally, it allows students and all learners of the world to gain knowledge at their own desires and motivation. Online interactive activities and games in the subjects of reading, math, writing, science, social studies and grammar make learning fun and effective. The online activities directory in The Teachers Cafe will enhance the teacher's lessons and give parents an alternative to boring work, not to mention an alternative to video games. The lesson plans directory will give teachers an easy-to-use, categorized gathering of the best web sites that provide free lesson plans. Parents who do home schooling or tutoring can use the lesson plans for ideas and to see what is being taught. (T)

Smithsonian Education - A place for kids to explore, discover and learn. (Y, M, O, T)

The Simple Dollar - The Simple Dollar is for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds - we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money. From investment tips to baking bread at home, the Simple Dollar has content to help you live a life that is sensible while still enjoying life's little pleasures. (T)

How to Teach Science - Teresa Bondora taught high school science for 8 years before dropping her kids out and becoming a Homeschooler. Teresa has seen first hand how intimidated home educators can be of science and has committed herself to developing materials to help reduce the fear factor and bring out the love of science. Her website, How to Teach Science, has articles, lessons, and activities for the homeschooling parent as well as affordable products for helping teach science. Sign up for her fr๋๋ee newsletter for a new chemical element lesson each issue. (T)

TotalMom.com - Homeschool mom Hannah Keeley (author of Hannah's Art of Home, Hannah Keeley's Total Mom Makeover, and The Total Mom Energy Diet) has put together this website as a complete resource for the mom who is trying to do it all and stay sane in the process. The website contains articles, an online magazine (Whole Home), video tips, blog posts, and more. Get motivated looking through the website of this very real "Total Mom"! (T)

Fact Checked - "We’re overwhelmed with messages every day, many of them attempts to persuade us to do or buy something.Our aim is to help students learn to be smart consumers of these messages, to see through the deceptions that they encounter daily, to dig for facts using the Internet and other resources, and to set aside prejudice and weigh evidence logically... The materials on this site, then, are tools to teach them to see through spin. Under the heading Tools of the Trade we’ve outlined a five-step framework for analyzing information and avoiding deception. That process is the essence of what we do at FactCheck.org, where we have been de-bunking false and misleading claims in politics since 2003." Brought to you by the the Annenberg Public Policy Center supported by a grant from the Flora Family Foundation. (O T)

Home School Resource Center - Debra Bell is one of the most well-known names in homeschooling, and not only does she have an online store where you can purchase the products that she recommends, but she also has written many articles. Debra is a regular contributor to Crosswalk Homeschool Channel and you can find some of the great articles she has written archived on her website. From reading about her real-life adventures getting her sons off to college to articles about Laid-back Learning for Non-readers, there is something for every age group at the Home School Resource Center. (T)

Mom's Break Printables - Although a little hard to navigate, this site offers so many printables you are bound to find something useful here. From teaching you how to create your own iron on transfers with crayons and printer paper to customized candy bar wrappers, Mom's Break has something for everyone. Just remember to tally up how much printer ink you will use to be sure it really is cost-effective to print at home rather than buy! (T)

New York Times Learning Network - Connections for students, teachers and parents. Grades 3-12 (Y, M, O, T)

Smithsonian Education - The central education website of the Smithsonian institute. Information and resources for educators, families and students. (Y, M, O, T)

A Kids Heart - A play and learn site with FREE resources for kids and their teachers. (Y, M, O, T)

Christian links 4 Teens and Kids - (Y, M, O, T)

HippoCampus - HippoCampus provides free, multi-media content in many subjects, including Algebra, Physics, Calculus, Environmental Science, U.S. History and more. I found it to be a bit awkward to navigate around entire books on the site, but there is a wealth of information online at no cost. (Y, M, O, T)

Exploratorium - The museum of science, art and human perception. Online since 1993, the Exploratorium was one of the first science museums to build a site on the World Wide Web. Our site now contains over 18 thousand award-winning Web pages exploring hundreds of different topics. (Y, M, O, T)

Harper Collins for Teachers and Librarians - From Harper Collins Children's divisions. Includes a plan ahead calendar of holidays and events, book reviews, teaching resources and book activities. A nice resource for Authors and Illustrators too! (T)

Harper Collins - Parents - From the Harper Collins Children's division. Picture book sweepstakes, Character laptime activities and a pre-school clubhouse. (Y)

Super Teacher Worksheets - Tim at Super Teacher Worksheets offers hundreds of useful worksheets and graphic organizers for everything from math to handwriting. Whether you are looking for more practice with word problems or just some holiday word searches, you are likely to find it here. (T)

Apples 4 the teacher - A Fun Educational Website for Teachers and Kids. Online Games and Resources for Toddlers, Preschoolers, Kindergarten, and Elementary Students. Kid Safe Teacher Created Primary Website with Homeschooling Activities. (Y, M, O, T)

Super Teacher Worksheets - Free, Printable Worksheets (Y, M, O, T)

