Sick of boring homeschool science textbooks and looking for something to freshen up your science curriculum? Today we’ll review the 10 best online homeschool science curriculum choices and decide which is the best program to get your homeschoolers excited about learning!
Contains Affiliate Links
Science Mom Online Homeschool Science Curriculum
First on our list is an online science program called Science Mom. Here you will find full online science courses in physics, biology, earth science, and chemistry. The earth science and chemistry courses are for kids in 4th and 5th grade, and the biology and physics courses are for the middle school level. Each course is self paced with over 40 lessons, including videos, printable worksheets and projects. The courses are secular and use an open and go design that requires minimal preparation and supervision.
Pricing on this site is by individual course. The earth science course is completely free, which is pretty awesome. The rest of the courses are priced between $50 and $205. There’s also a live physics course running now through May of 2024.
You can preview all of the courses to get a feel for how they’re set up and what the videos look like, which is important with an online homeschool science curriculum. They seem really simple to follow – just print out the course notes, start the video and go!
Generation Genius
Next on our list of online homeschool science curriculum choices is Generation Genius. This website offers lessons in science and math for kids in kindergarten through 8th grade. While these lessons are a favorite of teachers in schools, they can be used by families at home too. Just choose the classroom membership, and you’ll pay $225 per school year, although you’ll get a discount if you sign up mid year. You can try this out before you buy with access to 5 video lessons free with no credit card required.
In addition to the video lessons, you’ll also get discussion questions, vocabulary lists, additional reading materials, do it yourself activity guides, lesson plans, and more. The lessons are secular and aligned to state standards, so it’s a great choice if you’re concerned about meeting the standards for your state. You can pick your state and see exactly which standards are covered, which is pretty cool.
I really like the discussion questions and reading material so it can be an activity you can do together with your kids. It really seems to have absolutely everything you could want in a homeschool science program.
Journey Homeschool Academy
If you’re looking for a homeschool science curriculum with a Christian worldview, you might want to look into Journey Homeschool Academy. This is a video based science program for kids in elementary, middle and high school with courses in astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth and physical science.
In addition to the video lessons, students will also complete hands on learning activities and additional reading assignments. The courses are designed to be customizable to meet your family’s needs. You’ll be able to preview several of the courses with just your email address before committing to anything, which I love.
The courses are priced individually, and your payment includes the full course of over 30 weekly video lessons, hands on activities, quizzes and tests and additional reading assignments. For example, the cost of middle school physical science is $179, but the high school course is $279. The cost of any of the courses can be spread out over 3 equal payments to make it a little easier on your budget.
Discover Online Blended for Grades 1 – 6
If you’re looking for an online homeschool science curriculum that includes online lessons and physical worksheets, Discover Blended Online may be a good choice for you. Offered by Bridgeway Academy, these online science courses are available for grades 1 through 6 and cost $349 each. Each course is self paced, and includes video lessons, offline work, an instructors guide, quizzes and assessments.
Bridgeway Academy is a Christian company, so the science lessons will be taught with a biblical worldview. There’s a lot to offer on their website including live online classes and an accredited program, so it can be hard to navigate to just get to the science courses. I also don’t see any way to preview the video lessons, which is a bummer because they sound really nice, but I’m not paying $350 without being able to see what it looks like.
Study.com Online Homeschool Science Curriculum
One of my favorite online resources for homeschool curriculum is Study.com, and their science curriculum is a great choice if you’re looking for full online science courses for grades 3 through 12. For as little as $29.99 a month, you’ll be able to take as many courses as you like in any order that you want.
Even though Study.com offers courses in pretty much any subject you can think of, if you’re just looking for science lessons, you’ll find all the courses you need. They have a complete homeschool science curriculum that will take you through every year from 3rd grade through graduation, including courses in earth science, life science, biology, chemistry and physics. And best of all, the Study.com curriculum includes AP courses, and even courses to earn transferable college credits so your high school student can get a head start on college.
The lessons are all self paced and done entirely online, with video lessons, transcripts, quizzes and exams. If you’re interested in trying out this program, don’t forget to use my link for a 25% discount!
Schoolhouseteachers.com
If you’re looking for an online science program on a budget, you might want to try Schoolhouseteachers.com. With this program, you can homeschool your entire family for just $15 a month. You could use it for your entire homeschool curriculum, but you can also use it just for a specific subject. For instance, I’ve been using it for Geography for my 9 year old.
They have tons of different science courses for all grade levels, and some really interesting unit studies as well. The courses will include all the video and text resources you need for a complete science curriculum for your family. Unlike some of the other online science programs mentioned in this video, with Schoolhouseteachers.com there’s a little more parent involvement, which I do like. I’ve had fun and learned a lot from the courses I’ve done with my daughter.
