Parent resources

Free Audio Books, eBooks, and Textbooks

  • Free Audio Books: Our collection of audiobooks includes many children’s classics. You can download audio files straight to your computer or mobile device.
  • Free eBooks: This collection includes many children’s classics in ebook format. You generally have the option to download these texts to your Kindle, iPad, Nook or computer. Video tutorials are included on the page.
  • Calibre: Download free e-book software that will manage your electronic library, convert e-books from one format to another, and give you online access to free e-books.
  • Free Textbook Collection: Our site provides a meta collection of free textbooks available on the web. It covers everything from Art History to Biology, Math, Physics, and Psychology.

Art & Visual Culture

  • A Virtual Tour of 30 World Class Museums and 2 Million Works of Art: The page gives you access to collections of digitized art from 30 world-class museums. It features more than 2 million works of art.
  • Google Art Project: A new tool that gives you access to more than 1,000 works of art appearing in 17 great museums across the world. Using Google’s Street View technology, you can now tour collections at 184 museums world wide.
  • Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel: Thanks to Villanova University, you can take an amazing virtual, panoramic tour of the Sistine Chapel. Using buttons in the lower left screen, you can move around the room and zoom in on the paintings, including those on the ceiling.

Geography

  • National Geographic: Provides facts, photos, videos, and more about countries around the world — something NatGeo knows a lot about.
  • World Atlas: An educational resource for world maps, atlases, and in-depth geography information. Provides teachers and students free maps of Europe, Asia, the U.S., Canada, Florida, the Caribbean Islands, and much more.

History & Politics

  • 50States.com: Offers copious information about the fifty United States of America.
  • A Biography of America: This video series for high school and college students presents American history as a living narrative rather than a collection of facts and dates. Produced by WGBH Boston in cooperation with the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration.
  • A Crash Course in World History: Best-selling author John Green gives you a playful and highly visual crash course in world history, taking you from the beginning of human civilization 15,000 years ago through to our modern age. The videos are animated and fun.
  • Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government: A primer on American government for grades K-2.
  • iCivics: Founded by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, iCivics prepares young Americans to become knowledgeable and engaged 21st-century citizens by offering free and innovative educational games.
  • Liberty’s Kids: An animated educational historical television series originally broadcast on PBS Kids. Teaches 7 to 14-year-olds about the founding of the United States.

Literature

Mathematics

  • AAA Math: Features a comprehensive set of interactive arithmetic lessons. Unlimited practice is available on each topic which allows thorough mastery of the concepts. You can sort by grade level. K-8.
  • Math Shack: Created by Shmoop, Math Shack allows students to practice an infinite number of auto-generated math problems in Pre-Algebra, Algebra, and Geometry. It’s Common Core-aligned, and students can see how they’re performing—by topic and subject—through an easy color-coded system.
  • STEM From The Start: Designed for PreK-2 learners, SFTS uses the power of educational video to help lay the groundwork for STEM subjects by engaging children in learning that is fun, engaging and long-lasting. Produced by New Hampshire PBS & Learniverse Educational Media.
  • Wolfram MathWorld: Bills itself as the web’s most extensive mathematical resource.  Designed for more advanced students, this collection is provided as a free service by Wolfram Research, makers of Mathematica. 

Music

  • Classics for Kids: Introduces elementary and middle school children to classical music in a fun and entertaining way. The site gives you access to famous pieces of classical music online and also related lessons plans and activity sheets.
  • Exploring the World of Music: Learn the essentials of music theory and how music expresses culture in this instructional video series for high school classrooms.
  • The World Music Archive: Run by the BBC, this archive allows you to sample the musical traditions of more than 40 countries. India, Corsica, China, Cuba, Iran, Brazil, Mozambique, Turkey — they’re all represented in this eclectic collection of indigenous music.

Philosophy

  • Philosophy for Kids: Dedicated to helping adults conduct a philosophical discussion with elementary school children, this site uses well-known picture books to raise philosophical questions — for example, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Harry the Dirty Dog, The Cat in the Hat, various Frog and Toad stories and much more.

