The Most Trusted Free Homeschool Curriculum
When I first started homeschooling, almost 20 yrs ago, there were many curricula out there. You could get boxed, everything done for you, unit studies, different methods such as Charlotte Mason, Classical and unschooling. You could even just go to Walmart and get workbooks for your children.
There was no shortage of curricula. But, there wasn’t much in terms of free homeschool curriculum.
Almost anything you wanted, must be paid for.
It was before the blogging sensation hit the internet and while most of these companies were online, you couldn’t order online. You had to go to a curriculum fair where the vendors were. But now, with the internet what it is, there is no shortage of free options out there.
I’m going to do a round up of free homeschool curriculum for you today! I sincerely hope this helps you!
You CAN provide a wonderful education for your children for free! I will show you how!
The Rules:
- I am only including curricula I have personally used over the past 20 years of homeschooling
- Most are online because that’s the world today
- I am including just sites that can be considered full curriculum or that you could use in place of a full curriculum set–so no apps
- all the pictures are linked
- I do have 2 supporting categories, but they are so robust you almost could use them as a complete curriculum in a pinch
This post contains affiliate links. I may make a small commission if you click a link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
Homeschool Share
First up, we have Homeschool Share. This is a website that focuses on lapbooks and unit studies. You can use lapbooks with any curriculum and for any subject. They can be a part of a bigger picture within your homeschool, or they can be the main focus. We have loved lapbooks over the years!
Homeschool Share has a blog that talks more about lapbooks, if you would like more information on how to use them in your homeschool.
They also have an elaborate Unit Studies section. There are so many ideas provided that it would take years to work your way through! I can’t believe they provide this for free!
The Unit Studies are centered around either a book or a theme, such as animals, science or geography. So if you have a particular book you want to study, you can check out the list and see if they have it. Or if you’re not sure, you can just pick from their list.
If you decide to look at this website, make sure you have a cup of coffee and the kids are down for a nap, because you will want to spend some time with the wealth of knowledge they provide!
1+1+1=1
This is a blogger that I found when my now 11 yr old was a baby. I am amazed at all of the free homeschool curriculum Carisa offers.
She also has come up with new ideas such as “tot school,” which I did with my daughter. I followed Carisa’s exact method, used all of her printables and ideas and absolutely loved it! I really enjoy the toddler/preschool age, especially with homeschooling, so this was a great fit for me.
I especially liked that my 2 yr old would be busy with her own engaging school so I could do school with my older kids. I had 4 children at that point, ages 16 to 2, and felt a little overwhelmed at times.
But tot school helped keep me going and the older kids even liked to do my 2 yr old’s school with her. It was a win-win for all of us!
I also did the Preschool curriculum and then switched to other things in Kindergarten. While this blog focuses more on the younger ages, she does have sections for older kids, as well.
I only used the tot school and preschool curricula. Go check out Carisa’s website. You may feel a little overwhelmed, but you won’t be sorry!
Easy Peasy
This is a complete online curriculum for all grades. I have used it at most levels and with my special needs children, as well. While most of this curriculum is online, there are printables you will need to print. I just printed everything and put it in a binder so it was ready when we were.
This curriculum is well rounded and straight forward. You won’t get a lot of fluff or opinion about worldviews and such, although it is a Christian who runs it. The lessons are simple and quick and you won’t spend any time prepping, other than printing (but there are books you can buy with it all printed for you).
Your children will move through this quickly, but will learn a lot.
I used it mainly for elementary ages, but did have my highschoolers try it. At the time, the highschool curriculum was still being developed and wasn’t as full and complete as the elementary section, so we didn’t use it for long. It looks to be pretty robust now and your children will get a good education with this free homeschool curriculum.
Simply Charlotte Mason
The next two sites I’m going to suggest use the Charlotte Mason method.
If you are not familiar with her or her methodology, pick up this book. This is the best introduction to the CM method I have found. And while it is old, it’s still the best out there. It gives a gentle overview without being overwhelming.
If you decide this is something you’d like to incorporate in your homeschool, there are two sites that offer free CM curriculum.
The first, is Simply Charlotte Mason.
They provide the skeleton, schedules and all of the subjects you’re “supposed to do” for a Charlotte Mason education. You won’t have to think at all about planning or what you’re to be doing next.
You will, however, need to prep all of the material. This includes finding the books, finding the artist’s pictures, going to the library, gathering maps for geography, etc. This site does offer all of it done for you, but it’s not free.
I have bought some of the history curriculum, and it was good. We enjoyed going through it and I felt my kids learned a lot from it.
This website has a wealth of information, schedules of all kinds and everything you need (both free and not free) for you to give your child a complete Charlotte Mason education.
Ambleside Online
This is another Charlotte Mason website that I used for a few years with my oldest.
