Finding free homeschooling material on the internet is easy. There are hundreds of site offering resources such as worksheets, curriculum and online courses. Finding the most useful sites will take a bit of research but is well worth the time invested.
Homeschooling Support Groups
The best place to start your research will be the homeschooling support groups. Most states have a variety of support groups. Some of the groups are more informative than others. It would be wise to work through the ones in your state to find the most comprehensive and useful ones.
The sites normally have curriculum information or links to useful information, newsletters, the laws of that specific state, worksheets, and advice on how to start your homeschool.
Media Library
Town libraries are wonderful resources for reading material, but smaller libraries might not have study material. There are libraries that will send you books through the post. DCMP (Described and Captioned Media Program) has such a library. It specializes in material for learners with special needs such as blind, deaf and visually or hearing impaired learners. Parents can sign up at their website and all material will be posted to you free of charge.
Free Software
There are sites that give away software programs. These are more basic programs and many are focused on the younger learners. At planetcdrom.com you can get a variety of software packages and you only pay for the shipping.
Field Trips
There is nothing that excites children more than a fun-filled field trip. Having fun and learning at the same time must be the perfect educational experience. At abcteach.com there are a variety of checklists that you can print for very basic outings such as nature walks and even the car trip getting you to the activity.
Online Tutors and Help sites
A free online tutor is a valuable addition to homeschooling. A few sites offer free question and answer services. At mathnerds.com you can ask questions about difficult problems and they will help you in the right direction. The idea is to steer the student in the right direction, not doing the work for them.
There are also a variety of online tutors for spelling. The benefit of these programs is that they check the answers automatically and help with the correct answer if the child gets it wrong. Children normally enjoy this and see it more as a game than learning. It won’t replace the actual learning of spelling in the curriculum but it can allow the parent some free time while the child is still busy with some useful learning.
