School at Home - GIANT List of Resources & Freebies to Make Schooling at Home Fun, Smooth & Easy
School at home - whether you are doing it on purpose, or thrust into it in the name of social distancing, and keeping safe, we've got you covered here with lots of goodies to make schooling fun and structured while helping you keep your sanity.
Most of these are a compiled list of links that are resources I'm discovering, even now. So, be sure to confirm they are good for your family before introducing to your child. And, I would love feedback! Comment below, or shoot me an e-mail to let me know what you think.
Below, I've divided a list of links that I've compiled for you so far online into categories for things like educational subscriptions, virtual field trips, and more.
Meanwhile, I'll agree with much of the advice I'm seeing all over the internet for school at home, and I'll leave it here for you to think over:
- Don't stress. Take a few days or a week or whatever you need to make a plan. If you are following a curriculum preset from teachers at school, take your time to figure it out.
- Think long-term. Don't sweat the small stuff.
- This will be a time to remember. Make it a GOOD MEMORY by not demanding too much on your child(ren).
- Have fun with it! You might actually enjoy yourself if you cut a few corners and just go with the flow.
- I'm here for you! If you need to connect with someone, feel free to comment below or e-mail me.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. You can learn more about that here.
Learning Subscription Websites
There are a TON of websites you can use to educate your kiddos at home, if you wish. My suggestion? Take your time, and just explore. Many of these are currently FREE, or have a free trial period, so you can get an idea if it's for you.
General School at Home Programs Online
Adventure Academy - Super fun site with free trial - awesome graphics with great games and learning tools for kids. Perfect for mid to upper elementary kids.
Samsung Kids+ - If you have a Samsung device (or are in the market for one), this subscription is a MUST - 1,000's of books (some virtual!), games, and movies with good parental controls. Free trial! You can get it here, or check out my full Samsung Kids+ review here.
Virtual School Day - A free remote learning program from Varsity Tutors that includes live, online classes and educational resources intended to help parents fill their kid's day with enriched learning and to help keep students from sliding academically while away from school.
Virtual Summer Camps - Also from Varsity Tutors, and added as a supplement to the Virtual School Day programs, you can send your child to camp this summer after all (and for FREE)! Check out for more details.
Language Arts (Reading, Spelling, Writing)
Abcmouse - Although, they have activities more than just for reading, Abcmouse is a great idea for beginning readers. Bonus free trial period!
Reading Eggs - Parents and kids love this one so much. Games, songs and more to help young readers learn to read.
Hooked on Phonics - They've come a long way since the olden days! Hooked on Phonics has a great app and online learning tools for young readers. You can rely on their good reputation, and know that your child can learn to read with them!
Teach Your Monster to Read - Kids and parents all love this program - I've never heard anything bad about it! And it's always FREE on the computer. This is one to check out!
Reading IQ - Huge online library of good books with free trial..
Audible - Online library of good books with free trial
Starfall - Lots of fun games and activities for young learners
Reading A-Z - Has more than 1,000 leveled books online in multiple genres and formats, with reading lessons, decodable books, reader's theater scripts, reading worksheets, and assessments.
Lalilo - Perfect for young readers, Lalilo is great for phonics and comprehension.
IXL.com - Lots of teachers are using this for distance learning to help parents at home. There are plenty of activities to use with your kids - common core concepts are covered for many subjects and all ages.
For older kids:
Read Theory - Personalized reading comprehension exercises for
K-12 and ESL students.
Newsela - Lots of different content types for learners at home..
ActivelyLearn.com - Texts (and videos!) for ELA, Science, and Social Studies with scaffolds and higher-order questions
How to Organize and Run a Homeschool Day
Suddenly Homeschooling with FREE Survival Checklists by age groups. These are awesome! Provided by Charity Hawkins, author of the book The Homeschool Experiment.
Virtual Field Trips
Try THIS great list of 75 virtual museum field trips. What a great way to keep your kids occupied and learning!
And here is another long list of virtual field trips to try.
For art-loving kids, try this online doodle class at the Kennedy Center.
Can You Survive the Oregon Trail? Class for all ages
12 World Famous Museums that have Virtual Tours available online
Podcasts for Kids
Here's a list of podcast recommendations from other folks that I've seen floating around I thought I would share here. I have no idea of the content on some of these, so you may want to screen them first, but they were all recommended by local fellow moms. Some have a link, some are just a name to look up.
- My Little Poppies
- 25 Best podcasts for kids from Common Sense Media
- Wow in the World
- The Past and the Curious
- Eleanor Amplified
- Classics for Kids
- Brains On
- History Unplugged
- Tumble Science
- Big Life Kids
- This Podcast Has Fleas
- Know Your History
- Our 5 Favorite Podcasts
- Brinkman Adventures
Printable Freebies for Free Online Homeschool Downloads-
Mythreereaders.com also has printable freebies for you, like alphabet practice sheets from A-Z, phonics and sight word flashcards, printable bookmarks and lots more. Sign up for those alphabet pages here (and all the other freebies will be there too.)
I hope that these give you an idea to at least get started. And if you can or want to put away the academics, and just focus on family time and reading for a while, I think that is a good idea, too!
Best Options for Homeschooling
Take a deep breath, Mom, Dad or teacher. All this information can be overwhelming, so take it one day at a time, and try not to worry too much about all the details. You got this!
If you have any other resources to share, please feel free to add them to the comments below.
