Homeschool Freebie of the Day

The resource originally scheduled for today was a “no show” (remind me to send it to bed without any supper), so in its place today we are featuring this fun assortment of “stop motion animation” videos. Note: These are all YouTube streaming videos, so they are NOT downloadable, but only viewable online. If you have any problems with these, please consult YouTube’s troubleshooting tips for help. We are not able to provide technical support for these. Enjoy!

Sorry I’m Late! – Here’s an amazing short film using old fashioned, stop-motion “pixilation” animation. At the end of it, you’ll see some examples of how they put this together. There’s a lot more behind the scenes info on this process at the filmmaker’s website, http://www.sorry-im-late.comGreat fun!

And here are some more delightful stop-motion animations for your family’s viewing enjoyment.

Animated Origami
Watch this time lapse video of an origami (paper folding) artist as he creates an animated movie… then a rough version of the movie itself… and finally the finished product. Note the armature that holds the paper model and how the bluescreen background is set up so it can be digitally “erased”. Just fascinating! Enjoy!

Extra Strong

Western Spaghetti

Dancing Cupcakes

Rotting Strawberries
Here’s a neat time lapse video of a nice pile of strawberries rotting… or are they dancing? No… they’re rotting all right. Come on, strawberries! Fight it!

And here’s one last non-animated video, just for the sheer wacky scientific fun of it:

Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos
No doubt you’ve heard that one 2 liter Diet Coke + a handful of Mentos candies = a 5 second fountain of Diet Coke. Well, what happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints? It’s amazing and completely insane. The first part of this video demonstrates a simple geyser, and the second part shows just how extreme it can get. Over one hundred jets of soda fly into the air in less than three minutes. Here’s a spectacular mint-powered version of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas.

BEEBE’S PICTURE PRIMER (PDF ebook) – Today’s resource is this truly delightful beginning reading (and writing) primer, with wonderful line drawings on every page. Great both for reading practice and also for cursive writing practice. You can also print out individual pages for coloring. Nice!

Click here for today’s resource!

Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” (MP3 audio) – A mysterious magic mirror gives the Snow Queen the power to turn good children evil and keep them captive forever in her ice castle! Can a faithful friend’s love triumph over evil? You’ll find out in this delightful, exciting dramatization of the classic Andersen fairy tale, as originally broadcast on “Let’s Pretend” on November 12, 1953!

As an added bonus, we’ve also put together a few coloring pages to keep little fingers busy while listening to this classic tale. If you like this added feature, please post a comment and let us know. If we get enough positive response to this, we’ll try to add this feature to future audio programs!

Click here for today’s resource!

LIFE BEGINS (PDF comic book) – “Life Begins: An Amazing Adventure”, is a comic book published by Human Life Alliance, designed to teach grade school children about the humanity of the pre-born child. It is a walk through the first nine months of life, lead by two adventurous narrators, Carl and Tickles. Children will enjoy their antics while learning important life-affirming information about how a baby grows inside a mother’s womb.

To quote the publishers: “Since Life Begins was created for grade school children, it does not contain information on abortion, but instead concentrates on the amazing humanity of the pre-born child. Human Life Alliance understands the importance of giving children a strong foundation in the facts of prenatal development and respect for human life at all stages without damaging their innocence prematurely.” http://www.humanlife.org/

This PDF “comic book” story is very tastefully and modestly done, and is a great resource to share with kids of all ages.

Click here to download today’s resource!

Quick “Heads Up!” —

In addition to today’s “Nature Study” resource (see the post below), we also invite you to visit our sister site, Homeschool Radio Shows, for a wonderful “Living Books for the Ears” program – Little Boy Blue: The Story of Eugene Field. It is SO good it may make you cry (literally). Or maybe not. I guess it depends on how sentimental you are. (Let’s take a poll and see how many folks actually do get choked up listening to this.) Anyway, you’ll long remember this sweet story — AND the extra bonus resource that comes with it is a sheer delight!

Click here for this resource!

Update, 8 am: The link to the PDF ebook has now been fixed, sorry for the glitch!

“Gulliver’s Travels for Young People (PDF ebook + MP3 audio) – Gulliver’s Travels is one of the best known classics of all of English literature. Written by Jonathan Swift and published in 1726, the original book is a true classic, but for today’s readers it is frankly WAY too long and stuffy, filled with then-contemporary social satire on travel & the literary genres of the time. Can you say “Boring…!”

But not today! Today we feature TWO great resources that make this classic “living book” truly come alive for your kids:

1) “Gulliver’s Travels, rewritten for Young Readers” by James Baldwin (PDF ebook) – This is an outstanding “easy reader” PDF ebook version of the story re-written for young people in 1908 by James Baldwin. This includes Gulliver’s adventures both as a giant in Lilliput, and also as a teeny-tiny person in the land of giants.

2) “Favorite Story: Gulliver’s Travels” (MP3 audio) – Next, we have a delightfully fun audio dramatization of the story that was originally broadcast on the radio program “Favorite Story” back in 1947. You’ll hear many familiar “cartoon voices” portraying the 1/4″ tall Lilliputians in the story. 30 minutes in length. Fun for listeners of all ages!

Rediscover this grand “Living Book” with these great resources today at HomeschoolFreebieOfTheDay!

Click here for today’s resources!

Strange Stories from History for Young People (PDF ebooks) – Today we have for you two more mini-ebooks from this classic collection by George Eggleston, featuring remarkable but little known tales from the pages of American History that will fascinate your kids:

“THE CANOE WAR” - The story of the smallest wartime naval battle ever fought in all history, which occurred on the Alabama River on the 13th of November, 1813 — between two canoes.

and

“THE BATTLE IN THE DARK” – Great two-part story of how General Andrew Jackson and his rag-tag army took on an overwhelming British force which sought to capture New Orleans in the War of 1812 — in the pitch dark of midnight!

Click here for today’s resources!

The David Rumsey Map Collection (website) – Today we wanted to share one of our favorite online history/geography resources. This wonderful historical map collection has over 21,000 maps and images online in incredible high definition quality. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented.

Most of these are from Mr. Rumsey’s own collection, and can be viewed and enlarged in crisp detail. We aren’t pointing you to any specific download links here – it’s all viewable online. Take some time to browse around here and you’ll uncover all sorts of fascinating historical treasures that will amaze and fascinate you and your students!

Click here for today’s resource

Today’s resources are these three great audio programs from our sister site, HomeschoolRadioShows.com:

The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -Put on your sleuthing hat and get out your magnifying glass. It’s time to solve a mystery! A strange whistle in the dark… An odd bell cord that doesn’t work any bell… and a room that kills anyone who goes in it. These are the mysteries that the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes must solve in the exciting story “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”, one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (pictured at the left). The story was first published in Strand Magazine in February 1892. Conan Doyle later revealed that he thought this was his best Holmes story. This fine adaptation was originally broadcast on “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” on November 12, 1945.

Rumplestiltskin and Jack & the Beanstalk

Next, from the wonderful series of children’s records “Stories for Children told by The Great Gildersleeve”, we also bring you these two classic fairy tales, narrated by the one and only Great Gildersleeve (Harold Peary). Don’t miss them!

Click here for today’s resource!

Winter “Why” Tales (PDF ebook) - A lovely little children’s storybook featuring two fanciful wintertime stories: “Why the Bear Sleeps All Winter”, and “Why Evergreens Keep Their Leaves”. Great “fairy tale” style read alouds for younger listeners on a chilly winter day!

Click here for today’s resource!