There are so many learning resources online that it can be mind boggling. Here are 10 great websites that we have enjoyed. Sites listed are not in any particular order.
10 Great Websites for your Homeschool
*There are affiliate links in this post. For full disclosure, read about it here.
Readworks is a non-profit website devoted to reading comprehension. You can pick stories from different genres and assign them to your students. Then, you can assign question sets and have access to your students’ scores along with missed and correct answers. They ask for a nominal fee for homeschoolers which is well worth it.
I found Testingmom when I was researching testing back when our kids were in traditional school. They offer so many educational websites included on their one site that I found it more than worthwhile to purchase a lifetime membership. We have utilized their site to the hilt for educational websites that you would normally have to have individual subscriptions for. And, if you do participate in testing, there is a wealth of resources and practice materials there too. They also offer free and paid classes and camps. We have taken advantage of their free courses as well as some of their paid classes. Be on the lookout for coupon codes from them in your email if you sign up. We have found 50% off specials on classes that come in very handy with four kids!
We have been using this site ever since our kids were in preschool. There are lots of worksheets and suggested hands-on activities as well as educational games. I made, what turned out to be a wise decision, early on, of buying the lifetime membership. There are more options with the membership, including individual plans and tracking for each of your children. We have gotten more than our money’s worth with this program as it encompasses so many different subjects. They also offer yearly memberships.
Starfall is a non-profit organization and has a free and paid version. We started out with the free version and then upgraded to paid which is quite inexpensive and covers all of your children. It has great educational games for students in kindergarten through third grade.
Khanacademy is a non-profit organization that offers amazing educational classes in a wide variety of topics to young children all the way through high school students. Your children can sign up and participate in classes for free and you can keep track of each of your students via their website. They also send our emails sharing the progress of your students.
**UPDATE: This website is no longer recommended. They changed their pricing from $19 a month for all kids in a family to around $300 per month. Yikes! While I can understand the need to raise prices, this was extreme. I added a replacement recommendation at the bottom of this post. Varsity Tutors has a plus program where all the kids in your family can take unlimited classes for (currently) a mere $19 per month. This is per family, not per child. We have found the classes to be a bit hit or miss with some teachers being more dedicated than others. We had to drop a few classes due to teacher no-shows. Our kids have had fantastic teachers and classes that more than make up for the flakes. In addition to the plus program, they offer lots of free classes (no catch, absolutely free). These are large group classes often taught by famous experts in the field. This feature alone makes it worth checking this website out.
This is a non-profit run coding website for kids. They can learn how to code using coding blocks. In today’s technology driven world, this is a wonderful resource. Our kids have learned a tremendous amount on this website. They have enhanced their learning by taking Scratch coding courses on Outschool.com and Testingmom.com so that they can take their coding to the next level.
We found Wordbuild via the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op. If you are not already a member there, I recommend that you join. You can get group discounts on lots of homeschool related products and programs. Wordbuild teaches kids better mastery of language by having them learn morphology, roots, suffixes and prefixes. If you use the program as designed, students spend about fifteen minutes a day on the program and you get emailed reports as to their progress. The disadvantage to this program is that you have to buy separate access for each of your kids. There are not family options. You are able to monitor your students’ progress using your own login.
https://www.howstuffworks.com/
If your students are curious about how things work, this is a fun free site that has many educational videos teach them about a variety of subject areas including: health, science, home/garden, auto, technology, culture, money, adventures and animals. We have one technology lover that has always loved to learn how things work and enjoys this site!
Curiositystream is a website that features educational documentaries for kids and adults at a low monthly cost. There is a section called Curiosity Kids which has documentaries that are appropriate for young viewers. The shows can be watched on your computer or television. Our kids enjoy watching the shows together on TV. Then, they write about or discuss five facts that they learned from the show.
Byrdseed.tv This is my replacement recommendation (eliminating Varsity Tutors). This site has fun and engaging video lessons. It currently has a yearly fee of $149. I find it to be well worth the price as there are so many lessons included that are thought provoking and fun to watch. Expansion activities are included which we have enjoyed.
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