Having Trouble Homeschooling? These Online Programs Can Help

Turning living rooms into classrooms was most likely far from the minds of most parents when the spring semester began, yet many find themselves working from home AND homeschooling for the unforeseeable future. It can be a challenge to navigate how to be on Zoom meetings without screaming children in the background, feeding said children, and making sure they are all on track with their studies.

As we know, the most important thing is to keep our families healthy during this time, so we reached out to a few parents and educators to see which educational programs are helping keep their children and students on track. Many of these programs offer free trials and discounts to parents during this time.

Receiving over 30 awards and endorsements, Reading Eggs, is a tool to teach young children to read. It offers games, songs, and awards to motivate children to excel. There's also Reading Eggs Jr. for toddlers (2-4) and Mathseeds for arithmetic enrichment. There are three subscription options, but you can also do a 30 day free trial to get you started.

This non-profit resource is 100% free and offers daily schedules for all ages to help structure the weekday for both parents and students. The Khan Academy has substantial tools for advanced courses for such as pre-calculus, organic chemistry, AP macroeconomics, and prep courses for the SAT and GMAT. You can find detailed class breakdowns in almost any subject and, well, it's free!

This subscription-based animated program is offering free access during current school closures. Brain Pop has basic curriculum including math and science, but also includes engineering, tech, and coding, as well as current event topics to help kids manage these tough times.

Prodigy is an award-winning animated math enrichment game set in a fantasy world where students crate their own avatar to battle creatures with math games. Prodigy is free to play, and has a three levels of subscription for additional features.

Epic is an acclaimed digital library with over 40,000 award-winning fiction, non-fiction, and Spanish language books, DIY tutorials, and quizzes. Now that libraries are closed, Epic will help fill the gap when looking to find current releases and creative projects to keep children occupied and learning. They offer a 30 day free subscription when you sign up.