unSocialized Free Resources for Home Education

In an effort to help parents stave off the dreaded "summer learning loss," a variety of free programs are available online, and more are popping up all the time. Here's a list of some of the ones I've come across to help keep your kids learning and occupied throughout the summer: 

Start with a Book: This site has printable Reading Adventure Packs for grades K - 3, covering a variety of topics, including Bugs, Birds, and Animals; Flight; Time and Time Travel; and others (24 altogether). You'll also find links to hands-on activities, writing prompts, websites and mobile apps.

Newsela Summer Reading Clubs: For grades 2 - 12, students can join clubs on a variety of interests, including animals, technology, movies, and more.

Explorer HQ: Become an intrepid explorer and complete a variety of unusual missions to earn badges.

Science of Summer: Explore the science behind summer activities at this PBS LearningMedia site. Topics include the physics of sailing, the chemistry of campfires, the science of blowing bubbles, the mineral composition of sand, and the forces that allow humans to ride bicycles and roller coasters.

Maker Camp: Features a collection of projects to make at home.

Camp Wonderopolis: Explore wonders about music and how it relates to other fields, such as science, math and history.

Electric Company: Their summer learning program includes YouTube videos and corresponding worksheets for math and vocabulary. A guide and other PDF resources can be downloaded from the main summer learning page. 

Camp GoNoodle: Each week in July, you receive an email with  new adventures and activities, both online and off, and the ability to earn badges. 

Self-Learning for Kids: Not really a program, but a very long list of free, self-learning online resources for kids in pre-K through sixth grades. There are 75 resources, organized by type.

(More resources listed in comments sections below)

(Photo by Samuel Scrimshaw on Unsplash)

Here are 10 Pairs of Commonly Confused Animals plus additional free resources --   including ebooks, games, and activities -- for studying the diversity of life, animal and plant classification, and cells.

Free "This or That" Readers

The following 71-page reader includes information on cells, classifying life, plants, classifying animals, and animal systems: 

Click on the Images below:

More Interactives and Virtual Labs:

Classification of Organisms

Classifying Living Things Into Groups

Animal Classification Cards: 

When geocaching on a road trip, or even around in your own neighborhood, you can use the activity to learn about the geography, history, culture, and plants and animals of an area.

Caches are sometimes placed near historical markers, and you can take the opportunity to read up on events of the past while you're looking.

There are also nature caches that ask finders to identify trees, leaves, or rocks in an area, or answer questions about a particular landform, like a mountain. 

And sometimes, locating caches requires you to venture down trails, some of which have markers that tell you about the local flora and fauna.