Have you found yourself recently thrust into homeschooling your kids and not knowing where to even begin? You have made it through the spring, but now you may be doing it in the fall.
How will you balance your job with keeping your kids learning?
Since schools are unsure of whether or not they will open in the fall, we thought we would put some resources together to help parents navigate school at home. Whether you want to supplement what your children are learning remotely or you have decided to tackle homeschooling all on your own, read on to learn how to create a home-learning system that works for you and your family.
If you want to learn a bit about different educational philosophies, read
If you want to discover that you are not alone...watch the video below.
(Parents open up about the struggles of homeschooling their children during covid-19.)
If you want to know where to begin. Read on.
The good news about homeschooling is that there are so many resources online. The bad news is that there are SO MANY resources online. How is one supposed to sift through it all?
We've done some of the hard work for you and narrowed it down with some of our go-to homeschool blogs/forums and a comprehensive list of free homeschool curriculum guides, lessons, worksheets, and other resources for all subjects.
Here are some of our favorite homeschool blogs/forums:
Free Curriculum Guides, Lessons, Worksheets, and Other Resources:
Math
Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization that offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard. They have K-12 courses in math, science, computing, history, art history, economics, and more, including test preparation (SAT, Praxis, LSAT) content. During covid-19, they are offering daily schedules for students ages 2-18 and other remote learning resources.
CK-12 provides free and customizable K-12 educational resources aligned to curriculum standards in STEM subjects. It includes an integrated set of tools for learning: digital textbooks, bite-sized concept lessons, videos and multimedia simulations, exercises to check students' progress, as well as teaching materials and SAT prep. All products can be customized to match the needs of each student.
Language Arts
Writing
K12 Reader has lessons in spelling, reading, grammar, vocabulary and composition. Their writing/composition lessons include different writing worksheets about specific areas like editing and proofing, writing conclusions, choosing topic sentences, and how to use transition words. They've also included some helpful writing worksheets for writing prompts and some fun lined paper themes. Each worksheet is aligned to common core standards and designed for kindergarten to high school.
Reading & Literature
K12 Reader has lessons in spelling, reading, grammar, vocabulary and composition. They have teacher/parent materials and worksheets for all grade levels. Their reading lessons include lessons on comprehension, character, context, drawing conclusions, and more. They also have worksheet lesson activities about various literature works. These worksheets include passages from classic literature along with questions and activities to support reading comprehension and other skills.
Glencoe Literature Library has a list of about 70 classic novels and plays. Click on each title for a description, a list of its related readings, and a link to its individual study guide. Each study guide includes background information and activity pages for students. You will need to purchase or borrow the required reading material.
Spelling & Vocabulary
K12 Reader has lessons in spelling, reading, grammar, vocabulary and composition. Their K-12 spelling curriculum helps students develop strong spelling and word recognition skills, reinforces strong reading development, and helps students master words that are most commonly misspelled. They also have hundreds of practice activities to help students improve their vocabulary skills. You'll find worksheet activities around the alphabet, dictionary skills, Fry sight words, Dolch sight words, phonetics, homographs, homophones, prefixes, proverbs and adages, root words, shades of meaning, suffixes, synonyms and antonyms. All of their printable worksheets are designed around common core standards and cover a broad range of skill levels from kindergarten through high school.
Grammar
Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization that offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard. They have lessons in parts of speech, puncuation, syntax, and more.
For grades K-6, McGraw Hill has great grammar lessons and tons of worksheets.
For grades 4-12, Daily Grammar contains links to all of their free grammar lessons and quizzes. You can use Daily Grammar at your own pace. The lessons cover parts of speech, parts of the sentence, and capitalization and punctuation. The lessons have been organized by lesson number and by subject.
K12 Reader has lessons in spelling, reading, grammar, vocabulary and composition. They have teacher/parent materials and worksheets for all grade levels.
