FREE for the taking! Homeschool resources that are completely free!

Home education can be costly, but it doesn't have to be. Depending on educational style and choices, there are many free resources you can find. Most are online, some are available by mail or in your community,

Stating the obvious, you can always start at your local library. Not only do most libraries have books, media, resources, maps, etc., they also have educational programming. If you live near a national park, state recreation area or museum, many free educational programs are also available. Do a little digging into your community and see what you can find! (Post in the comments if you find something to share.)

The internet is a treasure trove of resources. Endless media is available to be pulled together at Wikipedia, YouTube, and more. I enjoy some things as supplemental, but when I am thinking "quality, grade level, course credits, skill based", I want something more than surfing every day to find something new. Having said that, if I need to fix the sink, I am going to be surfing the Google wave to find some instructions! Using a search engine can be a great learning tool. (Parental guidance suggested.)

Here is my growing list of online resources for FREE education!

1) Khan Academy
 www.khanacademy.com
Learn about anything! Particularly math. Prep for SATs, learn some languages or computer science too. Free for now, accepts donations, you get quality content for learning.

2) Easy Peasy Homeschool
 www.allinonehomeschool.com and www.allinonehighschool.com
Parent contributed content, eclectic mix of styles. Free to use, accepts donations. Content changes at times but we never saw it change during the school year. I noticed some courses are linked to free virtual education in states that do not require enrollment in public school to use the classes.

3) Discovery K12
http://discoveryk12.com/dk12/
I just was introduced to this recently and have yet to explore it. Reading the fine print, it is intended for use by home schoolers for home schooling. I checked it in 2022 and the student accounts are still FREE! It is the parent accounts with tracking and documentation that are paid portion. Post a comment if you find out more or you've used this one. 

4) Starfall: Learn to Read
http://www.starfall.com/
I would like to take credit for my kids learning to read, but I think that Leap Frog videos and Starfall had alot to do with it. I did take them to the library and read relentlessly to them when they were young! Starfall has a free and paid option, it also has curriculum you can purchase to go along with it. We only used the free stuff. All 4 kids have learned to read at and above grade level. The 7 year old sat reading a 7th grade science book yesterday without problem. I guess something worked!

5) Spelling City
https://www.spellingcity.com/
Free and paid options here too, but I have only used the free ones!  I incorporated books we read or science and history into spelling word lists here for them to play games to learn and test on. I have kids who seem to be natural spellers but this was great. The only other formal spelling I did for Spelling Power (which I love and they aren't sure about).

6) Ambleside Online

https://www.amblesideonline.org/getting-started

This is a Charlotte Mason community. There is a plethora of lesson plans and reading lists as well as links to books, groups and more about how to be a Charlotte Mason homeschooler without the cost of joining a formal program. This page has been around forever and is well maintained!


That's all for today!  What FREE or INEXPENSIVE resources do you use?