"'Education is the Science of Relations'; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of––
'Those first-born affinities,
That fit our new existence to existing things.'"

Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education
with a quote from The Prelude by William Wordsworth

Friday, July 3, 2009

Internet Lesson Planning Resources

We just recently had our huge area used curriculum sale--people come from all over New England for it--and it has gotten me lesson planning for the upcoming year. Being a Charlotte Mason homeschooler, that means a little research.

Besides looking at Mater Amabilis and For the Love of Literature for book lists, I have a few Internet sources that I find particularly useful.

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is a peer-reviewed web site with outstanding recommendations. Use the advanced search to get links by grade.

GEM
(Gateway to Educational Material) is a search portal for teachers with thousands of available resources.

FREE
(Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) offers primary source materials, videos, animations, lessons plans and more by subject, though not sorted by grade.

Teacher's Domain, from PBS, started out with just math and science but now has offerings for Art, English, and Social Studies as well. They have web clips, lesson plans, and interactives.

Science NetLinks is a great place for science lesson planning, as well as Science Online, which is available for free through our library.

We purchased a subscription to NetTrekker through Homeschool Buyers Co-op. Not only do I find a lot of helpful site, I let my kids use it as their search engine. Everything is reviewed, and you can set the search to elementary, middle, or high school. It has a whole lot of other features as well so we find it a good investment for us.

Please comment if you have an Internet resource that you find very helpful!


2 comments:

Alison said...

I'm always curious about how much separate work each child does in a family, and how much they learn together. Have you posted on that anywhere? Thanks!

Kris said...

No, I don't think I have posted that. This is a good time of year to write out just such a post, so stay tuned...