One of the greatest things about the modern world we live in is that you don’t need to be rich to acquire knowledge. There is wealth of knowledge at our fingertips, but there is also a mass of excessive and/or low-quality information. It can be quite a maze to get to the pots of free gold waiting at the end of the rainbow of the internet. Here is a list of free resources I have found valuable to come back to again and again over the years of educating my children. These are listed in no particular order.
Starfall – Early reading skills (I also love the Alphablocks show for early readers, which can be found for free on Youtube.)
Khan Academy– Most of my readers are probably aware of this great resource. I just want to point out that Khan is always expanding its content and you can find many subjects covered from math and computer science, to grammar, and even videos about how the brain learns new things.
Vocabulary.com – Amazing resource. You can assign premade lists, or easily make your own with any list of words. You can turn on the definitions to be read-aloud so your child hears the correct pronunciation of the words.
Youtube- Some of our favorites: Crash Course, Minute Physics, Eyewitness, Documentaries.
Podcasts- Myths and Legends, I know there are many more, but this is my kids favorite (I will suggest you preview some episodes to make sure the content is not too mature, or save it for Junior High/High School age).
LibriVox – free audiobooks, you can also download an app to your phone and download books to listen to while on the go.
Project Gutenberg – Out of copyright books available in various reader formats.
Easy Peasy – a free Christian curriculum using online resources, pulled together and organized for you…I don’t actually use this curriculum, but I do use it to help me find free resources.
Homeschool Catalogs – Okay, now I may be showing my weirder colors…but all the shiny catalogs with lists and pictures of what books and manipulatives are used for different ages…I have used catalogs to gather ideas, then go get the books I can for free, or run to the library.
(I’m not mentioning the library, because I assume you know that one, but do check if your library has a parent and/or teacher resource area, because if they do you may find great curriculum resources you can use in that section.)
Ambleside Online – This is another resource (also Christian) which I use like a catalog, with the bonus that many of the things they suggest using are also out of copyright, and the free links to original sources are provided.
(Resources not marked Christian are secular.)