Looking to listen to something about home education/homeschooling try these wonderful podcasts.

Homeschool team Free Range Robotics have won the New Zealand National VEX Robotics Championship for the second year in a row. They also scooped more than their fair share of other awards, winning the New Zealand Championship awards for Web Design (www.robotics.org.nz), the Think Award for Autonomous Programming, the Promote award for the best team video, the VEX Essay Award and the runner up for Programming Skills Award.

Their youtube channel is here

Online homeschool conference http://www.thebroadroom.co.nz/old-schoolhouse-expo/

Interesting podcast about John Holt from a Libertarian perspective John Holt: Libertarian Outsider thanks to Tarnya

Immersion Learning – Resources to bring ocean science adventures to students in grades 4–8. Immersion exposes students to ongoing scientific expeditions in an effort to ignite their interest in real discovery and learning.

http://www.immersionlearning.org/ thanks to LARA

French Website http://www.tivi5mondeplus.com/#live thanks to Margi

Homeschool Planner http://hef.org.nz/2010/free-homeschool-planner/ It’s for a free homeschooling planner that is really simple and looks perfect for anyone who has lots of ideas but never seems to get around to doing them or being organised enough. It’s called “Planned Spontaneity”. Thanks to Erin
http://hef.org.nz/2010/free-homeschool-planner/

Earthquakes for kids  http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kids/
http://www.fema.gov/kids/quake.htm Thanks to LARA

Bible maps and timelines http://www.biblestudy.org/maps/main.html Thanks to LARA

Neuroscience For Kids: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html
BBC website also have great science, geography, and biological videos and articles. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/

MSNucleus website has a lot of storiebooks. These free animated electronic storybooks help teach science in a fun and entertaining manner  http://msnucleus.org/membership/guide/storybooks.html [thanks to Alida for the links]

Map Trek Sampler below to download 14MB freebie of maps – last pages has New Zealand map then blank New Zealand map to fill in. [thanks Beth]

http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Map-Trek-Sampler.html

www.learnthenews.com

I have probably mentioned this link before but I’m finding lots of goodies, so I will mention it again:

Homeschool Freebie of the Day

http://www.teachchildrenmusic.com/

Advice for New Homeschooling Parents article
http://www.homeeducator.com/FamilyTimes/articles/11-1article4.htm [thanks Lara]
Language Learning
It’s only $10 for homeschoolers – just say that you are homeschooling and you can pay $10 instead of $50.
That gets you access to the site for the whole year and to all of the languages (French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Japanese, Maori & Indonesian). Plus it makes a big difference in your English spelling too  They have a free trial if you want to check it out. www.languageperfect.co.nz

English grammar (not US grammar) www.dailywritingtips.com

Rethinking Homework www.stuff.co.nz

Out of the Classroom www.stuff.co.nz

Music lesson plans artsedge.kennedy-center.org/teach/les.cfm

Looking for great Links http://wonder-mints.blogspot.com/ ( Blog by a Christchurch Home educator)

Culture- international crafts www.culturecottage.com/

NCEA Science Level 1 resources www.SoundClassroom.com free resources and free newsletter subscription for students doing NCEA Level 1 Science.

Other great Links? Share them with us in the comments ( New Zealand Home Educators only please)

How Long is a piece of string? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80jxKQP2V0Y

Seven Tips for Encouraging your Child and Teen Towards Independent Learning with a Yearly Planner from The Broad Room

Any other great links please pop them in the comments

From New Zealand

Mad Hatter Books Mad Hatter Books specialises in second hand, collectible and out-of-print children’s books

Auckland Zoo’s education programmes which are individually priced. www.aucklandzoo.co.nz

Freecycle is  a worldwide movement aimed at reducing items – both working and non-working – which would normally go to the landfill, in a not-for-profit way. You can either wait for items to come up (be very quick to make contact for a chance of getting them); or you can place a “Wanted” note which has to be very short.

www.freecycle.org/group/NZ/New_Zealand/Auckland – for Auckland
http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/ManurewaFreecycle/ – for South Auckland

I am sure there are other groups around the country.

Around the world

Exploring Homeschooling the ins and outs of the BIG decision ( Christian ) www.exploringhomeschooling.com/

Making a timeline using Excel www.microsoft.com/education/createtimeline.mspx

FREE e-book for those interested including stuff from Ruth Beechick, FIAR,
Amanda Bennett and Old Schoolhouse www.knowledgequestmaps.com/The-New-School-Year.html

Incredible Art Lessons

Database of Free online curriculum

Free Kids Astronomy Course

Spelling City A wonderful resource for free.

Audio science snippets for kids ( Thanks to Darnia )

A conversation with Greg Harris . Greg Harris has a blog here

www.brainpop.com ( approx 10yrs and over) and  www.brainpopjr.com (approx 6-10 yrs)

Winz and Home schooling and the DPB
http://hef.org.nz/2009/home-schooling-and-winz-dpb-in-new-zealand/

Help in filling out an exemption:
http://hef.org.nz/category/applying-for-exemption/

Around the World
Click on the headings.www.khanacademy.org The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.
We have 800+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ Free on-line writing school
http://www.mes-english.com/ Printables – great helps for homeschooling: free flashcards, worksheets and handouts to match, free phonics cards, free ESL games, an international project exchange library, printable certificates, printable stickers and activities all ready for printing

http://www.urthemom.com/ Homeschool Planner and help with self teaching and mastery learning. She runs a Yahoo group called Raising Self-Learners 4 Life! (US based but open to New Zealanders) and a blog

http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/educational.php Astronomy. An excellent, free download open source program runs in planetariums… it is called Celestia. If your computer is not too old and your graphics card is more than 256K then this should work very well on your computer.  This page will take you to the Educational version download, which has had activities programmed and documented for it.   And, yes, those activities and worksheets are downloadable too. It pays to print out the overview to give you a starting point, and this will help you learn to navigate without too much overload. There is also an updated full version, and extra models and objects that can be uploaded – including spacecrafts from real life, and fiction ie. Star Wars, Star Trek.

http://www.livingjoyfully.ca Unschooling

Handbook of Nature Study  available free  online version http://www.archive.org/details/handbookofnature002506mbp
There is also a great blog with challenges/activities etc based on the book  http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com

Sites to feed  a hungry mind: list of sites that can be visited daily for students