Khan Academy: The Ultimate Free Homeschool Curriculum for Budget-Savvy Families

Homeschooling on a budget is kind of like grocery shopping for a picky eater. You want quality ingredients, but need flexibility, and you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on the bill. Sound about right? You’re totally not alone! There are so many homeschool parents out there in a similar situation of wanting a quality online learning experience for our kids without the pressure of a pricey subscription or membership.

I totally believe that a quality homeschool education should not cost a fortune. After all, many of us are still paying school taxes and do not have access to homeschooling scholarships (or simply choose not to accept a state scholarship). Life is already expensive enough and we shouldn’t have to decide whether to homeschool our kids or put food on the table.

In my time as a homeschool mom, I have checked out a number of free online homeschool curriculum options. While there are many free options out there, I’ve had a heck of a time finding one that checks all the boxes:

• multi-subject: many free homeschool options will only provide instruction in one subject and I would much rather have access to a program that provides ALL of them. I can only remember so many usernames and passwords, you know?
• ease of use: many free online homeschool curriculum options will share all the content in an organized manner, like a spreadsheet or whatnot, but then the users have to click onto various other websites to complete the work. I already have a million tabs open and don’t need to chaos of clicking through more to complete a lesson.
• quality: anyone can create a curriculum these days, but I especially appreciate when my kids are able to learn content from the experts.
• pricing: again, a quality education is important, but it can be done without breaking the budget.

This is a sponsored post. I have received complimentary access to this product and have been compensated for my time reviewing the product and producing this review. This resource may contain affiliate links for said product. I have not been influenced in any way and my opinions on this product are my own.

You guys, the Khan Academy homeschool curriculum checks all the boxes and then some. My boys and I have been checking out Khan Academy’s completely online, completely free homeschool curriculum and…honestly? I’m impressed – we’ll definitely be including Khan Academy’s courses in our homeschool days more often.

Let’s chat a bit about what sets Khan Academy apart from the rest, shall we?

What Makes Khan Academy the Perfect Free Homeschool Curriculum

For starters, Khan Academy has been in operation nearly 20 years, so…they must be doing something right, right?! Sal Khan, founder & CEO of Khan Academy, created the non-profit online learning platform with the “mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anwhere.” Even a quick glance at the course selection – ranging from full curriculum in the core subjects to electives like Computing & Life Skills – will tell anyone that he’s achieved just that and more.

A 501c3 non-profit, Khan Academy was able to provide a free, online education to over 62 million online learners, across the world, in the 2024/2025 school year thanks to Sal Khan, his team, and company initiative supporters. Incredible!

What are the details that really makes Khan Academy the perfect free homeschool curriculum, though?

With courses created for grades 3 through 12 and beyond, Khan Academy is a massive learning platform filled with video lessons, interactive exercises, quizzes, and mastery checks.

What sets the Khan Academy homeschool experience apart is the focus on self-paced progress. Kids can rewatch a short video, try a practice set, click hints when stuck, then try again. This structure helps build a strong foundation in core subjects and ensures students are not rushed, and parents not stuck guessing where the gaps are.

@thathomeschoolfamily Khan Academy is a longstanding, free, trusted educational resource with a track record spanning nearly 20 years!! 100% free – no hidden fees, no subscriptions. Just quality educational material accessible whenever (and wherever) your schedule allows. Consider Khan Academy to be your Homeschool Toolkit! BTW…Get it? Dough? Moolah? 🤣 I'll be here with jokes all night thankyouverymuch #ad #khanacademy #homeschool #homeschooling #homeschoolmom ♬ original sound – Liz | That Homeschool Family

In addition, he Khan Academy library is huge! For young learners in grades 3-5, you’ll find early standards-aligned math and reading courses. From 6th grade on, though? You could totally use Khan Academy to provide a complete homeschool education by utilizing their courses like algebra, geometry, calculus, physics and history. There’s even SAT prep for the older students!

My favorite part? While I’m all for the core subjects, the former special education teacher in me absolutely loves that Khan Academy has included a number of courses that cover important lifelong skills like:

• Financial Literacy
• Internet Safety
• Social Media Literacy
• Growth Mindset (LOVE!)
• Careers
• Personal Finance
• Entrepreneurship (another LOVE!)
• Talks & Interviews (SO important!)

In short, some of my favorite features of the Khan Academy homeschool curriculum are:

• Short Video Lessons: Most of the videos are just a few minutes long, which helps kids focus and can reduce any frustration they may have.
• Practice Problems with Hints: Students get immediate feedback on their quizzes. Even more, the Khan Academy program provides explanations as to why the selected answer is correct or incorrect! I truly wish all online programs could offer this feature.
• Mastery-Based Learning: Unlike the spiral approach, mastery-based learning ensures students achieve a certain level of mastery before moving onto the next lesson.
• Free Parent Accounts: In case you haven’t noticed, I’m really loving that Khan Academy is completely free & accessible to anyone with access to internet service and a device. This is an incredible help for so many!

Plainly said, Khan Academy offers a quality, accessible option for an online education.

Our Experience with the Khan Academy Homeschool Curriculum

First off, I have to admit that I am completely amazed (and kind of annoyed) that it’s taken this long for me to try Khan Academy with my kids.

Honestly, I’ve tried other free curriculum options only to be completely disappointed in them. Some weren’t quality and were riddled with spelling errors (a pet peeve of mine – if you ever see a spelling error on my site or in my resources, please let me know!). Some required tedious steps to be taken in order to complete a lesson (no thank you) while others didn’t offer record-keeping capabilities…leaving me with yet another task on my daily to-do list.

You guys, I had been so disappointed in other free options that I guess I thought Khan Academy would be the same. I was completely wrong.

Setting up a free parent account was super easy. After filling out my information, I was given immediate access to the all of the Khan Academy curriculum offerings. The “Getting Started using Khan Academy as a Parent” page made it super easy to set up my dashboard and get my boys set up for success. (Definitely bookmark that link so you can refer back to it after you create your own account – it was a big help!)

To help get some experience with the Khan Academy platform for this review, my boys and I looked through the courses together and ultimately decided on taking their Constitution 101 course from their selection of Arts & Humanities courses. What made this course stand out from the others? A few things:

• the topic: both of my boys enjoy history lessons, but my youngest especially loves learning about United States history. The Constitution 101 seemed interesting, and important, especially given the current state of politics (another topic my youngest loves).
• the collaboration: the Constitution 101 course is one of many Khan Academy courses available that have been part of a collaboration with an outside expert source. In this case, the National Constitution Center, in Philadelphia, participated in the creation of the course. Given that we used to live about 20 minutes from the City of Brotherly Love, and we’ve visited the National Constitution Center (and a number of other historically relevant landmarks in Philadelphia) we couldn’t pass up this opportunity to virtually visit “home.”

The Constitution 101 course consists of 10 total units. Each unit has anywhere from 7-21 lessons and 2-5 quizzes spaced out in between those lessons. My favorite qualities of the course include:

• Accessible Videos: Most of the lessons included a short video and, as a person with hearing loss, I especially appreciated each video being accompanied by closed captions and a time-stamped transcript. My kids don’t have hearing loss, so they didn’t need to utilize such features, but I love that they’re available for any students that could benefit from them. In addition, the videos could be expanded to fit a full device screen, making it so students aren’t subject to distracting sidebars.

• Instant Feedback on Quizzes: My kids LOVED this feature. They’ve taken a number of other online quizzes and have been left in the dark as to why their incorrect answer was, well…incorrect. Not only does Khan Academy let students know if their quiz answer is correct or incorrect, but they also let students know why!

• Record Keeping: Khan Academy takes care of all the record-keeping for the parents! I know some homeschool parents don’t keep track of grades, but there are some states that require detailed record-keeping. This feature is such a huge help!

• Preview: I love that, as a parent, I’m able to preview all of the upcoming units and lessons. While the Constitution 101 course is already a complete course, it’s nice to have the option to supplement lessons with outside materials like books from the library.

• Quality Content: Khan Academy has gone above and beyond to include a number of content-area experts. Throughout the videos, my kids were able to view historical documents, images, and locations. This made the lessons way more memorable than “just” the “talking head” sort of instructional videos – my kids loved this feature. I also love that lessons included a combination of video & reading passages and not just one content format.

My kids still have a number of units left until they’ve completed the Constitution 101 course, but I’m happy to report they’re actually looking forward to continuing their lessons with Khan Academy. Sweet, right?

After this course is complete, I’m thinking we’ll start including some of the Life Skills & Computing classes next. I’m always game for including more instruction in life-long skills and both my boys are considering future careers in technology – this should work out nicely!

Including Khan Academy in your Homeschool Days

With the number of online courses available, you might as well consider Khan Academy to be your Homeschool Toolkit. Go ahead, pick and choose the courses for your kids to create their own custom education! Creating a Khan Academy is super easy – I definitely suggest getting your account set up now you so and the kids can take advantage of their free, online homeschool curriculum.

I, for one, will not be sleeping on the instructional options available through Khan Academy and can’t wait for my kids to take even more courses with them. Heck, maybe I’ll even take one myself!

Khan Academy definitely delivers high-quality learning opportunities without the typical price tag. Trusted by millions across the world, it provides a solid option for free online learning for homeschoolers across the world!

So, which Khan Academy courses will your kids be starting soon? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time, stay safe, & enjoy quality time with your family,