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Free Homeschool Tools

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Free Homeschool Tools

I do not have an abundance of money to spend. I enjoy finding free resources that will help me educate my children. Over the years I have found some indispensable tools, both online and downloadable software. Below you will find art, vocabulary, flashcard, grammar, programming and even an complete office suite comparable to Microsoft Office.
Art is such a wonderful way to learn. It is so much more than making something pretty! The process of creating is crucial to the learning experience.

Art

Tux Paint
Free download offered for interactive paint program designed for children three years and up.

Make sure to download the "stamps" file. Your kids will enjoy them and you can even make custom stamps of your kids, friends, pets, anything really! This is my kids favorite part of the software.

Check out the gallery, too. You can send your kids' artwork created in TuxPaint to them and it will be featured in the gallery.
GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program
The GNU Image Manipulation Program, for X Windows systems. Official site, including download area, documentation, FAQs, and a plugin registry.
SketchUp
3D modeling
My budding architect loves it.
Programming is another way for children to express their creativity. Along the way they learn to follow rules and troubleshoot. Programming helps with organized, sequential thinking.

Programming

Scratch
Scratch: a programming language for everyone. Create interactive stories, games, music and art - and share it online.
Scratch Tutorial
Scratch Tutorial. When you use Scratch, you will see a screen that looks like this:. There are three basic parts of the screen: the Button Screen, ...
Scratch Cards
Scratch cards provide a quick way to learn new Scratch code. The front of the card shows what you can do; the back shows how to do it.
WORTH THE INK TO PRINT THEM! Think of them as "recipe cards".
Alice.org
Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to ...
Computer Programming for Homeschool Students by Richard G Baldwin
This professor of Computer Information Technology and Computer Science at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas has free tutorials that start with "Scratch" progress to "Alice" and then on to C++, Java, and JavaScript. Content ranges from Introductory to Advanced.

Study Helps

The Study Stack
Flashcards for studying any subject. Matching game, crossword, word search puzzle, hangman, and word scramble also available. Make up your own sets of cards, or choose from thousands of sets made by other users.
Check out the sets of Greek and Roman roots and SAT vocabulary!
CueCard -- CNET Download.com
CueCard is a simple and intuitive flash card program. Just make up cards for what you want to memorize, and CueCard will quiz you on them. ...Or import sets of cards from StudyStack.
You do not have to be online to use CueCard
HippoCampus - Homework and Study Help - Free help with your algebra, biology, environmental science, American government, US history, physics and religion homework
The best multimedia instruction on the web to help you with your homework and study.
My kids are all enjoying the American History AP course materials.
Open source software is a great money-saver for frugal homeschool families. I try to chose Open Source over proprietary software whenever it is feasible.

Open Source Software

OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite
A multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, free to download, use, ...
Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder
A free, open source software for recording and editing sounds in Linux, Mac OS X , and other operating systems.
Firefox web browser | Features: Faster, more secure & customizable
My favorite browser. (It has a spellchecker built in, great for sites that do not have spell checkers)

Miscellaneous Helpful Links

Graph Paper Printer -- CNET Download.com
Graph Paper Printer downloads. Print custom graph paper in any size and color.
You can print both math & science styles of graph paper.
Map Puzzles: Learn U.S. and World Geography
Learn United States and World geography with Maps that Teach. Free interactive maps to learn continents, countries, states, capitals, borders, physical features and cultural monuments. Available online or as free downloads.
My kids have enjoyed these for years.
Download FREE antivirus software - avast! Home Edition
I have used this excusively for 3 years and I have not been infected by a virus. Download free antivirus software avast! Home Edition a multi-award winning antivirus program, which is your solution to virus protection, with anti-spyware technology offering full desktop security including a resident shield. You can download it completely free for home and non-commercial use.
Celestia
Celestia, a real-time 3D space simulation featuring a database of over 100000 stars, nearly a hundred solar system, objects,etc. Fly through space.
Homeschool Tracker Product Information: Basic Edition
It is our pleasure to offer the Basic Edition of Homeschool Tracker entirely free as our service to the Homeschool community. It is a solid program with ...
Tux4kids
Tux Typing and Tux, Of Math Command.,
Gutenberg:The Audio Books Project -
Project Gutenberg makes audio eBooks available for some of the same great literature available in plain text.
Download some of the classics to an Mp3 player or burn them on CD and you can all listen to classic literature while in the car.
Ambleside Online
The Ambleside Online curriculum is a free homeschooling curriculum designed to be a modern equivalent to the curriculum that Charlotte Mason (CM) used in her own PNEU schools. You will find a lot of free books in e-book format here and on their Yahoo groups.
Google Docs
All you need is a free Google account and you can use Google's online version of Microsoft office. These are the applications:
Documents

Spreadsheets

Presentations

Drawings

Forms

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BAD Experience with Connections Academy

I notice that Connections Academy is sometimes advertised on this lens. I in no way can recommend Connections Academy. I have actually been considering making a lens describing our experiences with them.
My kids were enrolled in Florida Connections Academy for six months. No matter what they claim, they were not flexible with us. One example is they insisted my son complete all subjects in the first grade curriculum before they would advance him to 2nd grade math, even though he could pass each math chapter test with 100% in 5-10 minutes without doing any work in the chapter. He got a 98 on the pretest for 1st grade math.

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ngio64

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