by Lisa Putnam

Created on: January 03, 2011   Last Updated: January 04, 2011

Homeschooling curricula can be very costly items to purchase.  Many parents simply cannot afford to buy complete, brand new curricula year after year; especially when there are more than one or two children for whom to buy.  Resourceful home educators have found that there are many ways to get homeschooling materials for free, and some have even centered their entire curriculum around those free items.  Free homeschooling resources are not hard to find if you look in the right places. 

Online

There are many free materials on the Internet including full curricula that will work from pre-school to high school. 

Ambleside Online

This free homeschool curriculum is patterned after the teachings of Charlotte Mason, a British educator who lived at the turn of the 20th century.  Her educational beliefs revolve around “living books” or books that are written in story form rather than a textbook.  Vocabulary and spelling words are chosen from the book that is being studied as well as history, geography, grammar, writing, and religion.  Science is based on nature studies and notebooks and math focuses on manipulatives at younger ages.  Ambleside Online even includes booklists and weekly schedules based on a 36 week school year.  The curriculum is completely free, is aimed for children in Kindergarten through 12th grade,  and uses as many free online books as possible.  To learn more about Ambleside Online go to   http://www.amblesideonline.org/index2.shtml .

An Old-Fashioned Education

This curriculum is similar to Ambleside Online, but is more structured and makes use of textbooks and living books.  The curriculum is mainly based on public domain works that were published before 1923 and are therefore copy write free.  Subjects include all the basics but also feature electives such as character and etiquette, drama and public speaking, health, philosophy, poetry, economics, as well as a slew of other subjects.  The website offers full curricula from pre-school on up to 11th grade with 12th grade being created as this is being written.  To learn more about An Old-Fashioned Education go to  http://oldfashionededucation.com/fullcurriculum.htm .

Guest Hollow

This website, created by seasoned home educators, offers free history and science curricula for grades 2-6 as well as free printables, craft ideas, videos, and literature that can be used for those subjects. 

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