Alphabet Soup - Alphabet Soup contains thematic units, holiday units, games and activities for kids; teacher and parent resources; and crafts, humor and recipes for all! Be sure to check out the Kindergarten Kafe, recipes dictated by 5-year-olds! Includes plenty of free printables! (Y, M, O, T)

Debbie's Unit Factory - Quality elementary level theme units for teachers and home schoolers (Y, M, O, T)

Busy Teacher's Cafe - A K-6 site for busy teachers like you! (Y, M, O, T)

kiddyhouse.com - The Resource Center for Kids and teachers. (Y, M, O, T)

KidZone - Fun Facts for kids - (Y)

Making Learning Fun - An early childhood education website filled with free printables designed to do just that, make learning fun! Grades Pre K - 2nd (Y)

Library of Congress:The Learning Page - Features & Activities are designed with the teacher in mind. Activities offer an interactive, "hands on" experience and focus on a specific topic, rather than broad themes. They require teacher direction, but invite students to participate. Feature Presentations look across the American Memory collections to investigate curricular themes. They include historical background, helping to tell the story behind the theme. (Y, M, O, T)

The Learning Page - The Learning Page is designed to help educators use the American Memory Collections to teach history and culture. It offers tips and tricks, definitions and rationale for using primary sources, activities, discussions, lesson plans and suggestions for using the collections in classroom curriculum. (Y, M, O, T)

Hotchalk.com - HotChalk is a learning environment for K-12 teachers, students and parents that includes a learning management system (LMS), a rich library of teacher-contributed lesson plans, premium digital content like NBC News video, and professional development for teachers in a Web-based environment. Available through any Internet browser, the HotChalk Learning Environment is an easy to use system and brings teachers, students and parents together to improve education. (Y, M, O, T)

Teachnet.com - Daily tips and creative ideas for busy teachers. Website includes lesson plans, teacher-to-teacher resources and education mailing lists. (T)

The Teachers Corner.net - Teacher Resources and Lesson Plans (T)

KidsKnowIt - This extensive site is actually a portal to several sub-sites covering geography, history, spelling, science, memory, and more. All resources (including games, worksheets, databases, activities, and more) are completely free. (Y, M, O, T)

Lapbooking 101 - Wow! This Wordpress blog has a wealth of resources for lapbooking. I highly recommend these paper manipulative both in the classroom and just for fun for kids who find a topic they are passionate about. With summer coming, lapbooks can be a great way to keep the kids focused on a topic while still having fun. (Y, M, O, T)

Keith's Think Zone - Fun and interesting miscellany for school kids of all ages. (Teachers and other adults are also permitted.) (Y, M, O, T)

Child.Net - Your Online Guide to Youth and Children Resources. A service of Streetcats Foundation and National Children's Coalition. (Y, M, O, T)

Teen and Parent Booklet Guides - Streetcats Foundation for Children and the National Children's Coalition have announced several new booklets for parents and for communities to help children and youth. The booklets are available at no cost except postage and handling. (T)

KidsKonnect.com - A safe internet gateway for kids. I've had four main goals of the site: First, to create a site that allowed children to safely and effectively utilize the Internet. Second, to make sure I covered the curriculm areas taught in school. Third, to make sure there were lots of fun sites for kids to visit. Finally, to keep the site free so that all children could use it. (Y, M, O, T)

Live and Learn resources - Live and Learn Press offers many lapbook resources (called Learn 'N Folders) and their freebie page includes several PDF downloads for free, including an Apple Learn 'N Folder, How to Fold a ShutterFold Book, and an All About Me Folder. If you join their Yahoo group (the link is on the page), you also get folders for Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day and Fourth of July. (Y, M, O, T)

Teaching Heart - Back To School Printables/ Worksheets Free to Print From Teaching Heart! (t)

The Lesson Machine Blogazine - Looking for great ideas to complement our phenomenal members’ resources? Look no further. TheLessonMachine.Com is proud to announce the launch of our companion blog for educators, parents, program staff and administrators around the world. Don’t forget to check here first for great ideas on classroom budget, activities, resources, career issues and more. We’ll leave the coffee pot on! (t)

SchoolExpress - A variety of educational materials. We have lots of FREE items and an online store. Teachers, homeschooling families, parents, children, and grandparents use our site. (Y, M, O, T)

Leaping from the Box - Articles and resources to assist homeschoolers, home educators, unschoolers and independent learners who desire to move beyond the "cookie-cutter" box mentality in their homeschooling or unschooling journey. Ideas and materials for Independent Learners along with tips for using textbooks (curriculum), community resources & online information. (T)

BJ Pinchbeck's Homework Helper - Formerly a division of the Discovery website family, BJ Pinchbeck's Homework Helper has relaunched on its own domain. BJ and his dad started the site when BJ was 9 years old (he's 20 and a student at Drexel University now). The site includes hundreds of links to some of the best educational websites by subject. Now that he is a college student, BJ has also launched BJ's College Companion, a guide to preparing for and entering college. (Y, M, O, T)

Homeschooling for Free - This is a compilation of resources listed by subject on a blog. (T)

