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Start with one real tool
One piece of professional software a teen actually keeps using beats five apps they open once. Free education licenses make this possible at home.
Augmented Intelligence Academy
Miami, FL · Established programs since 2010
Free to use · No account with us required
RSRC · 01
Free Resources for Homeschooling Parents.
The tools we point families to — whether or not you enroll with us.
Teaching at home means assembling your own curriculum. These are the genuinely free platforms, licenses, and reference sites we recommend to the parents we work with — professional software with free education licenses, core academic curriculum, Florida paperwork and scholarship guidance, and career exploration tools.
- $0Every link on this page
- 4Categories, curated
- 14–18Focus ages (most work younger)
Software
Free education & personal licenses
Academics
Math · Science · Reading · Coding
Florida
Scholarships · Paperwork · Support
§ 01 · How To Use This Page
A starting point, not a subscription.
You do not need to use all of this. Pick one item per category and build from there — a parent running a full week of high school at home usually needs a software tool, a math and science spine, and somewhere to file the paperwork.
02
Anchor the core subjects
Math and science need a consistent spine you return to daily. The free platforms below are complete enough to serve as that spine, not just supplements.
03
Get the paperwork right early
Florida families have real filing requirements and real scholarship money available. Handling both in the first month removes most of the year's stress.
A note on "free": every link below is free at the time of publishing — usually free forever, sometimes free through an education or personal-use license that asks you to confirm you are not using it commercially. Terms change; always read the license page you land on. Nothing here requires enrolling with AIA Academy.
§ 02 · Learning Through Play
Learning Through Play — free, in chapters.
We are sharing research on learning through play in free chapters with homeschool parents and educators. Nine chapters are up. Each one is published in full on this site — read it here in your browser. Chapters are for reading, not downloading.
Ch. 1
Audit of skills · Read in full on site
Learning Through Play 1 — Audit of Skills
The full breadth of skills measured across the research base, organized by domain: cognitive, creative, emotional, physical, and social. Each skill sits beside the teaching approach the literature paired it with — active learning, guided discovery, inquiry-based learning, Montessori education, peer tutoring, project-based collaboration, scaffolding.
- Cognitive
- Creative
- Emotional
- Physical
- Social
Useful as a planning checklist: pick a domain you want to strengthen this term, read across to the pedagogies that produced results, and design the week around one of them.
Credit: a work from the LEGO Foundation by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen, drawn from What we mean by learning through play. Shared here in chapters, free, for the benefit of homeschool parents and educators.
Ch. 2
Background & rationale · Read in full on site
Learning Through Play 2 — Background & Rationale
What learning through play actually is as a pedagogy — free play, guided play, construction, collaboration, games, physical and digital play — and why the evidence behind it stops being cited the moment children pass the school gates. The chapter then takes apart the false choice between "play" and "instruction": the same theorists sit behind both, and what decides whether an approach works is the guidance built into it.
- Play as pedagogy
- Evidence base
- School policy
- Guidance
- Instructional design
Read this one before choosing a method for the term. It ends with the nine ways the reviewed literature described "guidance" — a short checklist for telling a real approach from a labelled one.
Credit: a work from the LEGO Foundation by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen. Shared here in chapters, free, for the benefit of homeschool parents and educators.
Ch. 3
Integrated approaches · Read in full on site
Learning Through Play 3 — Integrated Approaches to Teaching and Learning
The chapter that names the eight approaches the rest of the review examines — active learning, cooperative and collaborative learning, experiential learning, guided discovery, inquiry-based learning, problem based learning, project based learning, and Montessori education. It explains why each is taken separately rather than assumed to be a version of the same thing, and why an approach that works in one school is not therefore effective everywhere.
- Eight pedagogies
- Social constructivism
- Fidelity
- Contested definitions
- Context
Use it as a shortlist when you are deciding what to actually run this term, and note the warning it carries: the question is never whether an approach works somewhere, but whether the conditions that made it work are present in your own week.
