Free and Low-Cost Homeschooling
What if I told you there are ways to provide your homeschooled child an excellent education on a shoestring budget? It's true. Many families have discovered the secrets to homeschooling frugally.
Here's how I did it:
I bought two excellent books to be our core, because I was anxious that without them as guide I might overlook teaching my daughter something she needed to know at this stage. Both books will be able to be used for multiple children, and one of them will be useful for more than a single year. For the rest, I utilized the internet and the world around us. Read on for tips, tricks, and fantastic websites.
Tips and Tricks for Homeschooling Nearly Free
Use the library. If you can, use a library with an inter-library loan system for better access to more books.
Use the Internet, and don't limit yourself to homeschooling websites. There are excellent sites created for and by teachers that allow anyone access.
If you don't have a printer yet, check your library. Many that allow you to use computers also allow you to print things for about the same price as making a copy.
Buy used, swap, and FreeCycle. Second hand book stores, yard sales, library sales, thrift stores, FreeCycle, eBay, Amazon used, homeschool classifieds.com, and your local homeschooling group's used curriculum swap or sale are great places to find inexpensive but still quite usable materials. If your local homeschool group doesn't have a swap or sale, consider getting one organized. Another thing to consider is the enlistment of family and friends to help keep an eye out for materials at yard sales, etc. When shopping, too, keep in mind what you may not need yet, but will need in the next year or two, and pick it up if you find it for a great deal.
Know your community. Check your local museums and similar resources for special programs and free or discount days. For example, our local conservation park has many free and low-cost educational programs and special family event days, as well as free access to some areas of the park throughout the year. Some of those low-cost educational programs are specifically designed for homeschoolers.
Watch for low-cost yearly memberships that may be less than you'd pay to visit a couple of times a year. And it doesn't hurt to ask about homeschool or educational discounts.Consider homeschooling materials when family asks you what they should buy your children for birthdays and holidays. Educational games, science equipment, building toys, craft supplies - so many things can double as a *fun* gift and serve a homeschooling purpose.
Keep an eye on your local stores for sales and items on clearance. I've found some amazing things on the clearance tables at our local Waldenbooks, and the best book I've seen on space for young children came from a bargain bin at our local grocery store. Don't forget your dollar stores. Many have books and toy sections and you never know what you might find.
So many choices.
When we first began actively homeschooling our daughter, I was overwhelmed by the choices in curriculum. I had little idea of what her learning style was, or even what my general schooling philosophy was. We had made the decision to homeschool long before we had children, and homeschooled her from the very beginning. I leaned toward unschooling, and the Waldorf/Montessori models, and yet Charlotte Mason's methods and The Well-Trained Mind appealed to me, too. The last thing I was ready to do, at that point, was sink a lot of money into a curriculum.
So I took an eclectic approach while I was making up my mind and learning what worked for my daughter. I've found that flexibility suits us perfectly. And in time I realized that while expensive curricula and flashy educational tools may have a lot of appeal, but they really aren't necessary. When you break your mind free from the idea that you have to reproduce the public school experience (with structured curriculum), the world opens up and the possibilities are endless. Then you discover you can do just fine (and even better) without them.
Common Sense, Real-World Math
I was never one to "hate" math or buy into the thinking that math wasn't a subject girls did well with. It wasn't a passion, as History and English always have been for me, but it wasn't a bane, either. I confess, though, I have felt intimidated when trying to teach the basic concepts to my children at their current preschool and elementary ages.
We hear a lot about making what we're trying to teach relevant to our children, and, on the topic of math specifically, about math manipulatives, which are physical objects they can interact with, move around (manipulate) to take those abstract ideas and make them concrete. There's a lot to be said in favor of manipulatives, and I'd been devoting some thought to what we might already have on hand that could be used for this, or, failing that, how else a frugal-minded parent might approach it. There are few options but nothing that really clicked for us, mostly because the suggestions I was happening across lacked the relevance I knew they needed.
I'd like to point you to an article I read that tied all this together and offered the solution in a practical, common-sense, and yes, frugal way: How I taught my daughter mathematics, or: It's all in the hook.
