I homeschooled for two years, and I had plans to begin homeschooling again starting this summer when word of schools around our country shutting down spread.

Instilling a love of learning in my children is one of my passions, and I’m always looking for ways to do that. But I know the idea of homeschooling or helping your kids learn from home can be intimidating. Especially if you’ve never done it before and find yourself in a situation where your kids are suddenly learning from home.

In this blog post I’m going to share some of my favorite resources for free homeschool lesson plans. I created a LOOOONG list of bookmarks when we were homeschooling so I’ll try to sort them by subject and give some details about each one. If you want to see the curriculum I used while homeschooling (some free, some purchased. Check out this post). At that time I had bought curriculum for full time homeschooling but that’s not necessary and you can definitely homeschool for free.

And also know what else is free? PLAYING OUTSIDE! Learning in nature. Taking a hike, observing bugs, reading books around your house, making your own musical instruments out of pots and pans or with glasses full of different levels of water, painting. There is so much learning you can do through observing and play. It doesn’t have to be done on a computer or with pencil and paper.

That said, I get that parents sometimes just want to be able to print out some worksheets or let their kids take a little test for their peace of mind, so they feel like progress and learning is still happening. I get it! And that’s why I’ve compiled this list.

Websites to help you Homeschool for Free 

All in one free homeschool curriculum 

Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool: Preschool through 8th grade. This is a FREE online homeschool program with everything from games to worksheets in all sorts of subjects. You can pick a subject then start from Day 1 (or scroll further along to wherever you’d like) and it gives you instructions for how to complete your day.

BrainPop: A really cool learning website with lessons on a variety of subjects. Including a very educational lesson on the coronavirus. There are lessons and games in math, science, English, music and more. There’s also Brainpop Jr. for younger kids, and a lot of lessons on social learning (think things like bullying). It’s free to use a limited version. If you log in with your child’s classroom email address (I used my daughter’s district email) you can have full access for free. Ask your child’s teacher if your district has a plan. 

ABCya: If your kid likes games, they’ll have fun on this free site full of them. So many random games on all sorts of subjects from science to math to comprehension, skeletal systems and more. Free on the computer with ads. You can subscribe to use the app and an ad-free version. Grades pre-k through middle school.

Kahn Academy and Kahn Academy Kids: The first is legit a free learning/teaching program with formal lessons and quizzes. But it may not be as fun for young kids. Kahn Academy Kids is a FUN app on Amazon Play, In the iOs app store, and Google play for kids up to age 7. Their website also has tons of great resources for getting started on schooling from home from schedules and beyond.

Teachers Pay Teachers: Lots of freebies on this site. For ALL grades. But even the things that do cost are so worth it and usually quite affordable. This is one of my favorite sites for “unit based” homeschooling, which essentially is teaching all subjects surrounding a particular topic. For instance we did Greek Mythology with my daughter and we incorporated it into handwriting, poetry, math, history, spelling, and so-on. Pick a topic your child is into (for my son, this will be snakes) and find all sorts of ways to teach that subject. And as the name suggests, your purchases are supporting teachers and creators selling these handy learning materials.

Starfall: A free online program teaching primarily reading/phonics and math for grades pre-k/ kinder through 3rd. Your public school may already have a subscription to this nonprofit website full of fun learning games. If not there are some free ones to get you started. And it’s $35/year if you want full access. It works as an app also.

Free Reading Games and Homeschool Lesson Plans

Teach Your Monster to Read: My kids LOVE playing this game. It’s free and funded by a charity organization. And interactive game teaching phonics in a fun way.

ReadWorks: A free reading and comprehension program for grades K-12. It’s free for educators with a login. I signed up as a homeschooler and am able to use the program for free. (A donation is encouraged but not required). 

iRead: My son got really excited when I logged into his school dashboard and he recognized this app. There’s also an app. A fun interactive reading app with quizzes that are fun for a bit. It’s free through your school district. Speaking of this, check your school or district website for a list of their links to partner educational sites like these.

OverDrive: Public libraries closed? You can still access their digital library through apps like overdrive. Make sure your membership is up to date so you can log in using your library card number and check out books to read digitally from your devices. 

Scholastic Learn at Home: Every day there’s a new story and video for each grade to go on a learning journey. There’s a text to speech option for those with learning differnces, and activities to go along with the stories.

