Homeschooling Your Aspergers Child: Free Educational Resources

Animals & Pets—
 

·         TeachKind— Kindness to animals. Videos, DVDs, lesson plans, worksheets all free to network members. About how to affect the kind treatment of all animals.

·         Bear Safety in Alaska packet— Booklet and sticker to send for, or download pdf file and print for yourself.

Arts & Crafts—

eCals - Calendars for Kids Recycling Program— Need old calendars for craft projects for your kids or want to donate some? Here's the place.

Computing—

·         Freebyte's Guide to Free Computers— Free used and recycled computers, mostly for schools, non-profit organisations and disadvantaged individuals.

·         Free Computers— Why throw away that 486 machine when its perfectly usable? Here is a very incomplete list of groups involved in reusing computer equipment.

·         Free Color Printer from Xerox— If you are running a home business, an association or large support group, a resource center or cottage school, you may qualify. You must buy all ink through them, and report on your usage.

 

Health & Safety—

 

·         Will Rogers Institute Educational Resources— Educational material on health issues for teens.

·         Safe Kids— Order free booklets about safety around electricity and natural gas.

·         NICHD/Milk Matters Clearinghouse— View, download as .pdf file, or send away for brochures about milk. Also available in Spanish.

·         FEMA Publications— Order a Disaster Public Information Catalog to find out all the materials that FEMA offers. You can call, toll-free 1-800-480-2520.

 

Homeschool-Specific—

 

Homeschool Free Stuff— This is a weekly newsletter that compiles free resources for homeschoolers from around the Internet. We include everything including free Curriculum, Lesson Plans, Resources, Interactive Online Studies, Unit Studies and more.

Internet Site Hosting—

 

·         Free Online Datebooks— Share your homeschooling plans on the web.

·         A2Z Homeschool Blogs— A free hosting service with many Wordpress templates to enjoy.

 

Math—

 

·         Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition— 30 copies may be a bit much for one homeschool family, but may be just right for an ISP or support group needing 30 copies 9 times a year at a good discounted price.

·         The Kingdom Of Ern— Free book that explains the relationship between productivity and inflation to kids. From Monetta Mutal Funds.

·         Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco— Free curriculum about money, monetary policy, banking supervision, financial services, and more for elementary through high school students.

 

Multiple Topics—

 

·         Captioned Media Program— We are a free-lending library of open-captioned videos. We are funded by the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the National Association of the Deaf. Currently, we have around 4,000 captioned videos in our collection and are adding more each year.

·         Consumer Information Catalog— Free or nearly free booklets from the government for learning activities, college planning, parenting concerns.

·         Free Resources— A sortable database for free curriculum online and off. Sort by age, topic, and specific terms.

·         Free Teaching Aids— Resource books, that aren't free, which list lots of things that are available to homeschool parents as well as teachers.

·         Freecycle Network— Made up of many individual groups across the globe, it's a grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is run by a local volunteer moderator (them's good people). Membership is free.

·         Lesson Plans— Websites that have structured lesson plans. Usually these have goals and objectives and meet state standards.

·         Video Placement Worldwide— VPW offers educational materials FREE to qualified teachers, librarians, media specialists, and youth leaders throughout the United States, courtesy of some of America's leading companies and organizations.

 

Language Arts—

 

·         Stage to Screen— Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Turner Learning, Inc., in partnership with your local cable company, are pleased to provide you with this Educator's Guide for TCM's series TCM By the Book: Stage to Screen. This guide and the series is intended to help you introduce classic film adaptations of stage plays.

·         NetLibrary— Borrow books online before you buy. Catch is, you have to return them in two weeks, the software sees to that.

·         Libraries on the Web— Directory of public libraries with web sites. Often you can put books on reserve from the website.

·         Kane/Miller Free Stuff for Children— Free sticker of "Everyone Poops," and other items of interest for children.

·         FunFelt Storyteller Sample— Please click on "Felt Sample & Info" to request a small printed felt sample or other information from someone in my FunFelt Team of local Independent Story Teller Consultants.

