Academic and home school resources used by teachers are also a source for parents looking to provide education and homeschool support for kids and teens at home.
Free, discounted or exclusive tools that you often find in a classroom as well. Where to find teacher’s tools and resources that parents can use at home with their students?
Free Resources for Students
Free printables, classroom or homeschool activities, learning decor, educational games, academic aids, resources, learning tools and other fun learning ideas?
I’ve put together a list of resources from stores and other atypical sources for you to discover.
Needless to say, my motto is saving money, so i’ll include ways to also save money or freebies in this post.
Educational Resources
Leading ¨go-to¨ stores for teachers are also a great source of academic, home school supplies and at-home learning activities for parents to use. Not to mention that its a great resource for freebies and activity ideas that keep students engaged. The biggest advantage for parents however, is that your student gets better grades.
Typically, academic resources for classrooms or home-school supplies and decor available to the general consumer are very limited in local big box stores or arts and crafts stores. For the most part, everyone finds things at Amazon or Walmart. However, if you’re interested in non-generic, appealing and broader selections, here are some additional resources as well as discounts.
Academic Resources You Never Heard of
Really Good Stuff
I had never heard of this site. However, from books, to worksheets, learning kits and furniture, ReallyGoodStuff.com is a teacher created classroom solution online retailer.
They sell both for individual purchase as well as bulk supplies for the whole school or classroom. An all-inclusive education resource that provides learning for all students including resources for neurodivergent learning.
A great resource for at-home-learning to check out is their Family Engagement kits.
Family Engagement Kits are teacher-developed supplemental curriculum kits created to help students learn, practice and build on important skills. Engagement kits are available based on grade level and academic subjects.
Skills taught include inference making, citing evidence, determining cause and effect, and writing detailed responses to prompts.
Free shipping is available when you order at least $79 worth of products or a flat $5 fee for small orders. Sometimes they offer a discount code for shipping which you can find in this page.
Free Printables
Free Learning Resources Printables – crafts, activities, printables
Definitely visit Really Good Stuff website’s “Free Student Education Printables page for resources in writing, math, and reading for grades K-2 or 3-6. Academic subjects include writing, reading, math, social studies and science. The website also links to Steve Spangler’s STEM learning kits and Club that parents can explore for science experiments and resources kiddos can safely do at home.
Steve Spangler science kits are also available on Amazon. If you have Amazon Prime, you can save money on shipping fees.
Steve Spangler Club signup is only available on their website however. The Stem subscription includes free shipping when you try it for 3 or more months, no extra fees there. You can cancel the subscription any time.
The blog has several tips from teachers as well. However, parents who home school and are looking to assist with additional learning support at home can grab the tips and ideas in the blog as well. You’ll also find several classroom toys and tools to set up a mini home classroom.
Current Really Good Stuff Deals
Learning Resources on Amazon also provides unique educational tools designed to enhance and engage students not just in school, but for learning at home too.
For parents looking for learning toys, printables and easy to do craft ideas that teachers use in the classroom that parents can use at home to reinforce what is learned in the classrooms, I often look at teaching supply stores and the manufacturer’s website.
Young learners can discover coding without any screens or apps.
“This lesson plan uses Coding Critters to teach algorithmic thinking and how to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions”
Classroom or Homeschool Decor
For teachers and parents looking to create a cozy home learning environment at home in addition to finding academic support at home with interactive workbooks and worksheets, Carson Dellosa is a great option. It has free worksheets, super cheap sales, and free ebooks.
Carson Dellosa is a publishing company founded by educators. You’ve most likely seen their products in teacher’s classrooms. Here is an example:
At Carson Dellosa you can find borders, stickers, libary pockets, name tags, furniture. In short, all type of decor for your classroom. They also offer themed classroom decor, which you can use at home for your home-schooled kiddo or teen as well.
Those hard to find grade workbook or workbooks for upper grade special classes that you mostly find at the beginning or the end of the school year but disappear mid school year (like Geometry or Biology) can be found on this site too.
Throughout the year Carson Dellosa often has sales, and deal of the month to save money on education supplies year round.
Carson Dellosa is also a great resource for free seasonal activities and printables, as well as free e-books. Some of their printables are also in Spanish.
Whether you’re a parent or a teacher reading this, you can create your own account and choose to join their rewards progtram.
Carson Dellosa Spark Rewards member get access to exclusive discounts, free educational printouts and a free gift in every shipped order. Membership is free and you have to opt-in.
Carson Dellosa Current PROMOTIONS
Academic Games for the Middle & High School crowd
While there are tons of games to support academic learning for elementary school students, there aren’t many for the middle and high school crowd. Generally, there are workbooks that teach algebra, chemistry, etc, but not STEM games that can be used in the classroom.
For the middle school crowed, Steve Spangler website mentioned above has several fun and safe chemistry experiment kits that teachers use in the classroom. Parents can buy individual kits which include everything you need to experiment at home with easy to follow instructions.
STEM Games
Helping students understand math and science concepts and processes can be difficult to learn, and sometimes boring or not fun. However, a great resource that makes difficult to learn STEM concepts in biology and chemistry is Genius Games.org.
Genius Games was founded by an engineer who loved board games as a kid and as an adult decided to invent games to generate interest in the science field in students while also having fun. The end goal is to make it easier to learn and enjoy Science, Technology, Education & Math concepts and choose this field as a career.
Genius Games is resource for teachers and parents to find detailed human anatomy puzzles, games and lessons to learn about biology, chemistry, science and science history games. Definitely worth checking out to support your teen’s learning.
Teaching complex science is less complicated when lessons are turned into a visual game . Here is an example of the game Genotype
Though genetics is complicated, the Genotype game pictured above teaches Punnett squares, trait inheritance, simple Mendelian genetics, trait probabilities, mendelian pea plants in a manner that is easy to understand the basics of genetic combinations and mutations while providing hours of challenging fun.
As one reviewer stated, “I learn more about biology from Genius Games than I ever did taking biology in high school.”
Some of the Genius Games are collaborative card games. Collaborative games are awesome for teaching teamwork and how to compromise. Players cooperate to beat goals for each round within a very short period of time. It requires cooperative strategizing rather than individual competition, which adds to the element of fun but also teaches social skills.
Don’t discount this resources when searching for games that teach kids to be smarter
Genius Games discounts:
Get 15% off your first order with code 15%OffFirstOrder
Get 20% off all orders over $100 with code 20%OffOrdersOver$100
Hope this helps you find fun activities that prevent learning loss during summer or school breaks, keep kids busy at home, and make kids smarter.
Happy savings, TaLis
Educational deals:
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Image credit Learning Resources
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