We love audio books! I might even say that audio books are my best time saving tool as a work-at-home, homeschooling mom. I love to read to the kids, but I just don’t have enough time. So, we listen to audio books – in the car, during quiet time, while doing mundane tasks…  But buying audio books can get very expensive. Thankfully our library has a great selection, but they don’t have everything we want and my 11 year old has listened to nearly all that she’s interested in. Thankfully I found Librivox.org

Volunteers from Librivox.org are turning public domain works into audio book format. So many popular works that are in public domain (copyright before 1923) are now available for free in mp3 format from Librivox.org, including homeschool favorites like:

• Aesops Fables
• Anne of Green Gables (there are several recordings available)
• Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm
• Huckleberry Finn
• Gulliver’s Travels
• Little Women
• King Lear (and many others by Shakespeare)

The list goes on. Even classical history books like the ”Famous Men of…”  series are available.

The audio books can be downloaded onto your computer and then burned to CD or DVD or stored on a flash drive or your mp3 player.  I use iTunes to subscribe to the audio book I want and then download it to my …my daughter’s… iPod. I also use iTunes to burn copies to CD, so they can be listened to on a regular CD player.

We’ve even picked out stories from LibriVox.org to burn to CD as birthday gifts and Christmas gifts for friends and family. For the price of your time and the cd’s they make a great (frugal) gift! 

LibriVox’s “Our Catalog” search engine is better than many I’ve used. If you are looking for something specific, it’s worth using. The search results will show you both completed audio and works in progress. If a book you want is still in progress, they have a tool that will notify you via email when the audio book is completed and ready for download. 

The “Browse Entire Catalog” feature lists all the completed works in alphabetic order by author’s last name. If you are using classics in your curriculum or using curriculum that heavily uses public domain works (like A2, Robinson, or Old Fashioned Education), then this is a great resource to find the books on audio.

Also, if you or your older kids are looking for a service project, I recommend checking out LibriVox’s volunteers page.

Enjoy!

…Shannon

I have been really happy with our core elementary math curriculum. It’s off the beaten path, as far as homeschool math curriculum goes, but I’ve liked it.  But sometimes, the kids need a little extra practice, before moving on to the next thing, and so I turn to one of my favorite free online resources: www.themathworksheetsite.com

This site is wonderful. It was created by a homeschool dad for his own family’s use, and  has very generously shared the tools with the rest of us. I have used this site for years, with all of my children.  Right at this very moment, I’m printing off a Multiplication worksheet for my 9 year old son and two Hundreds charts for my 5 and 6 year olds.

The hundreds chart has been an excellent tool for learning to count and for skip counting. I print out as many as I need and have them color whatever we are learning. (For example, to learn to count by 10s, I have them color the 10′s row. To learn to count by 2s, they color every other number (evens). etc.)

The worksheet generator for each of the operations allows me to print out custom worksheets that cover the exact areas that the kids are having trouble with. For example, Josh (my 9 year old) had some difficulty learning the 7x and 8x tables.  Extra worksheets that just covered those helped him practice more. 

To teach telling time, I’ve exclusively used the worksheets provided on this site, coupled with a manipulative clock. So far, all four of the children have either learned to tell time this way or in case of my 5 year old, is learning to tell time.

I also like the 5 minute drill worksheets. Not as five minute drills, but as a tool to figure out what the kids really know and and how well. I’ve been surprised – both positively and negatively using these tools.

Anyway, if you are looking for some math worksheet supplements, this is a great free website.  There is a subscription area, and frankly I’ve not had a need for it yet. But the free side… well that I use on a regular basis.

And, as a side note, their blog has this great article on how it is to run an at-home business, homeschooling, and try to appear professional on the phone. I could totally relate to this one, and you might too…

Enjoy.

…Shannon

Over on my Munya School blog, I promised to share if there were any freebie’s over at CurrClick today that were worth the visit…and since there are, I thought I’d share with you as well.

On my download list are:

Memory Making Made Easy – easy to make gifts (we like to make our own gifts)

Teaching  Less While Your Children Learns More – from Living Books Curriculum on the Charlotte Mason approach.

Reading 2 Digit Numbers – games for learning to read double digit numbers (Zach needs some help in this area and he loves games!)

Using the Net Teaching Multiplication  – from Dori Oakes – she’s is a wealth of knowledge on where to find things on the web that work in a homeschool situation. (And Josh needs more practice on his multiplication)

Proverbs to Live By Copywork – The Godly Daughter - - usually I create my own copywork, but sometimes it’s nice to have someone else pull it together. In this case, I’d really like Kate to go through some of these proverbs and this will make a good reference.

Anyway, for today only CurrClick has 28 downloads available for FREE. These are just my picks for my needs. But if you head over there, you’ll find unit studies, an American Girl lapbook, tips for homeschooling, a nice variety. Probably something for everyone.

They also have a sale going (doesn’t everyone this weekend) on many of the seasonal products. I saw lapbooks from Hands of a Child (a favorite lapbook kit vendors), and a variety of other things. I’m considering picking up Homemade Gifts for $2.25.

Anyway, it’s worth checking out to see if there’s any freebies you are interested in.