Free Online Learning Activities for Kids!
Learning from home is a unique opportunity to take your child’s education and shape it specifically to their own specific needs. The amazing thing about the internet is that there are so many resources for students to learn any subject imaginable or even reinforce skills that need refreshing. Learning does not need to cost a lot of money either as there are so many free or low-cost resources available to tailor to your student’s needs and also help your student become a more independent learner. Take a look through this list to find fun learning activities for kids, from the youngest to high school age!
Math Homeschooling Resources
- Math Worksheets For Kids– Different math concepts can be a challenge for many kids to understand. Find math worksheets and games for kids can help take the frustration out of learning math.
- 15 Free SAT Practice Sites For Homeschooling High School – get in your math SAT and ACT practice with these free math SAT practice tests.
- Time4Mathfacts is not free, but at $39.95 per student for a year, I had to include it. This game-based program helps students master basic math facts through fun arcade-like games.
- Funbrain has educational games to help your children in grades Pre K – 8 improve in math, reading, problem-solving, and literacy.
- MasterMath is a middle school math program with video lessons, worksheets, and quizzes.
- Zearn is an immersive and thorough free math curriculum for children in grades K-5. The lessons are taught through games, video instruction, and practice lessons. They also offer free printables to go along with each lesson.
- 8 Fun Ways to Teach Math
- 5 Effective Principles for Teaching Middle and High School Math
- Dad’s Worksheets-From fractions to multiplication tables you are sure to grab worksheets that will help you find math success!
- MathPlanet.com – Math Planet offers courses in Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry. They also offer practice tests for the SAT and the ACT. Each course has an easy-to-navigate scope and sequence your students can work through at their own pace.
- Illuminations – This program is available for students in grades PreK to 12th grade. It provides a comprehensive course of study, lesson plans, games, interactivities, and much more.
- Khan Academy – Of course, this post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Khan Academy! Khan Academy is committed to offering the best education possible free of charge at all times. Students can learn math, but they can also learn from a huge variety of other topics.
- IXL Math – Teachers and parents can set students up to work along a certain strand/course of activities related to the math they’re learning. This isn’t a complete curriculum option, but it’s a fantastic supplement. There is a paid version available, but the free version allows up to 20 task cards a day, which is a good amount of time for review.
- LearnZillion – Supporting both traditional and blended classrooms, this K-12 program provides plenty of extra practice for your high school students.
- Desmos – This isn’t a math course; it’s a math tool. It’s an online graphing calculator your students will certainly find handy! It also includes the ability for you – the teacher – to generate activities for your students to complete.
- GeoGebra – This is another online tool (graphing calculator) your students will find useful in their studies.
- Homeschooler’s Guide To Teaching High School Math
- Free Online High School Courses
- Math Playground – Make learning fun with hundreds of free online math games for you 2-11 year old!
Science Homeschooling Resources
- Free Printable Science Worksheets – perfect for your K-3rd grade students looking for fun science activities for kids!
- Brains On Podcast encourages you and your children to be curious about the world. Learn about animals, and the human body, and take a guess at the mystery sound!
- Crash Course is a YouTube-based video series that helps educate on a broad range of topics from astronomy to history and more.
- The Discovery Place site helps inspire your children to love science and other STEM projects through printables, games, and free DIY experiments.
- How Stuff Works wants to help you understand the behind-the-scenes parts of our lives. Find informative articles, puzzles, and more.
- Mystery Science offers easy-to-use science lessons to get your child learning. This isn’t technically a free resource, but they provide one free school year membership when you sign up.
- NASA provides educational resources like apps, podcasts, eBooks, and more to help your children learn about space and space travel. The NASA Kids’ Club offers additional free resources too!
- National Geographic For Kids has games, videos, facts, and photos to encourage your children to learn about the earth, animals, and history.
- Science Bob helps you add some random acts of science into your day with free homeschool activities, experiments, and project ideas to get your kids thinking.
- SciShow Kids is a YouTube channel that explores topics and answers questions for young, curious minds.
- The Science Spot is a one-stop spot for middle school science resources. This site has lessons, puzzles, and more.
- Smithsonian Science Education Center provides free science resources to help your homeschoolers start to think like a scientist.
- Wow in the World Podcast is provided by the National Public Radio. This podcast takes kids and their parents on a journey into the wonders of the world around them.
- Homeschooler’s Guide to Teaching High School Science
- FREE Access to K-12, STEM-Focused Curriculum from Creative Learning Systems.
- Want your Early Learners to go Totally Bonkers for Science? These animated learning adventures, starring tiny, ultra-curious aliens called QUINKS, will have your littles learning, laughing, and loving science content and activities.
English and Literature Homeschooling Resources
- 15 Books 9th Graders Should Read
- Epic-A library at your child’s fingertips. Unlimited reading for $4.99/month. It is sorted by age groups, newborn to 12 years old.
