I was recently pondering how blessed we are to have such fantastic homeschool resources in our home. And I also started thinking about what would happen if we lost all of that. How would we homeschool if we had none of those books on hand?
And although it would be quite inconvenient not to have books or any purchased curriculum, I decided that with an Internet connection, a printer, and our Kindles, we could manage with free online resources. Here is an outline of what I would use for homeschool if I had no money for curriculum and nothing on hand.
Free Language Arts Curriculum
Read books from the library or download free Newbery Medal Winners (PDF) at Learner’s Library (scroll to bottom of page) and use these reader’s guides:
- Reading Units
- Glencoe Literature Library study guides
- Daily Grammar Lessons Archive
- Scott Foresman Grammar & Writing (grades 1-6)
- Sentence Patterns & DIY Writing Curriculum
- Writing Prompts (the parent site LearningExpress has some fantastic high school and college prep resources)
Free Math Curriculum
- XP Math (4th & 5th grades)
- Public Schools of NC Math for K-5th grades or 6th-8th grades
- Comprehensive School Mathematics Program (K-6th grades)
Free Science Curriculum
- Prentice Hall Science Explorer— life, earth, and physical science (middle school)
- Middle School Chemistry (for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades)
What free resources do you use? What would you use if you had no money for homeschool curriculum?
What a great list of free resources!! I am currently preparing for my first year of homeschool with my three kids. I am also working with a zero budget! I appreciate the compassion and dedication of veteran homeschoolers like yourself that are willing to help out “newbies” like me.
One website that I have found that offers a full curriculum is Easy Peasy homeschool at allinonehomeschool.com. It was actually the first free resource I found and it gave me the courage to keep looking!
Thanks again for this post!
Hey everyone! Thanks Jimmie for a great topic & list of resources. I’m just beginning to homeschool my 4.5 yr old daughter for Kindergarten and we absolutely love the completely free Easy Peasy Homeschool http://allinonehomeschool.com/ she is still compiling high school curriculum at this time but its fantastic for K-8 🙂
I am a former secondary math teacher, and in our district there were several years we didn’t get money for resources. One of my favorite websites to use was kutasoftware.com. They have lots of free worksheets and for two weeks you can get their free trial version which can generate an infinite number of worksheets. If you know what you want, you could technically print out everything you would need as far as practice/tests go for the whole year. The license is reasonably priced as well.
As a single homeschooling mom, I’ve always homeschooled for free or practically free. I do, however, enjoy the occasional homeschool product that isn’t free. This is a fantastic list. Definitely pinning it.
As a single homeschooling mom, I’ve always had to homeschool for free or practically free. This is a FANTASTIC list! Definitely pinning it.
I haven’t heard of some of these resources! Thanks for sharing-pinning for future reference:)
We are using a combination of Ambleside Online and Mater Amabilis for kindergarten. Mater Amabilis is a free Catholic Charlotte Mason curriculum. We are not Catholic, but it is very easy to sub out the religion books for our own, and I love their other book selections. For math, we are loving MEP, which is also free.
http://www.cimt.org.uk/projects/mepres/primary/index.htm
We are Lutherans and we’re getting ready to start using this free resource for learning our catechism:
http://education.cph.org/memorize-luthers-small-catechism/?utm_source=vocus&utm_medium=press%20release&utm_campaign=small%20catechism%20app
So many great resources!
Let me add to your math list. My Internet Math Resources pages contain links for all ages, some schooly (worksheets and lessons) but many enrichment sites as well.
https://denisegaskins.com/internet-math-resources/