Free homeschool math curriculum by grade: a weekly plan using games

As a free homeschool math curriculum, a workable week is four or five short sessions, each with three parts: one new lesson part, a few minutes of mixed fact practice, and a learning game played in its numbers mode. Peabody (peabody.kids) has free math lessons for every grade from Pre-K to 8th, a practice brain that brings facts back on a schedule, and more than twenty games where the question is part of the play. It is free through the end of 2026, with no sign-up. This guide gives the plan by grade, what Peabody covers at each, and what it does not.

The part counts are how many lesson parts Peabody's Numbers section holds for each grade today. On screen the grades are called Level 1 to Level 10, so a child never has to think about which grade they are "supposed" to be in.

The weekly plan

Four or five days a week, 10 to 25 minutes a day depending on age. The shape is the same at every grade; the content changes.

Why short and often: Cepeda and colleagues' 2006 review of 317 experiments found that spreading practice across sessions beats massing it, and a January 2026 Education Week summary of math-fact research recommends two to ten minutes at a time, several times a week. Why mix: in a 787-student randomized trial, mixed practice beat blocked practice 61% to 38% a month later. There is more on that in the interleaving post.

A simple rotation that keeps old work alive: Monday to Thursday, the next lesson part plus practice; Friday, no new part, just a review day with two older parts and a longer game. Every part stays open, so on Friday a child can go back to any part they found hard.

Pre-K and kindergarten: counting before facts

At these ages the work is counting, comparing and making small numbers. Peabody's practice brain starts a Pre-K or kindergarten child on counting, then making ten, before adding facts. Lesson parts cover adding and taking away to 5 (Pre-K) and to 10 (K), number bonds and the teens.

• Lesson: one part a day, read aloud with 🔊 so a non-reader can do it.
• Practice: a few minutes in a game rather than a drill. Rocket Number Blast and Critter Farm are gentle choices; every answer is three big boxes, so nothing needs typing.
• What to watch: whether your child counts on from the bigger number or starts again from one. That is a skill, not a speed issue, and no app will see it as well as you will.

1st and 2nd grade: facts to 20, then place value

The practice brain starts here on adding. Facts come in a strategy order: plus zero, plus one, doubles, make ten, plus ten, near doubles, plus nine, then the rest. Each fact is asked three ways (3 + 4 = ?, 3 + ? = 7 and ? + 4 = 7). A fact answered quickly and right comes back after 1, then 3, then 7, then 21 days, and a question answered right is not asked again.

• Lesson: fact families and tens and ones in 1st grade; regrouping and coins in 2nd. 2nd grade's "Fast facts to 20" mixes adding and taking away on purpose: "look at the sign first".
• Practice: from 2nd grade, Math Dojo's Flash Deck (20 cards) and Sprint 60 (a one-minute belt test). New facts get an untimed warm-up before any clock, and belts never go down.
• Game: Dino Dash or Dip & Dash in Numbers mode.

3rd to 5th grade: times tables, then fractions and decimals

The practice brain starts a 3rd grader on times tables, in an order that teaches the easy tables first: 1, 2, 10, 5, 3, 4, 9, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12. Dividing opens in the Dojo once about a third of the times facts are known. The times-tables drill covers all 144 facts to 12 × 12, 20 to 30 a sitting, leaning toward the facts a child missed or answered slowly.

• Lesson: arrays, division, area and fractions in 3rd; multi-digit multiplying and decimals in 4th; unlike denominators and order of operations in 5th.
• Practice: the times-tables drill or a Dojo set, five minutes. A family account shows a 12 × 12 grid where each square is one fact, from "not tried yet" to "quick every time"; the child never sees the grid or a clock.
• Game: Temple Escape, Potion Shop or Onslaught in Numbers mode.

6th to 8th grade: the lessons do the heavy lifting

Peabody's practice brain tops out at times tables and dividing, so for middle school the lesson parts carry the grade's work: ratios, percents, negatives and equations in 6th; signed numbers, exponents, proportions and probability in 7th; slope, systems, functions and Pythagoras in 8th. There are over a hundred parts in each of these grades.

• Lesson: one or two parts a day.
• Practice: keep five minutes of facts going, especially if times tables are slow; the Dojo's quick bar is 2.5 seconds from 3rd grade up.
• Game: optional. Build World asks a practice question when a child breaks a Wonder block, which suits a child who wants to build more than drill.

What Peabody is, and what it is not, as a curriculum

Peabody is free practice and short lessons with problems made and marked by code. It is not a boxed curriculum, and it is honest to say what is missing:

• No standards report. Lessons follow familiar grade topics, and 7th grade follows the Open Up Resources Grade 7 order, but Peabody does not map parts to state standards or produce a grade report.
• No written work. Every answer is three boxes. Showing work, explaining reasoning and multi-step word problems on paper still need you.
• No test. Peabody has not been tested in a trial and gives no score that compares your child to others.
• The games are review. They draw on the same practice brain as the rounds; they do not teach new topics.

The lessons are open to everyone; a free family account adds the grown-up view and keeps progress across devices. Start free, or read a story from the library for the other half of the school day.

For the whole picture of reading and math in one place, with the weekly plan, the levels and the games linked together, see the homeschool hub and math by grade.

Questions parents ask

Is Peabody a full homeschool math curriculum?

It covers the main topics from Pre-K to 8th grade in short lesson parts, with fact practice and games, all free through the end of 2026. It does not produce a standards report, written work or a graded test, so most families pair it with a workbook or their own written problems.

How long should a homeschool math lesson be?

For young children, short and often beats long and rare. A 10- to 15-minute session for K–2 and 15 to 25 minutes for grades 3–5, four or five days a week, fits the research on spaced practice and on math facts.

Do I have to follow the grade order?

No. Every part of every grade is open, and "Up next" is a suggestion, not a gate. A child working on fractions at school can go straight to the fractions parts.

How do I know when my child knows their facts?

Look for quick and right, more than once. Peabody counts a fact as quick at about 3 seconds for adding and taking away and 2.5 seconds for times tables, brings known facts back after 1, 3, 7 and 21 days, and the family grid shows the times tables fact by fact.

Is the Math Dojo timed?

Only after a warm-up. New facts are shown with the answer, read aloud, and asked once with no clock. Then Flash Deck and the one-minute Sprint 60 time the facts a child already knows.