unSocialized Educated at Home; Engaging the World

In response to inquiries about reading sites and worksheets, here are some that I've found useful.

E-Reading Worksheets: For grades 6 - 12. Includes worksheets on story elements (characterization, main idea, theme, etc.), figurative language, grammar, and text structure (chronological, cause and effect, compare and contrast, etc.). There really is a lot to check out here.

K12 Reader: Another comprehensive site for reading comprehension and phonics, grammar, spelling and writing prompts. Also provides suggestions for games and activities.

Word Dynamo: A site where you can quiz yourself on groups of words for a particular grade level (elementary through college), or words within a particular subject (social studies, computers, literature). You can study flashcards of lists, or play games to quiz yourself. This site also has lists for test prep, and Spanish and Latin.

Mr. Nussbaum: This teacher has put a lot of cool games and interactives online for all the core subjects, for kindergarten through grade 8. There are reading comprehension, grammar and spelling exercises that can be done online or printed. You can input your own spelling words and play online games, or make your own printable puzzles. There are also several animated biographies of famous Americans.

ReadToMe: View books as they are read. Each book has a corresponding lesson plan with discussion questions, worksheets, and acitivities.

Scott Foresman Reading: Online grammar and writing handbooks that can be downloaded; for grades 1 - 6.

College-Bound Reading List:  Includes not only American and World Literature titles (with drama and poetry suggestions), but also suggestions for biographies and history, science, and social science.

Does anyone remember listening to 78 rpm "kiddie" records from the 40's and 50's? I don't, as these are before my time, but there's a site called  Kiddie Records Weekly that has brought these old classics back to life online. You can download, for free, the recordings and the images that go along with them. They've got a large selection of stories, including some history (Christopher Columbus), literature (Mutiny on the Bounty), and Bible stories.

Not knowing much of anything about these records, I Googled the topic and discovered that during this "golden era" of children's records, studios often enlisted famous personalities to produce these dramatizations (folks like Bing Crosby, Jimmy Stewart, and Gene Kelly to name a few).

I think I'll try some of these vintage audiobooks on the kids -- see how they go over.

Right now, within our high school literature studies, we are doing a unit on poetry.  If you're interested in poets from the Romantic Period, visit Georgia Virtual Learning's free high school e-course on English Literature and Composition. The unit that covers the Romantic Poets provides an overview and description of the period, focusing on several key poets, and including discussion questions and suggested assignments (eg. creating a PowerPoint or writing an essay). 

Additional material is contained in this download, which features discussion questions and essay prompts for five of the Romantic Era poets.

The Georgia Virtual Learning site also has free high school courses for the other core subjects, languages, and electives. They've got a number of middle school courses too, so browse around.