This post is for everyone who has recently found themselves homeschooling not by choice but by a school shutdown. Some school districts may have a developed plan for online courses for students to continue their education at home. However if this isn't the case for you or you are looking for ideas to cover or supplement your kids' education, look no further.
I have put together a list of what, in my opinion, are the best educational online courses / apps for your home education. As a family who has homeschooled two kids for the past 5 years, we usually find ourselves traveling more often than not. With that said, we don't really like to bring a suitcase full of school books. These are our go to online courses. I hope that you can benefit from them as well.
Acelus - This is your one stop shop for a full curriculum. It is an app that covers core subjects K-12 and includes extracurricular such as fine arts, coding, and social/emotional health. Children take a quick non-intimidating assessment for each subject to give them effective lessons. My kids have found the easy to follow lesson videos are engaging and just the right amount of time. It's a subscription based program and for $25 per month, you will not find a better deal on a solid whole subject curriculum.
Mystery Science - We have been using Mystery Science for the past 4 years. This is geared for grades k-6. They recently put up a website for all the school closures including free on-the- go science lessons that can be done any where. Their fun engaging lessons will hook your kids into learning and wanting to explore more. Doug, the host, covers an array of different topics. They have weekly mini-lessons that are structured on questions from kids around the world. Also they have unit studies that cover life, physical, and earth science with several lessons in each unit. Each lesson has a instructional video and there is an activity to supplement that which can normally be done with things found around the house. This by far is one of my kids' favorite activity to do.
News-o-matic - This app is an online newspaper for kids that covers current events. It is built for kids in grades 2-6. From political news, to sports stories, to scientific discoveries, your kids can read daily articles about what is happening in the world. There are about 4-5 stories each day and along with the article are pictures and a short video. It is so engaging and well done. My kids will normally read it without any prompting from me.
Outschool- This is your best shot at finding classes on specific interests. There is a crazy wide selection of classes to take for kids from k-12 grade. Some are a one time online class while other may meet for several months. The students meet online with a teacher and other students for a live class. Be sure to read the full description of the class and understand all of what it entails.
Bravewriter- Bravewriter offers a multitude of resources for bringing out your creative writers in grades k-12, but its online courses are the best of the best. They usually last 3-6 weeks and are facilitated by encouraging writing coaches. Each class offers to help bring out different elements of your child's writing and they are given "homework" to help them practice that skill.
Now that you have some resources, I hope you are encouraged with what you can do at home.