Credit: a work from the LEGO Foundation by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen. Shared here in chapters, free, for the benefit of homeschool parents and educators.
Ch. 4
Active learning · Read in full on site
Learning Through Play 4 — Active Learning
The first of the eight approaches taken in detail. Active learning puts choice in the learner's hands — what the task is, how and when they respond — and moves the teacher into the role of facilitator rather than instructor. The chapter shows how it carries all five characteristics of learning through play, then sets out what the research actually measured: more accurate grasp of science concepts in Colombia, higher achievement in Zambia, and better listening, collaboration and peer relationships from Circle Time in Italy.
- Learner choice
- Teacher as facilitator
- Circle Time
- Evidence of impact
- Enabling factors
The most portable of the eight approaches — Circle Time needs a room and twenty minutes, not a budget. Read the enabling factors closely, though: the programs that worked were sustained and checked against evidence, and the one-off ones were not effective.
Credit: a work from the LEGO Foundation by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen. Shared here in chapters, free, for the benefit of homeschool parents and educators.
Ch. 5
Cooperative & collaborative · Read in full on site
Cooperative & Collaborative Learning — Chapter 5
The second of the eight approaches. Grouping children together is the easy part; this chapter is about the five strategies that decide whether the group achieves anything — positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive action, individual accountability, taught social skills, and group processing. The evidence covers reading comprehension gains in a historically low-performing US school, better mathematical decision-making in Jordan, and shifts in how learners understand intelligence itself in Scotland.
- Five strategies
- Positive interdependence
- Group size
- Evidence of impact
- Enabling factors
Worth reading if you teach siblings together or run a co-op. It is blunt about the failure case: group work that is not thoughtfully structured is named as one of the least effective approaches in teaching and learning, and recall and drill are better served by something else entirely.
Credit: a work from the LEGO Foundation by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen. Shared here in chapters, free, for the benefit of homeschool parents and educators.
Ch. 6
Experiential learning · Read in full on site
Experiential Learning — Chapter 6
The third of the eight approaches, and the one that looks least like school. From Dewey’s Experience and Education through Kolb’s four-stage cycle to the neuroscience that has since revised it, this chapter covers the whole family of hands-on practice: kitchen garden programs, outdoor and adventure education, service learning, excursions, environmental education, and creative arts. The evidence runs from a Colorado climate program to Australia’s Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden.
- Dewey & Kolb
- Kitchen gardens
- Outdoor learning
- Evidence of impact
- Assessment
The most natural fit for a homeschool week — fractions come free with measuring ingredients. Read the enabling factors before planning one: the programs that worked were structured and rehearsed, with children who knew their roles, not spontaneous outings.
Credit: a work from the LEGO Foundation by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen. Shared here in chapters, free, for the benefit of homeschool parents and educators.
Ch. 7
Guided discovery · Read in full on site
Guided Discovery Learning — Chapter 7
The fourth approach, and the corrective to a misreading of all the others. Bruner argued that discovery is not stumbling onto something new but obtaining knowledge for yourself — and that it depends on a prepared mind. The chapter separates guided, assisted and enriched discovery from ‘pure’ discovery, then reports the meta-analysis of 164 studies that ranks guided discovery first, plain explicit instruction second, and unassisted discovery last.
- Bruner
- Guidance levels
- Durable skills
- Maths transfer
- Time on task
Read this one if you have ever been told to just let them figure it out. It also carries the most copyable lesson structure in the series — orientation, problem, reflection — the Finnish sequence that closed the gap between low and high performers in eight weeks.
Credit: a work from the LEGO Foundation by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen. Shared here in chapters, free, for the benefit of homeschool parents and educators.
Ch. 8
Inquiry-based learning · Read in full on site
Inquiry-Based Learning — Chapter 8
The fifth approach, and the one most school systems have already adopted — mandated in the Australian science curriculum, central in Alberta, structural to the IB Primary Years Program. A unit of work is built around one real, open-ended question. The chapter answers the charge that inquiry means minimal guidance, and reports what was measured in 85 IB classrooms in Texas, in fourth grade science in Argentina, and in primary mathematics in Australia.
