Home Schooling Resources — Primary School — Australia
A lot of us are discovering that we may have to homeschool our kids for some time. Or at least keep them busy at home and try to avoid big gaps in their learning while we wait for the world to return to normal and schools to reopen. This post is to help parents of primary-aged students find resources. Some of them are specific to Australia, while some are not. I do understand that these are difficult times and not every parent has the money to purchase these resources. You can use this post to make a blueprint and track down free resources on the same topics. For example, the YouTube channels suggested here for Science are all free. Similarly, once you know the topics, you can find the information online as well as worksheets, colouring pages and so on for children to complete.
One very important thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of resources online for homeschooling parents as well as information blogs, so one can feel overwhelmed with the amount of information. Staying calm will help. I have organised the information here by subject, so that you can start with whatever seems most do-able and then work your way towards other things once you and your child are more comfortable with one subject.
Maths
Maths is often the subject parents worry about the most, so we can start from there.
1. Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a free educational resource that can be used by any one any where in the world. It started off as a website teaching Maths and has now diversified into other subjects. Khan Academy lets you open an account as a parent and let your child use that and offers maths lessons from reception to grade 12. If the child successfully solves 5 problems in a row, the concept is assumed to be understood and then the child can move to the next level. They can always return and do levels again. Most levels have accompanying videos to explain the concept. Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, started it mostly to teach his cousin maths through YouTube videos as they were in different cities. More people subscribed. And once Bill Gates said that he used the Khan Academy to help his kids with their algebra homework, the site really took off.
2. Targeting Maths
Targeting Maths are practice workbooks that are aligned with the Australian curriculum and available for each grade. There are no answers at the back but these are inexpensive and provide practice for a variety of concepts. These are usually available in Big W and QBD. https://www.pascalpress.com.au/targeting-maths-ac-edition/
3. Officeworks
Officeworks has a number of maths practice workbooks published by school zone. These include money, time and fractions maths basics, mental mathematics, addition and subtraction and so on. https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/c/education/numeracy/numeracy-workbooks-textbooks
4. Singapore Maths
These are maths workbooks that are used in Singapore schools for maths practice. In some editions the money chapters refer to Singapore money. The advantage of this option is that the workbooks have monsters and anything which makes maths practice fun is most welcome.
5. Pr1me Mathematics
Scholastics has developed the pr1me mathematics in collaboration with Singapore and adapted it to Australia. These are again maths practice workbooks that explain a concept and then provide practice.
http://au.scholastic.com/en/scholastic-prime-mathematics
6. Math-U-See
Math-U-See is an expensive option and it’s order does not match the Australian curriculum. I have included it here, however, because of one significant difference: all the books above practice one concept for a maximum of 2 or 3 pages and then move to the next one, but Maths-U-See offers a lot more practice in each concept. The order of the books is primer (introduction to numbers) alpha (single digit addition and subtraction), beta (double digit addition and subtraction), gamma (multiplication) delta (division), epsilon (fractions) and zeta (decimals and percents). The full package includes a DVD in which an instructor teaches all the maths concepts one by one as well as a teacher’s kit, but if you are confident about teaching it on your own you can opt for the students kit which will have the student practice workbook and a test book.
https://mathsaustralia.com.au/homeparents/
You can look up these different curriculum options online and go with the one that seems most appealing to you and your child. As you do 1–2 pages daily, you’ll be feeling far more confident about maths soon.
Reading
Most schools suggest that children continue to read a little bit daily during their time at home. Here is a list of resources that can help you do that.
Teaching Reading
1. The Ordinary Parents’ Guide to Teaching Reading
This book follows a phonics programme and lays out a simple daily lesson plan, allowing you to teach reading step by step. Unfortunately it is a bit expensive. It does follow sounds from the alphabet to prefixes, suffixes and plurals, so it is a good investment if you are going to teach more than one child or you can pool and buy it with other families.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Ordinary-Parents-Guide-Teaching-Reading/dp/0972860312
There are a lot of reading apps that you can use to practice sounds and letters with your kids. There are also websites that help teach kids reading. Some of these are listed below:
3. https://www.icanteachmychild.com/10-steps-to-teaching-your-child-to-read/
4. https://www.readingrockets.org
Practicing Reading
Once your child understands the basics of phonics and is reading on their own, all they need is reading practice and nothing else. Reading a wide variety of picture books, early chapter books and graphic books, among others, will soon see them turning into regular and efficient readers.
