Everything on this list is a resource we have used and can recommend.

  • Free Resources
    - Khan Academy
    - Homeschool Share: Lapbooks and notebooks, based on good literature. Some are in-depth enough to cover a week’s worth of activities and touch on all four core subjects and enrichment. Topics arranged by subject and grade level.
    - Teachers Pay Teachers: All subjects, all grades. Teacher-created resources. Many great free products, thousands of excellent ones for very low cost.



  • Math
    - Life of Fred Math: Story-based math, Grades K to university level. Our only math curriculum for nearly a decade. Author is a Christian and personally responds to math questions and inquiries.
    - Math U See: Hands-on math with video instruction and online quizzes and worksheets. If you hate math, or like it but don’t understand it, this is a great choice.
    - Yup Tutoring: 24-hour math tutoring on demand with expert tutors



  • Language Arts
    - Institute for Excellence in Writing: Complete K-12 curriculum, video instruction, free samples and trial period
    - Blackbird and Company: K-12 Literature based language arts curriculum
    - Rosetta Stone: Language lessons


  • Science
    - Journaling a Year in Nature: Daily nature science prompts, excellent reusable resource requiring very little materials and gets us out of the house for a walk!

    - California Nature Guide: Easy to tuck into a bag for identifying plants and animals.

    - Steve Spangler Science: Ready-to-use boxes focusing mainly on physical sciences. Each box we used was a STEM style, and contained about a week’s worth of activities, plus writing prompts and extensions.
    - Crash Course Anatomy and Physiology*

    - Crash Course Biology*


  • Social Studies/History/Geography
    - Visits To...Series: Printed or Digital Versions, studying the continents, focusing on the lives of individual families and their possessions, food, culture. Excellent resource. Additional books required are Material World and Hungry Planet
    - Crash Course World History* videos
    - Crash Course US History* videos and Teachers Pay Teachers Guide


  • Art
    - Art for Kids Hub: Free online drawing tutorials by a great family
    - Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems (12 episodes): Art tutorials by the author of the Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Elephant and Piggie series


  • Music
    - TruFire: Online guitar lessons




  • Audiobook Titles (all available at Audible.com). We listen to these regularly during chores, art time, playing legos, and while driving:

    - Winnie the Pooh - read by Jim Broadbent
    - The House at Pooh Corner: read by Peter Dennis

    - Harry Potter series - read by Jim Dale
    - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - read by Eddie Redmayne

    - Peter Pan - read by Jim Dale
    - Peter and the Starcatcher series - read by Jim Dale
    - The Chronicles of Narnia - various narrators
    - The Hobbit - read by Rob Inglis
    - A Christmas Carol - read by Jim Dale
    - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - read by Rob Inglis
    - A Series of Unfortunate Events - various narrators
    - Around the World in 80 Days - read by Jim Dale
    - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - read by Jim Dale
    - The Secret Garden - ready by Virginia McKenna
    - The Wrinkle in Time series - read by Jennifer Ehle
    - The Pilgrim’s Progress - read by David Shaw-Parker
    - David Copperfield - read by Richard Armitage
    - Great Expectations - read by Simon Pebble
    - Jane Eyre - read by Thandie Newton
    - All the Wrong Questions - read by Liam Aiken
    - The Land of Stories Series - read by Chris Colfer
    - Pride and Prejudice - read by Rosamund Pike
    - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - read by Douglash Hodge
    - James and the Giant Peach - read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
    - The Trumpet of the Swan - read by E.B. White
    - Sherlock Holmes - read by Stephen Fry

  • Subscription Boxes

    - Steve Spangler Science: Incredibly well designed science-kits. The only thing we have had to provide are vegetable oil, water, and some space to make a mess. Great for learners who absorb concepts better when they get hands-on. Couldn’t be happier with these. Student and parent guides in each box help keep the lessons grounded.
    - Raddish Kids: Cooking kits, with themed recipes, a tool, and an iron-on badge in each box. So far, all the recipes have been very nice.
    - History Unboxed: This one is a bit of a mixed bag. Hands-on lessons with activity materials and enrichment activities for Ancient History, Middle Ages, US History, and lots of extras. These boxes are nicely curated, but average about $40-$55 each, rather expensive for the ones that come with less “engaging” activities, and we have had a couple flops. In those cases, we found it cheaper to locate similar materials on Amazon, though obviously there’s no learning guide that way. So, it pays to really look into which boxes will fit your family’s needs and interests. Subscribing to a quarterly, six-month, or yearly curriculum is more cost-effective than purchasing the boxes individually, but the boxes are not shipped “chronologically” according to a historical timeline. The included coloring pages and fictional letter from the two adventuring children which introduce each month’s theme we found really drab and always went straight to the learning guide and activities.
    - Kiwi Co: We tried the Tinker crate and Doodle crate. Tinker crate was our favorite of the two. Both were very fun and thoughtfully put together.


  • Curriculum and Materials:

- Rainbow Resource

- Cathy Duffy: Curriculum reviews

  • Extra note:
    A respected mentor of mine, and my first resource teacher, Linda Smith, offers a handcrafted 2-year thematic curriculum which takes an imaginary journey around the world exploring cultures, arts, sciences, language, societies, music, food, applied math, animal and plant life, and geography, and highlights those subjects and more with excellent literature and digital enrichment. We used this curriculum with our older two boys, and now we’re excited to revisit it with our youngest son. Her newly-minted manuscript is now available for purchase and includes regular Zoom coaching meetings as part of the price.
    Information and reviews available at Magical Tapestry

* Note on Crash Course: This YouTube channel is an excellent resource for high school and middle school level enrichment. Our particular favorites are the episodes featuring brothers Hank Green and John Green, they are smart and funny and fresh. However, some of the subject matter may not be suitable for all ages and ears and sensitivity levels. We have found their channel to take an easy, frank, approach to some of the more dry - and more awkward - topics of science and history. They are tactful, but they do not sidestep issues which families may find uncomfortable, and are very straightforward about things like physical functions and social tensions. I encourage anyone with concerns to preview episodes before sharing them with the kids.