·         Free Spanish Lessons— Right here on A to Z Home's Cool! 13 lessons in conversational Spanish, with pictures and sound to help you learn fast! Send for CD sample of more lessons.

·         Free Curriculum and Field Trips— A sortable database for free curriculum and field trip ideas.

·         Arthur Teacher Guides— There are a number of Arthur teacher guides available both online and in print.

 

Lesson Plans—

 

·        
Youth Learn
—
Relevant, creative materials that can help you make good use of new technology. Look here for planning guides, teaching techniques, activities, projects, and more.

·        
Web-Based Projects
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A series of web-based projects written and designed by students preparing to become teachers.

·        
Today is Fun
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The ideas here will keep kids happy and occupied for hours on end, without you having to spend money or buy more stuff. The tips are always entertaining, often educational and developmentally appropriate.

·        
Texas Instruments Activities Exchange
—
Browse by subject area or submit your own activity ideas. Learn to use TI calculators to solve real-world problems.

·        
TeachR
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Presents a free and effective way to collect, create, organize and teach lesson plans in a fast and efficient way. Cool calendaring feature! Free registration for those who want to post lessons.

·        
Teach-nology
—
Offers teachers FREE access to lesson plans, printable worksheets, over 150,000 reviewed web sites, rubrics, educational games, teaching/ technology tips, advice from expert teachers, and more.

·        
Teacher Created Materials
—
Free monthly activities, lesson plans, and brain teasers. New each month as well as archives.

·        
Teach With Movies
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Through movies, introduce children to major events in history, principles of science, extraordinary people, literature, drama, dance, art, character development, and ethics. Low annual subscription rate for hundreds of movies.

·        
Smithsonian Education
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Arts, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies plans.

·        
School Express
—
Free weekly units, free worksheets for online and offline study, and software to download.

·        
Scholastic Lesson Plans & Reproducibles
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Pick a grade level pre-k through 8th grade and then a topic to locate a variety of lesson plans teaching that skill.

·        
Read Write Think
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Access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction through free, Internet-based content.

·        
Praetor Education Technology
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How to use open source software to develop free curriculum online. Free Java lessons for educators. Good math and science resources already developed.

·        
PBS Teachers Source
—
Updated monthly. Resources so you can integrate PBS shows with your unit studies.

·        
Outta Ray's Head
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A collection of lesson plans with handouts for writing, literature, poetry, and using the library, by Ray Saitz and many contributors.

·        
Open Gateways Curriculum for Teachers
—
Training Guides and the Lesson Plans. Both are designed to teach persons interested in training teachers to fully integrate the StarOffice™ suite of productivity tools into their school curricula. Windows and Linux.

·        
NY Times Lesson Plan Archive
—
The archive contains hundreds of free lesson plans for grades 6-12. You may perform a keyword search to retrieve a lesson, browse the archive by subject, or scroll down the page to view the most recently published lessons.

·        
Newton's Apple: Teacher's Guides
—
A complete collection of Teacher's Guides from season 9 through 15 is available. Mostly science lessons, though a few from other topics as well.

·        
MarcoPolo Lessons
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Check back each Monday to see the newest lessons added to the MarcoPolo content standards aligned website, or access all MarcoPolo lessons and resources in the MarcoPolo Search Engine.

·        
Life Skills for Vocational Success
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Life skills constitute a continuum of knowledge and aptitudes that are necessary for a person to function independently and to avoid interruptions of the employment experience.

·        
Lesson Tutor
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Free reproducible lesson plans, unit studies and print ready worksheets for all levels, all abilities and all subjects of Grade School and High School. Featured articles will give you general teaching and learning encouragement, references and support.

·        
Lesson Plan Page
—
Far more than just a "page," this site has plans in all typical subjects, as well as holiday units, computer science, and even PE. Add your own plans to the project.

·        
Lesson Plan Center
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Let TeacherVision.com help you create innovative plans quickly with our large inventory of ideas and materials.

·        
Lesson Bank
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The Teachers.Net Lesson Bank is your opportunity to share your most precious asset - your teaching ideas and lesson plans.

