In the past, children have studied at home and succeeded in life. And even today, there are many parents who opt for homeschooling, just because not only does it create an excellent bonding with their child, but it also helps them evaluate their child’s level of competencies.
However, with the emergence of technology and the internet, online homeschooling programs have opened the doors for those who are looking for something other than traditional public and private schools. There are a large number of such online homeschooling programs available today, and we’ve selected some of the most popular ones of all time.
Each of these programs has careful structures so that it makes a great program for homeschoolers’ parents. You do not need to worry about the agenda as it all comes with a wide range of different courses, lesson plans, and of course and online tools. Those help parents to get started in an organized manner.
Table of Contents
Best Online Homeschool Programs
So, are you ready to look at some of the best online homeschool programs? Let’s get started!
Abeka: Bible Based Homeschool Curriculum
Abeka began as a private Christian school in the year 1954. It grew out of the need for suitable, faith-based textbooks. Interestingly enough, the founders of Abeka wrote and published their own materials, leading to form their private publishing company. Furthermore, they started their own homeschooling program, too.
Today, this school retains the best Christian values and traditional academic approach of the founders. The school proclaims their mission to the development and success of every student, not only in terms of academics but also spiritually and morally.
Abeka is extremely thorough in case of homeschooling. In fact, it’s one of the most Googled homeschooling curriculums over the internet right now. That’s because reviewers say that it’s a rigid school-at-home model for those who prefer homeschooling.
A rigid, yet lenient homeschooling for your child, you have it all at Abeka. It’s a more classical homeschooling model to raise your child just the right way you want.
Abeka offers two courses to the fellow students: the independent study and the accredited program. Both of these options come with books, testing materials, video lessons, but the accredited program has a little more benefit attached to it.
The accredited program has free standardised testing, tracking of an academic program, an academic program designed towards college and the best of all, a diploma. The program has the flexibility to choose the options of a single course as well as group courses.
One best thing about learning with Abeka is their video lessons. For courses from K4 to 12th grade, there’s a series of pre-recorded, professionally taught classes available. Parents are free to use the videos as part of their child’s study. Or some parents may even choose to select only some videos for use.
Whatever is the case, Abeka’s materials and mode of instructions are no less than any traditional school or private tutoring. If you’re a Christian family, who are looking for something related to as such, go for it! Abeka won’t let you down.
Time 4 Learning: Online Curriculum Provider
A successful homeschool curriculum is not just about math, science, literature and language at home; instead, it’s an interesting and exciting environment with interactive and animated lesson experiences.
And how can you incorporate both of that in homeschooling? Well, Time 4 Learning has it all!
This online curriculum provider serves all grades, starting from preschool to high school, it’s a great package. Today, it’s in the top 100 education websites ever since 2009. Thanks to the personalised education approach that an average student or someone with learning weaknesses could easily accommodate himself to.
In a word, this program is unique. Whether it’s used for homeschooling or for remedial or advanced schooling school, it works just fine.
The best part about this learning system is the payment method. It’s on a monthly basis. So, if you feel that it’s the holiday season, you can skip paying for that month as a means for holidays and continue the course from the next month.
Furthermore, parents get full control over their child’s curricula and access to their learning overview progress, transcripts and grade reports. Additionally, Time 4 Learning offers a detailed and comprehensive lesson plan that involves the use of different media.
It could be online, offline or printable work; whichever method it is, the program ensures that your child is having a fun time. And of course, in the case of online works, the grading system is fully automatic.
Time 4 Learning gives the independence to its scholars during the learning process, as the program believes that one should learn at their own pace, rather than being forced. However, the time stamping system on the activities makes it easy for you to keep a track on the attendance and learning progress.
All in all, Time 4 Learning is a great education partner, especially if you’re educating more than one child at home through homeschooling. Give it a shot!
BJU Homeschooling: Online Christian Education
Do you want to do all the teaching by yourself, but are looking for textbooks and materials to work it all out? Look no further as the BJU Homeschooling comes with all of it; lesson plans, activity ideas along with excellent teaching tips.
The BJU Homeschooling derived from a publishing company established by the faculty of Bob Jones University. It’s a very well plotted and well-organised educational homeschool that you’ll find online that ponders from a Bible-based perspective.
The main aim of BJU Homeschooling is to remove the complexity of education and provide a quality Christian education. And that it does by its offering organisational features.
You, as the parent, will have complete access to a detailed online dashboard to track your child’s grades and assignments from anywhere you want. However, the tests and quizzes are graded automatically by the system, so you need not worry.
