Check out this rich online resource called A.S.L.U., a free sign language website that offers lessons, videos, tests, quizzes, and everything you need to educate yourself to communicate with deaf friends and family.

I recently started working closely with a deaf woman in our church and really wanted to be able to communicate better with her.  I was pretty excited to find this site because the lessons were well organized and started out with valuable conversation tools I could use right away instead of just vocabulary lists.  I was frustrated with other resources that would teach me a bunch of words, but not how to ‘chat’ with my new friend.

It’s basically a full high school or college ASL curriculum offered online for free.  Take a few moments a day to do a lesson or encourage your children to.  It’s lots of fun, keeps the mind agile, and can help bridge a communication barrier in all kinds of situations.

Enjoy!

Have you ever sat with your child helping them learn history facts, Spanish words, multiplication facts, or any of the myriad of facts they learn throughout their school years?

Next time, head over to this great website that has done most of the work for you already:

Quizlet.com

What we like:

• It’s free, funded by ad revenues.  (You can upgrade to ad-free and ability to load images onto flashcards for an optional $15/yr)
• It’s well-established, so almost any facts you’re looking to study will probably already have a set of flashcards entered for you by previous users – over 8 million sets!
• A well designed dashboard showing all your flashcards, recently studied, statistics, etc.
• Many learning methods including spoken flashcards for foreign languages.
• Games to increase speed and fun with learning.
• Groups – If you are learning in a group, you can get together, share flashcard decks, keep in touch and help each other.
• Printable – A new feature allows you to print your flashcards if you need to take them with you.
• Built from scratch by a high school sophomore into a thriving business.  Read his story here.

What a great resource!  Enjoy.

For the 4th of July – Today Only there is 40% off of Host Gator web hosting plans!

I thought this might help some of you out, since I’ve had a few readers ask about setting up their own websites and how I do it.

I’ve been using Host Gator to run my websites for the last 3 years and was looking to renew, since they’ve worked out pretty well for me.  I really liked being able to install the WordPress software with one click.  They also have lots of ready made templates, free shopping cart software, live chat around the clock, and lots of other things that I’ve found helpful.

They often have a 20% off deal running, but I got an email that for the 4th of July only they are offering 40% off.  On the 3-year plan, which usually runs about $280, that’s $114 off – so about $4.75 a month to host an unlimited number of websites.  If you only have one website, it’s even cheaper.

Enjoy!

I’ve been browsing other homeschool blogs this week and enjoying myself.  Here’s a good one:

Check out the The Faithful Homeschool and her post about a couple of fun printable websites with screenshots and pics of her kids doing the projects:

• Sen Teacher – Lots of math, literacy, and other free printables with some cool prism cut-outs we’ll be doing for math soon.
• Classroom Jr. – Printable worksheets, lesson plans, and fun ideas for school subjects.

Enjoy!

I was looking online for some ideas to teach Algebra.  I stumbled on these great videos all done by a man named Salman Kahn.  In each video, he picks one concept and then walks the viewer through it step-by-step.

It turns out that Salman Kahn had a younger cousin who needed a bit of long distance math tutoring.  From that small start, he has created the Khan Academy with thousands of YouTube videos explaining math concepts plus a myriad of other topics in short 10 – 20 minute chunks.

Read the inspirational story of Salman Kahn (under the FAQ tab), the man behind all the educational videos.  His ambition is to provide a world-class university level education to the world for free.  His work is really a great contribution of knowledge to everyone in the world.

On his home page, he has over 70 video explaining the Algebra I concepts in an organized list.  Directly below it are another 180 videos working Algebra I problems with step-by-step explanations.

It’s an entire video Algebra I curriculum, entirely free!  If you explore the tabs and rest of the page, you’ll find videos on tons of other topics as well.

After my son finishes his Math 7 curriculum in the next month or so, he’s planning on working his way through the Algebra I videos.  We’ll post an update about how it goes.

Has anyone else used the Kahn Academy videos?  How did they work for you and which ones did you like the best?

Enjoy!

(Thank you to Alisa Gilbert for this guest post on a few places to find free Ebooks!)

Places Homeschool Moms Can Find Free eBooks

Some of my favorite tech gadgets of late are eReaders whether it be a Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or even the super-cool iPad, which serves as an eReader among other purposes. Avid readers can carry around one of these lightweight contraptions capable of holding hundreds of eBooks instead of lugging around tons of books or filling their already overflowing shelves. I also happen to think eReaders are a great tool for a homeschooling mom.

These eReaders can be quite the investment (particularly if you opt for the iPad), so it’s nice to have a few web resources up your sleeve where you can download free eBooks.