·        
Learning Partners
—
A Guide to Educational Activities for Families that covers a lot of topics: reading, math, science, geography, history, writing, responsible behavior, and many more. For each topic, there are activities that you can do with your children to reinforce learning. Most are simple, everyday activities.

·         Learners Online— Each week there's a new online lesson that takes learners on a thematic journey across cyberspace. Lessons are tied to current events and help learners extend their knowledge on a wide range of topics.

·         Learn.com— Online courses, some are free, some require a fee, and some require software to be purchased. Not all courses appropriate for children, but many are. Unusual right scrolling needed to see the whole page.

·         Learn NC— A program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education, finds the most innovative and successful practices in K-12 education and makes them available to teachers and students.

·         Layers of Learning— Layers of learning refers to the scaffolding all people need as they learn. The more we can connect ideas together ast teachers, the more meaningful the ideas become.

·         Kitchen Table Classroom— Tips and tidbits on how to make learning fun! On this site, we offer a new tidbit each day, so come back often.

·         K to the 8th Power— Over 600 lessons which are organized into integrated and cross-curricular lessons. The integrated lessons teach a computer skill and apply it to grade level academic content.

·         iTunes U— A part of the iTunes Store featuring free lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, videos and more, that you can enjoy on your iPod, iPhone, Mac or PC. Explore over 200,000 educational audio and video files from top universities, museums and public media organizations from around the world.

·         Ideas For Homeschoolers— Marty Layne, of Victoria, BC, posts her monthly newsletter in her delightful writing style that will delight and enthral you.

·         I Love That Teaching Idea!— Worksheets, reproducibles, newsletters, books, lesson plans, ideas and more.

·         HomeSchooler Network: Lessons & Activities— Find innovative ideas for learning at home with our large inventory of resources and materials. Search by subject and your child's age.

·         Homeschool Launch— At this point there are several hundred files (forms, unit studies, lapbook templates, worksheets, etc) created and uploaded by various members of the site - with several more being added each week.

·         Homeschool Huskies and Ponies— Sets of workbooks and projects in different topics. Patches given as awards for completion.

·         Grade Level Skills Help Pages— These links are grade specific to help students practice on specific concept areas. 

·         Google for Educators— This website is one of the ways we're working to bolster that support and explore how Google and educators can work together.

·         Gateway to Educational Materials— The key to one-stop, any-stop access to high quality lesson plans, curriculum units and other education resources on the Internet!

·         Free Resources— A sortable database for free curriculum online and off. Sort by age, topic, and specific terms.

·         Free Printables— Print out unlimited copies of your favorite projects including art, deals, and greeting cards. This is the most comprehensive site offering every kind of easily-printed activity that you can simply copy on your home computer.

·         Free High School curriculum— From Apple. By providing Apple with your email address and checking the box below, you will be notified when additional curriculum materials are available.

·         Educator's Reference Desk— This collection contains more than 2000 unique lesson plans which have been written and submitted to AskERIC by teachers from all over the United States.

·         Educational Resources and Lesson Plans— Over 1000 links to lesson plans and other resources of potential use to homeschoolers. It also includes lesson plans and resources unique to this site.

·         Education World Lesson Plan Center— A resource for lesson plans and research materials.

·         EdSitement— From the National Endowment for the Humanities. Lessons and units for art and culture, literature and language arts, foreign language, and history and social studies.

·         EdHelper.com— Lesson Plans - Worksheets - Teacher's Lesson Plans - WebQuests - Primary Teacher Resources - Math Lesson Plans - Writing Lesson Plans - Reading Lesson Plans - Science Lesson Plans - Technology Lesson Plans - Social Studies Lesson Plans.

·         Easy Fun School— Making homeschooling more enjoyable for both child and parent.

·         Discovery School Lesson Plans— Find hundreds of original lesson plans, all written by teachers for teachers. Use the pull-down menus below to browse by subject, grade, or both. Also lesson plans to support Assignment Discovery and TLC Elementary School programming.

·         BrainPOP for Homeschoolers— Homework help, interactive quizzes, comic strips, and experiments.

