See Part 1 for an explanation of these free resources, along with some other great free and fun things! Hey, who doesn’t love post, am I right?
Booktime
Free book pack for reception age HE children. I think these are ones they’d get in school. Unfortunately they don’t do them for other ages! (If you are in the US, check out the Dolly Parton scheme, open to all. Not sure what it is called but it is free books every month!)
Posters, posters, posters. A few on various grains and how they get from fields to the table, one on the sorts of breakfast people eat in different parts of the world. The site also has ideas for related activities and other fun stuff.
More stuff for HEers. Stickers, activity ideas, a poster. We’ve received ours but been too busy to open it!
Met Office
Free online resources for any age child, home educated or not! Only briefly looked through the site, but we will definitely be delving more deeply. M has a serious interest in extreme weather! A little digging through the site also yields downloadable posters…one on tornados, which will be printed in this house as soon as we put new ink in the printer…
Open University
Open to everyone, not just the HE community…
The OU does some free short courses, but they also distribute free print resources on programmes they produce with the BBC. If your child (or you!) like a certain programme, keep an eye out at the end. They will often direct you to these resources. Alternatively, click the link above and you can see what is currently on offer. Virtually every HE home we have been in has the giant seasons poster hanging somewhere! Ha.
Dyson Engineering Box
I’ve known about this since the kids were about one, but I am saving this for when they are older! I’ve heard lots of truly excellent feedback on it from other home educating families with older children. You get a vacuum to dissemble and reassemble. Sounds very fun for kids who like to tinker and understand how things work. The only caveat is there is currently a huge demand and backlog…so if you want to borrow this kit (which is posted and collected for free!) I would probably wait a few months before requesting it.
Again, please do leave links in the comments for other great resources so I can keep these lists going! I’m already working on part 3….
Curious Adventures 