I am a curriculum junkie. There’s no shame to my game ;)

I wrote a post about homeschooling for free a long while ago. Some links are now outdated so I’ll be revisiting and reposting these resources over the next few days.

Today, early reading… because my youngest, Peep, has turned 4 and has officially joined the student body.

EARLY READING

• Starfall – the first level of this programme was good for letter recognition and sounds, but oh my goodness… the crazy and corny songs! Peep sang “Va-va-va-va-VAN… Va-va-va-va- VAN…” for DAYS. You best be warned.
• Progressive Phonics – very simple, straight forward programme… and very effective too! There are also free writing worksheets.
• Word Mastery – a course in phonics for the first three grades
• Reading Bear
• Blend Phonics:
  • Alphabet Flash Cards
  • Blend Phonics Pre-Primer
  • Reading Made Easy With Blend Phonics
  • Blend Phonics Reader – to be used after a unit is taught in Reading Made Easy With Blend Phonics
  • Blend Phonics Decodable Storybooks
• Stairway to Reading
• Teach the World to Read – Not free now but at $49 for some 60 booklets + guides, it’s a steal. The site offers the programme for free to children in under-privileged communities.
• Reading A to Z – They had an open house and made their books free once upon a time. I don’t think I will be welcome at any other open houses they will have in future.

My kids and I have been blessed with really wonderful homeschooling resources, alhamdulillah. My husband has always been supportive and hardly ever questions my purchases. *grin* A fellow homeschooler in Singapore also ran an online store and ordered all sorts of books and curricula which helped me save on what would have been exorbitant shipping charges. Best of all, I live close to a library in Singapore and in Pakistan, am able to find loads of books going for a song at the second-hand bookstores.

I’ve often wondered what would happen if I weren’t able to afford books and curriculum packages. It’s made me a bit of a hoarder, I admit! Everytime I find study materials or curricula for free, I download and save… just in case! I still prefer to have my books on hand – it is so much more convenient than having to research, save, print and bind material myself, but it is good to know that it IS possible to homeschool for free if one is strapped for cash.

So here’s my list of free resources:

FULL CURRICULUM SITES

• Preschool by Stormie
• Umm Maimoonah’s Islamic Preschool Curriculum
• Lesson Pathways, Grades K-5
• CK-12 Foundation’s Flexbooks – free digital textbooks for Grades K-12
• Head of the Class – Grades K-5

ENGLISH

• Progressive Phonics
• Word Mastery
• Starfall
• Reading A to Z – OK, this is not exactly for free but when they had an open house and made their materials free, I downloaded them all so I got a good reading programme for my younger daughter for free! (NEVER underestimate a cheapskate mom LOL!)
• Houghton-Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary, Grades 1 to 6
• Home Spelling Practice and Spelling Worksheets (Grades K-8)
• Grammarland with worksheets from Jessica Cain
• Daily Grammar

MATH

• First Lessons in Arithmetic
• CIMT’s Mathematics Enhancement Programme (Reception to Secondary level)
• Comprehensive School Mathematics Program Preservation Project (K to 6)
• Dad’s Worksheets
• Khan Academy

SCIENCE

• Life Science Curriculum by The Lab of Mr Q – free textbook and teacher’s manual for 36-week programme
• Islamic Earth Science Curriculum by River City Homeschoolers
• Six-Week Summer Session Nature Study by River City Homeschoolers
• MSNucleus – K-12
• FOSSWeb – K-Middle School
• JASON
• Pearson – Prentice Hall Science Explorer: Life, Earth, and Physical Science
• Chem4Kids
• Biology4Kids
• Cosmos4Kids
• Physics4Kids
• Khan Academy

ARABIC

• Arabic Studies Course by Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University
• Palestinian School Textbooks
• Madinah Arabic Programme
• Arabic Study Circle
• Teaching Arabic for non-Arabic Speakers
• Arabic Comes First
• Digital Hamza – learn to read Arabic
• Printable Arabic Learning Materials by Umm Sadiqah wa Asma

GEOGRAPHY

• Home Geography by CC Long
• Elementary Geography by Charlotte Mason
• RADER’S Geography 4 Kids

HISTORY

• School History

Back when Mars was learning to read, I stumbled upon Progressive Phonics. It was free but not all the reading books had been uploaded. I was a little disappointed when the books later had to be paid for but I am happy to report that Progressive Phonics is back to being 100% FREE again! Woo hoo!

Been a bad week and I need to recoup so see you folks next week in shaa Allah :)