PDF to JPEG Converter

Google came to the rescue once again for my homeschool planning. A while ago, I downloaded a great homeschool planner for each kid and I loved the layout. I did not however love writing the same stuff over and over again (like their weekly chores and subjects) and my kids kept complaining that I make some of my letters funny. So I found a way to convert my pdf of the page to a jpeg so that I could put it in a Power Point slide and add text to fill in the blanks. Now I will only have to print a fresh planner page each week and I can add any text that I need with minimal effort. And if I choose to type their memory verse instead of writing it, I can just copy and paste from one page to the next. If you have multiple kids and a planner page you love, I would definitely check out this site and see if you can work the same time saving magic.


This pic is of a planner from Life of a Homeschool Mom that I got when it was a freebie but it is still available on sale. If you want to stick with a free planner, The Homeschool Mom has a great one or you can find a lot of choices with a google search.

Cursive Writing Freebie Recommendation

My search for cursive writing resources started when I told me daughter that she couldn't randomly put capital letters in the middle of words. It wasn't that she didn't know the rules, but she thought that sometimes an uppercase letter looked prettier in a certain place than the lowercase counterpart. I had to stifle a giggle because as an adult, my handwriting is often a mix of upper and lowercase letters within words based on the surrounding letters. Since she wanted to have her words look pretty and I wasn't willing to bend on the proper capitalization issue, she asked if she could learn cursive. I told her yes and looked for a program that was free because I wasn't going to purchase something because she had a sudden urge to give it a try. I found a great packet on K12reader.com that had a page for each letter and then also had words and sentences on the page. I liked that they learned the connections as they learned the letter because that's the trickiest part of moving from print to cursive. At first I thought it would be overwhelming, but both kids actually picked up cursive in a month using this along with me helping them practice their letters. These sheets can also be adapted for younger kids by putting them in sheet protectors to trace the words with dry erase markers. This packet is great for either starting to learn cursive or for transitioning from writing single letters to connecting the letters into words. I was hesitant to share this link because I used it before the common core initiative got started and this site does show what standards all their worksheets address. However, since none of their worksheets were changed to meet the standards and because this really was an easy way to introduce cursive (and because a really good friend urged me to share), here is the link.

Always Icecream/Clever Dragons Review

We joined these sites through a freebie that I shared here and the kids have been trying it out ever since. I recommend enabling the social features because that was a main selling point for my stubborn youngest. Her first reaction to the site was, "You tried to trick me! It's just dumb learning games!" When I called my son in to set up his account, she sneaked in and saw how fun it was and came crawling back for her turn. The parenting site lets me assign specific activities for them to complete for game currency (scoops for her and gold for him) that they can use to buy items for their house, purchase eggs to hatch pets, and buy items to take care of their pets. They can also make things and sell them in a store or babysit other members pets for pay. The store aspect is neat because it teaches them about setting prices and making profits without the stickiness of a lemonade stand, which would be futile in our somewhat isolated neighborhood.

The learning aspect of the site is fun because kids are rewarded for completing activities in all subjects and then they can enjoy fun time as well. I assigned my oldest some reducing fractions problems and he did it without complaining. Any questions that the kids miss are repeated as review at the end of the level, so it's also a teaching tool. We haven't covered countries much yet, so when they played that game, a lot of it was guessing and then they'd see the location and repeat it at the end. So it's not just review but also a chance to gain new information. It is such a good site that I am considering whether to continue it as part of their curriculum instead of purchasing supplemental books, but I will decide at the end of summer whether to have them go back to webkinz to get their pet fix for free and keep up with the less detailed learning game sites.

Turtle Diary

I wish that I had found this site when the kids were a little younger because it's full of great resources. Turtle Diary is a site where you can set up a free account and add students. Once you are registered, there are online games, ebooks, worksheets, and skill practice. As the parent of the class, you can track the activity of your kids and also explore science experiments and basic crafts. So far, I have kid #2 loving her account and accessing the games when I give her free time on the computer. For kid #1, I have printed some practice worksheets, but I haven't explored the older grade activities and games for him. Overall, the site is easy to navigate and my only challenge so far is finding which activities match the skills that the kids are working on since grade level is so subjective when you are a homeschool parent. The other bonus to this site is that it's independent of the federal common core initiative.

Math-Aids

Math-Aids is my go-to math site these days. We use Teaching Textbooks for our core math, so I use it mainly for practicing skills or review. If I decided to step away from TT, I could do a full year worth of math with this site alone, and it's free, not aligned to the common core standards, easy to use, and super customizable. You can select what type of worksheet to print and adjust the problems for skill level. For example, if I wanted to do multiplication drills, I can choose from standard worksheets or fill in times tables. I can select the range of numbers used or what percentage of the times table should be left blank. Fraction sheets can be visual or without pictures, color or black and white. There's even a spot to put a message on the bottom of the page, and I'd sometimes sneak little messages to the kids there. Overall, you could rely on this site for a comprehensive elementary level math curriculum.