 

Science—

·         Visit to an Ocean Planet— CR-rom. Plan a scientific cruise to the Gulf of Mexico to study whales, explore El Niño 1997, or Meet the Oceanographers.

·         The New Genetics— Explains how genes affect your health, and its companion poster, Living Laboratories, presents a captivating, full-color overview of how scientists are using model organisms for medical research. 

·         SPiE's Free CDs & Videos— Light in Action: Lasers, Cameras & Other Cool Stuff; Optics: Light at Work; and Careers in Optics.

·         Spectroscopes— From the Solar Center at Stanford University. Charges for shipping. Please allow 5-6 months for delivery.

·         Souvenirs Catalog, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine— Free animal posters and samples of newsletters on various veterinary topics.

·         Science Project Index— A bibliography of science experiment books for young folks. Includes their Dewey Decimal System number for library location. If you can't find the book in your library, please support A to Z by ordering your book here through Amazon.

·         National Institute on Drug Abuse Information for Parents and Teachers— These materials were developed specifically for parents & teachers. 

·         National Arbor Day Foundation Merchandise— Free educational material about trees, rainforests, etc.

·         Life of the Forest— International Paper is pleased to present our exciting "Life of the Forest" educational materials for your use as research and study sources or as teaching guides.

·         Lemelson Center Education Materials— Lemelson Center educators have developed resources for teachers, parents, and kids who want to explore the exciting world of invention.

·         Human Physiology in Space— A 396-page curriculum supplement for secondary schools available in teacher and student editions. This supplement will focus on some of the primary space life sciences investigations that were designed and carried out to examine the human body's adaptation to microgravity. NASA.

·         Free Educational Materials from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute— CD rom series of virtual labs. You can try these out online first. From the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Most likely of interest to high school-level biology students.

·         Free Curriculum and Field Trips— A sortable database for free curriculum and field trip ideas.

·         FoldIt— A free game in which players around the world compete to design proteins. The real world benefit: Scientists will test proteins designed by the game's players to see if they make viable candidate compounds for new drugs.

·         Findings— Findings magazine showcases diverse scientists who do cutting-edge research and lead interesting lives. Each issue also contains brief research highlights, a puzzle or other activity, and online extras. Published twice yearly. Free subscription for both print and RSS feeds. Free slide kits. From the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

·         Fantastic Flinn Freebies— You'll need to have a name for your homeschool before you apply for these science supplies.

·         Experiment of the Week List— Sign up to this free email list to get an idea for a science experiment that is fun and easy for kids to do.

·         Energenius— Learn about our energy and environmental classroom lessons. No cost! Must live in PG&E territory.

·         Animalearn Loan Program— Borrow plastic animals to dissect or learn about critter insides with software. Credit card insures against loss. You pay only return shipping.

 

Social Studies—

 

·         We the People... The Citizen and the Constitution— A free civics curriculum. If you do not succeed in qualifying for it through this offer, contact your congressional representative.

·         Osher Map Library: K-12 Educational Outreach— Loaned kits are age- and subject- specific, and explore themes through the use of full-color facsimile maps from the Osher Map Library Collections, as well as overhead transparencies, handouts, audio-tapes, slides, and a slide script.

·         Global Oneness Project: Living Library, Volume 1— Order the DVD, and we'll send it to you anywhere in the world� at no cost. 

·         Canadians and Their Government: A Resource Guide— The Government of Canada is pleased to provide access to a new resource guide to assist anyone in learning more about our system of government and its institutions. We will mail this outside of Canada.

·         California Farm Water Coalition Educator Resources— Several free products and unit studies about the use of irrigated water on California crops.

·         Building Homes of Our Own— The CD-ROM game presents a macro view of the entire home building process from site selection to final sale.

·         America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty— A tested lesson plan resource and supplement for Kindergarten-12th grade teachers of social studies, U. S. history, U. S. government, political science, economics, geography, speech, and/or related subjects. Download segments now, or order all on a free CD or printed binder.

