Academic Resources

Also visit: OpenWaldorf Parents Survival Guide

Here are academic resources to help you learn about and participate in your child's education. All of these sites are "OpenWaldorf Approved" for your growing Waldorf child!

U.S. Education Standards

National and state content standards in all subjects:

General Research

The British Library

Internet Public Library
This web directory is developed and maintained by experts in information science (formerly known as "librarians!") Sites are carefully selected for academic excellence.

KidsClick!
This web directory was put together by librarians, especially for kids.

Surfing the Net with Kids
This directory of "the best kid sites" is put together by an active mom.

Yahooligans!
Yahoo!'s web directory for kids. (More commercial in nature.)

ThinkQuest
This online library has hundreds of educational websites designed by kids, for kids.

Educational Hotlist
This simple directory links to hundreds of subject-based web-sites on the net.

FactMonster
Helps kids find facts fast. Subjects range from math and sports to people and science.

Awesome Library
Awesome Library organizes the Web ? with 24,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent in education.

Old Farmer's Almanac
Yes, this is the one-and-only original Old Farmer's Almanac online!

Virtual Reference Desk Learning Center
A Yahoo!-like directory of educational web sites in a wide range of subjects.

Smithsonian Education
Art and culture, history and travel, science and nature curriculum and content for parents, families and students.

iBiblio
a diverse and expansive collection of information on the Internet, created and maintained by the public, for the public.

Curriculum and Projects

Education World's Lesson Planning
Hundreds of worksheets, lesson plans, teacher lessons and "5-minute fillers"

Discovery.com's Lesson Plan Library
Lesson plans for grades K-5.

Discovery School
Great resources for students, teachers and parents.

TheHomeSchoolMom.Com
Guides you to the best free and low-cost curriculum on the web.

A to Z Home's Cool
Outstanding collection of articles and links to lesson plans, how-tos and subject approaches.

abcteach
Over 5,000 free printables! Basics, shape books, theme units, flashcards. Lots of great stuff!

cyberbee
Curriculum resources, articles, and a great directory of weblinks.

Jon's Homeschool Resources
Articles, links and lesson plans, with over 140 pages.

Wide Horizon Education Resources
Teaching Packs based on the Waldorf Approach to Education. Some lesson plans are FREE.

Core Knowledge Lesson Plans
Core Knowledge is a school reform movement taking shape in hundreds of schools where educators have committed themselves to teaching important skills and the Core Knowledge content they share within grade levels, across districts, and with other Core Knowledge schools across the country.

Art

ArtsEdge teaching materials
A gift to the public from the Kennedy Center, this superb site has art-based curriculum on all subjects, not just art. A fantastic resource!

KinderART
Over 1,000 art lesson plans for kids.

the @rt room
This fantastic site is a kids portal to art and art history resources on the net.

Famous Paintings for Students
Stories about each painting, including links and study sheets.

Stories, Literature and Reading

E-text Web Sites

Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is the Internet's oldest producer of FREE electronic books.

Project Bartleby
Another leading web site of free literature, reference and verse online.

The Online Books Page
Listing over 20,000 free books on the Web.

OpenDirectory of Literature Classics
Hundreds of links to classic literature. Covers many free texts web sites.

The Baldwin Project
Tons of free classic books online in etext format. Organized to closely follow Waldorf curriculum by class (grade).

Literature.org
Classics by authors including Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Charles Darwin, Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain and others.

Other Literature Sites

Children's Literature Web Guide
Internet resources related to books for children and young adults.

Poetry Archives
An educational resource to aid students, educators, and the curious. Thousands of classical poems to help you recall fond memories or to help create new ones. Searchable by first-line, author and poem title.

Poets.org
Essays on poetry, biographies of more than 450 poets, text of more than 1400 poems, and RealAudio of one hundred poems read by their authors or other poets. Discuss poetry and share their own work with fellow web travelers; find local poetry resources on the National Poetry Map and calendar; and much more.

Encyclopedia Mythica
An encylopedia on mythology, folklore and legend.

Myths and Legends
A huge listing of myths from many periods and cultures.