Math Drills

When I started out homeschooling, I wanted to do as much as possible in the younger grades on a really tight budget. For math, I grabbed a Spectrum math book at Barnes and Noble using my educator's card for under 9 bucks. Then I used it as a skeleton for our year and added worksheets to each unit from printing out freebies. Spectrum has since gone common core as have most of the workbooks at the bookstore so I found a great alternate site that could make a very effective outline. It's called Math Drills and there are a set amount of pages for each skill. If you scroll down the page, you can see the main listing of skills and you can start with early skills like learning numbers under the number sense banner and go up from there. The only drawback is that the listing down below is alphabetical order and not by age/skill level, but only a little organization is needed to get around the sites. The other benefit to the site is that once you get to the page with the sheets, you can download the pages one at a time or in a mass pdf. This makes it much more easy to print the pages and assemble them into a binder to make your own workbook that is similar (if not better) to the common core ones on the shelves.

Once you have your basic pages printed and assembled, you can work through it with your child and go to the other free sites to print supplemental sheets as needed for you kid. There are two basic styles of math learning--spiral based and mastery based--and this create your own workbook method could work for either. Mastery focuses on learning a skill throughly before moving to the next topic. If you opt for mastery, you could use just the pages from Math Drills and add as needed from other sites until each skill is mastered. For example, if you kid learns numbers quickly and breezes through addition but gets stuck on subtraction, you can print extras of subtraction to insert before you tackle the time pages. Spiral math is heavy on reviewing topics as you go, so you can arrange the pages in your binder with the supplemental sheets scattered throughout the notebook and add sheets on weaker areas.

Overall, I'm glad that I found this site that could work as a solution for the common core workbook problem. I actually wish that I had known about this site before we finished first grade because I could have done a much better job tailoring his first year of math to his skill levels.

EZ School

EZSchool.com is an amazing site that is filled with free materials for Kindergarten through 12th grade. The site does contain ads as a way to keep the materials free but I did not notice any of them as I was first exploring the site. It did take a bit to catch onto the maneuvering of the site. When you click on a grade or subject, you must click on a big category (think of a paragraph sized link) and then the next page that opens will have the more detailed links. Clear as mud, right? The best way to figure out the site really is just to take a few minutes to explore the different links from the main page. You can select by category (worksheets, games, etc) or by grade level. One main benefit to the worksheets that are generated is that they have a space for name and date and then right below that is a line with a description of the lesson already filled in for you.

The site does have the option to access part of it without logging in, but you also have the option of creating a free account. So far, I've just been browsing as a guest but I will most likely create an account to see what else is available. Bonus--This site is independent of the common core standards.

Worksheet Works

I love worksheet generators. Absolutely love them. It's so nice when you find a site you like that has worksheets that match what you need and it's a thousand times better when you can get unlimited new worksheets from this one site. We are finishing up a refresher lesson on alphabetizing and I wanted to find some worksheets that would be good for reinforcement of this skill and also for review purposes later.

Did i mention that I also love Google? That's a side note, but the amazing powers of Google is what led me to this website, so I figured I should show my Google love for a brief minute. What I love most about Google is its almost freaky ability to read my mind and find what I want when I type weird things in the search bar. This time I wrote "alphabetizing worksheets" and my first result was to Worksheet Works Alphabetizing Skills Once I created a couple of worksheets, I started peeking around the rest of the site and was amazed by all of the resources. This site is still under development so there are a lot of features still to come, but I am enjoying exploring the many sections that they already have up and running.

If you are a homeschooling parent and want to save money on curriculum, this site is very user friendly and a great way to supplement your learning. I love using the basic workbooks from Barnes and Noble as a rough skeleton for the year(the Flash series is currently our preference) and then add on to each lesson with free worksheets. And the bonus of a generator is that you can print just a couple for the skills that your child masters easily or you can go back and print more if your child needs extra practice.

Worksheet Works definitely gets a huge thumbs up from me! And since I'm really not liking how lame that recommendation sounds, it seems like it might be time for me to come up with some cheesy yet memorable rating system for the sites and resources that I come across. 5 pencils out of 5, perhaps?

One of my favorite organization sites

The first step to getting started on homeschooling is to get organized. For me, organization is a goal i strive for but also struggle with at times. A great web resource that has helped me get focused and on track with my lesson planning was the homeschool planners section on The Home School Mom website. It is filled with great printables including weekly planners, reading logs, tracking charts, and lots of printable pages to help with home organization too. I have found that the more organized I am with day to day chores and meal planning, the easier it is to balance the roles of teacher, wife, and mom as well as staying on top of my own activities like bible studies and computer time.

Now, I tend to be a tad bit overzealous and use ideas that I see in planners and then adapt it for a style that will work for me. I work best with a blank grid system and with a nice mechanical pencil. So another key to getting organized is to be flexible and willing to change if one style is not working for you. That's one main reason that I have never bought a planner....I like having the freedom to print from scratch and I'm less likely to keep using a style that doesn't work if I don't have a lot invested in it financially. And as soon as i can figure out how to place files in my blog, I will gladly share the forms that I have created and use now.

So...anyone stumbling across this blog that is way more experienced than I am is welcome to teach me how to share files :) Otherwise, I'll keep googling and searching until I figure it out the hard way.