One of the best things about living in Australia is that libraries are free and full of books on a variety of topics. Even if the physical libraries are closed, you can use your library card to borrow e-book versions of picture books and chapter books. Not just that, almost all second hand stores have a shelf of children’s books. Here are a few webpages that will help you find interesting books to keep your children occupied.
1. What do we do all day
What do we do all day is a website that is full of great recommendations for books and board games for children. The site is full of great reads sorted thematically that you can find through the books tab on top of the page.
https://www.whatdowedoallday.com
2. Book Bairn
This site focusses on picture books and early readers, which is perfect for younger primary students. It is based in the UK and reviews contemporary books, so sometimes you have to wait before those books are available in SA libraries.
3. Read Brightly
Read Brightly offers book lists for children of all ages. You can use the tabs to explore them by age or by theme. Popular pages include Books Girls Love and Books Boys Love.
4. A Head Full of Stories
Normally I would have not included this because this is my own page. But I included this because unlike the above options, I can personally vouch for all the suggestions that are posted here. Also, almost all the recommendations are available in SA libraries, which is where I get them from. I try to avoid generic or merchandising books and only recommend books that either I or my daughter loved and that are meaningful in some way. You can follow the page either on Facebook or on Instagram.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/498572457381244/?ref=bookmarks
Writing
- Targeting Spelling, Grammar and English
These are all similar to the Targeting Maths books. You can get Targeting Spelling, or Targeting Grammar or Targeting English. They are available by grade and there is also a targeting Handwriting that varies by state. I’ve seen these in Big W and QBD as well.
https://www.pascalpress.com.au/targeting/
2. Officeworks
Officeworks also has a number of literacy workbooks, including books to practice both reading and writing.
(Note: this page is first of four)
3. Picture books
There is a wide variety of picture books that teach grammar, punctuation and the writing process to children. Here I have included links to a few such lists. Each will suggest various grammar books for children:
https://www.babiestobookworms.com/2018/06/04/childrens-books-punctuation-grammar/
https://www.readbrightly.com/books-teach-grammar-rules/
https://www.playfullearning.net/resource/10-books-that-inspire-kids-to-write/
https://imaginationsoup.net/picture-books-teach-grammar-language-punctuation/
https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/writing-journals-for-children
This is more unstructured way of doing grammar, punctuation and writing, but it is more fun for children and may work better in the long term.
4. Journal Buddies
This webpage provides writing prompts for children, divided by themes, ages and so on. All your child needs is a pencil and a notebook and they are ready for some creative writing. This is a free resource that is full of exciting ideas. Non-fiction options are a bit limited though.
https://www.journalbuddies.com
5. Brave Writer
Brave Writer is an online programme that teaches writing to kids, which has great reviews. This is a paid and expensive programme but due to COVID-19 they have made some of their resources available for free up to April 30.
https://blog.bravewriter.com/2020/03/13/needing-support-due-to-covid-19/
Also if you google reading comprehension worksheets, you will find a lot of online practice worksheets that you can print and use. But you can also use picture books, especially the science, history and geography ones, to practice reading comprehension. That would be more meaningful than doing practicing reading comprehension without context.
Maths, Reading and Writing Together
There are a few websites where you can different resources by grade, which include components from different subjects.
https://www.education.sa.gov.au/our-learning-sa
Science
There is so much information on science on the web and so many wonderful websites that one can make an endless list. Here I am going to share a few general resources and recommend that you use them as pegs, finding out which topics interest your child and then exploring further within those topics.
1. Excel basic skills workbooks
Excel has workbooks for Science that are aligned with the Australian curriculum and sorted by grade. They also have workbooks for Maths and English skills that seem to be good, going by the sample available online.
https://www.pascalpress.com.au/excel-basic-skills/
2. The Magic School Bus Series
The Magic School Bus is a series of ten picture books, comic style, that tackle different scientific concepts: the human body, electricity, the solar system, oceans, dinosaurs and so on. They are quite funny and appeal to kids: for example, they learn about the human body by going inside their friend. It was turned into a series that is available on both YouTube and Netflix. Recently the series got an updated version called The Magic School Bus Rides Again that tackled different topics: ecosystems, engineering, magnetism, allergies and so on. Both the old and new versions are worth a watch.
