Monthly newsletter packed with info on free and paid resources for homeschool parents wanting to prepare their children well for college and careers.
Share
May Newsletter: Stock Market Contest, Educational Outdoor Activities, and More!
Published about 1 month ago • 6 min read
This month we're taking a look at FundaFunda unit studies and educational outdoor activities. Our Stock Market Contest is also back for 2025! And, we have new content in our regularly featured areas, including a new teacher spotlight, a new AI tip, and more.
Teacher Spotlight
Dana planting basil on her front porch
Dana Underwood
A year into her postdoctoral research, Dana wasn't enjoying lab work like she had in the past. She realized her favorite part of grad school had been working with the undergraduates who did research in the lab. So, shortly after having her first child and with the culmination of her fellowship, she started teaching part-time at a community college. She taught 1-2 classes at the community college until her family moved across the country.
With all of the changes around moving, Dana and her husband decided to homeschool their older child who was about to start kindergarten. In the spring, the co-op they attended offered her a job teaching the high school biology class. It was a great fit after years of teaching similar material at the community college because Dana thrives on the energy that high schoolers bring to the classroom!
Dana spends her summers working with the produce from her large garden and the herbs she grows in containers on the porch. She enjoys talking with people at assorted volunteer gigs, and she has fun ringing the bass bells in her church's handbell choir. Through the years, she has learned to keep stats and run scoreboards for her kids’ sports teams. As her youngest finishes high school, she expects to spend a lot less time at the ball field and gym and more time in the garden!
"Dr. Dana is a fantastic teacher with experience in teaching. She makes difficult concepts easy to understand and wants to make sure all her students are doing well in her class. The homework assignments and tests are relevant to the information given in the lectures, so there are no surprises on the tests. I would highly recommend this class, especially if you go on to take biology in college, as it will give you a good foundation in biology to tackle a college level course."
Sign your children up for our summer Stock Market Contest! Students receive $100,000 in virtual currency to invest between June 1 and July 31. At the end of July, the top 3 students will win Amazon gift cards in the amounts of $50, $25, or $15.
Registration is $10 per student and includes our web-based Stock Market Unit Study ($20 value). You receive immediate access to the unit study, so sign up now and your child can start working through the unit study to gain background knowledge before the contest begins.
Keep the learning fun --and going throughout the summer with FundaFunda Unit Studies!
We offer unit studies in ballet, critical thinking, history, science, and much more! Our unit studies are reasonably priced and packed full of fun and engaging activities to motivate 4th through 12th grade students to dig deeper in their learning and understanding on various topics.
Pick a couple unit studies to work through this summer: regular unit studies consist of four modules and are designed to be completed over four or more weeks, while mini unit studies consist of one module and are designed to be completed over one or more weeks.
This contest is open to students in 3rd grade through 25 years of age. Students submit a 3 to 8 minute lone film on different topics based on their age. Topics include climate, energy, water, food, wildlife, ecosystems, and more. There will be one winner in each of seven age categories.
Entries must be submitted by 11:59pm CST May 25, 2025.
All winning films will premiere on September 21, 2025, and some will be selected for the One Earth Film Festival in April 2026. Cash prizes, grants, and scholarships will also be awarded based on the seven age categories.
AI Tip / Resource of the Month
ChatGPT
Are you planning a vacation this summer? Let ChatGPT help! ChatGPT can find activities for you to do on vacation--whether in your home city or another location. Just specify the age range for activities, your interests, costs, time you have to spend, and any other factors that are important to you. If the list it provides doesn't match up with what you want, just provide additional feedback and keep trying until you find something that works.
Explore these cool links to find fun and educational outdoor learning activities!
iNaturalist is a free app that helps children and adults identify plants and animals in nature. You can also contribute to real citizen science projects.
With Project Noah, students are encouraged to take photos of wildlife. This is a great activity for nature walks or backyard exploration with a photography element.
The National Park Service's Junior Ranger Online site has plenty of interactive nature-themed activities that encourage offline (and online--for those rainy days) study.
This Geocaching blog post from FundaFunda provides information on this fun outdoor activity for children and adults of all ages.
In our Homeschooling with Technology podcast, we explore new and different ways of using technology in homeschooling. There is an episode released every week!
You can start listening at any time. Just click on a link to listen in a browser, or find the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Email me if you need help! We have a tab on our website to browse through all our past podcast episodes easily. Check it out!
In this episode, we take a deep dive into Google Talking Tours, an AI-powered tool from Google Arts & Culture that lets users explore landmarks and cultural sites around the world with automatically narrated tours.
Whether you’re teaching geography, history, writing, photography, or just looking for an engaging and free activity, here are 10 innovative ways homeschool families can use this tool to create meaningful learning experiences.
Meryl chats with Krisa Wynn about Homeschool Heroes, an online platform designed to support homeschool families with children who are “unique learners.” Krisa shares how the platform provides free and paid resources, community groups, learning assessments, consultations, and quarterly day-off events for homeschoolers.
In this episode, discover Virtual Vacation, a free and engaging website that lets you experience cities around the globe through walking, driving, and flying tours.
We’ve all faced tech frustrations and needed to troubleshoot tech —whether it’s a stubborn printer, glitchy software, or a bug on your website. As homeschoolers, we have the unique advantage of turning these moments into powerful, real-life learning experiences.
Free Resource Library for Subscribers
Access the Free Resources Library HERE. Password: edufun
This month we're taking a look at homeschooling styles and summer reading/book clubs. Our Stock Market Contest is in full swing; you can still join in on the fun and learning! We also have new content in our regularly featured areas, including a new teacher spotlight, a new AI tip, and much more. Teacher Spotlight Jennie at Sports Dress-Up Day at Thursday Connection Jennie Miller This fall, Jennie will start her third year of teaching high school English through FundaFunda Academy, but she’s...
This month we're taking a look at homeschooling styles and summer reading/book clubs. Our Stock Market Contest is in full swing; you can still join in on the fun and learning! We also have new content in our regularly featured areas, including a new teacher spotlight, a new AI tip, and much more. Teacher Spotlight Jennie at Sports Dress-Up Day at Thursday Connection Jennie Miller This fall, Jennie will start her third year of teaching high school English through FundaFunda Academy, but she’s...
This month we're taking a look at computer courses and online grammar/poetry resources. We also have a special offer for you on a Scratch coding class and a poll about a new AI class. To round things out, we have new content in our regularly featured areas. Enjoy! Teacher Spotlight One of Kristin's all-time favorite things to do is snorkel. Kristin Moon Kristin earned her PhD in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology from the University of Florida; she intended to pursue a career in scientific...