It is very rigorous, much more than Simply CM. I liked that my daughter was getting this high level of education. She learned a lot and still remembers much of it as an adult.
At the time, I only had her in this curriculum and I was doing other things with my littles. Looking back, I should have had everyone in this curriculum together, joining grades where I could and making things easier on myself. We abandoned this because it was too much.
My older and wiser self sees the errors of my ways, but it doesn’t mean this curriculum is bad. It’s very good! But it needs to be respected and if you know going in that it’s rigorous, that may help.
They offer complete schedules and curriculum guides all for free. You will need to purchase the books on their list, or find them at the library. Other than gathering books, there isn’t much prep. It’s less prep than Simply Charlotte Mason.
Keep reading, and I will tell you how to get a lot of the books on their list for free (other than the library)! They also have a crisis homeschooling schedule, in case you need a smaller load due to a personal crisis (or a pandemic!).
Teachers Pay Teachers
You’ve probably heard about this site.
While it’s true you will need to pay for most of the larger files and packages, you can get some very good printables for free. I have supplemented all of my curriculum over the years with the free offerings on this site.
It’s worth looking into!
Khan Academy
Known for their science and math, we have used Khan Academy for years.
They have been especially helpful with their high school math tutorials. Everything is free, but you have to sign up to access it. It’s definitely worth looking at, especially if you’re struggling teaching math or science concepts.
They have been a lifesaver for me!
YouTube
I don’t need to say much about this, except anything you need to teach your children can be found on YouTube.
It is truly a free homeschool curriculum!
My favorite channels are Crash Course and Liberty’s Kids. My older children loved watching Liberty’s Kids on TV when they were younger and now we can watch anytime with their YouTube channel.
Crash Course offers short, simple explanations for big concepts. They are pretty entertaining, but also have a lot of information. Anything from history, to government, to science is on this channel.
Additional Supports for Your Free Homeschool Curriculum
Donna Young Printables
This website is a treasure trove of planners and schedulers.
While there’s not really much in terms of actual free homeschool curriculum, she has hundreds–if not thousands–of calendars, schedules, planners, and worksheets.
It used to all be free and then a few years ago she switched to a membership based site. I just kept copying what I already had from her, so didn’t need to pay the membership. When I was researching her site again for this post, I see that most of her content is free again.
My favorite planners are all on this page and you’ll need a membership to access them. I have used all of these extensively in my homeschool, but especially the quarter planner. It can be used for so many things! Here is an example of how I use it.
Where to get free books
Librivox, Gutenberg and Baldwin Children’s Literature Project
All three of these websites offer free children’s books. Librivox has audio books and the other two are print.
A lot of the books that are on the lists in Ambleside and Easy Peasy you can find on these sites for free. Even though I am using Memoria Press right now, I have found a number of read alouds, such as Black Beauty, for free using these sites.
We’ve also listened to the entire Anne of Green Gables series, The Secret Garden and Little Women just to name a few using Librivox. It’s nice that my very young children can “read” these more advanced books!
Pro tip: use the Librivox app on your phone. It’s much easier to navigate than the website and you can cast it to your Google Home or Alexa device!
Curriculum books
There are also two books I would like to introduce you to. These books offer a complete curriculum in their subject areas: one is history and the other is science/nature study.
Of course, you’ll have to purchase the books, but then you have a “free” homeschool curriculum to use for years!
The first one is called All Through the Ages. It’s a history guide using literature to teach historical concepts.
It is broken down by region of the world, time and historic events. The book lists are broken further down into age groups, and then biographies, historical fiction, non-fiction, etc.
It is a treasure trove of information and you could develop a K-12 history curriculum plan just with this book alone. Use the Donna Young planners to plan it, and you just developed your own curriculum!
You will need to purchase the books, find them at the library or use the free resources above, but this guide will serve you for years to come.
The second book is called the Handbook of Nature Study. It’s a science book used in most Charlotte Mason curricula.
It can be a little overwhelming to deal with, but I have found a blog that helps with this! It’s called HandbookOfNatureStudy.com and it uses this book as a guide to it’s content.
She has developed so much over there to get your kids outside and learning about their world! I am also on her email list where she emails free printables and other goodies to use.
Her site and this book would serve as a complete science curriculum for years. Most of her site is free, but there are some parts that require a membership or purchase. But just her free content is enough to keep you busy for a long time!
It is possible to find quality free homeschool curriculum out there. And there is even so much more than I talked about here!
So many bloggers, curriculum companies and others have developed quality free homeschool curriculum.
I hope this round up helped you find something to get you started. Using free homeschool curriculum is a good way to get your feet wet if you’re not sure about homeschooling or if it’s only temporary. Also, it’s good to fall back on if you are in a crisis and can’t keep up with your current curriculum.
Thank you for being here today and I hope you were served in some way!
Please share if you found this helpful!
Thanks, friends!
