The Quick Guide to Building a Home Education That Rivals Government Schools

(No Cost, No Stress, Just Results!)

🚀 Why Home Education?

The U.S. education system is falling behind. Test scores are dropping, teachers are leaving, and bureaucracy is winning over students. But here’s the good news: you don’t have to wait for the system to fix itself.

With the right tools, you can build a home education that’s more effective, engaging, and personalized—without spending a dime. This guide walks you through five essential (and free!) resources used by top-performing students worldwide.

✅ No research required – Just plug and play.
✅ No expensive curriculum – These tools are free!
✅ No complicated setup – Get started today.

📌 Step 1: The Five Essential Free Tools

(These resources cover core subjects and go beyond what most schools offer!)

1️⃣ NewsELA – Learn Through Real-World News

🔹 Best for: Reading comprehension, critical thinking
🔹 How it works: NewsELA adapts real-world news articles to different reading levels, making it easy for kids to learn about current events, history, and science.
🔹 Why it’s powerful: Unlike textbooks, which are outdated before they even hit the shelves, NewsELA keeps learning relevant.

👉 Get started: www.newsela.com

2️⃣ Khan Academy – The Ultimate Free Tutor

🔹 Best for: Math, science, history, test prep
🔹 How it works: Students learn through expert-taught video lessons and practice problems that adjust to their skill level.
🔹 Why it’s powerful: It’s like having a private tutor—for free!

👉 Get started: www.khanacademy.org

3️⃣ Modern States – Earn Free College Credit

🔹 Best for: High schoolers & advanced learners
🔹 How it works: Provides full, free courses to prepare students for CLEP exams, which many colleges accept for credit.
🔹 Why it’s powerful: Your child could start earning college credits today—at no cost.

👉 Get started: www.modernstates.org

4️⃣ Your Local Library – The Secret of Self-Taught Geniuses

🔹 Best for: Self-directed learning, reading, research
🔹 How it works: Libraries provide thousands of free books, audiobooks, and online courses.
🔹 Why it’s powerful: Some of history’s greatest minds—Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, and Elon Musk—were self-taught using books.

👉 Action Step: Visit your local library or check their digital resources!

5️⃣ Prodigy – A Math Game Kids Actually Want to Play

🔹 Best for: Math fluency, problem-solving
🔹 How it works: Prodigy turns math into a fun, role-playing game, where kids solve problems to level up.
🔹 Why it’s powerful: Kids love it, and it secretly makes them better at math.

👉 Get started: www.prodigygame.com

📌 Step 2: Creating Your Home Education Plan

Now that you have the tools, here’s how to structure a powerful home education program.

📅 Daily Schedule (Flexible & Effective!)

Using these resources, you can accomplish as much as a full day's worth of government school learning in just two hours. Build the day that works for you!

✅ Key Tip: Follow your child’s interests! The more engaged they are, the more they’ll learn.

📌 Step 3: Socialization & Enrichment

One of the biggest misconceptions about home education is that kids will be isolated. Here’s how to ensure they stay socially and academically engaged:

🔹 Join Homeschool Groups: Many local and online groups offer meetups, field trips, and co-ops.
🔹 Extracurricular Activities: Sports, music lessons, coding clubs, and art classes keep kids connected.
🔹 Community Engagement: Volunteering, internships, and apprenticeships provide real-world experience.

📌 Step 4: How to Track Progress Without the Bureaucracy

Traditional schools rely on standardized tests. But at home, you can use better methods to measure real learning.

✅ Portfolio: Keep samples of writing, projects, and creative work.
✅ Progress Logs: Track subjects studied, skills mastered, and milestones achieved.
✅ Real-World Application: If your child can teach it, they truly understand it!

💡 Remember: Learning isn’t about memorizing facts for a test—it’s about mastering skills for life.

🎯 Final Thoughts: You Have Everything You Need!

By using these five free tools and structuring a flexible, engaging learning experience, you can build an education at home that rivals (or even surpasses) government schools.

📌 Which resource are you most excited to try? Let us know in the comments below!

👉 Want more step-by-step guidance? Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more homeschool strategies and free education tools!

🚀 The future of education is in your hands. Let’s make it better!

Inspire Creativity with a Photo Scavenger Hunt

Rejuvenate from the week

Often, a week in school can zap you.  The sterile rooms, the uniform classrooms, and the fluorescent lights pull all the energy out of our children.  It’s no wonder they just want to veg out in front of the screen when they get home.

The best solution for this zapped energy costs nothing.  The remedy is a day of surprise and mystery.  We can manufacture that adventure with a photo scavenger hunt.  With just a little bit of inspiration, most children will be excited to explore our beautiful city of Greenville.

By surprising your children with a list of items to find, they will be primed for adventure.  Mystery will engross them as they imagine what they will find, where they will find the results, and if they will find them all.

Make your Own Photo Hunt

Think about an area you enjoy walking with your family.  Maybe it’s in the neighborhood, maybe it’s a park, a school, or shopping center.  Identify 3 to 5 unique landmarks on your walk.  Write down your landmarks or make a little sketch of them on a piece of paper.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, just good enough to surprise your children and spark the mystery of what they will find.

Take your family out and about in Greenville, snapping photos of your children with each of the landmarks.  Give yourself bonus points if you can give general landmarks that have multiple opportunities to be found.

Main Street Greenville Photo Hunt

You could save this little photo hunt on your phone or print it out.  Use it as an easy inspiration to get out and about on Main St.  Each of the landmarks can be found in multiple locations, there are lots of possible answers.

Let's talk about video games

Video games open the door to countless learning opportunities.  Children are naturally curious and want to learn about things.  Video games do a phenomenal job of keeping children engaged and providing immediate feedback.  They often spark interests for our children to explore.

My son was playing the video game Subnautica last night before dinner.  He was proudly telling us about how he had crafted a new submarine, much larger than our apartment, that was named The Cyclops.  During our discussion we dove into the Latin roots of the word - “round and eye” like cycle and optometrist - and then busted out Edith Hamilton's Mythology to read about the Cyclops Polyphemus.  Our conversation meandered into Homer and his epics, how stories are passed down through time, and then back to why the submarine might have been named The Cyclops.  We could have dismissed him at the beginning, by saying leave the video game talk to kids, but instead we explored it.  Many seeds of interest were planted in a short amount of time by simply talking about a video game during dinner.

Unlike consuming entertainment such as movies, cartoons, and youtube; video games are interactive.  Children have to put thought into the video game and make decisions as they play.  They have to solve problems and overcome obstacles.  Rather than simply consuming, a video game requires thought, planning, strategy, and input.

Many parents unnecessarily see video games as a waste of time.  They wish their child would do something else, but do not offer up anything more exciting than the screen.  I encourage you to embrace video games as a worthwhile use of time.  

Use the following talking points to connect with your child and add more value to their video gaming interest.

*Keep an eye out on the answer to this question.  Hopefully it’s about the fun, playing with friends, learning a new skill, or accomplishing a goal.  Be on the lookout for gaming as an escape from reality or better than the real world.  That response could indicate an increased tendency towards depression or isolation.

Healthy gaming is a productive use of your child’s time.  They are spending time with a hobby that entertains them and can generate interest in a huge number of activities away from a screen.

Books to read on the topic:

Cover Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash