Building a Video Collection.

Sometimes when you home school it’s difficult to remember or keep track of where you saw a particular online history, religious, or some other type of educational video that you want to include with your studies.

Now that there are several different online video formats available for free online video watching it makes it easier and at the same time more difficult to incorporate videos into a lesson. Some video websites tend to scare me with what pops up after your children view the clip your interested in showing them. Or there is a video line up with anybodies guess what will be viewed.

You can view my Catholic homeschool oriented video collection here.

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See All that You Can Do With Notebooking and Lapbooks

Just what is notebooking?

That was my question the first time I heard about it.

Grab a cup of coffee sit back with you kids and watch these videos on lapbooking or notebooking they should help explain and give you a better understanding of the concept.

If you already know about notebooking then click the free resource link to find out all about what my homeschool mom friends are talking about. Free resources for Notebooking pages

Sample of States, Insects

First Lapbooking Adventure Doing Lap books with themes.

OKAY so how do I start. The kids can go play now, mom get another cup of coffee.

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My List – Free Science and Nature Study

PharmaOmega Learn is designed for school-aged children who need omega-3 to help them focus and do their best in school.

Interactive Homeschool Fun and Learning find hours of Educational Website for Science, Nature Study, Spaces Exploration and Environment.

ll the activities listed below are free of charge. You may be asked occasionally on a site for your email address, if it wasn’t a safe site it would not have made it on my list!

More of my lists are coming soon and being updated I hope you enjoy them.

4H Virtual Farm

http://sites.ext.vt.edu/virtualfarm/main.html

Learn everything about living on a farm. Dairy, Beef, aquaculture, Poultry, Horse Farm, wheat Farm; view videos, live cam, see live chicks hatched, read all about farming. Meet other Farm kids.

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Virtual Forests

http://sites.ext.vt.edu/virtualforest/

Virginia Cooperative Extension virtual Forest

Click the Tree Detective help identify trees or solve mysteries.

Old Field Succession see how the land is used.

Photosynthesis interactive; very good educational tool that can be used for teaching photosynthesis.

Fun inviting learning activities.

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Zoos

Smithsonian Zoo Animal links

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/default.cfm

They have live webcams and audio to hear what the animal sound like. They also offer photogalleries.

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Smithsonian National Zoo

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Education/ConservationCentral/walk/default.cfm

At Conservation Central there are live webcams and audio to hear what the animal sound like. This website also offer photo galleries. The fantastic multimedia section comes with or without narratives. Great for the Charlotte Mason types to use on a rainy day. There are other selections too, such as, Dirt Detective Tree and soil, Forrest layers, Tree ID walk, Observing Seasonal Changes.

Have Fun with this one!

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Bird Habitats and sounds

Your family with have fun with these sites and use them time and again.

Bird Calls by Habitat

http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/habitats.php

Country, Forest, Cityscapes and wetlands

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Bird Calls Audio only

http://www.enature.com/birding/audio.asp

List of several birds by category with their calling sounds, Great for testing Bird lovers

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Fish Game

http://www.epa.gov/fishadvisories/kids/arcade.html

Find and catch the fish that are safe to eat and throw back the fish that are not safe to eat. You think it’s just a game until you realize the types of fish that are safe and which types of fish are not safe to eat. Good Game.

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Nature Sounds – Natural Museum in California

http://www.museumca.org/naturalsounds/home.html

Listen to what nature sounds like in California – from the Great Basin, Coast Mountains, desert, coastline and more. Learn about the animals that live in those areas of California.

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Field Guide Indexes

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/index.asp

All types of critters and animals. Find a field guide to just about everything, insects, mammals, reptiles, butterflies, trees, seashore, wildflowers, spiders, ocean, poisonous, dangerous, endangered and native plants.

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National Geographic Videos

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/

Kids Sections -
Animals

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/index.html

Games Animals and stories

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

Activities

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Activities/

Science – Equinoxes, Moon, Solar System, Sun, Solar Blast, Missions to Mar, voyager, Hubble Telescope. Also learn about the environment, travel and culture tells about different countries and hurricanes in the special video section.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/science/index.html

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Yellowstone National Park Service

http://www.nps.gov/yell/forkids/index.htm

Main Kids Page includes – website scavenger hunt, Alphabet animal and sounds live book, online Coloring book, print coloring pages, puzzles, word games and Wolf Quest

Game: What’s the difference between Antlers and horns? Match the horns and Antlers to the animal.

http://www.nps.gov/yell/forkids/ahdiff.htm

Go on an electronic Virtual Field Trip to the following locations

http://www.windowsintowonderland.org/

Go on a Geyser Quest, Bison Roam and Yellowstone Exposed field trip. Sounds like fun check it out!

No cost it really is free.