·         America: The Story of US— HISTORY is offering America The Story of US on DVD to every school in the United States. School must be an accredited public, private or home school, for grades K-12 and college. In order to receive your school's DVD, your school principal (grades K-12) or Dean of Students (college) should fill out the request form below. HISTORY strictly limits one request per school. DVD requests must be made prior to July 1, 2010. DVD's will be mailed around August 2010 and free shipping is included in this offer.

 

Unit Studies—

 

·         Winter Unit Study— Find out about really cold places, about the science of cold, fun in the snow, and winter tales.

·        
Weird Richard's Lego Unit Studies
—
I firmly believe I can teach literally ANYTHING using LEGO® constructs. Think you can stump me?

·         Valentine's Day Unit Study— A jam-packed page of fun Valentine projects for you and your children. A unit study to share with your friends.

·        
Treasure Island
—
These pages offer you information on everything you could possibly want to know about Treasure Island. Find out about the author, the characters of the book, tropical islands, pirates, buried treasure and lots more! Projects built around "pirate" themes that are both learning experiences and fun!

·        
The Wilder Pageant
—
A family-oriented outdoor drama based on the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder in Walnut Grove, whose writings provided the inspiration for TV's "Little House on the Prairie."  It is a live performance weekend nights in July with all characters from the Walnut Grove area.

·        
Teach Your Children Well
—
Share creative lessons and tips for all styles of home education. Lots of discussion about unit studies.

·        
Recipe for Respect: Sensational Soups
—
Kathy Rusert has developed a unit using a soup theme as a springboard for cultural explorations by integrating math, language arts, social studies, and fine arts. KidBibs.

·        
Parent Child Education
—
With years of experience working with children of various ages and abilities, we have many innovative and fun suggestions that will empower you, the parents, with confidence, information and tools to inspire your children to work to their potential.

·        
Our Author Study of Laura Ingalls Wilder
—
I must admit...this is my favorite unit of study! I discovered the Little House books in third grade, and have read and reread the entire series many, many times.

·        
Mosaic World History
—
In an effort to make rich learning experiences easily accessible to as many as possible, Mosaic offers lesson plans, curriculum guides, and resource suggestions to everyone at no charge.

·        
Miksike Integrated Learning Environment
—
Join in with students all around the world on some project of mutual interest. Webpage templates provided for submitting your work to this site.

·        
Lesson Theme of the Week
—
There will be posted every weekend a complete lesson plan for all ages. Each lesson plan will include all subjects including an art project based around a certain subject. Yahoo Group with your suggestions welcome.

·         Kitchen Unit Studies— Sample using Toll House Cookies as a unit study.

·         Kit Kittredge: American Girl - 7/4/08— Ann Zeise reviews the movie, and offers unit studies ideas to help chidren understand the Great Depression.

·        
Kids Stuff - NC Dept of Agriculture
—
Agriculture can be a lot of fun! This is the place for kids of all ages to play around with agriculture. This area will be expanding and growing constantly. Check back often for more fun things to see and do!

·        
Homeschool Share
—
Try What you Came For Unit Studies or ones related to the FIAR unit studies program.

·        
Homeschool Helper
—
We have a collection of unit studies, worksheets and other homeschooling helps. All of our units and worksheets are free.

·        
Happy Homeschool (Used to be Funschooling Unit Study Archives)
—
Karen Caroe has been publishing her unit studies online since 1997 and has quite a collection of interest to homeschool families. You could also join the Funschool Units Discussion list.

·        
Free Coloring Sheets
—
Add illustrations to your unit studies. Hundreds of topics to choose from. From thebestkidsbooksite.com.

·         Fire Prevention Unit Study— Fire Prevention Week provides lots of opportunity to discuss fire safety with your children.

·         Explorations 4 Kids— Truly fun online learning! Make this your online learning center!

·        
Debbie's Unit Factory
—
Elementary level units both online and to order. Each unit is designed to appeal to children and includes many child-centered activities.

·        
ABC Teach
—
Some of the themes include: Coral Reef, Rain Forest, Butterfly Centers, Antarctica, Peace Circle, Spring, and Where the Sidewalk Ends Presentation.