14 Homeschool Apps Your Middle or High School Student Can Enjoy
When homeschooling middle school and high school, your growing child needs stimulation to keep them motivated and interested—and this is where homeschool apps come in handy!
I know what you’re thinking: “What? More screen time?”
But believe me! You can coin this screen magnetism for new opportunities for your teenager.
It’s true that homeschool apps don’t substitute the curriculum, but they do complement it and provide a fun time for practice.
In this list, I’ve handpicked 14 apps that cover many different areas—some of them will work better with younger students, and others are perfect for high school, but it will basically depend on your child’s personal interests and needs and what you’ll finally install on their devices.
Benefits of Apps in Homeschooling
What I most love about educational apps is that they maximize learning time as you can use them almost anywhere—waiting for a doctor, on a car ride, sunbathing, or anywhere else you can imagine. It’s easy to fit them into your homeschool routine.
As the content taught in apps is usually gamified and interactive, students tend to be more engaged and motivated. They help when you homeschool kids at different ages as they focus on independent play and learning.
And finally, they are ecological—less paper is always good for the planet!
14 Best Homeschool Apps
Here are some of my favorite homeschool apps that offer different educational value. Some will enrichen the electives, others are STEM-oriented, and others provide content in some specific subjects.
1. Chemistry & Periodic Table
One of the best chemistry apps on the market and is a great tool for high school students.
It solves chemical reactions even with multiple unknown variables. Its periodic table is interactive and tapping the elements gives you more information. You can also calculate molar mass.
It helps both with organic and inorganic chemistry, and offers beautiful widgets to download and learn chemistry facts in a fun way.
I personally liked the fact that the organic chemistry formulas are also drawn as images and you can watch atoms in augmented reality.
The app is also stable and offers offline functionality.
Key Specs:
- Price: Free, offer In-App Purchase
- Devices: iPhone, iPad, , Mac, Apple Watch
| Pros | Cons |
| Works on Apple watch without Wi-Fi Voiceover for students with visual impairment Works in many languages | The chemical calculator doesn’t work with complex queries Some users complain that the chemical units are not simply mentioned next to the quantities |
2. Google Translate
Google Translate is a great app that can help both middle school and high school students. It’s not only useful in learning languages but can also help in other subjects when you find interesting content in other languages. It’s an absolute must for traveling to countries whose language you don’t know. And it can work offline!
The app is easy to use and offers instant translation in 109 languages. You can type in the text yourself, translate what you hear or scan the text through Word Lens you don’t understand. The conversation mode is brilliant!
I wouldn’t use it to translate sensitive information as it stores all the translated info.
If you’re interested in other translation apps, check out Our Favorite Apps to Translate Spanish to English.
Key Specs:
| Pros | Cons |
| Continuously evolving Multiple platforms Free | No security or confidentiality for your data Not always exact translation |
3. Homeschool Helper App
Why do I love this homeschooling app? Because it has been designed specifically for this sector.
It helps with lesson planning, tracking progress, calculating grades, planning field trips, and many more. It works on Android devices.
High school students can use it by themselves and keep track of what subjects they do and have their records ready as college proof.
Key Specs:
- Price: Free
- Devices: Android
| Pros | Cons |
| No in-app purchases or advertising Free | Works only on Android devices Still in testing so issues can appear |
4. iCivics Branches of Power
It’s a great app to learn how the U.S: government works in an entertaining way. It lets you play a game in which you control all three branches of the U.S. government.
You can pick leaders for each branch, create a presidential agenda, introduce bills and pass laws, and apply for judicial review.
I think it works better with middle school students as a fun introduction to more complex social studies. It gives a practical understanding of things that are usually theoretical for most users. It’s very easy to follow and students quickly understand what they need to do to pass new laws successfully.
Key Specs:
| Pros | Cons |
| Includes Spanish translation Voiceover for students with visual impairment Very practical approach | It ends too fast No info about data handling |
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5. Khan Academy
Do you know the Khan Academy website? Well, there’s an app too.
