Today we are learning about VIKINGS! We're watching NOVA's 'Secrets of the Viking Sword' which is available on Netflix, and making a Viking Longboat! We will also take a virtual tour of a Viking Village and Farmhouse. You can also write your name in Runes. You can find a five-part complete lesson plan on the Vikings from Ireland. It has good discussion questions, more activity suggestions and some primary source material is included.

You can keep the younger viking(s) busy with a Leif Ericsson coloring page.

You're now ready to set sail on your Viking voyage!

Netflix is a great resource that is easy on the family budget. At just $7.99 + tax per month you can stream unlimited videos. Streaming can be done through most current gaming systems like Wii, Xbox, and PlayStation. Blu-ray players also have this function and of course you can stream on your PC or laptop. However if your internet speeds are below 3 Mb Netflix will not stream properly, 3 Mb download speed is the minimum requirement for it to work properly, otherwise it will buffer and load every few seconds instead of playing in a nice continuous stream.

Recently Netflix added profile options, so you  can set up several profiles and for children you can set age restrictions, so they are unable to view anything that is rated above their age range. Good job Netflix!

Now with that being said, Netflix has a vast array of educational movies, documentaries and TV shows. You could search through each genre to find the ones you like and add them to your playlist, but the best way to do this is to use the Search box at the top. You can use this just like you would Google, just type in a phrase and it will find matches. You can search by age range as well. You can search by TV channel name as well. Below are some examples that yield some of the best results.

Nova

TED Talks

Science Channel

Discovery

Animal Planet

National Geographic

Nature

BBC Documentaries

Science & Nature Documentaries

Education for Kids

Science & Nature TV

Today's freebie of the day is Le Magick Halloween Coloring_Book. Get the kids (or yourself) in the Halloween spirit by coloring some Witches, Ghosts, Haunted Houses or maybe a black cat. Take your pick!

This coloring book could lead to great Halloween unit studies. Google old photos of vintage costumes, fall/Halloween customs in other countries, the history of Halloween, etc. Have fun!

It's Fall Ya'll!

So to kick off Fall and Halloween we have an Autumn Leaves Mini Science Project. Now that the leaves are turning and beginning to flutter to the ground it is a great time to start leaf identification and leaf collections!  You can even take field trips to the park or a state park to collect different species of leaves that you may not have around your yard. This is a great way to just get outside with the kids and do something fun and educational. Enjoy!

We are starting something new here at Home School Freesource.  The theme for October is Fall and Halloween, so every day we will be posting a different freebie download for your learning pleasure. So be sure to check us out daily for something new. And since today is the last day of September we are gonna kick it off a day early. Enjoy!

Today's freebie is the Four Funny Pumpkins Pocket Chart.

One of the great things about home schooling is that you can plan field trips around family vacations or day trips. With a simple Internet search you can locate lots of educational things to do together as a family no matter where you are going. Our son loves reefs and sharks so we turned his 7th birthday into a field trip to the Ripley's Aquarium where they had a lot of hands on interactives for kids as well as factoids, videos and the like. And by using our home school I.D. card the 3 of us got in for the price of 1 adult admission. Make sure to call ahead or check the website for home school discounts. Some places offer it daily, other places do a "home school day" once a month.

Dinner time is a great way for families to connect and share. Even something as simple as a family dinner at a local restaurant can become a great learning experience about different foods from other cultures. (i.e. Mexican, Chinese, Thai, German, etc.)

So talk to one another and learn something new no matter where you go!

Hi there!

Welcome to the Homeschool Freesource.

It's easy to become overwhelmed by all the different and expensive home school curriculum out there for purchase. But why spend your family's hard-earned dollars on expensive curriculum, when you can save money by utilizing all the free resources out there on the internet? We offer a compilation of all of the best free resources out there on the internet.

We cover all grade school subjects, from science and math to foreign languages and arts. We even offer Preschool, College, and Autism learning resources.

If there are free resources you really love and want to see added please let me know and I will add them to the freesource.

- Home School Freesource Team