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Showing posts with label educational. Show all posts
Showing posts with label educational. Show all posts

Creating easy free homeschool lesson plans with toys around the house

 Hello friends of my Omschool blog. Omschool is lesson plans from Omi (grandma), a 40 year veteran teacher and homeschool parent. My focus is always on free, cheap and recycled so today, we're looking at free easy homeschool lesson plans with toys around the house. Here are ways to repurpose the play room as a homeschool and toys as lesson plans. 

First, select multipurpose, educational toys. Whenever you purchase a toy for a child, consider how to use it in lesson plans. When people ask what you'd like for the kids, give learning toy suggestions. You could even have a Target, Walmart or Amazon registry. Every toy should provide quality learning experiences. Otherwise it's just a waste of space. 

Now when you plan lessons, you can select from the toys and save money. Montessori says that quality educational activities should use materials found on hand. During the Covid 19 quarantine, I read on Facebook of so many parents looking for online learning activities for their kids. It made me sad because here was a chance for parents to homeschool their kids and all they wanted to do was stick them in front of yet another screen or buy an overpriced, unnecessary curriculum package. 

I get it though; a lot of folks are worried they don't have the skills to educate their children and let Omi just assure you...YOU DO! I was talking to a young mom whose daughter was just diagnosed with autism. She was convinced to enroll the little one in a very expensive program. Basically all the program had done so far was to tell her to engage her daughter in activities (wait for it) around the house. $6,000 to be told that? I'd have told her that for free. 

You don't have to pay for something to learn to do what you probably already do anyway. Trust yourself. There are many excellent schools and programs but ultimately you are the first and most crucial teacher. So give yourself permission to sit back and enjoy watching your children play (as you are able). Montessori also says "Play is a child's work." 

Stay tuned for my list of best educational


toys for children. 


Free Printable Learning Activities and Games for Toddlers, Preschool

Need to occupy a toddler or preschooler? Here are 15 safe, school approved websites for young children. These sites are child-friendly, family-oriented and have lots of educational games and free printable activities for young learners.
Poptropica is cute, engaging, educational and school approved. Children create a character and play
free.
FunBrain touts itself as the #1 educational games website on the
Internet. Teachers and homeschool parents, check out FunBrain for school approved fun while
learning online.

Nick Jr. Check this site for free printable activities, cut and paste and crafts. Your toddlers and
preschool children can color, cut, paste and assemble all sorts of learning craft activities.

JumpStart Kids will recognize these characters from preschool and school activities. This site
requires registration, but once a parent completes and signs, children may play in this virtual world
free.
Disney Family has an nice clean layout that children will love. Starfall and Creative Kids at Home are two other educational sites for preschool. 

Free Printable Educational Travel Games, Puzzles for Summer Enrichment


Need educational car games for summer vacation and travel? Visit "How Stuff Works-- Parentables" for printable travel games. Fire up that printer because you're going to need it! Print travel-themed Scrabble, bingo, Memory, crossword, dot to dot, mazes, trivia, 20 questions, Mad Libs, hangman, tic tac toe, scavenger hunt, tongue twisters, story starters, word search, word games, word scramble, license plate games and more. 

Kidventurous has 
free printable travel games for children. You're going to love the Battleship game. Print license plate bingo, travel related question games, puzzles, car finder search, The educator in me sees learning opportunities in the printable travel math games.

MiniTime has 
free printable travel games and puzzles. Map games are listed by region of the United States (midwest, southeast, etc.) Kids will the love the Disney themed travel games. 

Free Printable Kids Car Games, Activities, Puzzles

Are we there yet? This has to be the most oft-asked question from kids on car trips or vacations. If you've traveled with a fidgety child or three, you're nodding your head. When these questions start, it can make for a very long, tedious ride. That's why smart parents plan ahead in order to circumvent the complaints on car trips. Games make good boredom-busters and whining-stoppers. Here are free printable car games to stave off ennui and keep kids happily occupied on road trips. Use these for bored teens too. As much as they may protest the "baby games" I've found most adolescents love travel games! Homeschoolers, use these as lesson supplements for travel. Teachers, assign these activities as holiday vacation "homework."

Mom's Minivan has dozens of free printable travel games for car trips. There are different styles and game themes. Many of the car games do double duty as teaching materials, too. As a teacher and former homeschooler, I really appreciate that value-added benefit.

Some games are wordless and rely on pictures. This means new and emergent readers can join in the fun, too. My personal favorites are the roadside car bingo games . There are four different printable games with pictures of things kids might see looking out the window (cow, road construction markers, clothesline). Even two and three-year-olds can play if the non-driving parent or an older sibling marks the items spotted by the child on his bingo card.