The app advertises that “you can learn anything. For free.” And that’s true. It’s one of the best—if not the best—free apps on the market to complement your homeschooling curriculum and let your children learn new topics in many areas independently.
The app offers courses with interactive exercises, videos, and articles for math, science, economics, finance, grammar, history, government, politics, and more. You can check your progress with quizzes and take a final test.
You can also download content to work without an Internet connection. The app picks up where you left off and synchronizes with the website.
Key Specs:
| Pros | Cons |
| Free Works offline Covers many subjects Independent learning, self-paced | No school credits available It doesn’t include all the functions that the website does |
6. Algebra
If your homeschooled high-schooler struggles with algebra, this app can be a life-saver. It offers a full Algebra course, but you can also use it for reviewing or learning specific topics. Every lesson starts with a video, guided practice, test, background modules, diagnostic quizzes, worksheets, helpful notes, and much more.
It also tracks your progress and provides a grade report. The app is very easy to follow and makes algebra understandable to everybody.
Key Specs:
- Price: Free for 3 days, offers in-app purchases (the whole course $9.99, Place Value $4.99, Simplifying Radicals $4.99)
- Devices: Apple
| Pros | Cons |
| Makes difficult concepts understandable You can take the whole course or choose specific units | It freezes occasionally Piercing tones Videos don’t have captions |
7. Memrise
A great app if you choose languages as an elective in high school.
It offers numerous courses on almost any language in the world and is especially helpful for beginners, and especially for vocabulary. The app teaches you through virtual flashcards. It combines mnemonics and spaced repetition and makes you learn in an entertaining way.
Remember that there are two kinds of courses, the curated ones, created by the Memrise staff and the user created. The curated courses can be downloaded and studied offline.
You can also create your own course, based on your own content. There’s also a possibility to copy and modify an existing course.
If your child studies Spanish, check out: 20 Best Apps To Learn Spanish On Your Own in 2022
Key Specs:
| Pros | Cons |
| Spaced repetition system Many languages to choose from Native pronunciation | Primarily focuses on vocabulary and may be not enough to become fluent User-created content may not be of good quality Can get repetitive |
8. Nasa
The best app ever for space lovers. It’s full of information on the U.S. space program and astronomy in general. It could complement your astronomy course in high school.
The app is constantly updated on a daily basis and it’s easy to share cool facts through Facebook or Twitter pages.
There are some students that wake up at 4 am to watch live rocket launches on this app. It’s a very inspiring Nasa resource that provides middle and high school students with infinite resources.
It features augmented reality with interactive models, views of the International Space Station, and many Nasa missions around the Earth.
Key Specs:
| Pros | Cons |
| Incredible quality of images Daily updates Reliable source | It sometimes freezes or crashes Too much information can be a bit overwhelming Privacy handling is a bit unclear |
9. Playground Physics
This is such a fun and interactive app that it makes everybody fall in love with physics.
What does it do? It accompanies middle and high school activities with fun and practical tasks. I’m sure your homeschooler loves recording videos of themselves. WHy not use them for learning some physics?
The app can get your cave homeschooler to go out and move to record performances that can be later used to explore more complex physics concepts and Newton’s laws.
Do you know how sports scouts measure and analyze athletes’ performance? You can do the same? You can calculate the speed, force, and energy of your performance and it’s highly engaging.
Key Specs:
- Price: Free
- Devices: Apple (works best on iPad)
| Pros | Cons |
| Best value for price Makes theoretical knowledge practical | Slow motion option is mission Crashes with new iOS systems |
10. Quizlet
It’s another flash-cards based app that can help your child study and review material in many core subjects and electives.
Both middle and high school students can use it. It’s very easy to navigate and gives different options to use your virtual flashcards. Your kid can simply flip through them, make quizzes or play different games.
There are already millions of flashcard sets on different topics created by the app users, for example, on literary devices or Spanish vocabulary. The downside is that as it is user-created content, you can find many mistakes.
