FREE HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM

Homeschooling does not have to cost an arm and a leg. Truly. Lots of people want to take advantage of your desperation right now and make you believe that their curriculum is the answer to all your problems and you NEED it. You don’t. A library card, a math text, and paper and pencils are enough for K-8th. A computer is definitely helpful because many free things are online, but not everything free online is worth your time!

If you want free options that give you more direction, though, there are tradeoffs. You will often have to spend more time preparing – maybe buying books or creating schedules or printing things or reading up on the philosophy behind the curriculum (which you should do anyway,… ahem…). All of this can be beneficial in itself, but just be aware that most things that are free aren’t open and go at the beginning, though they can be once everything is set up. Also, just because something is free doesn’t mean it is not a good resource. We use mostly free curricula and I feel like my kids have gotten an excellent education! We prefer to save our money for real books to fill our home library! On the flip side, much free curriculum is a waste of your time and subpar academically. Everything I have listed below is what we have used or would consider using in our homeschool….

…….

FULL CURRICULUM

Wildwood Curriculum – Charlotte Mason method. Secular but not anti-God. K-6th. Lays out what books to use for each term, but you schedule everything out for yourself. Requires purchasing some books. There is an associated Facebook page.

Ambleside Online – Charlotte Mason method. Christian but you can take the Bible portions out. K-12th. Challenging/advanced. Weekly schedule. Requires purchasing some books. There is an associated Facebook page. This is the curriculum we use, with some adjustments.

Under the Home – Charlotte Mason method. Not affiliated with a religion but includes religious lessons where applicable. Completely online (so no books to buy). K-5th. Very easy to navigate! Some printing required for writing pages. Weekly schedule. Read up on the Charlotte Mason method of narration if you use this curriculum.

Easy-Peasy All-in-One Homeschool – Traditional method. Christian. Completely online. K-12th. Easy to navigate. This one and Under the Home would be good “get your feet wet” curricula. Avoid the math section of this website, though.

Mater Amabilis – Charlotte Mason method. Catholic. PreK-8th. Weekly schedule. Requires purchasing some books.

…….

INDIVIDUAL SUBJECTS

MEP Math (K-6) – Great conceptual program. There is an associated Facebook page. Requires parent planning and printing. UK curriculum, so only has metric measurements. I’ve only ever heard excellent reviews of this curriculum!

Education Unboxed Math (K-3rd) – Videos to show the parent how to do activities/games. Uses Cuisenaire Rods (math blocks). Very little written work. Builds intuitive conceptual understanding.

KISS Gramar

Typing.com

Starfall (Phonics) – Videos for child to watch.

Duolingo (foreign language) – Interactive. Earn badges/awards. Competition. Some speaking but not a lot.

Seterra (Geography, 3-12) – Online quizzes. Printable maps.

Hoffman Academy – Free Piano Lessons.

Sing Solfa – Singing lessons and folksongs for kids.

Enjoying Music at Home (1-5) – Music Appreciation.

Art for Kids Hub (K-5)

Nana’s Chalk Pastels

Free Pre-Algebra and Algebra videos from Art of Problem Solving

Alcumus – Free online PreAlgebra, Algebra, and Geometry practice that automatically adjusts to student’s level. This goes with the above videos.

Khan Academy (Math 3-12, Science, Art Appreciation, Test Prep 9-12)

The Happy Scientist (K-6?) – Videos. Experiments.

The Good and The Beautiful (Language Arts pdfs, 1-5)

Wheeler’s Elementary Speller (Spelling, 2-6)

Wheeler’s Graded Studies in Great Authors (Copywork/Dictation for Spelling, 4-12)

Grammar-Land Audio and Worksheets

Primary Language Lessons (2-6)

Intermediate Language Lessons (4-6) – You can buy updated versions of PLL and ILL from Hillside Education or My Father’s World. They are excellent. These are Charlotte Mason-ish curricula.

