With the rapid spread of coronavirus, schools around the nation have shut their doors to students for the time being. Parents find themselves looking for homeschooling resources for their children until mid-April and some until mid-May, while some states have ordered that schools remain shuttered throughout the rest of the school year.
Most parents are floundering with the idea of homeschooling their child for the next couple of weeks, much less the next couple of months. Although many schools and school districts were able to quickly set up resources and assignments for children to do while “distance learning,” there are a plethora of other homeschooling resources that are free or relatively cheap for parents to utilize while they are temporarily homeschooling.
It is important to note that although your child’s education is extremely important, homeschooling rarely looks like a regular school day. Many homeschooling families will tell you that strict lessons are only a fraction of their day, with the other parts of their day incorporating learning into their everyday life. They might review fractions while cooking a fun new recipe in the kitchen. They might discuss economics while walking through the grocery store. Or they might watch an educational documentary on a topic their children are passionate about simply to fuel that fire of life-long learning in their souls.
This unique opportunity during the nation-wide coronavirus shut down allows parents all over the nation to create memories with their children, and for both children and parents to discover things that truly interest them. Below is a list of online resources that can not only help with your child’s formal education in fun and engaging ways, but also fuel a passion for deeper learning.
Online Homeschooling Resources for Temporary Homeschooling
ALL SUBJECTS GAMES and ACTIVITIES
Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschooling is a complete or partial free curriculum for all ages and stages.
Khan Academy offers a collection of courses for children ages kindergarten to 12th grade for basic subjects like math, science, and literacy as well as extracurriculars like languages and arts.
This extensive list of indoor activities for busy toddlers is great for those who still have littles at home while trying to homeschool older kids.
Play with your favorite PBS show characters and learn, too, with games and activities. You can also watch their favorite shows.
123Homeschool4Me has over 300,000 FREE printable worksheets from toddlers to teens for all different subjects.
Ideas for crafts, activities, printable worksheets, and more all sectioned by themes, seasons, and more by All Kids Network.
Math and reading games for PreK through 6th grade with ABCya!
Math, language arts, typing, spelling, and geography arcade-style games for children in grades first through 6th grade with Arcademics.
Voice-based learning with Amazon Alexa and Bamboo Learning. Children are able to do reading comprehension, math, and music by talking through Alexa.
Fun games, recipes, crafts, activities with the popular magazine, Highlights Kids.
ClickSchooling brings you daily recommendations by email for entertaining websites that help your kids learn.
Science, math, ELA, and other educational games for kindergarten through 12th grade without Breakout EDU.
CK-12 offers courses, tutorials, and online textbooks in science, math, photography, and more.
If your child prefers hands-on and paper activities versus digital learning, Curriculum Associates has free printable K-8 reading and math activity packs available in English and Spanish.
Digital learning content for preschool through high school including lessons, videos, and tutorials.
Discovery K12 is an online homeschool platform and curriculum for Pre-K to 12th grade. All main subjects are covered, plus extra-curriculum courses.
Facts 4 Me is a safe research site for elementary-level readers. They are offering free 24/7 access using the codes below:
USERNAME: read (case sensitive)
PASSWORD: read (case sensitive)
HippoCampus has over 7,000 free videos in 13 subject areas.
Izzit has entertaining and educational videos for all levels and subjects as well as teacher’s guides and current event lessons.
Teachers Pay Teachers has free and paid-for printables for PreK through 2nd grade. Some are individual worksheets while others are full lessons or thematic units.
Little Parks Company is a library of free printables coupled with activities for children up to 6 years old.
Not sure where to begin? Super Charged School has daily lessons and educational activities that kids can do on their own. They also have lessons and teaching tips for reading, writing, math, science, and more.
Scootpad is a personalized curriculum in math and ELA for grades K-8. It is now free through the end of the school year and aligns with many state standards.
Looking for full curriculums? Pebblego is a curricular content hub specifically designed for K-3 students.
Quizlet has quizzes, flashcards, and activities for students to practice and master whatever they are learning including science, languages, math, arts, and more.
Wonderopolis has short videos and readings that answer various burning questions for students. There are also vocabulary challenges and comprehension questions.
Zearn is a K-5 curriculum that builds deep understanding and a love of learning math for all students.
A Better Way to Homeschool offers a quick-start resource to help families pull together a plan for surviving the next 1-2 months at home with their kids, but it can also be a time of slowing down and enjoying kids as they learn. It is designed for preschool through 8th grade
READING and WRITING
Disney Story Realms- Take your place in your favorite Disney stories and play games with the characters you know and love. Available on iTunes and the Google Play store.
Marvel Story Realms- Take your place in your favorite Marvel stories and play games with the superheroes you know and love. Available on iTunes and the Google Play store.
Spelling City makes spelling fun for all ages with games and activities.