My Favorite Free Homeschool Resources
- Starfall.com
- Learning games and activities teaching beginning reading skills. Aimed at kindergarten through second graders.
- iKnow that.com
- A website full of fun learning games and activities for ages 2-12. Hundreds of topics in math, language arts, social studies, arts, and science. There's even a virtual world where kids can interact, play, and learn together. A free account allows children to save all their projects and scores, show their accomplishments, and earn points to spend in the virtual world. Advertiser supported. If you want to remove the ads, you can become a paying subscriber.
- Teacher Resource Exchange
- A U.K. moderated database of resources and activities created by teachers. Free to use, and you don't need to make an account to access the materials.
- Free lesson Plans from Scholastic
- With printables and suggested reading.
- LearningPage.com
- Lots of free lesson plans and printables.
- Fabulous Freebies for Teachers and Homeschoolers
- Here you will find lesson plans, games, coloring pages, worksheets, craft ideas, posters, and more.
And don't miss the page Fabulous Freebies and Fun Links for Kids. Lots of free games and activities, and covers some topics and holidays less commonly seen.
While you're there, sign up for the weekly newsletter. - Houghton Mifflin's suggested study themes and activities
- Lots of neat ideas, marked with suggested grade range and subject.
- Walden Media
- Offers games based on beloved classic books that have recently been made movies, and has a teaching section with activities, lesson plans, and downloads based on the same. This the company that brought us the recent Chronicles of Narnia movies, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Charlotte's Web, Hoot, Nim's Island, City of Ember, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and so many more. According to the website, Walden Media works with museums, teachers, and national organizations to develop supplemental materials associated with the films, original novels, and events depicted in them. I'm impressed by the quality, and love that the site is very homeschooler friendly, free to join and use without jumping through hoops.
Free Homeschool Curriculum
Two very flexible options.
The key to using a free online curriculum is to use it as a backbone, and use books from the library and online resources to fill it in.
- Ambleside Online
A free online curriculum that is patterned after Charlotte Mason's. It uses as many free online books as possible, and there is no cost to use the site or join the support group.
- WorldBook Encyclopedia's Curriculum Guide
Gives a comprehensive outline, from Kindergarten to Grade 12, that you can fill in with resources of your choice.
Best Databases of Free Educational Materials
- A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling Free Curriculum Materials Page
- A to Z Home's Cool is one of the best sites out there on everything homeschooling. For the answers to beginning homeschooling questions to the best resources available now, this is your stop.
- Homeschool.com's top 100 Educational Websites of 2009
- Homeschool.com is a fantastic resource in itself. Here is their 2009 list of best educational websites, chosen by their 7,000 homeschooling product testers. Only one entry on the list is a commercial site, and it's there by popular demand. You'll see many of my favorites listed elsewhere in this lens also on this list.
More Great Educational Site Databases
- Best Homeschooling.org
- Links to educational sites, free homeschooling resources, fun interactive learning activities, and information about homeschooling.
- Nearly Free Homeschooling
- Has free unit studies, lapbooks, and notebook pages as well as an extensive database of free sites.
- Homeschool Buyers Co-Op
- This link leads to their free curriculum and resources listing.
Homeschool Freebie of the Day
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Frugal Homeschooling Guestbook
Feedback is always appreciated. If you have an awesome free or frugal homeschooling resource or tip you'd like to share, that would be welcome, too.
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Reply
- wolftyrs wolftyrs Oct 25, 2009 @ 4:59 pm | in reply to marsha32
- Thanks. :)
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Reply
- marsha32 marsha32 Oct 10, 2009 @ 9:40 pm
- awesome! I'm going to add this to the featured lenses on my homeschooling lens.
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Reply
- wolftyrs wolftyrs Jul 27, 2009 @ 10:48 am | in reply to luvmyludwig
- :) You're welcome.
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Reply
- luvmyludwig luvmyludwig Jul 27, 2009 @ 7:57 am
- I have decided to have more structured play this school year with my 2 and a half year old and will be "homeschooling" him till he goes to public school when he's 4. These are great resources to have, thank you.
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Reply
- wolftyrs wolftyrs Jul 7, 2009 @ 10:49 pm | in reply to Vacation-In-My-Head
- You're welcome, and thank you. :)
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