- OverDrive– Borrow eBooks, audiobooks, and more from your local public library – anywhere, anytime. All you need is a library card. See if your library, where you have a card, supports Overdrive.
- Homeschool Unit Study Resources
- DIY Poetry Unit Study
- How to Homeschool Using Only the Library
- Institute for Excellence in Writing
- Printables for Middle School & High School
- Printables for Homeschooling Elementary School
- Free Homeschool Reading Resources
- Best Homeschool High School Literature Suggestions for Teens
- Reading Skills Pyramid
- Learning Reading Comprehension Skills Online
- Games: Read-A-Word
- Jeopardy! – Play the popular game with your 5th graders to boost their reading comprehension!
Social Studies Homeschooling Resources
- Social Studies-Homeschool High School for Free
- Easy Peasy– offers a FREE homeschool curriculum for grades K-12. We thought we’d include it here specifically for their free social studies offerings.
- Clickschooling offers free homeschool curriculum videos in several subject areas including the social sciences.
- American Heritage offers several programs that you can use to supplement lessons in American History.
- Eyewitness to History is definitely a site to bookmark! If you’re looking for eyewitness accounts and primary documents to supplement your high school social studies program, this is the site for you!
- Crash Course is a YouTube-based video series that helps educate on various topics from astronomy to history and more.
- Digital History helps bring the past alive through technology by providing news articles, music, art, and more for specific periods and events in the United States’ history.
- Google Earth Education is a great resource to help show your children locations around the world.
- History For Kids is a free online history network with articles, games, videos, and free homeschool printables on many historical events.
- KidNuz Podcast is a five-minute breakdown of today’s top stories, current events, politics, science, entertainment, sports, and more. It is age-appropriate and nonpartisan.
- National Geographic For Kids has games, videos, facts, and photos to encourage your children to learn about the earth, animals, and history.
- Smithsonian For Kids brings the fun from The Smithsonian Institution home through activities, games, and more.
- Time For Kids provides free journal articles online about current topics.
- Who Was is a popular book series in classrooms and homeschools alike. The Who Was website offers educational resources to expand learning. Find lesson plans, free printables, and more.
- Mr. Nussbaum has lots of history activities to keep your students occupied!
Music Homeschooling Resources
- Hand Exercises for Children Learning Music
- Is Music a Language? – tips for starting early with music.
- Maestro Classics– Free Homeschool Music Curriculum with lessons in history, science, geography, language arts, art, music, and math.
- Home School Music Network– Join bands, orchestras, choruses, and other homeschool music groups. Find out about performances, or add yours to the list.
- Beginning Band Course– This course is intended for a Music Teacher, or anyone with a musical inclination, who is brave and selfless enough to lead Beginning Band. Other than instruments, there is nothing to buy – for you or your students. This free course is distributed as a .pdf. All necessary teaching and student material can be printed as you need it. Everything is included. This course is FREE.
- Danman’s Music Library and Music School– Learn to play guitar, piano, violin, flute or learn to sing. Over 500 video lessons online.
- FiddleQuest– Always free for teachers. Students choose FiddleQuest Free or FiddleQuest Complete. An interactive community of violin instructors, other students, and those you wish to share your tunes.
- Classroom Recorder Course– Music Teachers and Classroom Teachers and Parent Teachers and Student Teachers can all use this course effectively. Other than recorders, there is nothing to buy – for you or your students. All necessary teaching and student material can be printed as you need it. Everything is included. This sixty-five-page course is FREE.
- Berklee College of Music MOOCs– Browse free online courses in a variety of subjects. Berklee College of Music courses found here can be audited free or students can choose to receive a verified certificate for a small fee. Select a course to learn more.
- Understanding Basic Music Theory– A comprehensive insight into the fundamental notions of music theory: music notation, rules of harmony, ear training, etc. It covers most of the topics needed to understand and develop your musical skills – with your favorite training tool EarMaster of course, an app for Macs and PCs.
- Musicards– These music flashcards can be used by beginning music students who are becoming acquainted with key music rudiments, all the way up to intermediate and advanced students who wish to fill in gaps here and there or increase fluency with existing knowledge.
Art Homeschooling Resources
- A to Z Teacher Stuff– Arts & Crafts for all ages and grades.
- Crayola Creativity Central– Ideas and lesson plans for incorporating art across the curriculum.
- Elementary Art Lesson Plans– Computer art and hands-on art plans.
- Fabulous Fine Arts Fridays– We set aside most of our Fridays for Fine Arts – art, music, and poetry, and sometimes some Shakespeare. The simplest way to do this was to plan the “extras” in our Theme of the Day. It is my kids’ favorite day of the week!
- Famous Paintings Art Appreciation Lessons for Kids– Printable worksheets and prints to color. Forty-eight artists are featured.
- Incredible @rt Department– Hundreds of art ideas. Some tie in history and geography lessons.
