Homeschool Freebie of the Day

Welcome to “Movie Week” here at HomeschoolFreebieOfTheDay! All week long we’ll be featuring some fascinating, fun and educational videos for you right here. Let’s get started today with a fun grab bag of clips, cartoons and videos that both inform and entertain. Enjoy!

Wakko’s 50 State Capitols
Here’s Wakko’s catchy and popular “50 State Capitols” song from the Animaniacs cartoon. Fun!

The Presidents Song
A song to remember the names of all the Presidents of the U.S, set to the tune of Yankee Doodle.

What did Manhattan look like in 1609?
Envision New York City, but strip away the dazzling lights, skyscrapers, noisy traffic and countless passersby. What did the island of Manhattan look like before the city took shape?

Electing a US President in Plain English
A short guide to understanding the U.S. election process from CommonCraft.

The Science of Summer
Why do we have summertime? Find out in this great National Geographic video!

Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here!
Classic SchoolhouseRock song to teach you about adverbs.

Interjections!
One more classic SchoolhouseRock song…

Resonance
Grandpa John teaches us what resonance is, and how it works.

Crazy Traffic in India
Imagine heading down to the grocery on this street in India. This is like a choreographed ballet. Amazing!

and finally… Who doesn’t love singing flowers?

More tomorrow! See you then!

Creatively Simple – How to Create Hairstyles Using Old Fashioned Rag Curls, by Penny Raine (PDF ebook) - With 5 daughters, all with long hair, Penny Raine has plenty of experience making little girls look great. There is nothing that says “special occasion” better than a great style created with rag curls. Young girls love to dress up and be pretty but it isn’t necesarry to indulge in the current styles – the old fashioned look is even more fun and maintains the wholesome look girls often lack today. With rag curls you can get the Shirley Temple ringlets or soft waves or anything in between! Learn the tips and tricks of styling with rag curls from a pro!

Click here for today’s resource!

The Brownies at Home by Palmer Cox (PDF ebook) – In this classic collection of Palmer Cox’s beloved “Brownies”, characters there are twelve stories – one for each month of the year. Follow the Brownies as they visit some early American landmarks and also create their own seasonal fun from January through December. Your kids will enjoy finding their own “favorite brownie” in Cox’s wonderfully complex and intricately detailed illustrations.

Click here for today’s resource!

Ballistic Homeschooling: An Audio Seminar by Melanie Young (MP3 audio) – Have you ever had a war break out in the middle of history or had a math lesson last three hours? Homeschooling boys can be a huge challenge for those of us raised in our feminized schools. Listen to this great talk from a mother that has taught six boys at one time from Kindergarten to 12th grade share how to turn wiggle worms into scholars and boys into real men!

About the Speaker: Melanie Young and her husband Hal have been involved with homeschooling from coast to coast, including California, Florida, Louisiana, and North Carolina. They have eight children from 19 on down and have homeschooled them from the beginning. The Youngs live in Smithfield, learn everywhere, and believe true riches don’t involve money. Click here to visit their site, “Raising Real Men”.

Click here to go to the “Ballistic Homeschooling” download page!

Civility Costs You Nothing: Great Quotes on Manners (PDF ebook) – Many writers, observers and philosophers have written about the value of good manners throughout the ages. Their comments contain much insight, humor and wisdom, and have application for our kids even today.

This unique little compilation of great quotations can be used for penmanship practice, memorization, or to print out and stick some choice quotes on your refrigerator door! Check it out!

Click here for today’s resource

Struwwelpeter: Truly Terrible Tales of Truly Terrible Kids With Truly Terrible Manners (PDF ebook) - We know lots of kids love wild and crazy stuff, and this is about as nutty a “classic” as they come. We can guarantee your Boys especially will be enthralled with this book (IF you decide to allow them to see it — it’s your call!) This amazing full color children’s picture book from the 1800′s, “Struwwelpeter” by Heinrich Hoffman, was originally subtitled “Merry Stories and Funny Pictures”. But what it really features are hilarious, awful stories of bad boys and girls with horrible manners, who get their comeuppance in terrible ways because of it. It is, as we like to call it,”bad manners on steroids in the Twilight Zone.”

Great fun but I’m sure not for everyone. Sensitive parents of impressionable little ones, you’ve been warned.

Click here for today’s resource!

(PS. We’ll make up for this lapse in good taste with tomorrow’s resource.)

How to Teach a Child to Write a Novel (website & PDF ebook) – Well, sort of. Actually what this delightful lesson series does is teach your kids a great deal about the creative writing process, and in the process how to be wiser, more thoughtful readers of books written by others. It’s is a fun filled, playful, and highly creative eight-week class that your kids will long remember. And who knows? They may even end up writing their own book before it’s all said and done!

But hey. Let’s let Lydia of LittleBlueSchool.com tell you how she developed this class in her own words:

“This spring, I formed the Junior Secret Noveling Club, a small group of kids who wanted to learn to write novels. The kids were between ages 7 and 9, and all homeschooled, all brisk little chirpy creative spirits who were game for my games.

“I developed a curriculum to teach them the nuts and bolts of writing a novel, from developing a subplot to placing significant objects in the setting, even giving their hero a tragic flaw. I introduced a lot of concepts and techniques which children wouldn’t typically be exposed to, with the idea that learning the hows and whys of novel construction would make them better readers. Even if they weren’t necessarily going to sit down and pen The Grapes of Wrath, they would approach their reading material with a new level of awareness.”

Here’s a link to the entire 10 part series. You can go through all ten lessons as presented on her blog posts, OR just grab all ten lessons in one convenient PDF download, offered especially for our readers this weekend. You’ll find the link for the PDF download on the first page. Have fun!

Click here for today’s resource!

PS. If you enjoy this resource, please post a comment here or on her blog to let Lydia know you appreciate it!

The Mary Frances First Aid Book (PDF ebook) – Today we have another classic volume in the Jane Eayre Fryer’s beloved Mary Frances series – one even many “Mary Frances fans” have never seen! In this book, Mary Frances learns about First Aid from the adventures of her doll family, who go through all sorts of accidents and illnesses… and along the way discovers some practical ways to render first aid to the sick and injured herself.

While much of this first aid advice is sorely dated and not recommended today, it IS a quite fascinating glimpse into great great grandma’s medicine cabinet, how medicine was practiced 100 years ago, and a good lesson in how not to complain when bad things happen to you (ha). Plus the stories, as always are delightfully written and beautifully illustrated in this combination story/lesson book!

Click here for today’s resource

Home Management Nuts & Bolts: Budgets and Schedules (mp3 audio) – In this practical audio workshop conducted by Marc Carrier of ValuesDrivenFamily.com, you’ll learn how to apply basic project management principles in the home to help you be a better steward of your time and money. Excellent tips and ideas that you can put to use right away in YOUR household!

Click here for today’s resource!