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On this page, I've collected together a few articles on home-schooling that I think are particularly useful.

Also, just to help you out, I've gone through all the games on this site, and evaluated them with you, the home-schooler, in mind.

It's my sincere hope that these resources will make your home-schooling a little more joyful - or a little less burdensome - wherever you may now be in your home-schooling journey.

First, the articles

There's so much information on the net about homeschooling. I've picked out some articles I particulary like, and with the author's permission, I've reproduced them here.

• Pamela Connolly has written an excellent three-part series on "Learning Styles". Each child is unique, and each learns in a different way. That's one of the main points about homeschooling, of course - you can tailor your teaching to each tyke's temperament. The big question is how? Pamela answers by showing you how to understand your child better, and giving tips on what kind of activities will really gel the most well. Start at Part 1, or skip forward to Part 2 or Part 3.

That's all for the articles (so far!). Now for the games!

• The 1 to 9 game is a game where players have to collect three numbers that add up to 15. It will help teach arithmetic to younger kids. For older kids, it will help them with strategic and logical thinking. The game's page shows how to vary the rules to make it suitable for any elementary school grade.
• The Arithmetic Math Game is a good game for a few players, needing good arithmetic skills to compete well. It's more complex though, so if your kids are still young, save it for later.
• Feel like something different? A break from the normal pen-and-paper routine? Try Mathteroids, the math asteroid game or the other interactive games on this site.
• One of these addition and subtraction worksheets is especially designed as a learning tool, not just a revision exercise. The sums are ordered so that the child working through them will discover for themselves the relationship between addition and subtraction, and other important points. There are some plain vanilla revision worksheets too!
• This Set Of Tiles can be used to help teach kids how to add and subtract numbers of more than one digit. Good for, say, first to third graders, or anyone who just doesn't 'get' the idea of carrying and borrowing 1's.
• An Advent Calendar, besides being a great Christmas tradition, helps teach younger kids counting and calendars in a fun, exciting way. Download and print this free advent calendar, make up up with a trimmer and glue, and enjoy the Christmas countdown with your child.
• This Angle Geometry Quiz tests your knowledge of a few facts relating to angles. Race against the clock as you prove your skills! Topics covered include the interior angles of triangles and quadrilaterals, angles near parallel lines, lines meeting at a point and others.
• See how many numbers you can make with just basic arithmetic operations and the four given digits! A great puzzle for stretching the mathematical creativity of young children, and reinforcing their arithmetic skills.
• In this Chess Jigsaw Puzzle, a chess (or checker) board has been broken into eight pieces. See if your children can join the pieces back together!
• Try the Fractions Card Game if you have children who need to practice adding and subtracting fractions. There's a set of playing cards to print and cut out, and suggestions for at least three games you can play with them. In one, the aim is to find groups of cards that add up to one, so kids will pick up skills in addition and subtraction of fractions, as well as reducing fractions, as they pit their wits against one another.
• In a Cryptarithm puzzle, each digit of an arithmetic sum has been replaced with a letter of the alphabet. The aim of the puzzle is to restore the original sum. These puzzles are sometimes called alphametics or crypt-arithmetics. You can get many more such puzzles from the resources available at www.cryptarithmania.com.
• The Dot Joining Game is a simple paper-and-pencil game, with many hidden mathematical formulae to discover. You can play this game with your kids, and lead them (I show you how on the page) how to help them unlock its hidden mathematical patterns.
• If you are using flashcards, try this simple game with your child. It's quick to set up, and will add a bit of variety to the normal flashcard routine. The goal of the game? Travel along a trail of flashcard stepping stones to obtain a special prize!
• Fish Plus One is a game with simple rules, for teaching addition facts such as 3+1=4. It can be played with a normal set of playing cards, or UNO cards. Once kids have mastered adding 1 to numbers, you can move them on to Fish Plus Two, Fish Plus Three... or maybe even Fish Plus Plus!
• Foldable number sheets are a tool for helping younger kids "get" three- or four-digit numbers. Write the number in the blank squares, and unfold it to see its meaning. Or write out the meaning, and fold it up to see the number.
