Khan Academy

You can learn anything. For free.

Khan Academy

That’s the premise behind Khan Academy – a free learning platform that originally started as tutoring videos intended for Sal Khan’s cousin in math and has grown to a global enterprise to bring learning to anyone who wants to learn. Since the beginning, homeschoolers all excitedly got behind this project because it allowed their kids to learn math from another voice, in a visual and audio manner.

These days, Khan Academy offers video instruction in math from the very beginning (1+1=?) to complex calculus equations. Each lesson includes a video explanations and practice questions which you repeat until you’ve reached a “mastery” level of skill.

Along the way, you earn energy points – kind of like experience points, that you can use to upgrade your little avatar creature. You also earn badges that showcase a variety of things completed. By gamifying the program, it makes it exciting to keep learning.

  • KhanAcademyBadgesChallenge Patches are awarded mostly for mastery of skills in a single skill – like Grade 3 addition and subtraction.
  • Meteorite Badges are a great encouragement when you first are starting out. They encourage you to get using all sorts of things in the program.
  • Moon Badges are given for small successes such as mastering 15 skills or completing your mastery challenges for the week.
  • Earth Badges are for completing tasks like being a member for 3 years, or answering problems within a speedy time limit.
  • Sun badges are for more complex completions – like watching 10 hours of videos, earning 1,000,000 energy points, or asking 100 questions.
  • The BlackHole Badges are mysteries – how to receive them is complex and unknown. Definitely top challenges!

Today, Khan Academy is much more than just math. It has grown to include a wide variety of other subjects, such as:

  • Sal Khan - the founder of Khan AcademyAstronomy
  • Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
  • Music
  • Art History
  • Economics
  • Computer Programming

While not all of these are as in-depth or detailed as the math portion, they are growing and expanding regularly and they know there is much potential for this platform.

And, if you are wanting to learn in French …. guess what? They are already working on translating the entire website into French! (This is a work in progress so not everything is available yet.)

As a homeschooling parent, Khan Academy allows our children to learn from a different voice and a different angle. It allows them to work independently and to see their accomplishments through their awards and badges. It encourages mastery of skills as they work to reach their goals. It is a great tool.

 

Lisa Marie Fletcher
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12 thoughts on “Khan Academy”

  1. Ferozkhan (+919840668749)

    My son is studying 6std in Chennai India ,he has good knowledge but school is not supporting him,so I want to admit in your academy ,pls help us regarding this what should we do .

  2. johnny basil mattingly

    hi i would like to learn computer programming or game design my family has been split up for a while now and my father suggested you

    1. Hey Johnny,
      Check out KhanAcademy.org for computer programming. They have some great resources. There are lots of programming resources online – you just have to do some googling. 🙂

  3. Arshdeep Singh Bhullar

    I live in Canada. I am preparing for a mathematics and science test. May I use Khan Academy as a curriculum? Does it resemble the syllabus that Canadian schools have?

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