Qlubb - Whether you lead a support group or simply want to keep track of the families who come to your local park day, Qlubb is a great alternative to Yahoogroups. "Qlubb is a web-based group utility that enables real-world groups to easily connect, share and get stuff done. Qlubb brings all aspects of group interaction to one simple and intuitive place. With event calendaring, sign-up sheets, photo sharing, member rosters, file sharing, task reminder service, and bulletin boards, Qlubb provides all the functions needed to easily and actively participate within a group." The interface is user-friendly and intuitive. Qlubb is for use by anyone 13 and above (13-18 must have a parent's permission). (O, T)

Kidipede - History and Science for Middle School Kids - (M)

Exploring Nature Educational Resource - An award-winning website with natural science content and materials for educators, students, and parents. Free non-member entrance and a Member entrance. Students can use the animal databases to research animal reports, complete homework assignments, and find pictures of their favorite animals. Librarians, classroom teachers, and homeschoolers can use Exploring Nature to develop lesson plans for units on animals (mammals, birds, insects, spiders, sharks, fish, amphibians, reptiles, etc.), plants (wildflowers, trees, cacti, etc.), biomes (forests, deserts, oceans, polar regions, rain forests, wetlands, the tundra, etc.), adaptations (structure and function), farm animals, life cycles, food webs, ecology, the human body, genetics, space and the environment. (Y, M, O, T)

ClassicalScholar - Diane Lockman created this website as an encouragement to parents homeschooling with the classical method. She now homeschools her high school students whom she has homeschooled for nine years. The site reflects Diane's Christian faith and includes such topics as: Designing Curriculum, Developing Character, Equipping Parents, Supervising High School, Teaching Reading Skills, Teaching Speaking Skills and Teaching Thinking Skills. (T)

Core Knowledge® Resources - Lesson plans - This collection contains units developed by teachers in Core Knowledge schools and presented at recent Core Knowledge National Conferences. The units are organized by grade level, and within grade level by subject area. (Y, M)

Teaching That Sticks - This blog is intended to share one teacher's insights and observations about small ways to make teaching stick. (T)

Evaluate Schoolhouse Test - Create tests and quizzes with eight different question types: multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, matching, short answer, list, order, true/false, long answer. The only limitation to the evaluation is that tests print with banners. Otherwise, the software is fully functional. (T)

Homeschool Launch File Sharing - Homeschool Launch is a file sharing platform for homeschoolers. You can benefit from the labors of other homeschoolers by downloading any of hundreds of education resources created and shared by other homeschoolers. From the rules of capitalization to unit study worksheets, you can find a variety of resources at Homeschool Launch. (T)

101 Ways to Save Money on Homeschooling - A book that can help you save hundreds of dollars, and you can download it here absolutely FREE! (T)

Educational Freeware - Educational freeware site! Specialized in finding and reviewing high-quality free learning software and websites from the Internet - mostly for kids, but also for grown-ups. A large selection of web-based software as well as Windows software to download. (Y, M, O, T)

Brain Pop - BrainPOP creates animated, curriculum-based content that supports educators and engages students. Our award-winning online educational resources include BrainPOP Jr. (K-3), BrainPOP, and BrainPOP Español. All are supported by BrainPOP Educators, which features free lesson plans, video tutorials, professional development tools, graphic organizers, and best practices for our teacher community. (Y, M, O, T)

e-Learning for Kids - Our vision is to be the source for childhood learning on the Internet – available from anywhere and without charge. Established in late 2004, e-Learning for Kids is a global, nonprofit foundation dedicated to fun and free learning on the Internet for children ages 5 - 12. We offer free, best-in-class courseware in math, science, reading and keyboarding; and we’re building a community for parents and educators to share innovations and insights in childhood education. Grades K-6th. (Y, M,)

WannaLearn.com - Over 350 categories of free, first-rate, family-safe online tutorials, guides and instructionally oriented Websites! (Y, M, O, T)

Educator.com - Although the entire site isn't free, there are several free video lessons on Educator.com to get you started with high school science and math courses. These lessons are from excellent instructors (all have doctorate degrees and are currently teaching at universities) and would be a great way to determine whether a student finds a subject interesting enough to take an entire course. Should you like the site and decide to subscribe, it's very affordable. (T)

Lesson Pathways - Online Homeschool Lessons. Free 30 day trial membership. (T)

InforPlease.com - All the Knowledge you need. Part of Family Education Network. © 2000–2009 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease (Y, M, O, T)

Family Education - About Family Education, part of Family Education Network © 2000-2009 Pearson Education. (T)

Teacher Vision - TeacherVision® is dedicated to helping teachers save time. Find 20,000 pages of classroom-ready lesson plans, printables, and resources. Sign up for a 7-day free trial to explore, or learn more about our annual subscription. (T)

KidPast.com - KidPast.com is the fun way to explore our history. We are who we are today, because of those who have gone before us. Brought to you by the KidsKnowIt Network, The Totally Free Learning Network, KidsPast.com is packed with articles from early man, to recent historical events. (Y, M)