Finding Homeschooling Resources
When it comes to homeschooling there are more freedoms available to you when it comes to educating your children, in most cases. The caveat to that is there are often more expenses involved. Finding free and low cost resources can be hard and it sometimes feels like you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. As we work make our way through our homeschooling journey we hope that we can share our experience.
Always remember that you can do this. Your tribe, or community, is out there. They may be local or it may be a virtual group, but remember that you are not alone on your homeschooling journey. I know Facebook is not the favored platform, but there are lots of resources and groups where homeschooling families can connect and share.
You don’t need to imitate the traditional educational structure filled with memorization and testing, you have the world at your fingertips. As long as you are meeting the requirements of your school district you are able to tailor your curriculum to the needs of your children.
If you live in the Bronx or nearby (Harlem/Westchester/Stamford) you can find events and things to do here. While we are in a major city we find that we are underserved in terms of activities and spaces for youth outside of traditional schools. Our goal is to highlight as many as we can.
Below you will find free websites with educational resources (and a few incentive programs). These are current as of December 2023.
Book It! Program – The Book It! program has been around since 1984, and I remember the excitement of being rewarded with a personal pan pizza as a kid. This is still around and available to homeschool students grades pre-k-6th from October through March for meeting monthly reading goals.Â
Every Kid Outdoors – You can use the link to claim your free entrance for 4th grade students to over 2,000 federal recreation areas.
Free Coding for Kids
Code.org – They offer free coding classes for students from kindergarten through 12th grade worldwide. Hour of Code and Dance Party are great introductions to how coding works.
Scratch – The MIT student created community has a family of products, including Scratch Jr. for younger coders. Scratch is the largest community for young coders and is available in 70 languages.
Academic Related Resources
Common Knowledge Foundation – Free teaching materials (lessons, books, activities) for educators across a variety of topics.
Khan Academy – This is a great, 100% free way to teach via their app or website. For younger learners (ages 2-8) there is Khan Academy Kids, which is a free app.
NYC DOE – This is where you can find information on homeschooling in NYC and how to registed.
Teachers Pay Teachers – Free and paid resources for educators. This is a great place to not only find lessons, worksheets and other educational material, but you can also share educational files that you have created.
Umm Assad Homeschool – There are a number of free textbooks and workbooks covering a variety of subjects in PDF format. Grades preschool through high school.
Assessments
Pioneer Valley – They offer a few free digital assessments, simply create an account. Keep in mind that the words in the reading assessment get harder, but they do not change (if you use it to reassess).
