Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

dy•nam•ic constant change, progress, activity

handson

Winter Homeschooling – Activities and Free Downloads. 5 Days of Look Alive. Day 1- Look to the Sea.

| 7 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I actually like winter homeschooling, but I also like change. So when I need inspiration I look to the ocean or sea to inspire me. Did I tell you that I grew up close to the ocean?

Winter Homeschooling – From Humdrum to Humdinger. (well, okay, okay)

I have fond memories of walking on the beach even when the weather was cold, collecting shells and afterwards grabbing a hot cup of southern gumbo. It brings calm to my day when I ponder about it.

Creating this series will allow me to share ideas I rounded up to give us a boost when we sag, while at the same time saving these links and ideas here on the blog for later.

I tend to get a lot of attitude pep in my step this time of the year.

One tip that has saved me several bucks over the years is to determine first if it’s the curriculum, winter homeschooling doldrums, my attitude or all of it when we feel like blah.

Before I make a change, I try new activities, preferably free and see if I can find my rhythm again. I find many times, it is wanting a change during winter homeschooling.

5 Days of Look Alive Winter Homeschooling. Day 1 Look to the Sea. @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

But, if you get the blahs during winter homeschooling, maybe you can use some of these links and get wild and savage.

Too, be sure to download everything you like from these sites because links can change and even if you don’t use them until several years down the road, you will have them. The sites I wanted to focus on today are Independence Seaport Museum. and Project Oceanography  and The Mariners’ Museum. All of these sites have multiple packets, free lesson plans or guides to download.

Hands-On Homeschooling

A lot of them with tons of wonderful pictures and printables. I took just a snippet of some of the printables from each site to share with you. Mark these, download and peruse them.

Independence Seaport Museum has teacher packets available for free from grades K – 12.

Download here K to 3 Teacher Packet.
Download here Grades 4 to 6 Teacher Packet.
Download here Grades 6 to 8 Teacher Packet.
Download here Grades 9 to 12 Teacher Packet.

Free Downloads from Independence Seaport Museum @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Free Downloads from Project Oceanography @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Also check out the free online resource How to Identify Sailing Ships on the site. Awesome. You better take your time on this site too. Project Oceanography has about 14 Program Packets on the right side of the page.

Snippets of Free Downloads from the Mariners Museum @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Click on each packet and you will be kept happy sorting through links, lesson plans and downloads. A snippet from The Mariners’ Museum has quite a few projects that are hands-on and in pdf form. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the printable activities.

This is probably my favorite of the three sites because it has such a treasure trove of things that are easy and hands-on.

Ready for winter now.

Oh, wait, four more days of goodies to go. Here they are below!

5 Days of Look Alive Winter Homeschooling. Day 1 Look to the Sea. @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus featured

Hugs and love ya,

Also, look at 50 Keep Me Homeschooling Activities During the Long Cold Winter Days and Winter Season Unit Study.

5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids

| 7 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have 5 free and fun hands on science activities for homeschooled kids.

About this time of the year when fall and winter start setting in, I always like to share some freebies that give me a quick and free (always nice) way to change my pace.

Okay, okay, you know I love freebies and I always store them and organize them so I can share with you too.

5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids

With all the wonderful free educational things online sometimes it can take long to sift through the ones not worth messing with and the ones that can add enrichment to your day.

So I have done that for you today.

Since they are free too, they are great options to even just drop what you’re doing and switch gears.

Change is good and when change in curriculum is free, it’s pretty sweet.

Remember, download each guide and keep it because all the downloads are just full of fun things and ideas to do.

Besides, some of the freebies go away after a time.

So today, I have 5 free and fun science activities for homeschooled kids.

Okay, maybe I have a bit more as I started collecting.

5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids
5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids

1.Alaska Songbird Institute has a Creamer’s Field Student Activity Book. Free 28 page download.

This is a fun way to learn about birds with the little guys and for the kids that like to color.

Though it’s a guide for that area, it has several different birds in it like geese, ducks, birds of prey, cranes, chickadees and sparrows.

Each page has a color number code so you know what color to color the bird.

Just print off the guide, do with your children and enjoy.

5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids
5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids

2.This guide has already been archived so you want to be sure  to download it.

This next free 23 page .pdf download is intended to be used in a nature reserve, but it has so many excellent pages.

From habitats, to bird beak matching to dormouse and bird identification sheets, it is full of activities.

You can even scoot out doors to see if you can find some of these shrubs and trees in your area.

MORE FOURTH GRADE HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES

It has a sheet for a newt lifecycle, hummingbird moth lifecycle and a bramble lifecycle.

From beginning to end, it’s a cool  download full of helpful and interesting tidbits.

5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids
5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids

3. Another favorite of mine is the New England Aquarium site.

Winter would not be complete without talking about penguins.

I have used the Penguin Teacher Guide and love it.

Why create any extra printables when they are all there for free and nice?

It includes information on the various penguin species, penguin anatomy, behavior, habitats and conservation.

5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids
5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids

4. The next freebies come from the Boston Harbor area.

Activities are for upper elementary to middle school age.