The paid version removes ads, tracks progress and you can use the downloaded sets offline.
Key Specs:
| Pros | Cons |
| Great for review Great for testing Very easy to use | User-created content has mistakes Have to pay to remove ads |
11. Simply Piano
If your teenager wants to learn how to play an instrument as one of his electives, there’s no better app than simply piano. It not only guides the student, step by step, to learn how to play but it also teaches how to read notes from the very first lesson!
The course will not let the student move forward until they get the notes right. The lessons naturally progress from easy to more advanced, and by finishing the course, your child will be able to play piano at a very decent level.
The app, although not cheap, is worth its price.
Key Specs:
- Price: a 7-day free trial so you can try it before you buy it. After that, it is $149.99 per year, $89.99 for six months, or $59.99 for three months
- Devices: Apple, Android
| Pros | Cons |
| Great for beginners Great for independent learning Works offline One subscription can be used by 5 students | Quite expensive Some students complain that the pace is too slow Missing theoretical part Not very customized, you cannot skip topics or go back |
12. SkyView
Another homeschool app that aims at homeschoolers interested in what is above them. If your kid chose astronomy as their elective, this app is a must. It’s a great companion for astronomy books and it brings theoretical knowledge to life.
SkyView is perfect both for beginners and experienced astronomers. Simply by pointing their phone at the sky, they will be able to identify galaxies, stars, constellations, and satellites (also the ISS and Hubble) that are over their head at a specific moment. You can look for a specific object with the app first and then direct your telescope to it.
The app lets you set reminders for important celestial events to plan star watching. Augmented Reality makes the whole experience even funnier.
You can also:
- See how the sky will look on a given date and time in the future
- See how it looked in the past
- Share wonderful images with your friends on social media.
What I most like about this app is that it works without wifi or GPS, so you can use it for stargazing wherever you want.
Key Specs:
| Pros | Cons |
| Most of the options are available for free Augmented reality Great graphics Useful facts included | Some users complain that the compass doesn’t work well Doesn’t work well with older operational systems |
13. Socratic by Google
One of the most helpful homeschool apps for high school students as it can aid in any subject. You simply need to ask a question to get help. The app will find the most useful online resources such as videos, step-by-step explanations, and professional study guides.
Currently works for Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth and Environmental Science, the US and World History, and Literature.
It saves you time looking for answers!
Key Specs:
| Pros | Cons |
| Simple to use Provides answers from different sources Scanning feature Addresses various learning styles as it provides answers in different formats | Some students may just look for answers and skip the learning process Not all the answers have accessibility features |
14. SoloLearn: Learn to Code Apps
Coding has never been easier. I know, it sounds like a commercial but it’s true.
The app successfully teaches its users how to code. You can find lessons on Python, C++, JavaScript, Java, jQuery, machine learning, data science, and more, and receive a certificate for each course that you can use later as proof of your studying hours on the homeschool transcript.
There’s great community support so even studying alone, you don’t feel like it. The app personalizes content for each student based on their progress and preferences.
The paid version removes ads and offers daily reports. What’s most important is that it adds practice to the theoretical knowledge included in the free version.
I would definitely recommend the paid version of the app so that your homeschooler can use its features to the fullest.
Key Specs:
- Price: Free, offers in-app purchases (Pro Annual between $47.99 and $69.99, Pro Monthly – between $6.99 and $12.99)
- Devices: Apple, Android
| Pros | Cons |
| Very detailed course A wide range of courses Effective in teaching | You have to get the paid version to be able to practice Little control over plagiarism and spams |
Choose the Best Homeschool Apps for Your Child
Remember that the best homeschool apps are the ones that work for your kid.
It will depend on their choice of subjects, electives, and interests. You can use apps to teach new things, help your child review and understand difficult concepts or go deeper in what fascinates them.
You can try the apps I showed you here and check if they fit your family’s needs. If not, keep looking until you find your favorites.
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