School Launch
Wisdom for the mind, skill for the hands.
A classical Christian home for independent learning. Find trusted resources by topic, pick up a trade or hobby, and follow the path of a hero you want to become. Built by Christian parents, teachers and craftsmen who share what they know.
Learn on your own
Choose a hero, find your path, and learn how to study like a craftsman: practice, test yourself, and make something real.
Start the student track →Teach what you know
Step-by-step guides to building a lesson, filming a teaching video, and launching your own teaching website, then listing it here.
Start the educator track →Browse by topic
Two wings: the academic arts, and the Workshop for trades and hobbies.
The Hero's Path
Eight archetypes, each with a virtue and a set of paths. Choose one to see where to begin.
Fabricando fit faber · by making, one becomes a maker
Find resources by topic
A starter shelf of trusted resources, free and paid, from our house brand, independent creators and established providers. Every listing is labeled by cost, format, age and faith perspective.
Contests worth entering
Writing, speech, math, science, art, music, agriculture, business and Bible contests that homeschool and classical school students can enter. A good contest gives a student a real audience, a firm deadline and a reason to do their best work.
Deadlines and rules change every year. Dates shown are approximate, so always confirm on the official contest site before you plan around them.
Channels worth watching
Free YouTube channels that teach real subjects and real skills, from arithmetic and Latin to welding and gardening. Each channel was chosen for its reputation and track record, not vetted video by video, so parents should preview before handing over the screen.
Links open on YouTube, which shows its own recommendations and ads. Stick to a channel's playlists, and watch new videos first.
Learn on your own
Independent learners don't wait to be taught. You pick a direction, practice on purpose, and show what you made. Here is how to start.
1. Choose your hero
Pick the archetype that sounds most like who you want to become. Each opens a set of topics in the directory. You can climb more than one.
2. Learn how to learn
These six habits work for every subject, including the Workshop. Practice testing and spaced practice are the best-supported by research; the other four are sound, time-tested practice.
Test yourself
After you read or watch, close it and write down what you remember, or answer practice questions. Recalling is what makes learning stick.
Space it out
Study a topic a little on several days instead of all at once. Come back to old material each week.
Mix it up
Once you know a few kinds of problems, practice them shuffled together, so you learn to choose the right method.
Explain it
Ask yourself why and how. Teach it out loud to a sibling, a parent, or an empty chair.
Make something
Finish every unit with a thing you built, fixed, wrote, cooked or performed. That goes in your portfolio.
Ask for help early
Stuck for more than 20 minutes? Write down exactly where you got lost and ask a parent or mentor.
Research: Dunlosky et al. (2013), “Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest, rated practice testing and spaced (distributed) practice as the two most useful of the ten techniques it reviewed. Roediger & Karpicke (2006), “Test-enhanced learning,” Psychological Science.
3. Plan your week
A simple rhythm for self-directed learners. Adjust it with your parents.
| Block | What you do | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Scripture and prayer | Read a passage of Scripture, recite a memory verse or a catechism question, and pray. | Daily |
| Scholar block | Core subjects: math, reading, Latin or another language. Test yourself at the end. | Daily |
| Workshop block | A trade or hobby project with a parent or mentor nearby. | 2–3 times a week |
| Explore block | Follow a new curiosity from the directory for one hour. | Weekly |
| Review | Quiz yourself on last week's material and plan next week. | Weekly |
| Show your work | Add a photo or write-up of something you finished to your portfolio. | Every finished project |
4. Earn your rank
Ranks are earned by what you make and show, never by time spent or money paid.
Welding, power tools, engines, knives and stoves can hurt you. Before any Workshop project, check the resource's age guidance, wear the listed safety gear, and work with an adult who knows the tool. Never work alone with heat, blades or engines.
Teach what you know
If you have taught your own children, built a teaching site, or know a trade well, you can teach here. These guides take you from an idea to a lesson, a video, and a website, and then onto our shelf.
Create a lesson
Start from the end: decide what the learner will be able to do, how you'll know, and only then what to teach.
- Name one goal.Write it as something a learner can do: “Decline first-declension Latin nouns,” or “Lay a straight weld bead.” One lesson, one goal.
- Decide the proof.Write three questions or one small task that shows the goal was met. Build these before the lesson.
