I had some information I wanted to pass along. Those of us in Virginia will be
doing our end of year testing soon. With the economy right now most of us are
searching for ways to save without jeopardizing our children's education. I
thought some of you might be interested in the Seton Testing Service
(http://www.setonhome.org/testing/) . We used it last year. It is very
affordable $25 per test and You can administer it yourself. They provide testing
for K-12. We had our test results back in under 2 weeks.

We started homeschooling a year ago February. We had hoped to do a pre made
curriculum but financially was not able to. We started out eclectic and it has
proven to be a great click for our family. I admit I spend lots of time
researching for our material , but it allows me to do a fine fit for each child.
The amount of free educational resources out there has truly amazed me. So I
wanted to share some of better sites/resources with you.
One of the kids favorites is their homeschool blogs. It was totally free at
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com . I use this for many educational needs .
Number one would be for computer skills. They have learned to research their
topics to build an informative and interesting document. They have learned to
support their documents with graphics done by themselves or gathered from other
media. In the process of all this they learn vocabulary , grammar, language
arts, history etc. To them it is just a way of keeping in touch with other
homeschoolers their age. They usually don't realize they are learning.

Here is a great resources to learn typing skills. Totally free . 
http://www.typing-lessons.org/
The kids love using this and have picked up the skills very quickly. It is very
similar to the way we learned in public school.

E-books are something my children have really enjoyed using as a learning tool.
You can find tons of them free online. The ones we have found are geared more
for younger children but some subjects could easily be adapted to older
children. The best site we have found so far is  http://www.schoolexpress.com/

We also use lots of free printables/worksheets. The sites with these are
endless. Here are some of our more used sites and some that look really useful.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html you can get a years subscription for
$20 or use many of their resources free without membership.

http://www.tlsbooks.com/

http://abcteach.com/

http://www.homeschoolingadventures.com/worksheets.html

http://edhelper.com/

http://www.homeeducationresources.com/FREE1.htm

http://resources.kaboose.com/parents/links/printable-worksheets/printable-worksh
eets.html

Google can really be your best friend in searching for educational resources. If
you have a specific subject you need resources for just google it. For example
Sunday evening we watched the launch of the Space Shuttle. I was able to google
search Space Shuttle and find enough resources to do a entire study on it and
the planets. I found everything free - printable coloring sheets, word search
and cross word puzzles, printable fact sheets, etc...

Sometimes as homeschoolers we feel like we are all alone here is a great
informative local group . They are always doing great activities and sharing
resources. Kim and her members are a wealth of information. 
http://homepage.mac.com/eddiewooten/My%20Website/page3/page3.html

Here is one just started for homeschoolers in Cana,VA.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CanaVirginiaHomeschoolGroup

With homeschooling lots of us search for used material to save money . I have
found some really economical used material/books on http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=
nb_ss_b_1_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=homeschool+curriculum&
sprefix=homeschool

Here is a local site where you can sell, give away, or trade your homeschool
material. Joining and using the group is totally free and it is local so you
don't have to worry about those shipping fees.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cana_thrifty_treasures

Save on that printer ink. We use lots of ink printing our worksheets and other
resources. I found that refilling my own printer cartridges is much more
economical for us. Walmart and Staples carry the generic refill kits. I prefer
the one from Staples. We have used a box of printer paper and a cartridge refill
kit so far this homeschool year. We spent around $60 for all of this. That is
less than most cartridge replacements.

I hope you can find lots of useful information in this email. I enjoy helping
others be thrifty. If you have any resources of your own please email me and
share them.

Vicki