Legends
A journey through the worlds of Robin Hood ,King Arthur ,D'Artagnan , and other swashbuckling characters of balladry, fiction, and film, from the shores of Avalon to the dungeons of Zenda. Guided access to primary source material and up-to-date scholarship, personal essays and extended reviews, historical surveys and thoughtful commentary.

AlphaPage
The evolution of alphabets.

Grimm's Fairy Tales in Spanish

Into the Wardrobe
A web site devoted to C.S. Lewis.

Dolch Sight Word Activities
When your child is finally ready to read, these activities will help them learn and recognize some of the most fundamental words in the english language.

Math

MegaPenny Project
The MegaPenny Project aims to help by taking one small everyday item, the U.S. penny, and building on that to answer the question: "What would a billion (or a trillion) pennies look like?"

Gallery of Interactive Geometry
Assorted geometry visualizations for more advance geometry students.

Science

National Science Education Standards

National Geographic Kids and Explorer
National Geographic Kids is an interactive, multitopic magazine covering animals, entertainment, science, technology, current events, and cultures from around the world. National Geographic Explorer is a classroom magazine for grades three through six.

Discover.com
Discover magazine online, a fantastic science magazine for kids.

NASA Quest
A great website for K-12 on the space sciences.

The Dynamic Earth
A fantastic web site from the Smithsonian Institution on the earth sciences.

howstuffworks
Even though it includes information on on stuff other than the hard sciences, this site offers tons of lessons to help kids understand how the stuff around them works.

Science U
Science U is for people who like science. Interactive exhibits make science fun. Engaging multimedia articles and activites make Science U a great place to learn about science.

Circulatory System at Encarta
Describes the components, operation and function of the human circulatory system.

DinoQuest
A travel log of a dinosaur dig in the Sahara by National Geographic.

The latest works...Optical Illusions in Art
These colorful drawings play tricks on the mind.

bubblesphere
Kids love bubbles, and Professor Bubbles delivers the goods in this educational science web site that is also super-fun! You'll have a lot of OFFLINE fun with this site!

History, Social Studies, Religion, and Multi-culturalism

History World
World History consists of some 400 separate Histories and 4000 tagged events.

World History Chart
A chart of historical developments over the course of human history. (Note: This chart does not include Rudolf Steiner's clairvoyant visions of Atlantis, Lemuria and other historical events according to Rudolf Steiner. Try reading Cosmic Memory FREE online!)

My Hero
This web site solicits kids to submit tributes to their heroes. This site is a collection of those tributes. An excellent window into a biographical approach to social and historical studies.

Penny's Place
This website chronicles the life of "Penny," a golden retriever puppy training to be a guide dock. It helps educate children about people who are differently-abled.

Rockart
A huge collection of petroglyphs from around the world.

Eternal Egypt
Eternal Egypt is a living record of a land rich in art and history, people and places, myths and religions.

America's Story
Discover the stories of America's past. Biographies, states' information, play, sights and sounds.

Different Drummers
More than 300 pages of professionally developed classroom-tested teaching materials for including both religious and nonreligious worldviews when teaching about religion in history and/or social studies. (Click on "View/Print Free DD" for free lessons in PDF format.)

LocalHarvest
A definitive and reliable "living" public nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets, and other local food sources. Helps people find local sources of sustainably grown food, and encourages them to establish direct contact with family farms in their local area.

Election 2004
A web site for kids on the 2004 Elections

Music, Verses and Songs

Yahoo! Music Education Directory

PianoNanny.com's Piano on the Net
Can't afford piano lessons? PianoNanny to the rescue! Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced lessons online for FREE!

Verses and songs for Steiner/Waldorf classrooms
Many of these verses have been "handed down and handed down by teachers to teachers, from school to school."

Educational Standards, Theory and Methods

Content Standards for California Public Schools

ERIC/AE Full Text Library
Links to some of the best full-text books, reports, journal articles, newsletter articles and papers on the Internet that address educational measurement, evaluation and learning theory.

Online Learning
(Online learning may violate your agreement with your Waldorf school. Use electronic media at your own discretion.)

BrainPOP
Tons of cool lessons on all sorts of subjects including health, science, math, english, technology and social studies.

Funbrain Kids' Center
The coolest thing about this educational game site is the Funbrain Game Finder , to help you find just the right educational game for your child.

Gamequarium.com
Links to over 1,500 learning games online.