Best Online Homeschool Resources
Find Great Homeschooling Sites, Free Lesson Plans & Homeschool Help
Tips for searching the Internet to find online home-schooling ideas, support, classes, links, and lesson plans by using computer search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Free lesson plans, resources, teaching ideas, support groups, help, and catalogs loaded with curricula are all available online.
Get Free Homeschooling Curriculum Online
There are web-based high school and college programs for homeschool students, educational courses for all ages, and brush-up classes for parents who feel they need to review subjects. One can also find printable worksheets, educational games, free consumer education information from businesses, and more.
Searching the Internet Efficiently is a Powerful Homeschooling Tool
In a recent Google Internet search, entering the word homeschool returned 5,490,000 results. "home school" (quotes keep words together in the search) brought up 2,330,000 responses. Searching homeschooling gave 6,330,000 choices. "Home Schooling" brought up 8,010,000. (Numbers based on 8/26/2007 search) That's a lot of information, and probably also a lot of junk.
Find Accurate information and Good Home Education Websites
To find a homeschooling conference in an area, for example, try entering homeschool conference Seattle, Washington (entering the area of interest, of course). Knowing the group sponsoring an event and using their name makes the search even more effective. Try reading Homeschooling & Everyday Life Tips. Other examples of more specific searches are free lesson plans, homeschool science kindergarten, or homeschooling worksheets Egyption history.
Best Reliable Jumping-off Points for Homeschool Internet Searching
Sites that keep their links current and actively update information can lead to other good web pages. You can find some by searching Homeschool Links." A to Z Home's Cool is a huge website pointing you to "Comprehensive Homeschooling Information, Curriculum Resources, and Homeschool Communities - No Matter How You Choose to Home Educate - A to Z!" It contains a lot of advertising, but could keep anyone busy for months. Another excellent homeschooling website is aabc_homeschooling.
Seek Out Well-known, Trustworthy Sources for Science, Math, Writing, etc.
Respected museums, colleges, magazines, encyclopedia publishers, newspapers, national homeschooling groups and homeschool curriculum catalogs, often offer well-researched content.
Find Local Homeschooling Groups for Socialization
Most towns, cities, counties, or states have homeschool sites with information specific to the area. Many of these sites are maintained by homeschool parents or groups (beware of those run by the school system as your may get erroneous information). Find out about pre-planned gatherings, classes, online forums, field trip opportunities, high school dances, and more. Try search words like "Homeschool Support Group Dallas Texas." If there are too many results, narrow them down by religious affiliation, homeschooling style (unschooling, etc) or grade of children. It may take some time, but an appropriate fit can be found in most areas.
As a reminder, homeschooling adults should always get back-up resources to confirm information found via the Internet before presenting it to homeschoolers as fact.
Other articles of interest may include: Best Homeschool Graduation Gifts and Homeschooling with Thematic Units.