National Park Service

For home school kids who can’t leave the area this Web Ranger option with over 50 interactive games, would make summer a little more fun. You must sign up before you can join in the fun yet, definitely worth it and it’s free.

http://www.webrangers.us/index.cfm

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Printables from National Parks

Find all the Junior Ranger zones at http://www.nps.gov/learn/juniorranger.cfm

Become a Junior Ranger with a Free printable Activities book – Lincolns Historic home

http://www.nps.gov/abli/forkids/junior-ranger-booklet.htm

Big Cypress National Preserve Florida

http://www.nps.gov/bicy/forkids/beajuniorranger.htm

Bandlands in South Dakota – Fun Pages -

http://www.nps.gov/badl/forkids/parkfun.htm

Be a Fossil hunter; learn about Geology, Animal tracks, make an Armored Mud Ball and more.

Find more fun at the National Parks Fun pages for a park near you.

http://www.nps.gov/learn/parkfun.cfm

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Free Public Domain Images from Yellowstone National Park

http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/index.htm

Use them for your school Projects! What a resource!

Public Domain – over 13,000 in the collection; over 23 categories main categories and several subcategories to choose from of birds, animals, people, plants, scenery, weather,

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Free Sound Effect

http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/animal.html

Teach your children what animal’s sound like. This site has a wide selection of animals, just click and listen; very simple. You could also download the sounds if you’re interested in doing an audible story and need the sound of an animal to enhance the story.

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Free Fishing without a License 2009

To Kick off National and Boating Week the Several states are permitting families to fish without a license on June 6th, 7th, or 13th and a few other dates. Check with your local state for dates.

Fish Free without a License in Georgia on these days!

Georgia wildlife.org

June 6, 2009

June 13, 2009

September 26, 2009

Several other states are having a Free Fishing weekend for families the same weekend. So check your state information to find out if your state is one of them.

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Things to do this Summer

Kids Bowl Free All across the nation bowling alleys are offering 2 free games per day to kids 15 years old and under. Check this link to see which bowling alleys in your state are offering this deal. Here’s how it works. They will begin to by emailing you tickets for the week every Sunday morning. There is also a side deal that goes along with this one. You can purchase a family pass for up to 4 people (babysitters, grandparents, aunts, uncle and more included) for $23.00. So your whole family can bowl together. There is only the normal charge for the shoe rental.

Regal Cinemas are offering free movies beginning at 10 AM on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s during the summer. Click the here to check their website. Watch for the select a state drop down menu in the center towards the bottom of the screen, to view which theaters in your state are offing free family film festivals. Not all cinemas are showing the same movies but some of the movies on the marque are Kit Kitridge American Girl, Charlotte’s Web, Curious George, and Horton Hears a Who, just to mane a few.

Scrapbooking or Computer Scrapbooking:

Keep track of all the fun stuff you do this summer and create a Memory Scrapbook. You can also make a Computer Scrapbook by taking pictures of items that you collected on a trip or adventure that won’t last forever. Then post them in your scrapbook.

Here are a link to free clip art for your scrapbook pages to help you along. And, at scrapbook bytes they offer free tutorials for how to digitize you layouts.

I like working with Avery Products when I am doing an Arts and Crafts project. I can trust their products to work. You can 20% Off Avery® Clear Scrapbook Sticker Paper which helps when your looking for deals.

When out in the sun you see all kinds of wonderful things like butterflies and bugs. This inspired me to let my daughter to make my own magnets and I my own inspirational messages on magnets. You can get 20% Off Avery® Magnet Sheetseveryday too. I have purchased other magnet sheets however, I have not had as much luck with using non-Avery magnets sheets. My printer just doesn’t work with any other magnet sheet.

Art Studio CD-ROM

You can also Save on kid’s craft supplies at www.CreateForLess.com.

While your at it be sure to check out Art Supplies at MisterArt.com you can save 75%.

All over the country parks and recreational areas will have a daily arts and crafts area for kids. Some are free and some are a nominal fee. Check with your local parks and rec dept. or head over to your local park some morning about 9:30 AM and see what’s going on.Childrens's Arts & Crafts

Gardening

This summer why not turn your back yards in to Master Gardens. Gardening for Beginners is a fun site to stop at. Choose from annuals and perennials, learn what they are. Plant a vegetable garden; learn how to make and use compost and a whole lot more. Besides language translations, you can enter your location for hardiness zones.

Learn about Dogs

Chances are if your in the 2nd or 3rd grade level and your haven’t got pet yet – here is a nice website for not only finding a pet but learning about different breeds of dogs. When your on the site just click view all and find many different breeds of dogs. Once you find one your interested in click on learn more and you can find out the characteristics of the breed; such as, are they energetic, do they need much exercise, are they hard to groom, and what type of temperament they have. The website is Petfinder.com and while I only mentioned dogs they cover a wide selection of animals.

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