Now maybe a good time to re-share a post I wrote in 2018 which listed some of my favourite free and affordable homeschool resources that we used over the years.
There is a wealth of resources out there and since we started homeschooling 12 years ago and that treasure trove has been enriched as generous and creative homeschooling mums from all over the world offer wonderful homespun resources to all. I've put together a list of homeschool resources we have used over the years. Hopefully, you will find them useful in your own homeschools whether they are temporary or permanent.
Complete Curriculum Plans
I'm going to start with complete curriculum plans. These are places where plans and links to resources from 1st grade all the way through to 12th grade can be found. An immense amount of work has gone into these sites. What a blessing that not only is all the work and research done for you but that because of the hard work of dedicated and passionate homeschooling mums like you and I, you can educate your children right the way through their school careers on a shoestring whilst still providing a rigorous academic education!Ambleside Online is very popular amongst those homeschoolers who follow a Charlotte Mason method to teaching their children. It is well worth exploring and investing time to peruse the wealth of information on this site if you are wanting to follow a Charlotte Mason approach to education. Each year has a complete booklist, plan, and schedule for the years study. The Ambleside Online Library hosts a large collection of original Charlotte Mason material and a support forum to dip into when you need help or advice.
Old Fashioned Education utilizes free public domain books and curricula organized conveniently by subject and let me tell you, the author of An Old Fashioned Education has covered every possible subject you may want to look at in your homeschooling career. We have all the usual suspects such as History, Geography, Maths and so on; but also a wealth of other subjects that are more interest-based such as Drama, Emergency Preparedness, and even Helps for Mom & Dad! If you click on the 'Full Curriculum' option in the sidebar you have a 40-week schedule plan for each grade, a student weekly assignment booklet, a full grade 1 - 12 curriculum overview, a booklist and a handy information tab on the curriculum.
The last full curriculum I am mentioning in this post is Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool for Pre-K to Grade 8 and the sister site, Easy Peasy All-in-One Highschool. There is a handy 'How to' page and video which helps you get to grips with how the author of the curriculum has intended this curriculum to be used which would be a good place to start. This is not one we have utilized but some of my friends have and enjoyed dipping into it.
Khan Academy, whilst not a complete curriculum is a valuable free online learning resource covering math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics and more. Bookmark this site because you will find it very useful. We have utilized it for high school math help as well as for the SAT test prep.
Public Domain Resources = Free!
If you choose to pull your own learning plans together as we did, you might want to bookmark these free resources to use. The Baldwin Project was started in 1999 with the idea of making all the classic works of literature available to children everywhere. A good chunk of the books mentioned in our complete curriculum providers section utilizes books that are available here. Librivox is another fabulous resource we used a lot. Let's face it, there is only so much time in the day and so much 'reading voice' to be expended. Librivox has lots of public domain classics available to listen to as audiobooks. I would download them and play them in the car whilst traveling between activities or on road trips. Or if we were stuck indoors for whatever reason and boredom struck, out would come a lovely audiobook to enjoy.
Lapbooks, Notebooking Pages and Unit Studies
Lapbooks are popular for younger children and Homeschoolshare has a catalog of 350 free lapbooks and unit studies covering all sorts of things. If you are new to lapbooking and have no clue what I'm talking about don't despair...this site has lots of handy YouTube videos and tutorials on how to lapbook with your children.a2zhomeschooling.com has a huge list of free unit studies. Freehomeschool deals, and thehomeschoolmom.com are great places to start looking for free unit studies. These three websites should keep you busy for a while.
Notebooking Pages have both free and paid-for options covering all sorts of topics from the Bible, Artists, Composers to Copywork, nature and even generic pages to be used for any topic not covered. These are great for the child to write down everything they have learned on a topic and keep a great looking record of their work.
Nature and Art
Nature Detectives is a fabulous place to download all sorts of activity ideas, field spotters guides, craft ideas and other seasonal downloads to use in your nature studies.
Not only does Barb run this popular Outdoor Hour program but she also has free and affordable Composer and Art Appreciation plans on her website Harmony Fine Arts. This year we purchased her Grade 11 Art and Music plans and have thoroughly enjoyed them.
Learning Online
There is no doubt that there are oodles and oodles of online resources that you can use to support your learning. I want to share one that we really loved and recommend. Settera Geography Quiz Program has made learning our cities, capitals, rivers, volcanoes and so much more the most enjoyable learning experience. My youngest daughter is off to college in September to study Travel and tourism and she recently was invited to attend a college prep day for her course. One of the things they were going to be doing was a geography quiz, so she hopped up onto Settera in the weeks running up to refresh her memory. After her prep day, she has mentioned on more than one occasion how glad she did that because not only did she excel in the quiz but it gave her the confidence she needed to complete the task with a group of people she didn't know. She felt equipped and well prepared.
High School and Beyond
When we reached our high school years we began exploring various career interests and options. It can be very daunting for those young adults who really don't have a clue what they want to do. Enter Future Learn and Open Learn. These sites offer students all over the world a way to explore subjects they are fascinated by as well as gain the skills needed for higher learning.Khan Academy has a wealth of free courses ranging from Kindergarten/Year 0 all the way through to University/Adult learners. This is definitely a website you are going to want to bookmark!If you are choosing to go the American SAT route this is a site you could put to great use during your homeschooling journey.
Perhaps they have a few things they are looking at studying at university but really have not made up their minds. They can take short modules of university courses on the subject they are interested in and see if it is something they are really passionate about and would like to study further. Future Learn offers short courses from universities all over the UK while Open Learn offers courses from The Open University.
Well my lovelies, I hope that this has been a useful post for you. If you think that it will be of use to another family whether they are homeschooling by choice or have been thrown into the deep end thanks to COVID-19, then please do share with them.
Keep well and stay safe.
Thanks for sharing this article. My personal favorite is Khan Academy. I love it because the math videos are absolutely amazing. I read it on another blog that 90% of the videos are taken in single shot. Just imagine, how much hard work these guys are putting in.
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