The program itself lays out the assignments in daily lesson plans for which it is simple for the student to work it out. It’s quite flexible too. It allows for movement among three different grades for remedial and advanced learning.
With the use of online video classes as well as physical textbooks, the blended learning system is so much productive. What’s more is that parents can even purchase kits to teach just one single subject or even an entire grade.
BJU Homeschooling is a great option for those who are looking for some extra supplements for their kids to support their current curricula.
IXL Learning: Homeschooling K thru 12
IXL Learning is an ideal homeschool that makes optimal use of technology-based learning. Centred around technology, this curriculum is specially designed to serve students from Kindergarten through Grade 12. On top of that, IXL is focused on incorporating the best and most advanced learning technology to its curricula.
The first-of-their-kind products developed by IXL Learning has now been used by millions of learners, be it children or adults. People rely on it because of how effective it is and how deeply it helps them solve the real-world challenges that they face around the planet.
At IXL Learning, they understand the challenges that people may face through learning by themselves and hence, the technology that they have upgraded to, it improves the self-learning itself.
The main focus of IXL Learning is on core subjects like math, science, language arts, Spanish and social studies. Therefore, it has all you need and will surely provide you with the most refined form of education.
In tune with that, this program is very adaptable. It conforms to every student’s learning level. The thoughtfully designed program greatly helps in adjusting a student’s learning path consistently.
Like the other homeschooling programs, this program also comes with the ability to evaluate the progress of your child. It provides a real-time analysis that enables you to keep an eye on your child’s strengths and weaknesses and thus critical competencies.
IXL Learning is full-on trying to innovate and develop new products and categories for a better learning experience. The innovation is all to reshape both the teaching and the learning process. Their possibilities are limitless!
With all the facilities included in the IXL Learning, the personalised education system is sure to build your child as a sharply focused and an attentive adult. Count on IXL Learning and make your education valuable!
Sonlight: Literature-Based Curriculum
Do you wish that your child would grow up to share the passion in literature, just like you? How about you enrol them in a literature-based curriculum from a young age? If that sounds like an idea, here’s what we have for all the literature enthusiasts out there.
The easy-to-use lesson plan along with the schedule and materials is something you must to love. Starting from preschool to High School, Sonlight has got a hold of everything that you need in order to succeed.
Sonlight is a fully literature-based curriculum that uses “read aloud” instead of textbooks to teach its students the love of learning rather than pursuing just fact-based means of education.
Sonlight is a scriptural Christian program, the curriculum of which develops from Biblical study and a Christian perspective. The aim of it is to cultivate students and help them grow up to become strong adults who are living to live the Christian lifestyle and proclaim the Christian message through whichever vocation or career they decide to pursue.
Nonetheless, the program thrives on ensuring that the students are well aware of and understands the broad range of cultural viewpoints that it entails.
Let’s highlight the fact that Sonlight literature-based curriculum is ideal for families with more than one child. History and literature are subjects that they could study conjointly, while math and language arts are to study individually. So, you see the difference?
In addition to that, you as the parent could involve, too. In fact, your involvement in the program is crucial. Although the program does come with comprehensive guides to the daily work that simplifies your labour work, some courses need access to the internet and DVD instruction. In that case, the pupil may need your help.
Experience education in the way you always wish you had received. Moreover, you save so much of your time and money while your child(ren) enjoys learning every bit of literature.
Monarch Online: Christian Homeschooling Program
Monarch Online Learning is all about learning with liberty. With the lesson plans available online for a student or even for the whole family, you will see why most parents and students enjoy using the Monarch Online Homeschool curriculum.
What’s so remarkable about this program is the complete customisation, automatic grading system and the host for other powerful features. Other than that, this is also another Christian homeschooling program.
Offering over 50 courses for students from 3rd grade through 12th grade, it comes with an array of different subjects. Science, history, geography, math, language arts and not to forget about the Bible. Besides all these subjects, there are several elective subjects available in order to encourage specialisation and enrichment for your child.
Monarch Online provides the benefit of learning with over 50,000 multimedia elements. So, now you can immerse your child in a multi-dimensional and enriching educational experience, which includes challenging games, video clips, audio files, interactive exercises and so on. And all of that is possible through a Christian pedagogy.
Furthermore, let us underscore the distinctive characteristics of the program that it is totally adaptable. To break it down, parents have complete access to their child’s assignments and schedules and can even tailor it to meet both of your individual needs. Also, you can even customise the grade level of each course accordingly.