This website can be a little confusing to understand because it just has so much to it. I do have a full video on my YouTube channel that will help you understand how to use Schoolhouseteachers.com. But if you’re looking for something affordable and simple (once you get used to their website) then I highly recommend this program. I do want to also point out that this is another Christian website, so if you’re looking for something secular, this is not a good choice.
Supercharged Science Online Homeschool Science Curriculum
Supercharged Science is an online homeschool science curriculum for students in Kindergarten through 12th grade that promises to give your children a great science education even if science isn’t your strong suit. Your kids will get a curriculum taught by an expert science teacher and they’ll get plenty of hands on science practice using inexpensive everyday materials. The lessons include step by step instructional videos, lesson worksheets, and experiments to do at home using materials that are easy to obtain.
Access to this program is on a yearly basis, and the cost for K through 8 is $333 per year. For high school, it will cost $513 a year. They also offer monthly enrollment options of $37 a month for K – 8 and $57 a month for high school. There are a bunch of free resources available on their website that you can take a look at to get a feel for the program before you commit to it. They even have a free online science class that you can sign up for.
Mystery Science
If you’re looking for an open and go, standards aligned science program for kids in Kindergarten through 5th grade, Mystery Science might be a great choice for you. They have a full curriculum for elementary school kids, plus tons of additional lessons in all sorts of interesting topics that answer questions such as “what’s the smallest animal on earth” and “who invented ice skates”. And you can even get a free trial good for the remainder of this school year with just your email address.
If you decide to stick with this program after your free trial, it will cost just $119 for a full school year. The lessons include videos, hands on activities, printouts, vocab and reading lists, assessments and more. You can even add assignments to google classroom with the click of a button, which is pretty handy if you’re already using that tool in your homeschool.
The lessons on here are set up by age level, and include prep instructions for parents so you can have everything ready to go before your child starts the lesson. They also have pacing guides to help you figure out how to spread out the lessons, although these are definitely designed more for teachers and aren’t that homeschool parent friendly.
BJU Press Online Homeschool Science Curriculum
Another online science program that offers a biblical worldview is from BJU Press. They offer complete science curriculum for kids in first grade through high school. Their video based lessons work in tandem with their physical textbooks for a complete 180 days of science lessons.
The cost of these online homeschool science courses is $349 for the full course. You can choose to exclude the textbooks and save a little bit of money, but these courses are really designed to be used with the textbooks, so this is more for if you already have the books or can borrow them from a friend.
Unfortunately there are no free trials of this program, but you can view samples of the video lessons for each course to get an idea of what the program is like. Compared to some other online homeschool science curriculums on the list, this is going to be much more open and go, as your child will just be watching the videos and following along in their books, kind of like they would in a classroom setting.
Khan Academy
If you’re looking for a completely free online science program, you might like Khan Academy. Here you’ll find secular, standards aligned homeschool science courses for middle and high school with courses in biology, earth science, physics and chemistry, including AP courses. Everything is done online, and you can take as many courses as you want, all completely free.
Khan Academy works on a mastery points system, so you’ll be able to track progress and determine when your child is ready to move on. This program is also pretty hands off for parents. Once you’ve decided which course for your child to take, they should be able to follow along on their own.
I do have a full review of Khan Academy on my YouTube channel that you can check out for a more in depth guide of how to use the program. I also recently reviewed their new AI tool, Khanmigo, which is a really neat add on, so be sure to check that out as well.
Best Online Homeschool Science Curriculum Choices Overall
So that’s our list of the 10 best online science programs for homeschool. So now let’s decide which is the overall best of the best. And I have to tell you, up until now we haven’t been doing any kind of formal science curriculum in my home, so I’ve been on the lookout for a program that’s engaging, affordable and complete. So this review is as much for me as it is for you!
After looking at all of these programs in depth, I’ve decided to go with Mystery Science. Since we’re just getting into doing a full science curriculum, and it’s already March, I like the idea of getting to use this for free for the rest of this school year. The videos are interesting, there are some really cool mini lessons that I know my daughter will be excited about, and the prep for parents is simple.
Some runners up that I also considered? Generation Genius and Schoolhouseteachers.com. Generation Genius looks really awesome, I just didn’t want to spend the money right now. Maybe next year after I see if my daughter likes Mystery Science. And as for Schoolhouseteachers.com, I already have a subscription and use it for the unit studies among other things. But I’m just looking for a science course that was more structured and standards aligned. We might still use some of the science unit studies and lessons if we want to change things up.
What are your favorite homeschool science programs? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
Video version:
