Inquiry In Action is a a 470-page resource of guided, inquiry-based activities that covers basic chemistry concepts along with the process of scientific investigation. It was developed and written by James Kessler and Patti Galvan from the office of K-8 Science at the American Chemical Society. Experienced educators both, Patti worked as an elementary school teacher with a keen interest in science education before coming to ACS. James has been developing resources for K-8 teachers for 20 years.

Why am I going on about this book, you ask? It is FREE! I kid you not… all 470 pages (phew!) are available for download here.

Cool, right?

It’s a funny name, but this isn’t a site to be taken lightly :) English Banana provides loads of free English resources. Those of you who are looking for a free grammar programme for elementary students can use English Banana’s Big Grammar Book.

It’s jam-packed from cover to cover with a great selection of photocopiable worksheets taken from the popular English Banana.com website. We wanted to provide teachers with a really useful book of no-nonsense grammar worksheets that they can dip into and use in class with students at ESOL Core Curriculum Entry Levels 1 & 2 [Elementary Level]. It is also ideal for students to work with at home since the answers are all printed at the back.

The book is divided into four parts and is graded in difficulty, so that it begins with some basic stuff and builds up to more challenging grammar activities. It features a selection of Essential English worksheets which provide practice for crucial basic areas of knowledge for learners at Entry Level, like using numbers, writing the alphabet, spelling days and months correctly, and so on.

Did I mention it is FREE? :P

Download the Big Grammar Book here or here.

OK, I am finally feeling dead on my feet… I guess the Panadol Extra’s worn off. I’m off to catch some sleep before the kids wake up.

A mum once asked on a homeschooling bulletin board if it is possible to homeschool without a library in town. I said it is because *I* homeschool without a library in town :) I told the sister that when I am in Singapore, I am the crazy lady with equally crazy kids dragging suitcases of books from the neighbourhood library. In Islamabad though, I make do and alhamdulillah, it really has not been a hardship. We are blessed with second-hand bookstores which have allowed us to build our own library of award-winning literature and reference books.

There are also lots of free online resources. I’ve been busy surfing (can’t sleep – must be all that paracetamol in my system) so I’ll be sharing links over the next few days in shaa Allah. (Aren’t you guys glad I’ve sworn off Facebook and Farmville?? :P)

So, to kick off my Freebie Frenzy, here is a site that I’ve found useful.

Lesson Pathways is a FREE online educational resource for grades K-5. It contains high-quality, pre-screened online units (Pathways) that are designed to serve as either a full curriculum or as a supplement to your existing lesson plans.

You can choose how to use their resources:

A Guided Journey is a 36-week learning plan in one of the core subject areas, for a specific year or grade level (ie. Year 1 Science). A Guided Journey is made of individual Pathways. You may follow our recommended Guided Journeys or mix and match Pathways to create your own 36 week course.

A Pathway is a single unit on a given topic (e.g. Animal Life Cycles). Each Pathway contains content for one week of instruction, depending on how often you teach a given subject. Each Pathway is made of multiple Stepping Stones.

A Stepping Stone is a single resource. This may be a lesson, video, worksheet, hands-on project, ebook, online game, or other activity (e.g. Create a Spider Life Cycle Poster). Multiple Stepping Stones make up a Pathway.

The site has a planner that allows you to assign, customise and track pathways for each child. If you already have a curriculum, then Lesson Pathways can supplement it by providing you with free online links and materials.

Thanks to Alice, I realised that I’d forgotten to include a few more English resources I use. :)

Grammarland – yet another piece of yesterday’s classics. We love things with a vintage flavour and we love them even more when they are free :P This is a fun and funny read… perfect for Charlotte Mason home-edders. There are exercises from the book that you can do and Jessica Cain of We Don’t Need No Education (oh that blog name brings back memories!) has made some very nice worksheets to save you the trouble. You can access her worksheets here. There are 17 in all.

Another resource I’ve used is First Language Lessons (Well Trained Mind). The lessons were short and easy to implement and even my younger one who wasn’t reading yet found the lessons fun. I have Writing With Ease also by the Well Trained Mind but I really did not like some of the content as it referred to magic, myths and other things that are unIslamic. So I made my own copywork book. (In shaa Allah, once I improve it, I’ll upload it.) We have also begun to do dictation more frequently and for this, I choose a short paragraphs from chapter books she likes. We read the paragraph together and analyze the punctuation and grammar. Then Mars is left to prepare on her own. She is dictated to the next day.

Mars has written a couple of short stories on her own and even one for Science where she imagines what life would be like as a creature living in the trees. She enjoys it but often worries that her works are not good enough. (*sigh*) I found The Creative Journal for Children by Lucia Capacchione at Borders when I was in Singapore and I think it will help her ease up a little and just enjoy the creative process. The activities are suitable for kids from preschool through junior high so in shaa Allah I will do them with her younger sister as well. What I like about the book is that it encourages kids not only to record their thoughts and dreams through writing but also through illustrations. No grading, no criticism… just self-exploration and expression.

I purchased English From The Roots Up by Joegil Lundquist a year ago! These are Latin and Greek root cards and I had big plans for the programme, but *ahem* have not started on it in earnest, I am ashamed to say. We have only been reading the cards for fun. Mars does enjoy learning languages and is keen to start on Roots, but I will have to wait till after the summer (her Math needs work!).

Like I mentioned earlier, we are also reading more poetry these days. I got Mars hooked when I read her Michael Rosen’s (don’t you love him?) Who’s Been At The Toothpaste?. We’ve got a few anthologies and have been working through them. Robert Frost and Robert Louis Stevenson are some of her favourites.

I think I’ve got enough to keep us busy for a while. I now need to curb my curriculum junkie impulses :P

Good times, alhamdulillah.