Curated guide
Best High School Homeschool Science Curriculum
21 curricula in this guide
High school science carries transcript weight: most colleges want at least two lab sciences, so the program you pick needs real experiments and enough structure to document them. The good news is that lab science at home is completely doable with the right materials list.
Apologia is the most established college-prep option, with complete lab courses in biology, chemistry, and physics. Master Books offers a gentler Christian alternative. Oak Meadow gives secular families project-based science with lab components, and Khan Academy backs any course with free video instruction that rivals a classroom lecture. The full list of high school science programs is below.
Editor's selection
Our picks
Apologia Science
Apologia Educational Ministries
Rigorous college-prep science curriculum written from a young-earth Christian perspective. Conversational writing style with notebook-based learning and strong lab components.
Master Books
New Leaf Publishing Group
Affordable Charlotte Mason-inspired Christian curriculum with open-and-go daily lesson plans. Known for gentle pacing, beautiful design, and young-earth creation science integration.
Oak Meadow
Oak Meadow
Waldorf-inspired secular curriculum emphasizing creativity, nature, and hands-on learning. Offers both independent homeschool materials and an accredited distance-learning school option.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy
Free, nonprofit, mastery-based online learning platform spanning PreK through college. Short video lessons paired with adaptive practice and unit tests, especially strong in math and SAT prep.
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Apologia Science
Apologia Educational Ministries
Rigorous college-prep science curriculum written from a young-earth Christian perspective. Conversational writing style with notebook-based learning and strong lab components.
Physics for Makers
Creator's Craft Crates
Algebra-based high school physics built around 16 reusable build kits and a self-paced online textbook. Your kid builds the thing first, then does the math that explains why it worked. Video solutions mean you don't have to be the physics expert.
Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool
Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool
Free, complete online Christian homeschool curriculum covering PreK-12 with daily lessons assembled from curated internet resources. The most accessible entry point for families with no curriculum budget.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy
Free, nonprofit, mastery-based online learning platform spanning PreK through college. Short video lessons paired with adaptive practice and unit tests, especially strong in math and SAT prep.
Abeka
Pensacola Christian College
Highly structured traditional Christian curriculum with daily lesson plans, heavy drill and review, and optional filmed-classroom video instruction. One of the most comprehensive K4-12 programs available.
Acellus Academy
International Academy of Science
Fully accredited online K-12 school with WASC accreditation, AP courses, NCAA-approved cores, and military Tier I status. Same video content as Power Homeschool but with diploma, transcripts, and teacher support.
BJU Press
BJU Press
Comprehensive traditional Christian curriculum with optional professional video instruction (Distance Learning). Rigorous academics with critical thinking emphasis across all subjects K4-12.
Build Your Library
Build Your Library
Secular, literature-based curriculum following a historical timeline with Charlotte Mason methods. Teacher's guide PDFs are affordable; books purchased separately.
Classical Conversations
Classical Conversations
Classical Christian education combining weekly in-person community meetings with at-home study. Memory work, Socratic discussion, and the trivium model structure a unique hybrid program.
Compass Classroom
Compass Classroom
Streaming video classical Christian curriculum with engaging master teachers. Features Visual Latin (the flagship), history, writing, literature, science, and more.
Heart of Dakota
Heart of Dakota
Charlotte Mason-influenced Christian unit study curriculum with detailed daily plans and a screen-free philosophy. Fourteen program levels span ages 2-18 using living books and hands-on activities.
IXL Learning
IXL Learning
Adaptive skill-by-skill practice platform with over 17,000 standards-aligned skills across math, language arts, science, social studies, and Spanish. Strongest as practice and diagnostic, not initial instruction.
Khanmigo
Khan Academy
Khan Academy's GPT-4-powered Socratic AI tutor. Guides students to answers rather than giving them. Integrates with Khan content across math, science, humanities, AP, and SAT prep. $44/yr covers up to 10 children.
Master Books
New Leaf Publishing Group
Affordable Charlotte Mason-inspired Christian curriculum with open-and-go daily lesson plans. Known for gentle pacing, beautiful design, and young-earth creation science integration.
My Father's World
My Father's World
Christian curriculum blending Charlotte Mason, classical, and unit study approaches with a missions-focused worldview. Designed for multi-age family learning with structured daily plans.
Oak Meadow
Oak Meadow
Waldorf-inspired secular curriculum emphasizing creativity, nature, and hands-on learning. Offers both independent homeschool materials and an accredited distance-learning school option.
Outschool
Outschool
Marketplace of independent teachers offering 140,000+ live small-group video classes, 1:1 tutoring, and self-paced courses for ages 3-18. Supplemental enrichment, not a full curriculum.
Power Homeschool
International Academy of Science
Self-paced video curriculum sharing identical content with Acellus Academy but without enrollment, accreditation, or teacher support. Significant 2025 price increase from ~$31/mo to $99/mo.
Schoolhouse Teachers
The Old Schoolhouse
Christian all-access homeschool curriculum platform with 400+ courses, lesson plans, recordkeeping, and transcripts. One flat fee per family covers unlimited students.
Sonlight
Sonlight Curriculum
Literature-based Christian curriculum built around parent-led read-alouds and high-quality living books. All-Subjects Packages provide a full year of instruction across multiple subjects.
Time4Learning
Time4Learning
Secular self-paced PreK-12 full curriculum with animated lessons, automated grading, and recordkeeping. Most popular secular all-subjects digital subscription.
Common questions
Frequently asked
How many science credits do homeschoolers need?
Three years is the common expectation, with at least two including lab work. Selective and STEM-focused programs often want four, typically Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and an advanced course. Check the admission requirements of a few target colleges early rather than discovering a gap in senior year.
How do we do lab science at home?
Kit-based curricula, video-demonstrated labs, co-op lab days, and community college courses all work. What a college wants to see is that the student did hands-on work with real procedures and wrote it up. Keep lab reports and photographs in the portfolio so the credit is documented.
What order should high school sciences go in?
Biology, Chemistry, then Physics is the most common sequence, largely because Chemistry and Physics need more math. If your student is strong in math, Physics can come earlier. The practical constraint is that Chemistry generally needs Algebra 1 finished and Physics goes better with Algebra 2 underway.
Does a science course without labs still count?
It can count as a credit, but label it honestly on the transcript. Write Biology rather than Biology with Lab if there was no lab component. Colleges that require lab science will check, and an inaccurate transcript label is a much bigger problem than a missing lab.
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