If your child is not reading textbooks, then the good news is that this program doesn’t involve any textbooks. As a substitute, it relies entirely on online materials, which by the way, update routinely as necessary.
Apart from the online automatic grading system and a well-organised record-keeping, the program also allows for the creation of transcripts and grade reports. Thanks to the well-structured system that makes homeschooling so much simpler for any parent.
Easy Peasy: Preschool Homeschooling Thru High School
As the name suggests, this program is Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy! Not literally, but yes, with the aim of making homeschooling available for every family, Easy Peasy caters for homeschooling for preschool children through high school.
The user-friendly program helps parents to administer their child with an education. Easy Peasy has made arrangements in such a way that it corresponds to grades from subject to subject. So, you can easily vary your child’s specific level.
You don’t necessarily need to plan anything if you’re using this program as everything has already been organized. All you need to do is facilitate the grading, out of which the answers are already provided. The program also comes with daily lesson plans, a direction to how it needs to be worked on, enabling independent work.
For the Christian-based Easy Peasy homeschooling program, it has already been divided into two sites: one for the preschool through 8th grade and the other one for high schoolers. It offers a complete range of subjects for elementary schoolers, middle schoolers, and a wide variety of college-oriented courses for high schoolers.
The student only needs a computer to start with the studies. No additional books, papers, or supplies are mandatory. Instructions are provided online, and the materials are available through the site.
However, if you are really keen about going the extra mile for your child, you, yourself buy the printouts of the materials just to convert the program to an offline version. But that’s only if you want.
For those who are accommodating homeschool as for the first time, this program is highly recommended. Why?
Well, that’s because there are no fees included. The site is exceptionally resourceful and includes external links to certain courses that are available for free from other providers.
Needless to say, this program is effective and efficient that keeps homeschooling simple and purposeful for everyone in the family. Again, a first-timer, you could give it a shot!
School house teachers : Online Homeschool Classes for Everyone
For those who don’t know, SchoolhouseTeachers.com originated from the magazine The Old Schoolhouse®. The program is fully based on Bible beliefs and directed toward Christian values. For those of you who are searching for quality Christian curriculum, here’s something for you.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com is relatively new, as they have been operating since the 2012. From preschool through high school, it has got an array of online homeschool curriculum available.
Something to highlight about SchoolhouseTeachers.com is their rates. They charge you based on per family, rather than per student by the year or the month. We believe that this is very flexible and cost-effective too.
Believe it or not, there are more than 380 online homeschool courses available on this site, which quite well-suit for most students. That’s actually a lot of courses. With that, you can even use it as supplementary material or after-school work as an extra.
The program doesn’t require any textbooks and all the instructions are provided through eBooks, downloadable lessons, videos or other media. With much flexibility, students are free to make use of the materials and advance as slowly or rapid as they wish.
If you’re the type of parent who’s looking to keep everything under your control, this could be an ideal. That’s because, with this program, you do have all the control and the pacing is totally in your hands. There are no deadlines or schedules, so you do have all the control to the pace with whatever style your child or family needs.
To say one more thing, it’s a great learning tool for children with special needs or who are differently abled as there are no preset benchmarks that need to be met.
Did we mention about the video library that it has with over 450 titles, ranging from fun animated special videos for children to educational documentaries? You and your child, both can enjoy watching American History as well as From Aardvark to Zucchini at one platform. You can even incorporate the videos as part of their courses.
Nonetheless, SchoolhouseTeachers.com is very resourceful and an excellent way to carry out homeschooling. With the different types of videos, eBooks and library full of courses, it is sure to enrich the next generation as well as prepare families to stand firm for God.
Khan Academy
What’s your thought on having a teacher for your child who has three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard? Sounds impossible? Well, might be, but here’s something we have from some who have pursued those degrees and even initiated a homeschool for your child(ren).
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s read about Sal Khan have in store for us in the form of a homeschool.
Before we dig more into it, know that Khan Academy is completely free. You must be wondering that this guy must be crazy! Well, as for someone who has spent so much on his own education, this is pretty amazing.
We all know that mathematics is known as the “spawn of Satan” in the world of homeschooling. If your friendship with mathematics is not so good, yet you look forward to homeschool your child, leave it to Khan Academy.
After spending hours on the examples over the textbook, it just doesn’t help at times. However, this is not just about homeschooling, many public-school teachers are unable to click math with their pupils.
Even Salman Khan’s cousin was having the same problem. That’s when Sal came up with the idea of creating Khan Academy to solve his cousin’s problem.