Read, play games, and hang out with Dr. Seuss.
Storytime is kicked up a notch when famous actors, actresses, and authors read some of your child’s favorite books at Storyline Online.
Reading comprehension skills like previous knowledge, visualizing, summarizing, and more are made fun at Into the Book.
Common Lit gives reading passages for grades 3-12 with reading comprehension and discussion questions.
Dog on a Log Books gives fun printable board games, activities, and more for phonics and reading all using evidence-based methods. It can be customized to any student’s needs including creating flashcards for other subjects.
SquigglePark provides engaging reading games for grades 2-8 that combines strategy, engagement, and imaginative reading passages to create a fun, curriculum-aligned literacy game.
Magic Spell is a carefully crafted spelling adventure.
Bring your writing to the next level. Noredink is an online curriculum that builds better writers.
Reading Eggs is a popular website that has games, activities, and videos that help children learn to read.
Novel Effect makes storytime a little more fun for kids (and grown-ups too!) As you read out loud from print books (or ebooks!) music, sound effects, and character voices play at just the right moment, adjusting and responding to your voice.
Paragraph Punch teaches students how to write a paragraph through an interactive online tutorial.
ReadWorks is an online resource of reading passages and lesson plans for students of all levels K-12.
The Shurley English Program for grades K-8 provides a clear, logical, and concrete approach to language arts.
The Sight Reading Factory has sight-reading and sight-singing practice exercises that make learning sight words fun.
Spelling practice is made fun with Spellingcity. It is free right now with code VSCFree90.
Good and Beautiful has course sets (Levels 1–5) that combine and thoroughly cover phonics, reading, writing, spelling, literature, grammar, punctuation, art, and geography—all in one easy-to-use, beautiful course.
MATH
Math Score has math practice for all ages- from counting to algebra and geometry.
Daily math activities for the entire family that are fun and engaging. There is a story and then a few math riddles of different levels so everyone can join in.
Engaging math activities and online games for children in grades 1st through 6th with Boddle Learning.
Dreambox is a kindergarten through 8th grade online math program that looks at how a student is solving problems to adjust accordingly and build a unique learning path for them.
Webisodes and full lessons from the popular textbook publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Webisodes include real-life uses of math and famous actors.
Stuck on a math problem? At Math Celebrity you can simply enter your math problem or search term, press the button, and they show you the step-by-step work and answer instantly. For 2nd grade through college.
Math Playground has elementary math games, logic puzzles, and educational resources.
Homeschooling is a great time to learn more than just regular school subjects. Next Gen Personal Finance has plenty of free resources, games, learning resources, and lesson plans for teaching personal finance.
LANGUAGE
Droplets is a language app made just for kids from the parent company of Drops, this tool will help your child learn a new language with visual aids and fun games.
Babbel– This language app makes learning a new language fun and easy and gives you real-life language skills.
Chalk Academy provides Chinese and Korean learning activities as well as resources and activities for teaching children in bilingual homes.
Con Juguemos gives vocabulary, grammar, listening activities, and games in a variety of languages including Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Korean, and Latin.
Practice foreign language skills in Spanish, French, German, and many more with Duolingo.
Rockalingua has music-based Spanish live lessons, videos, games, songs, worksheets, and more.
HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES
Curiosity Stream has thousands of documentaries on different subjects, topics, and areas of interest for your children. It’s a great way to contine their learning in an engaging way.
Travel to Paris, France to see amazing works of art at The Louvre with this virtual field trip.
This Virtual Tour of the Great Wall of China is beautiful and makes history come to life.
This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies.
Read More: Coronavirus Update: What You Need to Know
Big History Project provides online history classes for all older kid ages preteen all the way through adults.
Country Reports gives 35,000 pages of online content on the cultures and countries of the world.
Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Find out at Carmen Sandiego with videos, stories, and lessons in all subject areas.
Project Explorer has free videos from around the world for grades 3-12.
SCIENCE
NASA Kids is a great website for future astronauts and space lovers. Kids can complete missions, watch videos of outer space, and play games. They also have examples of STEM activities you can do at home.
The San Diego Zoo has a website just for kids with amazing videos, activities, and games.
Explore the surface of Mars on the Curiosity Rover with this recording of the Rover’s exploration of Mars with Google.
This Canadian site FarmFood 360 offers 11 virtual tours of farms from minks, pigs, and cows, to apples and eggs.
Play games and learn all about animals with activities from Switch Zoo. You can even take the learning further by building biomes and get lesson plans for your homeschooling experience.
National Geographic has games, videos, information and books on geography, animals, cultures, and regions.
Club SciKidz gives daily free science or cooking experiment to do at home with your kids. Great for all ages.
Mystery Science offers sciences lessons for kindergarten through 5th grade.