Math Games and Lesson Plans for Homeschool

Prodigy: My kids LOVE this math game. Especially my son. He got started at school but loves playing it at home. Kids answer a series of math questions then get to battle it out on a quest. It’s free and you can link your parent account to theirs to monitor progress and more. 

Math-Aids.com: TONS of free math worksheets on countless math topics (see what I did there?). There are a lot of ads on this side and some are tricky to avoid, but once you learn how to navigate it (the top left dark blue menu is the one you want to click on), it’s SO helpful for some quick math work.

HomeschoolMath.net: This site is helpful with everything from free math lessons and games to curriculum guides. I personally used this site for the free worksheets. Cause sometimes you just want to click on the grade, print a worksheet and let them go at it. I loved this for that.

Math Fact Cafe: A free Math worksheet generator. Just select the type of problems, difficulty and more, and it generates a worksheet for you to print to complete. 

MathGames: Games based around common core standards of math in the US, and some specific states like Texas, Iowa, Kentucky, Alberta and more. 

Cool Math Games: This site has some fun games. But there is a lot to weed through. I recommend going to the popular games section and reading descriptions to what math is involved. I actually got caught up in the Johnny Upgrade game with my daughter that teaches money management.

Other Fun Subjects for Free Online Homeschool

Keyboarding: TypingClub.com is a free typing website that’s engaging and teaches kids (or anyone) how to properly use a keyboard in a gamified way. Before you know it they go from pecking to quickly typing away. 

CS First: Is a free computer Science/ Coding: A free CS First curriculum through Google for Education. You can sign in to save your child’s progress or just start here. 

Foreign Language Learning: Duolingo You may be familiar with this foeign language learning app, but there’s a website too! It’s free with ads and you can learn Spanish, Japanese, Portugese, Italian, French and more! 

Scratch: A coding website that my daughter uses at school. She has a lot of fun with it. Totally free. With funny videos and fun little lessons.

Geography: I have two recommendations for this! PinIt Maps, for some world geography trivia questions and handy maps. And Maps 101: A little boring-looking at first but if you click on the “games” tab there are some fun ones with identifying states, capitals, and more. 

Greek Mythology Unit Study: Remember those unit studies I mentioned earlier? Here’s an entire free one on Greek Mythology. 

Early reading printables: Know of BOB Books? Here are some free downloadable flipbooks you can use to help teach reading. 

Code Studio: No login required, no fuss, just head to the site, click the level/grade you want to start with and begin learning the basics of coding. 

Game Design: Gamestar Mechanic is a site that teaches game building. You can register and do an intro game for free. Then pay as little as $2 at an educational discount after. 

Newsela: This came to me as a recommendation from another teacher. I see this as a news wire for kids. Especially older kids. It’s free to use but you need to create an account (I signed up as a homeschooling parent).

Other websites for learning from home: Free trials

ABC Mouse: My son LOVES this program and we may continue to use it as we homeschool 2nd grade. Use my link for a 30 Day free trial. 

Dreambox: Math. Right now they’re offering a 90 day free trial because of the influx of parents looking for resources for learning at home. 

Power Homeschool: This is the program we used our last semester of homeschooling second grade with my oldest. I loved how the lessons were short and sweet, and contained comprehension quizzes at the end. There are sample lessons and a 7 day free trial.

AdaptedMind: This program is a fun game for both math and reading. We subscribed for awhile but realized with so many different website options we didn’t need to keep this one. They also offer a 30 day free trial.

Epic!: A digital learning resource. Free for educators (meaning your school may already have a subscription your child can log into). If not, you can sign up for 30 days free. 

Tynker: Another coding website. This one allows 20 free games before a subscription. My kids haven’t played with this yet but poking around I saw some Minecraft games and other fun very modern-looking stuff. 

Ok, so I wound up sharing more than 30 websites, hopefully this list doesn’t overwhelm you! I hope it gives you some ideas for where you can start. But remember, learning from home doesn’t have to be a complicated ordeal. A lot of learning can happen through baking, photography, art, music, reading, and just having some good conversations.

Have a favorite website I missed? Tried any of these? What’s your favorite?

Tags: coronavirus, homeschool, homeschooling