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Find free home schooling curriculum
without spending tons of time searching

Interested in finding some free home schooling curriculum? Looking for free online home schooling, or some worksheets to reinforce the text you are using? Maybe you just want to add a little extra interest or fun to your home school curriculum without having to invest in an entire book or set of supplies.

As a home schooling mom of four, I have found from personal experience that finding a few quality free home school curriculum materials can really make a big difference in stretching our home schooling dollars. Below I'll share some of our favorite online free home schooling resources.

Of course there is the low-tech type of free home schooling materials, but I’ll be honest and tell you that I’m not a big fan of home made manipulatives. I just never seem to have time to glue beans on popsicle sticks and cut out pictures from magazines and glue them on card stock. If you want to, you can find more information by searching on the web for Montessori, since this method uses a lot of hands-on manipulatives.

If you do want to make your own resources, I’d recommend Ruth Beechick's Three R's Series which has lots of good ideas.

Free Home Schooling Materials on the Web

There are probably a gazillion websites out there with free home schooling materials. Lesson plans. Worksheets. Games. Extras. You name it! You can spend hours pouring over them all – and early on I did. Now I look back and think how much better off I would have been to spend that time playing a board game with my kids or reading to them!

So, now I just focus on a few tried and true websites that I go back to for key subject areas. These are sites I consistently use or supplement our home school curriculum with. I’ve realized my time is worth something and I don’t want to spend too much time searching for free home school curriculum to the detriment of my family time.

Free Home Schooling Preschool and Early Elementary

Preschoolers really need very little in the way of formal curriculum. However, if they are chomping at the bit to start “school,” but you’d like to save your money for another year or so, try the following free home school curriculum links.

  • Starfall.com has several different levels, from introducing the letter sounds, to learning to read, to more advanced non-fiction and more. I find my five-year-old on this site almost as often as she’s on a Barbie site, so it has got to be pretty appealing, right?! I’m impressed that it is all free home schooling curriculum.

  • The Literacy Center's site has reading, spelling, and simple handwriting even. Available in Spanish, French, English and German. This is great for testing the waters at learning a new language.

  • Lined paper pdf maker will help you make ruled paper any height, from preschool to college-ruled.

Elementary-Aged Children

    General and Language Arts Sites

  • Ambleside Online Free Home Schooling Curriculum is a real gem for those searching for free home schooling curriculum. Based on Charlotte Mason’s style of home schooling, this free online homeschooling program helps you follow Charlotte Mason’s guidelines using many free online books. No cost to join.

  • KISS Grammar is an online grammar program using Beatrix Potter, nursery rhymes and other classic books. In my opinion the explanations could be better, but the price is right, and combined with other information, it can be an entire grammar program. It includes links to their free home schooling worksheets to review various parts of speech.

  • SchoolExpress offers lots of free language arts worksheets listed by category. They also have other categories from handwriting to science and thinking skills.

    Math

  • HomeschoolMath offers free home schooling worksheets for math.

  • aaaMath.com is a site I l ike because I can search either by grade or by activity I want to reinforce. Simple, effective.

  • Coolmath4kids.com is designed for kids and is a very colorful, inviting site. Enough games, puzzles and other helps to keep your kids actively learning for a long while.

  • BigBrainz.com offers both a free version and a paid version which offers more levels and challenges. My 8 year-old son is eagerly awaiting the upgraded Mac program as a birthday present. There has obviously been a lot of thought gone into how to make this program really educational while being a top-notch game. It comes highly recommended by various game reviewers.

  • Amusements in Mathematics is a classic book now online. It is full of tons of fun puzzles with solutions (thank goodness!). Great for building creative thinking.

  • Building Big promotes learning about science, math and engineering by doing intriguing problems. One of our family’s favorites was trying to see how to build a paper bridge that could support the weight of a bunch of dried beans. Great projects for the whole family to work on together.

    Science

  • ReviseWise Science is a BBC sponsored site. There are investigations and games that challenge your thinking. Highly recommended. Also has sections for English and Math.

  • Ology is sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History. Grouped by theme (genetics, marine biology, paleontology, and more), there are activities both on-line and off-line for things like investigating the Incas, making “edible earth,” even separating out DNA in your kitchen blender. Cool stuff that makes you think and discover.

  • TryScience has thematic online interactive adventures, offline experiments, live webcams and more, including a Star Trek adventure.

    Geography

  • World Geography Quizzes has hundreds of fun online map-related games. I love how their games help you develop a mental map of the regions of the world. Also fun facts. This site is a wealth of help for other subjects, too.

Junior High and High School

Excellent free high school home schooling resources can also be found on the web if you know where to look for them.

  • Writing for Internet For high schoolers, knowing how to wrote effectively for the Internet will be an increasingly valuable tool. You can give them specific information you may never have had through this ebook, now available for free. You may even want to learn with them!

  • Online vocabulary building is especially good to get ready for the SAT.

  • Practice SAT and other exams can help your young person study and get a feel for these important exams.

All Ages
  • The Daily Dose gives links for daily quizzes, vocabulary words, puzzles or other activities related to any number of subjects. These quick and simple daily activities can help break up the monotony of certain subjects and add a little extra interest.

  • Puzzlemaker gives you the tools to make individualized word searches, quizzes or crossword puzzles using your own words, as well as various math and other puzzles.

  • Literacy Center's site lets you try out learning a foreign language before you invest in an expensive program.

  • The Artist's Toolkit teaches lots of basic art concepts in a fun, interactive way.

  • Sheppard Software looks like a gold mine of free home school curriculum software. I had to double check to see that it was in fact free because it looks so helpful. I can’t vouch for it since we use a Mac, but I may have to find a PC to try it out!

Remember as you look over these materials is to not expect them – no matter how good – to solve all your home school curriculum needs. I think you’ll be more pleased with what you get if you see using them as a

  • supplement
  • preview
  • review, or
  • motivator.

Borrowing Free Home School Curriculum

Another way to get home school curriculum for free is one you certainly don’t want to forget: borrowing books, tapes or other resources from the library or other home schoolers. Even if your library is small, they may have many books and other resources available through inter-library loan. You may even be able to request that your library buy certain books.

Other home schoolers who aren’t currently using the materials might love to loan you some of their books if you just ask. They may like freeing up a bit of space on their bookshelves.

Please bookmark this page to keep it handy, and if you have found other free home schooling curriculum, please

Contact Us

I’d love to pass the word on to others.

I hope this information has been helpful as you look for free home schooling materials and strive to make the most of your precious time and home school dollars. When you do get ready to buy any home school curriculum, be sure to look around this site for helpful tips on how to buy just the right home school curriculum for your family.

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