Khan Academy has taken the world of homeschooling by storm. You can use the site as a stand-alone or refer to it when you think that your child needs extra care, particularly with math. The videos are extremely interesting and easy to understand; short and precise. An average video is only about 10 – 12 minutes and is fully packed with what you need to know.
The fact that the website makes education so much fun, especially for kids is an added bonus. With energy points, avatars and badges as a spark of motivation, your kid will look forward to his or her time on Khan Academy.
Offering about 40 different subjects, apart from mathematics and 1300 instructional videos, this homeschool prepares you just nearly well for college admissions.
TED-Ed
Now, we all know how influential TED Talks are. But we’ve probably never thought of it as a homeschooling material. Since all this while we have not, how about giving it a thought about it now? After all, TED Talks are way better than some regular homework, which could become boring and monotonous.
TED; full form being Technology, Entertainment and Design, has been an outstanding platform, whereby experts spread their ideas to help others embark on a particular field. It’s no surprise that TED has mastered over various topics, which can now be successfully used for homeschooling, too.
TED-Ed, founded in 2012 is a youth educational initiative, the mission of which is to spark and celebrate ideas of both teachers and students around the globe. Whatever we do in today’s world supports learning. And another enterprise by TED with a global network of more than 250,000 teachers has made learning so much easier for students today.
Over the years, TED-Ed has rapidly grown as an “idea worth spreading” platform into an award-winning learning platform. It has been serving millions of teachers and students around the world every day. Many teachers from public and private schools, even in universities, have been using TED-Ed videos as educational material.
The animation video is their signature content, that is specifically interesting for young children. There’s no doubt on how the creative collaboration with the experts has embarked students’ minds.
Talking about the speakers, of course, they are all educators, journalists, designers, animators, directors, science writers, historians and so on. Indeed, their talks are all resourceful along with the questions from the audience, it’s a hit!
If you’re looking for a variety of topics, instead of just sticking to one, there’s no better alternative than TED-Ed. An excellent resource for any child or even adults to learn about anything and everything.
Things You Need to Know Before Enrolling for Online Homeschooling Classes
Everyone is unique, and so is their learning habit. No matter how different you are or how old you are, incorporating technology into your learning process will significantly enrich it. After all, you will be using computers at your workplace, college and in many different aspects of your daily life.
For this reason, online homeschooling is not that bad of an idea! Not only does it relieve you from boredom, but it also prepares you for the future. Online homeschooling helps any student of any age focus, make the most out of their time and provides constructive feedback as well!
However, we would like to share some things with you before you dive into your decision about online homeschooling:
Online Homeschooling could be distracting:
There’s no doubt on how great computers are but have you ever thought about how distracting it is? While you can uncover some valuable study materials with just a few touches or clicks, you can even end up on social media or other video-sharing websites. You can never really realise how a 10 minutes break from online homeschooling could lead to hours of spending on unnecessary websites. If you are seriously considering to pursue online homeschooling, we would recommend you to block sites that are likely to distract you and make you lose your valuable time. For instance, set a goal to finish an online task and then take ten minutes break. Set the alarm, and then when time’s up, it’s also time for you to get back into school.
Online Learning is All About Dedication and a lot of Focus:
Online learning requires plenty of attention, focus and dedication. It’s not about just staring at the screen for hours, and that’s it. If anyone’s ever told you that online homeschooling is all fun and games just because you don’t have to read as much and maintain a routine every single day, don’t get tricked into their words. It needs more attention than textbook courses do. Just because you are learning online, it doesn’t mean that you won’t need to input your cognition. Do take note of every material you go through and study them thoroughly when you’re done with the class. Remember there are tests?
Save Your Progress:
No matter what of a brilliant student you are, if you don’t save your work, there’s no evidence to prove that. The last thing you would ever want to do is re-do your homework. Keeping saving your work as you write; don’t wait till you finish it. Make sure you are fully aware of how you can submit your assignments online and ask any questions (if you have any). Choose a program that you feel are most comfortable with and the one that you can make the most out of.
Online homeschooling is pretty challenging:
Many homeschoolers have claimed that online classes do not promote real-time learning. In reality, it’s not true at all. The truth that statistics have shown us is that online homeschoolers score high on their SAT and ACT exams. If you are confident that you can learn all by yourself and that you are ready to take in any challenge, go for an online homeschooling class. Keep it in mind to choose the right one. Not all online homeschooling programs are challenging. Experts always recommend choosing a program that is accredited and has a good reputation just so you get the best!
Tips to Get Started with Online Homeschooling
Speaking of homeschooling, it always concerns kids – what they are learning, how they are learning and if they are learning the right things – but more often than not, the first five years of homeschooling actually depends on the parents.