It has a lot of background information and a couple of ideas for hands on activities if you are studying about tides and plankton.

It has information about the rocky and sandy shores, tidal mudflats, salt marshes — and the creatures such as harbor porpoises and seals, fish and waterfowl, mussels and kelp that inhabit them — that are accessible from Boston Harbor, or any New England coastal area. 

5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids
5 FREE and FUN Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids

5. Next are SEVERAL pdfs on this page from the Florida Sea Grant program.

There are about three .pdf downloads of plant name cards for studying about beach plant life and one about Coastal Plants.

They would go well in a pocket on a lapbook or a notebooking page.

5 FUN and FREE Hands-on Science Activities for Homeschooled Kids @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

There is third grade curriculum about manatees and fourth grade curriculum about whales and dolphin.

I also love the 21 free food web cards on the Estuary Food Web Activity .

We haven’t done the edible estuary that is for grades K to Gray, (love) but we are eyeballing that one.

Grab the beach coloring book and the beach scavenger too off that page.

Also, there is a free curriculum about sea turtles for middle and high school.

Grab ’em and enjoy.

Also check out 50 Keep Me Homeschooling During the Long Cold Winter Days.
Middle School Homeschool Science 50 Free Spring Activities.
Easy Hands-On Science: Label the Atom Playdough Activity.

Hugs and love ya,

Homeschool High School Chemistry & Free Reference Sheet and Resources

| 11 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Tiny is finishing up middle school courses and scooting now into homeschool high school chemistry. Also, look at my page How to Homeschool High School.

(Yikes, with my third one going into high school, maybe I will learn something. tee hee hee.)

For his first course, we chose Paradigm Integrated Physics and Chemistry.

Homeschool High School Chemistry & Free Reference Sheet and Resources @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

One of my reasons for Pace Integrated Physics and Chemistry for high school chemistry this year is that its available online for .pdf download.

Homeschool High School Chemistry

When you are living overseas or are short on space, these .pdf downloads are a great option. Don’t forget to check out my post Digital Homeschool Curriculum – Big Ol’ List.

One tip that may help you when organizing digital content is that I use Google Drive for using and storing the curriculum on multiple devices.

By putting it on my google drive, Tiny can access it from his iPad and I can access it too from my laptop or any other computer that I am on.

Also, the beauty of digital downloads is that you print off what you want or don’t print at all and the curriculum is always with me.

Instead of lugging books back and forth with me from and to the states, I just get the .pdfs printed when I get  back here to Ecuador.

Like I said too, we always have our “school on the go” to.

The Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum we are using this year is more of a textbook approach and I prefer a much more hands-on approach to all subjects.

However, I know that I can “liven” up any curriculum with free resources or ones I create.

Free Chemistry Reference Sheet and Resources

Look at these four free resources that I have found and created that I will be using with our high school chemistry to bring it alive and make it fit our preferred approach.

Golden Book of Chemistry 1.Homeschool High School Chemistry & Free Reference Sheet and Resources

The Golden Book of Chemistry is apparently a beginners bible in chemistry though it can be a bit controversial.

It was written in the 1960’s (a long time ago when concerns were different then). It shows you how to set up your own home laboratory and conduct over 200 experiments.

Note: I have read that it is banned now because many of the experiments are considered too dangerous to do at home, but it is still considered one of the best diy chemistry books.

Too, we are looking at it for other value, like the word lists and understanding the changes involved in chemistry.

So NO, we will not be using it for hands-on activities, but as a reference to compare to modern day chemistry.

My research shows that it is also free to share because the copyright was not renewed. (If that changes, I will take this down and let you know because I respect copyright laws.)

Here is the free download of this book or this nifty little tool. It already has sparked Tiny’s interest in chemistry, which is what I wanted.

Too, because one of the reasons we are focusing on it is to build a beginner’s foundation in chemistry and to understand the history of chemistry, I created this Chemist Reference Sheet from the book as a quick way of glancing at terms.

Chemist Reference Sheet 1 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I added a portion at the bottom so that when we come across an updated view about the word definitions, Tiny can add them.

Download the free Chemist Reference Sheet below

Chemist-Reference-Sheet-@-Tinas-Dynamic-Homeschool-Plus.pdf (2379 downloads )

Moving on to what I will use as a guide to hands-on activities, I have a free Middle School Chemistry curriculum and High School Chemistry curriculum, both of which have hands-on activities.

High School Chemistry

The high school free chemistry has links to multimedia in it, which I think will be helpful to mix in with his textbook.

Download the free High School Chemistry Curriculum here.

Middle School Chemistry


The middle school curriculum is excellent because it has more actual hands-on activities ideas to include as we plod along in our study this year. So it will help to round out our study.

Download Middle School Chemistry Curriculum here.

See what I mean, you actually can use just about anything when it comes to curriculum as long as you are willing to spice it up.

More Homeschool High School Chemistry

Curriculum is just like cooking, add a little a bit of this and that that your family likes and you have something new.

Hope you enjoy the free downloads and find them helpful with your middleschooler or highschooler.

I know we will enjoy our study of chemistry this year and doing this the third time around makes it more enjoyable.