- Authentic questions
- Scaffolding
- Scientific thinking
- Evidence of impact
- Planning
Plan a term around it and the question does the work: ‘how can we turn our classroom into a museum?’ rather than ‘museums’. Note which group in the Argentinian study reached advanced experiment design — only the guided one.
Credit: a work from the LEGO Foundation by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen. Shared here in chapters, free, for the benefit of homeschool parents and educators.
Ch. 9
Problem-based learning · Read in full on site
Problem-Based Learning — Chapter 9
The sixth of the eight approaches, and a close relative of the last one: where inquiry plans a unit around a question, problem-based learning plans it around a single real-world problem with multiple dimensions, worked through in small self-directed groups. The chapter answers the same ‘minimal guidance’ charge, and is blunt that the skill it is chosen for — problem solving — has to be taught rather than discovered. Evidence comes from mathematics in Slovenia and science in Turkey.
- Real-world problems
- Self-directed groups
- Explicit teaching
- Evidence of impact
- Teacher as mentor
Read it for the sequencing: this approach suits deeper learning, once a child already has surface knowledge of the context, so it belongs after the groundwork rather than instead of it. Encouraging, too, that a harder unit did not cost the learners motivation or confidence.
Credit: a work from the LEGO Foundation by Rachel Parker and Bo Stjerne Thomsen. Shared here in chapters, free, for the benefit of homeschool parents and educators.
Ch. 10
In preparation
More chapters coming
Further chapters are published here as we prepare them. Ask to be told when the next one goes up and we will let you know — we do not run a mailing list beyond that.
§ 03 · Professional Software, Free At Home
The same tools industry runs — at no cost.
Design, mapping, and business platforms with free education or personal-use tiers. These are the categories our own tracks teach, so you can see what your teen would be working in before you spend anything.
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Autodesk Education Licenses
Free one-year, renewable licenses to Fusion, AutoCAD, Inventor, and Revit for eligible students and educators — the professional CAD platforms used in mechanical engineering, architecture, and manufacturing. Homeschool educators and students can apply directly.
autodesk.com/education -
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Tinkercad
Browser-based 3D modeling, circuits, and code blocks from Autodesk — free with no install. The gentlest possible entry to 3D design, and a good way to test whether a teen enjoys this work before committing to full CAD.
tinkercad.com -
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Blender
Free, open-source 3D creation — modeling, sculpting, animation, rendering, and video editing in one program. Used on commercial films and games. A serious portfolio tool for a teen drawn to animation or visual effects rather than engineering.
blender.org -
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Esri Education Programs
Esri makes ArcGIS — the mapping and spatial analysis platform behind city planning and FEMA emergency response — available to schools and educators through its education programs, including free software bundles and instructional materials. Start at the education overview to find the option that fits a home educator.
esri.com/education -
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Odoo Community Edition
The free, open-source edition of the ERP platform used by millions of businesses — inventory, sales, accounting, HR, and manufacturing modules. A teen can run a simulated (or real) small business end to end on it.
odoo.com/page/download
§ 04 · Core Academics
Math, science, reading, and code.
Complete, free curriculum you can build a week around — not worksheet mills. Each of these is used by public and private schools as well as homeschool families.
