Free Homeschool Resources For ALL Families

If your children attend public or private school you may not be aware how homeschoolers put together their curriculum for use at home. For many of us, we purchase a curriculum from one of many (MANY!!) homeschooling publishers. Some of us will pick and choose from a variety of these curricula and assemble something that works for our family. A few of us use online schools or even part-time schools right here in Lexington. There is a plethora of ways to go about it.

Some of the homeschool publishers are currently offering some free resources for all families during this time of quarantine.

The first one is from the Charlotte Mason Institute. They are a Christian-based program and for 30-days they are offering free activities on their blog. You can participate in these #ChoosingBeauty activities simply by going to the blog and starting with their Day 1 post. Of course, you don't have to do Day 1 to see the others, all are available on the blog. Look over what they have and choose ones you think you and your kids will enjoy. Then you can post pictures on social media and use the hashtag #ChoosingBeauty. I'm told you can even search that hashtag on Facebook (maybe other social media sites as well) and see what others are doing, too.

Another publisher is one I had mentioned in a previous post, Memoria Press. Memoria Press publishes lots of homeschool materials, they are also Christian based, and located in Kentucky. In addition to the materials they offer they also have an Online Academy for grades 3-12, so homeschool students can take classes online with expert teachers. Through their online academy they are offering some free classes.

Memoria Press had two literature classes that filled up already, but they are offering two other classes as self-paced. The first one is their beginning Latin course, Latina Christiana for grades 3-7. The second is their Traditional Logic I course for grades 8-12. For both classes you do need to purchase the books needed, although they are making the first week materials available by PDF to allow time for the books to ship to you.

Homeschoolers also have conferences!! Lots of them. And some are online! This week there was a conference (today is the last day) called Homebound. It's a free online conference. You need to register if you want to get in on this last day, but it is free. However, if you scroll down the page linked above, you can see the schedule and further down there are descriptions of the various daily offerings with links to the replays. I clicked on one and as far as I can tell you can watch the replays without registering. Since this is the last day it may not be worth registering now. There are talks for parents, storytelling/read-alouds for kids, and much more.

Does your child need some extra help in math? Why not try Teaching Textbooks? It's a math curriculum that many homeschool families use. You can go in and get 15 free lessons and the free trial doesn't expire. Never hurts to try it out and you can use it just as a supplement to help a struggling student.

Another resource any homeschool families use is the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Currently they are offering 3 free months of Teaching Writing: Structure and Style Premium Membership. This could be a great resource for supplementing what your student is already doing or to help a student who struggles in this area.

These are just some of the free resources available. I'm sure there are many, many more. If you're thinking of homeschooling in the future there is even a free Charlotte Mason-based Catholic curriculum called Mater Amabilis. Some even offer a subject free for a year or other incentives.

I hope some of these resources can be helpful to you. If you are one of the many parents who suddenly have your children home and you're managing their schoolwork for the first time, let us know in the comments if you have found anything helpful here or in any of our previous posts. We'd love to hear from you!