In many states, parents enroll their children in free online public school-type programs, such as K12, which is free and provides all textbooks, materials and a loaner computer. Teachers provide support to parents, who teach their children at home. This approach tends to be more structured than the home school in which the parent designs and supervises all of the child's education.
The website Homeschool Freebie of the Day provides a free item every weekday, Monday through Friday, throughout most of the year. Many of these are classic books from more than 50 years ago, and parents can download and print all resources that they select. CurrClick's site offers a new free item once per week, as well as archives of free items in many topic areas. These items are electronic files that users can download.
When you sign up for a free subscription to the e-newsletter ClickSchooling, you receive an email every Monday through Saturday containing an online link to an educational website, and once a week there is a link to a free online field trip. Countless websites, such as abcteach.com and Homeschool.com, provide free worksheets and educational activities. An abundance of sites for places like museums and historical spots have sites containing highly educational and free information. Chances are, if you want to learn about something in your home school, there is a site that will help you do that for free.
For parents looking for a full free home school curriculum, the Ambleside Online website offers a no-cost curriculum guide, as well as studies and a list of books to use during a child's education. At the Old Fashioned Education website, parents find a full curriculum using texts that are close to 100 years old or older, and that they retrieve online. The Project Gutenberg site can be an excellent place to obtain free downloadable books that support these programs.
Libraries are excellent free resources for free home school resources. Local public, community college and university libraries are prime spots for obtaining materials, such as books, magazines, audio CDs and educational videos. While at the library, check out the book "Homeschool Your Child for Free: More Than 1,400 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Educating Your Family at Home." Public libraries also often offer excellent free educational programs for children, such as story times, classes, clubs, musical events and drama performances.
Your local area likely offers excellent options that you can incorporate into your home school for free. In many communities, public schools offer free enrichment classes and activities for children who home school. Science, history, art and nature museums, as well as botanical gardens and zoos, often feature free admission on certain days. Many of these organizations also provide activities specifically for home schoolers. Check your local newspapers and with your home school group to find out about free activities that are enjoyable and educational. Also consider free activities that may not be in your own town but are a short distance away. Parks, nature preserves, trails and state parks are ideal spots for free learning, too.