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Khan Academy
Free, complete courses from early math through calculus, plus physics, chemistry, biology, economics, grammar, and SAT prep. Mastery tracking and a parent/teacher dashboard make it usable as a graded spine, not just review.
khanacademy.org -
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CK-12
Free, standards-aligned digital textbooks ("FlexBooks") in math and science that you can customize, plus practice sets and simulations. Useful when you want a real textbook structure without a textbook budget.
ck12.org -
A.03
Desmos
Free graphing calculator, geometry tool, and interactive math activities. Replaces an expensive handheld graphing calculator for most high school algebra, trigonometry, and pre-calculus work.
desmos.com -
A.04
Code.org & freeCodeCamp
Two free coding paths: Code.org for structured beginner courses with lesson plans a parent can follow, and freeCodeCamp for self-paced, certificate-bearing web development and data analysis tracks a motivated teen can run alone.
code.org freecodecamp.org -
A.05
PBS LearningMedia
Free, standards-aligned videos, interactives, and lesson plans across every subject and grade band, searchable by topic. Strong for science and social studies units when you need a well-made 10-minute anchor for a lesson.
pbslearningmedia.org -
A.06
NASA STEM Engagement
Free NASA-built STEM activities, datasets, images, and student challenges, organized by grade level. Real mission data makes an excellent project spine for a physics, earth science, or engineering unit.
nasa.gov/stem -
A.07
Smithsonian Learning Lab
Millions of digitized museum artifacts, images, and primary sources with ready-made teaching collections. Turns history and art units into primary-source work rather than summary reading.
learninglab.si.edu -
A.08
Project Gutenberg & MIT OpenCourseWare
Tens of thousands of free public-domain books for literature reading lists, plus MIT's full course materials — lectures, problem sets, and exams — free online for an advanced teen ready to stretch past high school level.
gutenberg.org ocw.mit.edu
§ 05 · Florida Logistics & Scholarships
Funding and filing, handled.
Florida is one of the most supportive states in the country for home education — there is real scholarship money available and a clear filing process. These are the official starting points.
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Step Up For Students
The nonprofit administering Florida's state scholarship programs, including the Personalized Education Program for home educators. Scholarship funds can cover tuition, curriculum, instructional materials, and approved provider courses — AIA Academy is a Step Up approved provider.
stepupforstudents.org -
F.02
Florida Virtual School
FLVS offers tuition-free online courses to eligible Florida students, including full-time and part-time enrollment. A practical way to cover a required course you would rather not teach yourself, at no cost.
flvs.net -
F.03
Florida Parent-Educators Association
The statewide homeschool association — free guidance on getting started, annual evaluations, record keeping, graduation, and local support groups, plus the largest homeschool convention in the state.
fpea.com -
F.04
Homeschool Law By State
HSLDA's free state-by-state summaries of home education law — notice requirements, recordkeeping, evaluation, and withdrawal steps. Useful for confirming what your county actually requires, and essential if you move mid-year.
hslda.org/legal
Filing note: in Florida, home education is registered with your county school district, and requirements are set by state statute — confirm the current process with your district office and the sources above before the school year starts. AIA Academy does not provide legal advice.
§ 06 · Career & College Exploration
Free data on what jobs actually pay.
Before a teen picks a pathway, they should see real wage, growth, and education data for it. All three of these are free government or nonprofit tools.
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Occupational Outlook Handbook
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' free guide to hundreds of occupations — median pay, entry-level education, day-to-day duties, and projected job growth. The best single answer to "what does that career actually look like?"
bls.gov/ooh -
C.02
O*NET OnLine
A free Department of Labor database of the specific skills, tools, and software each occupation uses — including which roles list CAD, GIS, or ERP software as a requirement. Excellent for connecting a course to a job title.
onetonline.org -
C.03
BigFuture & Typing.com
College Board's free college search, scholarship search, and planning tools, plus free typing instruction — an unglamorous but real prerequisite for every technical course a teen will take.
bigfuture.collegeboard.org typing.com
§ 07 · When Free Isn't Enough
Free tools teach software. Live instruction teaches skill.
Every resource on this page is worth using. What they cannot give a teen is an instructor answering questions in real time, a cohort to build alongside, and a documented portfolio at the end. That is what our three tracks do — Engineering Design on Autodesk Fusion, Geospatial Mapping on Esri ArcGIS, and Business Operations on Odoo ERP, each with a free professional license included. Qualifying Florida families may enroll at $0 through Step Up for Students.
§ 08 · Enroll