Educational Tools for Parents & Homeschool
Free and affordable learning tools for home
This page lists educational tools for Australian parents, carers, and homeschooling families — free or affordable tools that support children's learning at home without needing a school licence. If you're a homeschool registered family (in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, or any other state), a tutor, a grandparent helping with reading, or a parent topping up what school covers, start here.
The tools below are grouped by what you're actually trying to do at home: make a maths worksheet for tonight's practice, generate a word search from your child's current spelling list, print colouring pages tied to a school topic, create a reading journal template, build a weekly routine with visual supports, or put together a holiday activity pack that isn't just screen time. Most tools are free to use; where a tool has a paid tier, we note what the free version covers.
Year-level fit: for early years (ages 3–5) we favour print-and-play activities and short-session apps. For primary (Foundation–Year 6) we focus on tools that match what schools in Australia actually teach — phonics for early readers, times tables and fractions for middle primary, NAPLAN-style practice for Years 3 and 5, and persuasive and narrative writing scaffolds for upper primary. For secondary we lean on revision, note-taking, and study-planning tools.
We do not recommend any tool that requires a child to create their own account with personal details. Tools that have a teacher-moderated or parent-moderated account option are flagged. All tools listed are usable from a browser on a phone, tablet, or laptop — no specialist software needed.
Phonics Hero
A systematic synthetic phonics app free for teachers, with over 850 games covering all 44 phonemes — designed for Australian and UK classrooms.
MagicSchool AI
A suite of 60+ AI tools built specifically for teachers — lesson planners, rubric generators, IEP writers, and communication drafters that save hours every week.
Smiling Mind
A free, Australian-developed mindfulness app with curriculum-aligned programmes for schools, created by psychologists and educators.
Too Noisy
A fun classroom noise level monitor that uses dynamic visuals and a built-in rewards system to help teachers manage volume levels.
Diffit
AI-powered differentiation tool that creates levelled readings, vocabulary lists, comprehension questions, and summaries adapted to each student's reading level.
Classroomscreen
A free customisable digital dashboard for teachers with timer, random name picker, noise monitor, traffic lights, and dozens more widgets.
Bouncy Balls
A free, browser-based classroom noise monitor where colourful balls bounce higher as the room gets louder — no sign-up required.
Notebook LM
AI notebooks grounded in your own sources that auto-generate study guides, podcasts, video overviews, and mind maps from uploaded PDFs, notes, or links.
Curipod
Interactive, AI-generated slides with polls, word clouds, drawings, and SEL check-ins that give teachers real-time student engagement data.
My Curriculum Mate
An AI-powered planning platform for Australian K-12 teachers that generates curriculum-aligned lesson plans, unit plans, worksheets, slideshows, and NAPLAN prep resources — all mapped to ACARA v9.0, NSW NESA 2024, and Victorian Curriculum 2.0.
Tynker
A gamified coding platform used in 150,000+ schools with 200+ tutorials, where kids build games, control drones, and create Minecraft mods.
Almanack AI
AI-powered curriculum design tool for unit planning, assessment generation, and standards alignment that saves teachers hours of planning time.
Otsimo
A gamified special education and speech therapy app for children with autism and developmental disabilities, with personalised learning paths.
QuestionWell
Generate question banks, learning objectives, and assessments from any text, video, or topic — then export to Google Forms, Kahoot, Blooket, and more.
Twee
All-in-one AI platform to create, share, and grade language lessons with vocabulary exercises, dialogues, and reading texts aligned to CEFR levels.
Your Staff Room
A trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming AI platform for Australian educators — featuring lesson builders, report writers, behaviour support planners, social story creators, and learner profile generators with OT and Speech Pathology lenses.
Lesson Creator
An AI platform that generates 13 teaching resources simultaneously — lesson plans, PowerPoints, worksheets, quizzes, crosswords, word searches, and more — all from a single learning intention, aligned to Australian Curriculum v9.0.
Inkhorn
An AI-powered report card comment writer built by a former NSW maths teacher. Create reusable sentence banks, auto-insert student names and pronouns, and let AI help craft personalised feedback for every student.
Handwriting Repeater
A free web-based handwriting practice tool that demonstrates correct letter formation in real time. Features Loop and Trace modes, dotted thirds, tram lines, and adjustable pen styles — perfect for Foundation to Year 4 handwriting lessons.