Coding Homeschool Resources
- Blocky Games is a series of educational programming games. This online educational resource is perfect for beginners with no experience.
- Code Academy is a great place to go to learn to code. The courses available here are great for older students, aged 14 and up.
- CodeCombat is a paid program, but their introduction to computer science course is free to use.
- Code Master is a free online version of ThinkFun’s programming logic game. They offer beginner and advanced play options.
- Hour of Code offers many activities to help your children learn, practice, and excel at coding.
- Scratch gives your children the power to program their own stories, animations, and games, all while learning the skill of coding.
- Code Galaxy – gives your child a one-hour free trial to their super fun coding website!
Virtual Field Trip Resources
- Dr. Kevin Folta Science & Agriculture. Learn about plant life, grafting, eggs, citrus disease, and crop domestication.
- Canadian Farm and Food Tours. Tour farms and learn about where our food comes from.
- Virtual Field Trip to Ellis Island. Have your kids learned about Ellis Island yet? Now they will! This would be a great supplement to an existing unit study or as an introduction to your homeschoolers.
- National Park Virtual Tours. Thanks to virtual reality, your students can learn alongside park rangers as they explore a few different National Parks. The visuals are amazing!
- The Van Gogh Museum. Consider a Van Gogh unit study with this virtual museum tour.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met is offering virtual tours, which is perfect for learning more about the arts with your students.
- Virtual Ocean Dives. Explore marine life with this virtual ocean dive!
- Mount Vernon Virtual Tour. Mount Vernon is incredibly historical and now your kids can learn about it with a virtual tour from the comfort of your home.
- The Empire State Building. If you’ve always wanted to plan a trip to NYC, you can enjoy the view from the Empire State Building from here!
- Buckingham Palace Video Tour. A visit to Buckingham Palace is a bucket list item for many. Until you can get there, you and your children can watch a video tour.
- Playbill Musicals. You can watch Playbill musicals and plays from several streaming services!
- National Aquarium Virtual Tour. If your kids love aquariums, they have to check out this awesome virtual tour!
- The Surface of Mars. Do you have any astronomy or space fans? Thanks to NASA, you can explore Mars.
- Wigmore Hall Performances. Wigmore Hall is a London-based concert hall offering several of their past performances in a video archive for us to enjoy online!
- The Great Wall of China Travel Guide. Explore the Great Wall of China! Many dream of visiting this location, so now your students can learn more about it like never before.
- National Gallery of Art. Google Arts and Culture has provided an amazing way to “visit” the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC for art study and appreciation.
- San Diego Zoo Live Webcams. Can’t make it to your local zoo? Watch the live webcams at the San Diego Zoo!
- Glacier National Park. If you’ve never visited Glacier National Park, now is your chance! This is an incredible simulation!
- National Museum of Natural History Virtual Tours. Thanks to the Smithsonian, students can peruse the Natural History Museum online.
- Colonial Williamsburg Live Webcams. Colonial Williamsburg is a quality experience for a history study, and now we can watch the live webcams without making the trip.
- Yosemite National Park. If you haven’t had the chance to visit Yosemite National Park, this is a wonderful introduction.
- The White House Virtual Reality Tours. Looking for social studies supplements? This is an awesome experience for students learning about the U.S. government!
- Acadia National Park. Enjoy exploring this gorgeous National Park in Maine!
- Denali National Park. Many of us would love to visit Alaska, but it’s a big trip! Take a look at Denali Park without leaving your home.
- Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips. Discovery Education has a fantastic range of virtual field trips for students! These free experiences also come with companion guides and suggested hands-on activities.
- Grand Teton National Park. The Grand Tetons are breathtaking. Whether you haven’t had the opportunity to visit in person or you’d like to visit once again, this tour is for you!
- Easter Island Exploration. Your kids can learn all about Easter Island with this virtual visit thanks to PBS!
- Zion National Park. See these majestic rock formations up close from the comfort of your home.
- Joshua Tree National Park. Are you a Joshua Tree fan? People flock to Joshua Tree, CA every year for a desert oasis experience. Explore the National Park with this virtual tour.
- The Louvre. While you wait to take your trip to Paris, you can still enjoy online tours.
- Redwood National Park. The Redwoods are unlike any other kinds of trees. See the wonder of this park for yourself with this beautiful simulation.
- Monterey Bay Aquariums Live Webcams. Enjoy the fun of the aquarium even while you’re stuck at home with these live webcams.
- Atlanta Zoo Panda Webcam. Pandas are adorable and hilarious and now you can watch them with the webcams at the Atlanta Zoo.
- Yellowstone National Park. The geysers of Yellowstone National Park are exciting to experience in person, but you can still enjoy the beauty of the park with this virtual field trip.
- Kids Cooking Lessons Videos. As a completely unique opportunity, your kids can learn to cook with these Facebook videos!