Science & Space

  • Atlas of the Universe: Contains maps of the universe zooming out from the nearest stars to the entire visible universe.
  • BuiltByKids: Encourages the next generation of makers to tackle the do-it-yourself projects of their dreams. Engineering very 101.
  • CELLS Alive!: Brings together 30 years of computer-enhanced images of living cells and organisms for education and medical research.
  • Chemistry Activities for Kids: Features chemistry demonstrations, crafts, and projects that are suitable for kids. Some activities require adult supervision. Assembled by Anne Marie Helmenstine, About.com Guide to Chemistry.
  • Dynamic Periodic Table: An interactive Web 2.0 periodic table with dynamic layouts showing names, electrons, oxidation, trend visualization, orbitals, and isotopes.
  • NASA for Students: America’s space agency provides educational media for different age groups.
  • Eyes on the Solar System: A 3-D environment lets you explore the cosmos from your computer, hop on an asteroid, fly with NASA’s Voyager spacecraft, see the entire solar system moving in real-time. Created by NASA.
  • NASA Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth: Brings together all images and videos of the Earth taken by NASA astronauts from space.
  • NASA Photo Archive: NASA curated a big archive of historical images into Flickr Commons, giving users access to more than a half-century of NASA’s photographic history. The images are divided into three neat sets – “Launch and Takeoff,” “Building NASA” and “Center Namesakes” – and they’re all copyright-free, meaning that you can share and use these images however you like.
  • Science Kids: Provides educational resources for teachers and parents to help make science fun and engaging for kids. Features fun activities, facts, projects, and experiments that promote a desire amongst kids to learn more about science and technology.
  • STEM From The Start: Designed for PreK-2 learners, SFTS uses the power of educational video to help lay the groundwork for STEM subjects by engaging children in learning that is fun, engaging, and long-lasting. Produced by New Hampshire PBS & Learniverse Educational Media.
  • TeachEngineering.org: A searchable, web-based digital library collection populated with standards-based engineering curricula for use by K-12 teachers and engineering faculty to make applied science and math (engineering) come alive in K-12 settings.
  • The Known Universe: This video takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. The film is made with the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.

Technology (Web Resources)

  • Codecademy: This venture gives students the ability to take free computer science lessons online. Teaches everything from HTML basics to Python in a “user active” style.
  • Computer Science Courses from Great Universities: The more advanced student can watch lectures from computer science courses presented at great universities.

YouTube Channels

  • American Museum of Natural History: This channel features the excellent “Known Universe” video, which gives you a six-minute journey from Mt. Everest to the farthest reaches of the observable universe.
  • Bad Astronomy: Bad Astronomy is all about astronomy, space, and science. The videos are created by Phil Plait, an astronomer, writer, and sometimes TV-science-show host.
  • HooplaKidz: This channel is dedicated to animated nursery rhymes and stories designed to entertain and educate children between the ages of 2 and 8.
  • Edutopia: Offers inspiration and information for what works in education. Edutopia is run by The George Lucas Educational Foundation.
  • Khan Academy: This channel features thousands of videos that will teach students the ins and outs of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, statistics, finance, physics, economics and more.
  • Minute Physics: Cool science videos that are all about getting people into learning physics.
  • NASA Television: NASA’s mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research. This channel helps explore fundamental questions about our place in the universe.
  • Numberphile: Videos about numbers – it’s that simple. Videos by Brady Haran.
  • Periodic Videos: Your ultimate channel for all things chemistry. A video about each element on the periodic table.
  • Sick Science: Videos and cool science experiments from Steve Spangler and SteveSpanglerScience.com
  • SpaceLab: Can plants survive beyond Earth? Can proteins observed in space reveal the mysteries of life? These questions and more get answered by SpaceLab, a YouTube channel created by Google and Lenovo, in cooperation with Space Adventures, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Test Prep

  • ACT Practice: Get your game on with ACT QuizMe ACT practice quizzes in math, English, reading, and science. Answer key provided at the end of the quiz!
  • SAT Practice: The College Board (the makers of the SAT exam) also hosts free practice exercises on its web site.