Also, you may want to look at these other helpful posts.

Hugs and love ya,

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks American History

| 5 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and The Cowboys minibooks to put on the lapbook that we are doing for the American history unit study through the life of Wyatt Earp. Also, look at Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.

Since we are learning about the events surrounding the life of Wyatt Earp and Tiny wrote about the events at the O.K. Corral in another minibook, we chose to do a minibook to write about Wyatt Earp specifically.

Too, we added Doc Holliday.

Because of their friendship and also the gunfight was the result of cattle rustling by The Cowboys we added it too.

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and The Cowboys free minibooks for an American History Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

There is enough free information on the internet and the books that we have that this is an easy independent research project for Tiny.

So your child can write a few facts about the life of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday.

And then ask your child,”What was Wyatt Earp’s beef with The Cowboys?” (pun intended, corny I know but Tiny liked it)

American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Free Lapbook

I am just about ready to start showing you too where we put the minibooks, but have a few more minibooks coming as we finish this unit study.

The minibooks today are for the right or left flap of your lapbook. Research, cut out, fold in half and glue to the right or left flap.

Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks American History
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks American History
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks American History
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks American History
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks American History
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks American History
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks American History

Check out these resources for the American West and Wyatt Earp

HOW TO GET THE FREE WYATT EARP LAPBOOK, NOTEBOOKING PAGES & BOARD GAME

Update: The lapbook is now complete. Download all the freebies below.

  • Art cards by Frederic Remington about Wyatt Earp
  • Cover pages for the outside of notebooking pages 1800s and 1900s. Look here how to fold ordinary worksheets to interactive minibooks.
  • 8 Features of the SW United States
  • The 4 Southwestern states
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1800s notebooking page
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1900s notebooking pages
  • Who was Wyatt Earp
  • Who were the Cowboys
  • Who Was Doc Holliday
  • Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Tombstone, Arizona – About Tombstone – Ed Schieffelin
  • Printable Game with Game Pieces – The Most Famous Shoot Out – Gunfight at O.K. Corral

 1) Sign up on my list.

2) Grab the freebie now.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp – Free Notebooking Pages

| 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, our American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp that we started more than a month ago I continue with some free notebooking pages. Also, look at Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.

I had my first son move back to the states, a graduation party for Mr. Awesome 2015 and a trip back to the states. And I still thought I was going to keep on homeschooling Tiny? Insane!

American History Notebooking pages - Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I tout all the time about not being super mom and to slow down for life changing moments in homeschooling, but I still tried to go on as normal. What is normal anyway?

I’m back to reality and am ready to kick off our school year soon.

Because our unit study is a focus on key events from modern American history, I prepared two notebooking pages that Tiny will be using this next week to go along with the minibooks he has already done.

ABOUT WYATT EARP

Though we had read about the life of Wyatt Earp in our history magazine, I guess it really wasn’t until we honed in on the year he was born, which was 1829 and when he died, which was 1929 that I realized what amazing events he must have witnessed.

The frontier was still wild and untamed while he was a boy.

Conflicts between the US Army and Native Americans were going on until the end of the 1800s.

He was a teenager when the American Civil War started and probably knew first hand the tragedy of all the lives lost.

Notebooking Pages - American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 1

Then the beginning of the 1900s ushered in the opening of the Panama Canal and the US going to war again, but now, it was a much more global war –  World War I.

Wonder what he thought as the US forged ahead into the modern world?

Notebooking Pages - American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 2

Tiny will be doing some research on his own since the events I have on the notebooking pages are significant key events and there is plenty of information both in our encyclopedia and online for him to read.

I am not looking for him to write a research paper with the pages, but I am looking for him to imagine, wonder and step back into time to see events possibly through the eyes of Wyatt Earp.

Both notebooking pages have 4 key historical events on them.

Have your child research the event, write in the date and then add a few facts about that key event.

On the right margin of each page is a box where they can write about life during the 1800s and life during the 1900s, which will help them to focus about something that draws them in about this time in history.

I am finding this unit study to be quite helpful to help Tiny learn about sweeping events in modern American history and still learn about a person in history that captures his attention. Win-win.

MORE ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNING ABOUT WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOYS

HOW TO GET THE FREE WYATT EARP LAPBOOK, NOTEBOOKING PAGES & BOARD GAME

Update: The lapbook is now complete. Download all the freebies below.

  • Art cards by Frederic Remington about Wyatt Earp
  • Cover pages for the outside of notebooking pages 1800s and 1900s. Look here how to fold ordinary worksheets to interactive minibooks.
  • 8 Features of the SW United States
  • The 4 Southwestern states
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1800s notebooking page
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1900s notebooking pages
  • Who was Wyatt Earp
  • Who were the Cowboys
  • Who Was Doc Holliday
  • Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Tombstone, Arizona – About Tombstone – Ed Schieffelin
  • Printable Game with Game Pieces – The Most Famous Shoot Out – Gunfight at O.K. Corral

Now, how to grab the free lapbook. This is a subscriber freebie.

 1) Sign up on my list.

2) Grab the freebie now.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!