Writing in English (7-12)

Science and Religion Course (9-12, EXCELLENT)

Hillsdale College Online Courses (9-12, Politics, History, Literature, Philosophy/Religion, Economics)

Paradigm Online Writing Assistant (9-12)

Study Skills Class through Long Beach City College (7-12)

…….

MISCELLANEOUS

TED Ed videos

Eddie Woo Math Videos (6-12 – phenomenal teacher!)

CNN 10 news (6-12) – 10 minute world news for students.

A Thinking Person’s Quest for Meaning video (Christian, 7-12)

The Scientism Delusion (Christian, 7-12)

Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts (4-12) – These were recorded in the 50s and 60s, so the quality isn’t great, BUT they are phenomenal! Bernstein did such a great job teaching children (and adults!) about music.

Numberphile Math Videos (6-12) – Just for fun on topics outside the normal curriculum!

Treadwell Readers (K-2) – These readers can be bought on Amazon, too.

Elson Readers (K-2)

And don’t forget about your library! At our local library you can get Great Courses videos (high school), Liberty’s Kids (Revolutionary War cartoon) episodes, Our Island Story by Marshall audio book, Sister Wendy Art Appreciation DVDs, and all sorts of other goodies!

Please be aware that there is an overwhelming deluge of evidence that academic work done too early is detrimental to young kids and that being read to A LOT, exploring nature, unstructured play time, very limited screen time, and just living life within a family is the perfect environment for mental growth.

You don’t actually NEED a curriculum at these ages, but you are likely not feeling confident enough in yourself to go without one, so here are some suggestions to help guide you. (Don’t forget to check Amazon, YouTube, and Google for reviews!)….

A Year of Playing Skillfully

Simply Charlotte Mason

Wildwood Curriculum (secular)

Exploring Nature With Children

The Peaceful Preschool

Gentle + Classical

Charlotte Mason Your Way

MATH:

Miquon Math (PreK-3) – Miquon is what we used in the lower grades, and I have not found a better way to instill intuitive number sense than this program. This would be my #1 choice for K-1st.

Education Unboxed – Education Unboxed is a website (the one you’re on right now!) with videos that we made years ago to show how to teach/learn math with math blocks. Many people use this as their only math curriculum in the early years. Many schools are using these to train their teachers. If you used only these videos for math in PreK-1st, your child will have a better grasp of math concepts than almost every child who has only used pencil and paper. THIS WORKS. And it’s free except for the price of the blocks!

Singapore Essential Math A

Singapore Essential Math B

This is a great curriculum to help you feel like you’ve covered everything you “should” cover without it being too overwhelming. Inexpensive.

HANDWRITING:

Handwriting Without Tears

Praised by Occupational Therapists as the best handwriting curriculum currently available. (I don’t like the style of the letters, but I have only heard good things about this curriculum for kids who struggle with writing.)

A Reason for Handwriting

Ball and stick printing. Traditional cursive. Christian (uses scripture for practice).

Getty-Dubay Italics

Italic style looks nice and makes it easier to transition to cursive.

PHONICS:

Before you look below, please read this: If your child is giving you pushback, if she is just not making progress no matter what you do, if you are getting frustrated and annoyed… PUT IT ON HOLD. The brain must be developmentally ready to learn to read. You cannot make the brain develop faster than it’s going to (though you can provide a rich environment which allows it to grow more actual connections). Most kids will learn to read at 5-6. Some will learn at 3 and some will learn at 8 and there are a few outliers who will learn outside of those ages. If you have a child who is going to learn at 7, but you are pushing phonics instruction at 3, 4, 5, and 6, by the time he gets to 7 he’s going to be sick to death of “reading” and possibly think he is stupid. Instead of pushing phonics when the child isn’t ready, take a few months off before trying again, and instead READ READ READ READ READ to him. Every day. All kinds of books. Lots of poetry. Let him see you reading so he knows this is what people do. He WILL learn to read! Your biggest job is to make sure he develops and doesn’t lose a love of reading.

