Table of Contents
Homeschooling at the high school level seems scary. I know I have been looking at sites for information and looking at a variety of courses. There is a lot of information out there and it can be overwhelming and confusing. The thing is, it does not have to be. High School can be fun too You just need to adapt. You know your child best and what he likes to do. Add that into any curriculum you choose and it will make things go smoother. Here you will only find resources that are free for you to use in your high school journey.
This is a list of Resources I have been looking at when it comes to the high school curriculum. Some sites have full courses and you can even take a screenshot or pay to have a certificate of completion sent to you. There are full curriculum sites and others that you may just want to use to supplement a program you are already planning on using. Gifted and talented students in Jr. High could also benefit from the use of these resources. Some of these sites actually have curricula for even the Kindergarten level. You may find yourself using one site for several different grade levels. This makes it so much easier on you. Remember to always do what is best for your family. No one knows what is better than you.
The resources on this page are divided up by category. Hopefully, this helps you to find the resources you need easily. If you are using a free resource or come across one that you think should be included, please send me the name and link through the comments below.
Free High School Full Curriculum Sites
These sites offer you the option of creating or going with their full curriculum. One would require that you just add in a foreign language. Some have courses to cover all the core subjects and even a few electives- all on one site. I would encourage you to check out a few as another site might have a better science or language art program than another. Don’t feel like you only have to use one site because they offer all the core subjects you need to cover for the year.
1. Alison
Alison is a full curriculum site or provides a full course. There are a variety of courses covered and they are all online self-paced. This site has over 1,000 courses your student can complete on their time and schedule. You can get a certificate of completion (or even a diploma) for the courses.
2. Ambleside Online
This free high school curriculum is based on the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. The courses are all online. They provide resources for history, literature, poetry, geography, and science. However, you will need to add in an appropriate math and any foreign language your student chooses to study. According to the website: “Free Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum prepares children for a life of rich relationships with God, humanity, and the natural world.”
3. An Old-Fashioned Education
The curriculum is organized by grade level and subject. You can search the site by one or the other. This site offers resources from K to 12. This site has lesson plans, online resources, recommendations for additional curriculum options, and more. It is Christian-based. If you want only secular, you will want to look at the material ahead of time and this resource may not be the best for your family.
4. Coursera
This site offers free courses from some of the top colleges and universities, such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, and many more. Students can earn a certificate if their score is above 80%. You can pay to receive a certificate if the student’s score is above 80%. Or You can take a screenshot to prove the grade on the course. Courses range from no experience at all to courses more advanced where the student has either taken a previous course or had real-world experience in the subject area.
5. Discovery K12
This is a secular online curriculum. The curriculum ranges from grades K to 12. It is online Secular Homeschool material adding STEM with 7 Standard Courses: Language Arts, Reading/Literature, Math, Science, History/Social Studies, Visual/Performing Arts, and Physical Education.
6. Easy Peasy
This is the high school level of Easy Peasy. They have another site that has material for K-8. This is considered an all-in-one curriculum. They have the subjects broken down into 180 days and students can just follow what they have listed for that number of school days or change it and do more than one lesson a day, equaling five lessons a week per course. It even provides links to outside resources when they want the student to read or complete something from another site. You can now buy some of their material in print form. Not all materials are available in print format this time.
7. EDX
This is another website that has courses from high-level colleges and universities. These are free courses from places such as Harvard, MIT, Berkley, Boston U. There are 160 Member Universities on this site.
8. Harvard Free Courses
Harvard offers free courses on a wide range of topics. You can study everything from computer programming to understanding customer needs. There are webinars, courses that last one week to courses for a semester.
9. Khan Academy
This is another all-in-one. You can use their courses as a full curriculum or supplement another curriculum. You can search by grade or subject. It has material covering K-12. There are lessons covering computer science to the arts. Offers free high school curriculum that has a variety of uses.
10. MIT Open Learning
This site has courses that can be taken for free from MIT. They want everyone to be able to obtain knowledge without the barrier of money. There are other resources on this site. MIT not only has courses up on this site but also on some of the other sites where high-level universities also have free courses.
11. Open Culture
This site has 1,700 online courses from some of the top universities for free. Open Culture allows for students to be able to search courses offered online for free from a wide range of subjects. This is definitely a site that you will want to check out and see if they have any courses available in the subject areas of interest of your students.
12. Saylor.org Academy
Saylor.org Academy allows students to sign up and then log in every time they work on a course. The student can then get access to the final exams and earn a free certificate upon completion. This allows the students to show proof of taking the courses and completing them at a satisfactory level.
13. Stanford
Stanford offers several courses online for free. They currently have 100 courses for free. They cover a wide range of topics. They also have others you can take for a fee.
14. Mater Amabilis
Mater Amabilis is a Catholic curriculum. It covers lessons from K-12. It uses the Charlotte Mason approach. The free school curriculum includes almost everything except math. It has links to books to read which are mostly free as they are in the public domain. I would consider this site as a large lesson plan. It has levels in European and U.S. based. This makes it easier to know which level you need to be looking at depending on the student’s age and grade status.