Wait, what? Yes, that’s what.
Since it was your decision to homeschool your child, you are definitely going to face challenges. But fret not! We’ve come up with a handful of tips for you to get started on:
Find out about the legalities:
Just as you would check whether the private school that you’re going to send your child to is legal or not, similarly, there are 50 different state laws that you as the parent should know about. Almost all the state in the US does allow parents to homeschool their child, but some state, e.g. California, mandates parents to send their child to private schools. If you’re not too sure about the jurisdiction in your country, it’s best to contact the homeschool association in your state.
Decide on the Approach:
This is by far the most significant advantage of homeschooling. You can decide and determine what and how your child will learn. Are you looking to create a traditional school environment at the ease of your home? If that’s the case, a structured curriculum approach would be ideal. You have an array of options like the Christian Homeschooling curricula or the Western Literature curricula that you could choose from.
Get in touch with Your Local Homeschool Community:
Homeschooling alone could bring in more challenges and make you feel that you are the only one sitting in an empty room. Therefore, go outside and seek support. How about homeschooling co-ops? You and some other parents in your neighborhood can trade expertise and crop up in different subjects. In that way, learning would be so much fun for your child.
Be Patient:
If it takes a little longer for you to get adjusted to the homeschooling atmosphere, fret not. Typically, it takes about a year and a half for parents to groove the art of homeschooling, but once you master it, you are going to hit the ground! Hence, it is extremely important for you to be patient with yourself as well as your child. It’s okay to explore different areas of the field, and it’s also okay if your child doesn’t seem to understand a particular topic. Keep trying and push their boundaries little by little and you will find the difference. And while you juggle both your parent and teacher responsibilities, make sure to keep things in a perspective. Homeschooling should be enjoyable for your child as well as for you. Do not ignore the sports for homeschoolers.
Hidden Benefits of Best Online Homeschool Programs
Now that you have scrolled up to here, it means that whatever we have discussed above was not convincing enough. And that you need more explanation as to why you should choose an online homeschooling program for your child, or even your family as a whole.
Explore some of the benefits that we have listed:
Best Online Homeschool Programs help your child to focus:
Really? How?
In today’s world, it’s not surprising if you get criticisms from your child’s school regarding them having problems in focusing in their classroom. The teacher might even label your child as unruly or unintelligent – without addressing the real issue that some students might feel constrained or demotivated in a classroom environment.
In that case, you need to help your child. To do so, you can adopt one of the online homeschooling programs and control the number of distractions that your child may face. By doing so, there are no more of other students cracking jokes or the teaching explaining a subject that your child already understands. Instead, online homeschooling program gives the freedom to your child to choose the subject that they are interested in and subjects in which they need intensive care.
You can customise the curriculum:
Traditional school don’t always cater to what your child craves for learning. But in case of online homeschooling, if your child is struggling with algebra, they can take as many breaks as they want in order to alleviate their frustration. Do they want to become a writer? Encourage their passion with additional work in the field they are interested in.
Best Online Homeschool Programs save a lot of time:
Travelling to and from school is very time and energy consuming. The travel time creates a lot of frustration in your child and diminishes their desire to learn something extra. Thanks to the online homeschooling program that makes learning so flexible and advantageous. The automatic grading system, self-guidance and interesting learning lessons are just perfections.
Online homeschooling helps your child graduate easily:
This is possible when you choose an accredited institution that meets the national requirements for graduation. A standard quality online homeschooling program helps to ensure your child’s success by offering certified teachers, eBooks, online activities and study tips.
Of course, there is no end to the benefits of online homeschooling, but it is you who needs to make sure that your child is actually learning from homeschool, rather than just passing their time doing other stuff on the computer.
Kids are kids! They will always look for opportunities to skip their tests and look for ways to maximise their playtime. There are millions of families who have benefitted from the online homeschooling program and perhaps you would, too.
Final words
Our suggestion will be if you are looking to build your child as an independent and responsible adult, try out online homeschooling. Remember one thing, once you start, there’s always an option for you to quit if you feel that it won’t work out for your family or your home environment.
Although online homeschooling is not for every family, many families have still adopted it in different circumstances that life puts them through. And of course, they have greatly benefitted from homeschooling too.
So, what are your thoughts? Are you seriously planning on implementing online homeschooling? Do you need further guidance? Let us know in the comments below.
Lastly, don’t forget to let us know which ones your favorite and best online homeschool programs.
Happy Learning! Happy homeschooling!