Teaching Reading With BOB Books – Easy. Fairly inexpensive if you use the online version (online is for you, not your child) and make your own cards. Takes some initial work to get everything set up at the beginning but open and go after that. Not visually overwhelming. Simple.

The Ordinary Parents’ Guide to Teaching Reading – We used this. Scripted (which I ignored because it felt too stilted). Inexpensive. It was great as a guide for what order to teach the various phonics pieces.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons – One of the longest used programs around. Uses non-standard orthography (formation of letters to represent various sounds). Take a look inside before deciding on this. Many people swear by this program.

Teach Your Monster to Read – Free app that people are finding success with.

Starfall – We used this successfully! Online (maybe there is an app, too?) videos that teach basic phonics.

Leapfrog Letter Factory – This is an easy way to teach letter sounds and beginning phonics!!

READ ALOUD LISTS:

1000 Good Books List

Ambleside Online Year 0 Books

Read Aloud Revival Picture Books List

Charlotte Mason Plenary Preschool Books List

Charlotte Mason Plenary Kindergarten Books List

MISCELLANEOUS:

Here’s a list of what to expect from a Kindergartener. You could literally just do the things on this list and not buy curriculum if you wanted to – What to Expect From a Kindergartener  +  Kindergarten Program and Books

Developing the Early Learner workbooks – If your child struggles with auditory or visual processing, these may be helpful. We found that only books 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 were necessary.

Book 1 – Book 2 – Book 3 – Book 4

Come Look With Me art books – Excellent beginning art appreciation books!

Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six – PLEASE don’t graduate your child from kindergarten without having read these aloud or at least listened to the audio books together! Milne was a genius. His poetry books are amazing, too!

Poems to Read to the Very Young – One of my favorite early poetry books. We also loved A Child’s Garden of Verses, The Llama Who Had No Pajama, Runny Babbit, Mother Goose, and The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry (gorgeous!).

The Aesop for Children – This book is on every single Charlotte Mason and Classical homeschooling list. Don’t miss it!

Pattern Blocks and Cards – One of our most used educational toys.

Jeweler’s Loops – Great for looking at tiny things in nature.

Go Find It game – Fun way to get kids (and adults!) exploring outdoors.

Peter and the Wolf – Introduction to the orchestra. This is the version my husband watched as a boy. We got an audio CD from the library when our girls were young. There are many versions! Here’s a ballet version. And here’s a live orchestra performance.

Carnival of the Animals

The Cat’s Duet (bad video quality but cute!)

And, lastly, some great articles to help you keep your priorities in order:

Six Ways to Early Years You Won’t Regret

My Ideal Early Learning Program

Laundry Preschool

Early Years Math By the Way

If you are willing to pay, there are classes your child can take where they meet live with a teacher and classmates once or twice per week and then are given homework for the other days. These are usually for junior and senior high but more and more schools are offering elementary classes! We did this a couple years ago for a Lord of the Rings class and last year for Renaissance Literature and Chemistry. This year we will be adding in a Latin class. I do not have experience with all the schools below. This is just a curated list from what I’ve seen mentioned elsewhere. You’ll have to do your own research about each one!

One thing to note: If your student is in high school and wants to return to high school next year instead of graduating through homeschool, check with your school district to see if their classes this year need to be accredited. Otherwise, don’t worry about accreditation! They can jump back into school without it. Here is an article on the topic.

Some schools to consider:
Dreaming Spires Home Learning
Schole Academy
The House of Humane Letters
Center for Lit
Well Trained Mind Academy
The Potters School
Wasko Lit
Veritas Press
Big River Academy
Open Tent Academy
HSLDA Academy
Outschool
Mr. D Math
FundaFunda Academy
True North Homeschool Academy
Excelsior
Heritage Online Courses
Leadership Education Academy
Bravewriter
Home to Teach
Hazelton Academy
Wisdom Homeschooling (Canada)
Aim Academy
Williamsburg Classical Academy
Homeschool Spanish Academy
The Thinking Kid