Handwriting
Writing Wizard offers themed handwriting worksheets in both cursive and manuscript fonts for children to practice their penmanship with. Each worksheet has a general knowledge fact about the theme for your child to trace and copy.
Science
Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization that offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard. They have K-12 courses in science, math, computing, history, art history, economics, and more, including test preparation (SAT, Praxis, LSAT) content. During covid-19, they are offering daily schedules for students ages 2-18 and other remote learning resources.
CK-12 provides free and customizable K-12 educational resources aligned to curriculum standards in STEM subjects. It includes an integrated set of tools for learning: digital textbooks, bite-sized concept lessons, videos and multimedia simulations, exercises to check students' progress, as well as teaching materials and SAT prep. All products can be customized to match the needs of each student.
Social Studies
McGraw-Hill Social Studies for grades 1-6 has a series of downloadable practice books to teach social studies and geography.
Digital History for grades 6-12 is a U.S. history curriculum that includes an online textbook, downloadable lesson plans, quizzes, student handouts, timelines, primary sources, historical music, and more.
Khan Academy for grades 9-12 has lessons that are taught using videos, reading, practice quizzes, and unit tests. Courses offered include US History, World History, US Government & Politics, and Art History.
The Michigan Open Book Project website offers downloadable K-12 textbooks for social studies, history, geography, economics, and civics. The textbooks include links to interactive activities and videos. The books were designed for use in Michigan schools but can be used by homeschoolers in other states.
Foreign Language
Spoken Language
What could be a better tool for learning a foreign language than Duolingo? Duolingo's free, bite-size lessons feel more like a game than a textbook because learning is easier when you're having fun. It is based on a methodology proven to foster long-term retention, and a curriculum aligned to an international standard. Choose from 37 languages ranging from Spanish to Swahili.
American Sign Language
American Sign Language University is a resource site for ASL students and teachers. You will find information and resources to help you learn ASL and improve your signing. There are videos, pictures, and explanations of each sign, as well as quizzes and other information that will help you strengthen your abilities.
Music
If you're not familiar with Maestro Classics, we are a small record label that produces classical music albums for children and families written for narrator and orchestra. With fun stories and musical explanations, Maestro Classics is designed to help families cultivate a love of music through education and joyful performances, expand and develop listening skills, and encourage families to listen together. Check out our best selling CD, Peter and the Wolf. What's more is that we have curriculum guides in all subjects and home projects available for FREE online that go along with each album.
The Class Notes website from Classical Minnesota Public Radio has tons of videos and corresponding lesson plans. It is a fantastic resource for learning different aspects of music from reading music and rhythms to learning about composers to musical expression and more.
Art
The Blick website offers an extensive collection of art lessons for K-12. Projects include drawing, fiber art, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and much more. The lesson plans are provided in pdf downloads. Some lessons also include a video. If you don't have the materials at home, you can purchase exactly what you need right from the Blick website.
Art for Kids Hub offers video tutorials of various art projects for kids K-8. Drawing, painting, sculpting, origami, and cutout crafts are all included. Many projects also include downloadable templates.
Health & P.E.
Cosmic Kids Yoga has videos that teach yoga to kids in grades K-6.
GoNoodle features dance and exercise videos for kids in grades K-8. GoNoodle gets kids moving so they can be their best. They have a program called Good Energy Summer that provides tons of ways for kids and families to be active, stay mindful, have fun, and learn throughout the summer.
The KidsHealth website offers downloadable lesson plans covering a wide variety of health topics for grades K-12. The lessons include activities, printable handouts, and quizzes. The Kids and Teens pages provide numerous health related articles for students to read.
The CK-12 Teen Health Literacy course for grades 9-12 uses an online textbook and videos to teach nutrition, physical activity, healthy weight, sleep, tobacco use, drug and alcohol abuse, and sex education.
If you didn't quite find what you were looking for, the Freedom Homeschooling website has TONS of great recommendations for free online homeschool curriculums.