• Print out and make this set of Fractions Dominoes. It's a fractions activity designed to help kids recognise how much of a circle each fraction represents. Unlike some other math games, winning is not just about being better at math - but the game nonetheless provides great learning opportunities.
• This Fraction Simplifying Puzzle challenges kids to simplify a collection of fractions and observe which ones can and can not be simplified. There are variants of the puzzle that make it suitable for kids just learning fractions, all the way up to lower high school.
• In this puzzle, the goal is to cut a Heart-Shaped Biscuit into three pieces, so that each piece contains only one color of sprinkles. The cuts will be very twisty and wiggly, but that's fine for this puzzle. Because of the shape of the biscuit, this puzzle is perfect for around Valentine's Day, but it can also be used at any other time of the year.
• Looking for Magic Square Puzzle Worksheets? Look no further! The page contains about 30 worksheets with about 40 magic square puzzles. Also, there is a link to a page explaining how the puzzle worksheets were made.
• Print these Magic Number Cards, learn how to use them, and with a bit of practice you'll be able to amaze your friends with your number guessing skills! This page provides the traditional version of this trick, as well as a few variations of my own invention. Full instructions and a video example are available at the web page.
• In the Math Architect Online Game the goal is to design an apartment with the given area. The catch? Each room is a square, and you must have as few rooms as possible! This makes the game challenging enough to keep kids occupied, and deep enough to keep them learning as they play. There is also a high scores table showing the best players each month, year and for all time, and some ideas for playing math architect as a paper and pencil game.
• There's a Math Board Game that will teach kids arithmetic skills as they aim for a goal.
• Traveling with kids aged 10 to 99? Take along this Math Card Game and keep them up to speed on their arithmetic! Good for grade 4 and up.
• Math Lines is like 'Zuma' with a math twist. A twisty row of colorful numbered marbles winds its way across the screen. If they get too far, that's the end of the game. Blast away with marbles of your own, and if you join two marbles that add to 10, they'll explode and give you more time to win. Can you make it to the next level?
• These Math Mazes are good for puzzle-loving kids as they learn their 7 and 8 times tables. They may look like ordinary mazes, but knowing your times table will help you reach your goal!
• Mathino is a game that can be played with an ordinary pack of cards. It's based on a common card game, Cassino, that already is good for kids learning arithmetic. Good for grades 1 to 3, maybe even 4!
• This money counting memory game allows kids from the United States, UK, Australia, the EU and Singapore to practice counting money in a familiar game
• Does someone need Practice Multiplying Or Dividing By Ten, Hundred or a Thousand? This worksheet generator lets you create as many practice questions as you like for manipulating powers of 10. Create easy or difficult worksheets, long or short ones, or even create individual worksheets for each member of your classroom to prevent copying...
• Try your 2nd graders to 7th graders on the Pizza Cutting Puzzle! This puzzle can be made as easy or as hard as you like, so you can tune it for any age group.
• Try Sight Numbers for a tool to help drill your kids on addition, subtraction and times tables until these basics become automatic!
• Do you use Speed Math Worksheets to help kids improve their mental arithmetic? Then you'll want to download this spreadsheet, because it can generate new worksheets every day. The worksheets can be either times tables or addition/subtraction worksheets, and you can choose the difficulty level. The spreadsheet is available in either Microsoft Office or OpenOffice formats, and there's a video on the web page showing how to use it.
• This Spirograph Applet is sure to be a hit with the artistically inclined. You can use it to make pretty patterns, and if you choose to "trust" the applet, you can even save them to disk or print them out. I've also made a page explaining the math that kids will pick up while using it.
• Times Tables Memory is a memory game that will help transfer times table facts from short-term to long-term memory. It can be played solo, or with a friend.
• If your kids like more action, and they are at the same level with their times tables, try Times Tables Snap!
• This website has a host of times table charts and grids that you can download and print - even up to the 20 times tables!
• These timetable worksheets will give your child practice reading timetables, schedules, itineraries and the like.

That's all for now. Of course, there are many more games on this site than these. Perhaps some of those I missed would make excellent home-school resources, but I just didn't see it. Browse around and see what you find!

Yours, Mike H...