I will preface this Frugal Homeschooler with the statement that I am not a real Halloween person. Everything here is more pumpkin aimed but a little Halloween may sneak in through carving;).

First, here is a bunch of Pumpkin worksheets that I found on another blogger site. It is owned by Newsword. It even includes optional answer keys. There are everything from matting, crosswords, word searches, etc. I will be using a couple of these for my first grader this year but there are plenty to choose from for older kids.

The there is a great Hands on Activity page that was produced by Chicago Academy of Sciences. They have some great little activities but the one I like the best is their main activity on the life cycle of a pumpkin. It even includes the worksheet with the images to cut out.

Southwest Educational development Lab has a great observational project that will help with kids understanding the scientific process, not to mention pumpkins. It has a page you can print out for recording data(and to go in their science binders) along with explanations of the steps.

Diane Flynn Keith over at Universal Preschool (and who also does the Clickschooling Yahoo group where I get so many of my free finds) has a great article, Pumpkin Fun!, that links to many good educational resources also. So if you didn’t find what you are looking for over here go check her out.

So that wraps up this week’s Frugal Homeschooler. Go have a great Halloween. Stay safe and don’t eat to much candy. Look, explore, use and if you have any great resources please share with me. As always remember homeschooling doesn’t have to be hard or expensive!

Once again I am looking at homeschooling on the cheap. This time I am looking at the record keeping side. It surprises me how intimidated people are by the idea that the need to keep records. It just isn’t that hard. Now granted, I am in California where we don’t have a lot of rules but still. I think this is something anyone can do with out any fancy, expensive stuff.

Personally I take the calendar approach. Since this is first grade I am just getting an idea of my oldest’s output. I have an overall minimum plan but not a daily plan (doesn’t allow for much flexibility). I bought a calendar with a page a day. Then I just write each kid’s name and what they did for the day. It is that simple. When this calendar is done I will just use the undated teacher’s planner I got at the Dollar Tree. It has plenty of room and the price is great;). I prefer the paper version right now and then I will convert it to a computer file at a later date for prosperity.

There are also a couple of free sites. You can download a free version of HomeSchool Tracker. It is a software program that you can put everything in to plan and track. I haven’t tried it but have heard good things, especially for multiple kids. The other tool out there is Donna Young’s site. It has all the printable paper work you can imagine. She has planning pages, notebooking pages, calendars, etc. I have already used them many times.

Well, hopefully that helps someone with the bookkeeping and tracking that goes with homeschooling. If you have any other free or cheap resources for record keeping please leave them in the comments. Also, if you haven’t checked out my post on reproducible books please do and add your finds too!

As always remember homeschooling doesn’t have to be hard or expensive!