- List what they need first.Name the prerequisites and link to lessons that teach them.
- Teach with a worked example.Show one complete example step by step, explaining each step, before asking learners to try.
- Practice, then practice mixed.Give a few problems like the example, then a few mixed with earlier material.
- End by making something.Close with a small project, and include a quick review of last lesson's material at the start of the next.
| Goal | The learner will be able to… |
|---|---|
| Proof | 3 questions or 1 task that show the goal is met |
| Before you start | Prerequisites, tools, materials, safety gear |
| Hook | One real-world question or object that makes it matter |
| Worked example | A complete example, step by step |
| Practice | 3–5 similar problems, then 2–3 mixed with earlier lessons |
| Make | A small project for the portfolio |
| Details | Ages, time needed, cost, faith-integrated or not |
Grounded in “backward design” (Wiggins & McTighe, Understanding by Design), research on worked examples (Sweller and colleagues), and retrieval and spaced practice (Dunlosky et al., 2013).
Make a teaching video
Short, clear and well lit beats long and polished. A phone is enough.
- Keep it short.Aim for under 6 minutes per video. A study of 6.9 million edX video sessions found engagement dropped off sharply after about 6 minutes. Split longer lessons into parts.
- Write a simple outline.Goal, worked example, one common mistake, a practice prompt. Cut anything that doesn't serve the goal.
- Get the sound right.Record in a quiet, soft-furnished room. An inexpensive clip-on microphone improves a video more than a better camera.
- Show the hands.For Workshop skills, film from over the shoulder so viewers see what you see. Show the safety gear on camera.
- Point at what matters.Highlight, circle or zoom on the step you're explaining. Speak and show at the same time.
- Add captions and publish.Upload to YouTube or Vimeo, turn on captions, and link each video from your lesson page.
Guo, Kim & Rubin (2014), “How video production affects student engagement,” ACM Learning at Scale. Design advice follows Mayer's multimedia learning principles: cut extras, signal key steps, and split into segments.
Build a teaching website
A website gives your lessons a permanent home you own. Latin Launchpad started as one teacher's site for his own students.
- Pick one topic and one audience.“Latin for 10- to 14-year-olds” is a website. “Everything I know” is not.
- Plan one page per lesson.Use the lesson template above for each page, plus a home page with the path in order.
- Choose how to build it.No-code: Google Sites. Simple code: plain HTML pages, which AI assistants like Claude can help you write and fix.
- Publish it for free.Netlify and GitHub Pages host simple sites at no cost. Add your own domain name later for about $10–20 a year.
- Make it easy to use.Large readable text, clear headings, alt text on images, and pages that work on a phone.
- List it here.Submit it below so families can find it by topic.
List your resource
Founding creators are listed free. Every listing is reviewed against our standards: a working site, original work, accurate content, and clear labels for ages, cost and faith perspective.
Raising builders
We equip high-agency families and students to learn independently, branch into new subjects, and master real skills and trades, so that children grow like Bezalel, whom God “filled… with the spirit of God, in wisdom… and in all manner of workmanship” (Exodus 31:3), and become builders who serve God and their neighbor.
Our vision
School Launch is a classical Christian education resource. We are building a community of Christian parents, creators and skilled practitioners so that every child, homeschooled or not, can find heroes worth imitating and the tools to become one: people who think clearly, work skillfully, and measure their lives by what they build and whom they serve rather than by what they own.
Core commitments
Honor the Family's Calling
Parents are their children's first teachers (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). We serve families and never replace them.
Share Gifts Generously
Each of us has a gift to use in serving others (1 Peter 4:10). Creators will own their work and keep most of what it earns.
Unite Mind and Hands
Academics and trades are one whole, with Christ at the center. Chemistry belongs in the welding shop.
Sharpen One Another
“Iron sharpeneth iron” (Proverbs 27:17). Creators review each other's work with honesty and grace.
Pursue Excellence and Beauty
“Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord” (Colossians 3:23).
Built to last
School Launch is mission-first. Revenue keeps it stable, and scholarships keep price from deciding who learns.
School Launch stands with the historic Christian faith as summarized in the Apostles’ Creed, confessed by Christians across the centuries and around the world.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
Write to us
Questions, ideas, a skill you'd like to teach, or a family looking for a place to start. Send a note and a real person will read it and write back.