1. Probably one of the best-known resources for free eBooks is Project Gutenberg. The site allows you to search by author or title, and is chock full of excellent classic literature to supplement an at-home English or literature class. The site only offers books with expired copyrights; many of the titles were written by authors who have passed away, so no one’s losing money as a result of you using this site.
   
   Of the 33,000 titles you can download here, many are classics you likely have built into your curriculum, such as A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol (perfect for the holidays!) by Charles Dickens, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. For older students, there are more complex works, like Moby Dick, Metamorphosis and War and Peace. You can also find fiction works here other than the classics.
2. You can also do an advanced book search on the newly launched Google Books and download numerous titles in the public domain. All you do is mark that you are searching for titles that are “full view only” and your searches will bring up books that are available for download in their entirety. I found Great Expectations and The Jungle Book here in a casual search.
3. Sony’s eBook store is also a good place to find free eBooks in the public domain.
4. Another good site is Free E-Book, where in my most recent searches I found books like The Red Badge of Courage, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Call of the Wild all available for free download.
5. Barnes & Noble also has some titles available for free if you happen to have the Nook. Take a look at the free Nook Books available. You may want to be careful though. A lot of them are harlequin romance novels that probably won’t give your child the right kind of education! There are some useful titles, though, like The Scarlet Letter and Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Enjoy!

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Alisa Gilbert, who writes on the topics of bachelors degree.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alisagilbert599@gmail.com.

You are the nicest readers!  Thank you for nominating me for the “Best Homeschool Mom Blog” and the “Best Eclectic” homeschooling blog.

The voting just started and won’t be up long, so if you have a minute and would like to vote for Homeschool Bytes . . .

It’s really easy:

1. Click here –> The Homeschool Blog Awards
2. Scroll down and click on “Best Homeschool Mom Award” and/or “Best Eclectic” blog.
3. Find “Homeschool Bytes” on the list and click on it.
4. Click the “Vote” Button

That’s it

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and expecially for your suggestions and comments.  I really enjoy hearing from you!

With Youtube and video capabilities on most digital cameras, there is an overwhelming amount of video available online.

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could go through and find the educational ones, pick some of the best, and then sort them by topic?

Well the folks at NeoK12 have done just that – reviewed, chosen, and catalogued TONS of free online educational videos.

Find the topic your children are currently studying and let them watch a few videos on the subject:

• Physical Science
• Life Science
• Human Body
• Earth and Space
• Social Studies
• Math
• English
• Science Projects
• Science Experiments
• How it Works
• Child Safety

I just sat down with my 4-year-old on my lap and had a great time running through a few of the counting videos – Counting Sheep and Super Simple Song’s version were his favorites.

Do you have suggestions for online learning videos?  A website or technique you use?  Thank you for the ideas!

Enjoy!

Do you remember coating pine cones in peanut butter and bird seed, hanging them outside, and then pressing your nose against the back window waiting for the birds to come?

1. Here’s another article with lots of easy bird feeder ideas and what birds eat what.
2. A couple of years ago, we filled a few bird feeders, perched them on the railing of our deck and had a great time watching the birds come and go.  I was at a loss to figure out which birds were which until we checked out this great bird guide from the library that is perfect for beginners.  I love that it is organized by color, so when the kids saw a yellow bird, they would flip to that section in the book and then search for ‘our’ bird.

Here are the ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ versions of the bird guide:


3. Another amazing resource I just discovered is What Bird.com.  This site has so much bird information it can be overwhelming.  For a start, check out some of these links:

• Video on how to use their search feature to identify a bird.
• Demo of their bird sounds course.  (My one-year-old LOVED sitting on my lap as I cycled through the bird calls)
• Short course on all the parts and terms used to identify birds – Great lapbook or unit study material!
• Browse through birds sorted by everything from location and color to bill shape and what they eat.
• Build your own custom bird guide – free to include 5 birds of any family per book.  What a great final report for your unit study!  You can even add a custom cover and bind it.  (A $25/yr  subscription offers unlimited birds and books. )

Enjoy!

Do you have any fun bird-schooling stories or favorite bird study resources?  I’d love more ideas.  Thanks!

The Homeschool Post is having their annual Homeschool Blog Awards, and I’d love to enter the competition for one of their “Best . . . Homeschooling Blog” awards.

So, if you like what you read here on my blog, feel free to nominate me.

It takes less than a minute and a few easy steps:

1. Click here to nominate Homeschool Bytes!
2. Scroll down the page and choose a category.  I was thinking “Best Eclectic Homeschooling Blog”, “Best Homeschool Mom Blog”, or “Best Crafts, Plans, and Projects Blog”.  But, feel free to pick the category you think fits best.
3. In the category field, type “Homeschool Bytes”
4. In the category URL field, type http://www.HomeschoolBytes.com (the “http://” stuff needs to be included)
5. Pat yourself on the back for doing something nice   Thanks!