Practical help for your homeschool.
Homeschool guides for finding your next step
Start a homeschool, shape a week that fits, keep useful records, or follow a question into a complete unit study. Pick the part you need now and leave the rest for later.
Featured collection.
Take one question across the whole table
Our free family-style unit studies connect science, history, geography, writing, art, and hands-on work through one topic. Each study includes five days of plans, age adaptations, print-friendly activity sheets, and trusted sources.
See all 7 unit studiesVolcanoes
Free Volcano Unit Study: Five Days of Science, Maps, and Making
Spend five days exploring Earth’s layers, eruption models, volcano maps, and careful observation. The week ends with an explanation in the learner’s own words.
Five days, about 45–75 minutes per day
Thanksgiving
Free Thanksgiving Unit Study: Primary Sources, Perspective, and Gratitude
Use primary sources to separate the 1621 harvest gathering from traditions that came later. Learners ask who created each source and include contemporary Native perspectives.
Five days, about 40–70 minutes per day
Weather
Free Weather Unit Study: Observe, Measure, Compare, and Forecast
Keep a daily weather log, sketch clouds, take measurements, make a graph, and test a forecast against what happens outside your own door.
Five days plus a five-minute daily observation
Start with the life you have
Understand the approaches, choices, and rhythms that shape a homeschool before filling a planner.
Start here
Getting Started with Homeschooling
Work through legal requirements, curriculum choices, learning spaces, and a realistic first-year plan.
Learning approaches
What Is Unschooling?
A practical guide to interest-led learning, the parent’s role, and keeping honest records of work that began with a child’s interests.
Learning through travel
Worldschooling in Europe
See how our family is planning three months of learning through travel, flexible routines, and reverse tracking.
Plan it, live it, record it
Build a week that bends, then keep the records that are actually useful later.
Planning
Flexible Homeschool Schedule Examples
Compare six sample weeks for multi-age families, co-op days, working parents, loops, and reset seasons.
Records
Homeschool Record Keeping Made Simple
Separate attendance, learning logs, work samples, portfolios, grades, and transcripts so you only keep what matters.
Reverse planning
Unschooling Planner and Records
Record interest-led learning after it happens, with free learning logs and optional text logging through TrailGuide.
Field trips
Homeschool Days Near You
Learn the four kinds of homeschool day, what 14 current programs charge and require, and where to find one nearby.
Comparison
Best Homeschool Software and Apps
An honest comparison of seven tools, what each one does well, and where each one falls short.
Free tools and creative starts
Useful places to begin when you need a plan, a record, or a fresh invitation to learn.
Free planning tool
Free Homeschool Planner
Organize curriculum, activities, attendance, and family learning in one flexible digital planner.
Free record-keeping tool
Free Attendance Tracker
Track school days and keep attendance connected to the learning your family records along the way.
Creative learning
Custom Printable Coloring Pages
Turn a child’s idea into clean line art they can color in Nest or print on a full Letter page.
Programs and funding
Current, focused explanations for families using state education programs with HomeTrail.