3. Science based TV shows
There are also a variety of other science based shows on tv for kids. You can find some recommendations on these links. Note: each link will take you to suggestions for more than one show and you can then see which are available where you are located.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/best-science-shows-for-kids
https://www.sassymamasg.com/best-educational-kids-tv-shows-preschoolers-teens/
3. Science Experiments
There are lots of books, easily available through libraries, that are full of ideas for science experiments that can be done at home or with minimum preparation. You can find these book lists on the book list webpages mentioned in the section on reading. Alternatively, there are even more websites full of similar ideas.
https://www.noguiltmom.com/very-simple-science-experiments/
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html
https://www.kidspot.com.au/things-to-do/collection/science-experiments
https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/category/150-science-experiments/
https://blog.prepscholar.com/easy-science-experiments-for-kids-at-home
And a wonderful resource that brings art and science together:
4. Reading picture books and chapter books about science
There are tons of picture books and chapter books on science and again you can find book lists very easily online. You can choose a topic your child likes — stars, construction, moon, flowers, animals — and find many resources in the library. If you want to do a more structured approach, here is a webpage that lists science topics, so you can follow that order. One thing to keep in mind is that in primary it may be better to do one topic in depth rather than to have a superficial knowledge of many, since learning one topic in depth actually trains you to do in-depth learning of any topic.
https://science4fun.info/science-topics/
5. The Kid Should See This/YouTube Science Channels
The Kid Should See This uploads 10 to 15 child-friendly videos each week, covering a variety of topics: animals, nature, art, animation, technology, space, how things are made and so on. It is a treasure trove of information and delight. Similarly, YouTube also has a variety of science channels for children, including the NASA channel and the Smithsonian channel.
http://www.gescienceprize.org/lists/10-youtube-channels-for-kids-who-love-science/
https://www.fatherly.com/play/youtube-science-channels-for-kids/
https://www.learningliftoff.com/the-best-educational-youtube-channels-for-kids/
History and Geography
- Talking about history and Geography
Here are a few articles that suggest ways to talk to children about history and geography and increase their understanding of them.
http://www.parenting-by-example.com/helping-children-learn/helping-your-child-learn-history
https://wehavekids.com/education/6-Fun-Ways-to-Teach-Geography-to-Kids-at-Home
https://www.education.com/magazine/article/geography-for-kids/
2. Reading Picture books and chapter books about History and Geography
There are lots of pictures books and chapter books set in different historical times or in different places around the world. Again, you can jump into a topic that interests your child or you can follow a more structured approach if that feels more comfortable. For a structured approach, you can issue a simple history book or encyclopaedia from the library, which will give you an outline, (for example Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ancient Indian civilisation, Aztecs, Greeks, Romans and so on) and then you can get library books accordingly. You can also find a list of topics here: https://www.history.com/topics
For a list of picture and chapter books, please consult the webpages mentioned in practicing reading or google. Funny series include Horrible Histories and You Wouldn’t Want to Be/You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without. A beautiful series for older kids is the Spectacular Visual Guides, that look at historical constructions (Egyptian pyramid, Greek temple, Colosseum, Samurai Castle, 19th-Century Railway Station and so on).
3. Websites and YouTube channels
There are many wonderful websites and YouTube channels that offer excellent resources for children. Here are a few:
https://www.historyforkids.net
https://worldhistoryproject.org
https://www.ducksters.com/geography/
https://www.natgeokids.com/au/
https://www.4onemore.com/social-studies-youtube-channels/
https://kidworldcitizen.org/social-studies-youtube-channels/
Life Skills and Activities
Finally, here are a few suggestions for some life skills for children to practice, which are as important as academics. It doesn’t actually need a list and you should definitely follow their interest, but here are a few ideas to get you started.
https://www.northshoremums.com.au/fun-home-activities-with-kids