Free High School Art Lessons/ Appreciation
These sites either have actual art lessons for your student or information about artists and the different mediums. This allows the student to not only get access to some hands-on artwork but also to study artists that have come before him. Learning about previous artists and what they did helps the student to be inspired and learn how to create more art on his own.
15. Art Appreciation Curriculum
This site covers art appreciation which can be used in all grades from K-12. Art can be studied at any age. Famous paintings are also featured as part of the art appreciation lessons. This would be a good site to use if homeschooling multiple grades. It provides a great free high school appreciation foundation.
16. Free Online Art Classes
On this site, you can find free art classes. There are art lessons in a variety of mediums. Students can study one medium and then after getting a little experience move on and study another medium. Students also have the option of studying one medium in-depth.
17. The Artchive
The student can find resources here that not only covers the art but also the artists who created the art. This is more of an appreciation of art but also gives a little more background to the medium the artist chose to use.
Free High School History/ Social Studies
History and social studies can be found everywhere. You may even want to check with your local library. They have many historical novels and biographies of famous people. These people were leaders or changed history in some way. A living history education may just make history come alive for your high schooler. These sites help you to know what you might want to cover for high school history or social studies. Use this as a guide.
18. American Government
Teach your students about the American Government through this 13-chapter curriculum. That’s right. This course is only 13 chapters and covers the basics of the American Government. You could use this alongside another American Government course to make sure the student had a strong grasp of the American Government and how it is run.
19. Printable Maps
This site has a collection of 13 sets of maps that can be printed for student use. These can be done as part of a regular geography course or they could be used alongside a history course to understand the areas affected by each major event in history. Use these maps in the best way you see fit for your family.
20. National Archives
National Archives covers American History. This allows the student to learn all about American History.
21. Spartacus Educational
Spartacus educational allows the student to learn about history in general. It covers the world wars, British history, American history, and other major events around the world.
22. American Heritage Education Foundation
This site provides you with free PDFs. It includes lesson plans and even a study guide to help you teach American History. It is called An Adventure in Liberty. You can consider An Adventure in Liberty as the course name behind the site. Personally, I would use this to supplement another American History course.
23. American History
This is another American History resource. This curriculum covers US History from the Native Americans to the New Millennium. The course has 60 chapters. It is covered in-depth and could easily be a stand-alone history course.
24. Ancient Civilizations
This 11-chapter curriculum covers the study of Ancient Civilizations from Ancient Egypt to Africa and beyond. This site is great if your student is interested in the Ancient time period. This course helps us to understand where we came from and how we have evolved.
25. Globalmania
This site focuses on geography. World Geography can be covered in 7 months or less. Recommended grade level is grade 3 through high school. It is downloadable in two pdfs. This features Masterbooks’ popular ebook titled GLOBALMANIA: Master World Geography in 7 Months or Less.
Free High School Resources for Foreign Language
These foreign language sites are mostly for supplements to another program. There is one that has different levels and exposes students to a world and culture in that language. I do not want to leave these out as I think they would still be beneficial. If you know of other sites that are free, please let me know in the comments and I will add them to this list.
26. Duolingo
Duolingo is a great site to use as a supplement to another language program. It has the basics. They have now added some sentence formation, etc. However, a student would not get enough hours or enough material covered to be considered a one-credit course for the high-school level.
27. German to Go
German to Go is for an intermediate level of German. This is basically the same website that has the lower level but has more advanced levels for the student to complete. It is done by the same company and in the same format as the Learn German course.
28. Learn German
Learn German is the lower level of German. This site provides the basics of the language. The student can then move on to the German to Go to get a more advanced study of the German language.
Free High School Math Curriculum
Math can be hard to figure out. Most programs require a placement test to even get an idea of where you student should start. Each program covers concepts at different levels. One program may have the order of operations in second grade and another may not even address it until fourth grade. Please keep that in mind when working with this free math curriculum.
29. Illuminations
You can set the grade level. This site has at least 50-Interactive Mathematics & 700-Lesson Plans for your use. Games and activities are available for students’ engagement. This site actually covers K-12. So you can easily have siblings working on this site just like the older kids. This is a win, win.
30. Math.com
This site provides some resources on basic concepts at different math levels. It says that more will be coming soon. They do have some games your students can play which require math concepts.
31. Purple Math
This website includes math lessons involving the following areas: Algebra, Word Problems, and Basic Trig. It has resources that provide for a full high school math curriculum for Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. Students can find info or use the search button which is on every page to get the math concepts needed to study.
Free High School Resources in the Public Domain: Includes Many Books/ Textbooks
Books that are in the public domain can be used and found anywhere online. These links are just some of the sites I have found that have books from the public domain. To find/ see if a book is available try searching for it. I would search it on at least two sites especially if it is a classic book since many of those are now in the public domain. Not all the sites have the same books as it takes a lot of work getting the books up on their sites for users.
32. Classics Internet Archive
This site is done by MIT. It provides a lot of classical literature. They are all now in the public domain. You do not have to worry about paying for them as there is no longer a copyright on them. They are free for anyone to use. This is only one site. If you are not fond of a translation, etc, try one of the other sites that have books in the public domain.
33. Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Sign up for a Virtual Library Card. This will give you access to the works on their site, which does include more than just the books in the public domain. That is why you need to sign up for one of their virtual library cards.
34. Many Books
This site has a wide range of books for Free (Public Domain) including Classics and other Genres. This is definitely a site to look for classic books or any book that might be in the public domain before going and purchasing a copy of the book. This is a great resource.
35. OLL
According to the website, “The OLL collects the best, most interesting, and hardest-to-find works from the history of the discussion of liberty.” If you are looking for anything that could be history-related, you will want to check this site out. It has some great resources.
36. Plutarch’s Lives
Plutarch’s Biographies of Famous Men
37. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks (Such as Classic Books). This online collection is huge. If you have not found what you were looking for on other sites with public domain books, this is the one you want to search. They are constantly adding work to their collection. They are even looking for more volunteers so they can get more work up for people to use.
38. The Avalon Project
Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
Free High School Curriculum for Science
Science is one of the subjects that can either be boring or a ton of fun. I vote for fun. I love the interactive sites and hands-on science. Some of these sites allow students to have an interactive/ hands-on experience on the computer when it comes to science.
39. PhET Interactive Simulations
Interactive Simulations for Science and some Math
40. TeachEngineering
Free STEM Curriculum. It contains over 700 activities and lessons for your use. It does have activities for those younger than high school but still has plenty of resources for you to use with your high schooler.
Free High School Typing
In today’s world, students need to be proficient in typing and also computer software. This section currently features mostly free typing sites but does have some resources on learning different computer software programs. This includes different versions (years released to the public, such as Office 2006 or 2010, etc.).
41. GCF Global/ GCF Learn Free
Learn Computer Software from Office to Publisher to Job Searches. This site could be listed under general resources. However, since it features a lot of computer software programs, I have decided to include it under the typing/ computer section.
42. Typing Games- Under Typtastic
This site has several typing games to practice keyboard knowledge in a fun way. They will be honing their typing skills and will not even realize it. They will just think they are playing games (yes they will see it says something about typing, but once they start playing, they have a tendency to forget it is a lesson).
43. Typtastic!
Middle & High School Typing. Learn the Keyboard and Number Pad.
44. Typing Lessons
Typing Lessons- Free Program- For Keyboarding/ Can Play Games to practice more./ This is a free interactive typing tutor program that features 30 online lessons.
Free High School General Resources
There are sites out there to provide you with various resources. They contain everything from learning to study, practice studying or doing research through documents. Use these resources to help your high schooler obtain the skills he needs to succeed.
45. DocsTEACH
The online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives.
46. Quizlet
Flashcards to Study/ Create or use Some Already Made (doublecheck for accuracy first).
47. Teach With Movies
Learn a Variety of Subjects through the Movies. Curriculum Free on Website.
48. Actuarial Foundation
Personal Finance, handling money, stocks, building wealth.
49. Anneberg Learner
Multi-media Resources on a Variety of Topics
50. Compass Classroom
Some products and books are free on the resource page.
51. HippoCampus.org
Thousands of free videos in 13 major areas such as Math, Science, History, and Humanities
52. Homeschool Buyer Co-Op
Free Resources for a Variety of Topics/ Includes Virtual Field Trips.
53. OER Commons
This site provides you as the Educator with Educational resources/plans.
54. Study.com
Not Sure the Cost as the cheapest price found online is roughly $60. I chose to include it because I know so many families who use this resource for a lot of their curricula. They use it for a full curriculum or to supplement unit studies or another program their student is completing.
55. Varsity Tutors
Large Group Classes are Free (Changes all the time). Upgrade to Standard Class 20-30 Students for VT+ Membership, Small Classes is under 10 Students and You Pay an Hour Rate (Hours per Class Vary.). They do also offer 1:1 tutoring, summer camps online and many more features. Some are free and others they now charge for. During the height of the Pandemic, almost everything except their 1:1 tutoring services was free. I still find that they are a great resource. I had to include it for your knowledge- and especially since they do still offer large classes for free along with a study dashboard.
Overview and Free High School Local Resources
Do not forget about your local resources. The biggest one is your local and state libraries. Consider asking for museum or zoo memberships as presents from family members. (Contact museums, etc as many offer homeschoolers free admission either all the time or on certain days). Free Streaming Servies and YouTube can be great resources where instructors record a variety of topics and place them online. Recently, I found one that followed a full high school math book and provided a lecture on every chapter in the book. It was a lifesaver.
Quality NOT Busy Work
These high school years are very important. You are helping your student complete work to prepare a transcript that will help him get into a program that leads to a career of his choice. This could be going to a full college or university, going into a program at a community college to learn a trade, or out into the world. You want to make sure you are providing the best possible education for each individual student. Don’t just use a website because it is free. Make sure that the site has something to offer that is a benefit to that student.
Other Posts You May Like:
Do You Know of Other Resources?
As of the published date, these are the resources I have at this time. I have either already used them or plan to use them in the coming year. If you know of other resources you feel would help other homeschool families, please send me their names and website info through the comments.