There are four printable vehicle identification bingo games, too. I recommend these be played with older children who are better able to spot vehicle details. Older kids will enjoy the silly songs and license plate games. Kids of all ages will enjoy the free printable themed coloring pages of cars and animals.

The site offers printable dot games, puzzles, Old Maid, Crazy Eights, Battleship and tic-tac-toe as well. There are free printable scavenger hunt games with words and pictures shown (like a rebus). Learning to connect words and pictures helps children practice reading, spelling and vocabulary skills. These games can be tailored to the age of the children.

Games are vehicle-friendly and require few playing pieces. I recommend cutting and assembling games ahead of time. Place each child's activities in a separate folder, cardboard box or zippered bag. I recommend skipping the crayons as they melt easily. Markers tend to leak on vehicle upholstery. I suggest giving each child a box of colored pencils with sharpener or a 10-color pen. The pen is my preference for travel as it's self-contained. These free printable car games help keep children quietly productive.


Free Printable Curious George Lesson Plans

September is National Literacy Month. And who better to represent it that mischievous monkey Curious George. Curious George has been around many incarnations since WWII when he was "born." His creators, Jews Margaret and H.A. Rey, escaped Nazi occupied France on homemade bikes with the manuscript for Curious George hidden. That adventure was the perfect introduction to nosy, lovable monkey. Here are free printable Curious George coloring pages, worksheets, lessons, activities, crafts, games and even a Curious George birthday party theme.
Here is a link to the parent site of Houghton-Mifflin Books, publisher of the original Curious George series. You can print free Curious George worksheets and lesson plans on reading, phonics,writing, music, handwriting, math, spelling, vocabulary and grammar. Here's another free printable Curious George activity booklet with worksheets for older kids. There are lots of Curious George coloring pages to print. There are also puzzles, word searches and games based on transportation in Curious George books (bike, boat, bus, car, space ship and more). Here's a link for free printable Curious George themed birthday party supplies. The kit features games, crafts, puzzles, name tags, Curious George mask and more.

Here are gobs of free printable Curious George TV show coloring pages. PBS Kids features this beloved cartoon, with a slightly updated version of George and all new adventures. Coloring Book Info has 64 more Curious George coloring pages to print--all free! Cut them out and use for lesson plans, games, puzzles, crafts and rainy day book based fun. You'll enough free printable monkey fun to satisfy your inner primate! Reluctant and emergency readers will love exploring books with George!

Free Printable Ancient Rome Lesson Plans, Roman History Activities


The study of ancient civilizations is essential to any curriculum. From Ancient Greece, the world gets classical art, music, a system of government, Olympic games, philosophy and more. The western world owes much to Ancient Rome for advances in technology. Roman roads were forerunners to the modern highway. Classic Greek and Roman architecture and columns have set the bar for modern buildings. The aqueducts of ancient Rome paved the way for modern plumbing and irrigation. Greek and Roman military, warfare and weaponry foreshadowed modern warfare. Science, astronomy, the stars and planets all have Greek and Roman roots.
All the romance languages stem from Greek and Latin (the language of Ancient Rome). Both the Greek and Roman empire were unparalleled in history. If you're a teacher or homeschool parent, you'll want free printable Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece lessons plans. Use these for social studies, geography, Bible, religion and government. Use these for law, medicine and science as well. Mr. Dowling has free printable Ancient Greece lesson plans and activities on Ancient Rome. Next check out the awesome materials from DK Eyewitness Books. Along with Usborne, these are the best picture books as they show actual artifacts.
Mr Donn.org is full of world history lessons and activities. Mr Donn has dozens of free printable Ancient Rome activities on Italy, the Etruscans (from which comes Tuscany), Romulus and Remus, the Roman Forum, the Roman Baths, Roman roads, the Roman empire. There are activities on Greek and Roman family life, home, buildings, clothing, art, food, music, religion, gods and goddesses and more. Here are lesson plans on the cult of Mithras, a "newer" religion of ancient Rome. Now sail over to ancient Greece where Mr. Donn has free printable lesson plans, too. Check out these free printable lesson plans on the Byzantium Empire too.
ProTeacher has 40+ free printable world history lessons on Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. Print projects, units of world history lessons, activity pages, workbook pages, craft projects and hands-on activities You will need to submit your email address to join the share community at ProTeacher to access your free printables. There are coloring pages, cut and paste crafts, games, puzzles, Latin dictionary worksheets and more.

Discovery Education has a comprehensive list of materials, world history lessons on the Roman gladiators. Student Handouts has free printable Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece worksheets, maps and world history lessons. The wonderful part about this website is that the maps and pictures are primary sources. This means that the maps were drawn during that period of history in question. The images are vintage and historical. Give students activities that cover history and geography as well as culture. Follow up with free printable Greek and Roman crafts and coloring pages from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome from DL-TK.