If your child did Maker Station at their school they will love being able to continue doing it at home. Maker Stations is giving 3 free weeks of maker stations to keep your children creating at home! Each challenge includes simple instructions using materials around the house, QR code video resources, and a student recording sheet.
Everyday Earth has interactive videos for earth science-based curriculum which can act as a supplement to other lessons.
Instructables has 3D printing projects and coding projects, involving math and other K-12 subjects
Science at home can be really fun. Elemental Science has 80+ at-home science activities.
Concord has a collection of hundreds of free K-12 STEM resources, from standalone models and simulations to short activities, and week-long sequences of curriculum materials.
Science Spot has science projects that can be completed with or without internet access, allowing kids to step away from the computer for learning.
Next Generation Science is a video game focused on middle school-aged students where students directly engage in scientific phenomena as they solve problems.
MIDDLE SCHOOL and HIGH SCHOOL
Looking for something for older kids? Here are some high school chemistry topics from the American Chemistry Society.
Biology simulations and games that are perfect for middle schoolers up through high schoolers.
Read More: How to Choose a Homeschool Curriculum
If your older children are on hold for ACTs, SATs, or other standardized tests, BWS Education Consulting has test prep worksheets for many of the standardized tests. Prep for SAT, ACT, and more.
Geometry practice and online tutorials for older children with Can Figure It.
Classroom Cereal offers grammar practice games and activities for middle grades.
Chemistry games and activities for middle schoolers can be found at Play Mad Games.
Looking for a little advanced education for high schoolers? Coursera has a list of free classes from leading universities and companies in all different areas of study.
Delta Math gives a wide range of math content from middle school through AP Calculus.
The Great Courses has tons of classes for older teens or adults in a wide arrange of topics and interest areas. They are great for extended learning or just to expand on a topic your child has an inherent interest in.
Dr. Roger’s Math Neighborhood has videos on higher-level math with detailed solutions to more than a thousand publicly-released College Board SAT Math, Subject Test Math Level 1, and Subject Test Math Level 2 problems.
Fiveable is an app that has resources for AP students including live reviews, live trivia, and study guides.
Do you need resources for AP students? Macro Learning has free resources like lesson plans, test practice, and study guides for AP courses.
The University of Colorado has science and math labs and simulations that are great for bringing concepts to life. There are also teaching resources for homeschooling parents and teachers.
Positives Physics is an online physics problem and video bank designed for conceptual, standard, honors or AP1 physics.
Sepupl HS has science simulations, scientist profiles, and other digital resources for middle school science and high school biology.
MUSIC and TYPING
Music lessons and practical exercises in rhythm, melody, and more with Music Lab.
Read More: How We Get Back to School as a Homeschooling Family
Music Theory has introductory and intermediate music theory lessons, exercises, ear trainers, and calculators for those who are missing their music lessons or want to start.
Improve your typing skills while competing in fast-paced races with up to 5 typers from around the world with Nitro Typing.
Prodigies is a colorful music curriculum for kids in 1st through 12th grade that will teach your kids how to play their first instrument, how to sing in tune, and how to understand the language of music!
QuaverMusic is offering free access to general music activities to all impacted schools, including free student access at-home.
Smart Music has music practice for those who have already been introduced to an instrument and are working on developing their skills.
There are two websites for keyboarding practice- Typing.com and TypingClub.com.
GET MOVING
Fluency and Fitness has educational brain breaks to help students review essential literacy and math skills, while getting in some exercise. There are over 900 videos to help your child keep learning at home and burn off some extra energy. Fluency and Fitness is great for older elementary and middle schoolers in grades 4-8.
Need to get some wiggles out? Go Noodle has movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts.
Little Twisters Yoga has free at-home kids yoga lesson plans.
Cooking is a great way to learn math skills, culinary skills, literacy, and science. Nomster Chef has illustrated recipes designed to help kids age 2-12 cook with their grown-ups. Recipes encourage culinary skills, literacy, math, and science.
KiwiCo has quick and easy at-home project kits mailed right to your home. They are curated for kids 2 and older, all the way through middle school.
SworkIt has kid-friendly workouts — choose from Strength for Kids, Agility for Kids, Flexibility and Balance for Kids, Warm-Up for Kids, Cooldown for Kids, Stand Up and Move for Kids, OR create your own custom kid workout.
Many children are missing their therapies, but OT Toolbox offers at-home occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy resources designed to build skills in children through movement and play.
Many homeschooling families use traditional curricula for their homeschooling, but given the short time frame you will be homeschooling your child (unless you fall in love with it!) an expensive formal curriculum isn’t necessary. Use these online resources to help supplement your child’s traditional schoolwork or create a mini-curriculum of your own, and help fuel a passion for learning that your child isn’t likely getting in school.
WANT TO READ MORE?
Check out this article on How to Homeschool During the COVID-19 Crisis.
