Affording the Homeschool Life... Curriculum

Affording the Homeschool Life:  The Curriculum

The decision to homeschool children can be a tough one.  When I first felt led to homeschool my children, I began a research campaign to learn all I could about how to homeschool.  I had many questions.

One of my biggest concerns was the cost of homeschooling.  My husband and I live on a pretty tight budget.  When I first began homeschooling, we had five children ranging from 18 months to 17 years old.  Four of my children were in public school. 

My husband agreed that we would "give it a year".  We would homeschool our third grader, since it seemed impossible to homeschool the other ones. I began researching curriculum.  I had an idea in my head of the way I wanted to homeschool, lots of great books and some workbooks.  I was searching for something that would meet my needs.  I was surprised at how expensive things were.  I quickly purchased a bunch of materials that kind of resembled the public school, except the materials were Christian and we had Bible as a subject. This is the way most start.

I must have tried a bit of twenty different curricula those first few years. I spent SO MUCH money!  Truthfully, it was a learning process that I pray can help teach others.  Homeschooling doesn't HAVE to cost a bunch of money!  

I still purchase different curriculum, but my standards aren't the same as they were ten years ago.  I've learned to invest in quality Christian books that are unlikely to be found local libraries.  I believe in investing in quality math programs.  I invest in materials, but I also know that amazing free materials are available online.

It doesn't take more than an internet connection to access a wide world of free curricula.  I've found amazing sites offering a plethora of amazing free lessons.  Some sites go through all or nearly all the years of schooling!

My favorite free sites include Ambleside online, Old Fashioned Education, and Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool.  With little more than an internet connection, a printer, and an Ereader (Nook, Kindle, Tablet); these sites can give your child a top quality, private-school education. No... I'm not joking. 

There are many blogs out there also that are amazing at leading parents to free or cheap homeschool options.  Large Family Mothering, Budget Homeschool, and on and on.  Just Google "free or cheap homeschool" and you'll get a huge list. Hop on Pinterest, search "free homeschool" and bask in all the amazing ideas and links and websites for every subject under the sun!  The development of sites like Khan Academy have made upper levels of math and science now suddenly doable... for free!  Colleges are filming lectures.  Youtube has lessons on everything from music to math demonstrations to biology dissections. Reading about Martin Luther King?  Watch his "I Have A Dream" speech online.  There are no limits for what can be learned with an internet connection, a library card, and some basic school supplies.

Composition Notebooks are awesome tools!

My new favorite homeschool tool is composition notebooks. I use them for nearly everything!  They make great books for copywork.  Glue key pages from workbooks in them to cut out busy work, focus on the essentials, and create a cute portfolio of their work at the same time.  We've been doing a lot a lot of notebooking this year, and composition books are perfect for that!  Sometimes we make our notebooks with the composition books; and sometimes we put our pages in sheet protectors in binders. Composition notebooks are cheap, already bound, and perfect for things that won't be removed. 

Notebooking page for poetry. (yes, she has a couple errors)

My seven year old has come to despise workbook pages.  However, sometimes they are useful.  I have managed to take a couple workbooks, and use the information in them to create lessons with most of the busy work cut out.  This has worked wonderfully, since I already own the workbooks.  However, this is a great way to take some of the thousands of free workbook printables online and add them to what you are studying.

Using random workbook pages to cut our excess busywork.

If you have considered homeschooling your child, but feel that you can't afford the materials, I wish to encourage you.  It doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.  I can easily spend hundreds on materials, and there have been years where I have.  There have also been years where I didn't because I didn't have the funds or because I didn't see the need.  I have found that, sad to say, the programs that have cost me the most financially were the ones my children tolerated, and often learned little.  There are exceptions, like Teaching Textbooks, but the children learn the most when they can be creative with their lessons! 

I love Charlotte Mason methods because they are effective and cheap.  It costs little more than the cost of a pencil and paper to teach a child to narrate.  It actually costs nothing for them to narrate verbally.  Why have endless curriculum testing for comprehension when you can have the child actually use higher level skills and retell what they read or had read to them?  Writing is a very efficient means of processing information and helping with retention.  It certainly works better than filling in the blanks or endless multiple choice questions.  Talk about a cost savings!

There are companies and curricula that I have found to be worth the expense of the materials.  I tend to buy many of my homeschooling supplies through Christianbook or private homeschool sellers.  I have loved Heart of Dakota at different times.  As I strive to get away from spending the hundreds for the upper levels per year, I find myself drawn to materials that guide, but give me lots of room to be creative.  I am finding that with Queen's Homeschool Supplies.  I also find that older materials, McGuffey Readers and public domain books, which are free online, are so much better than a lot of our modern materials.  The depth of the reading, the large vocabulary, the Christian principles that were such a part of the lives then; this is quality that is hard to duplicate in this day and age.  Many homeschooling companies take these older works and use them in their lessons because they are so wonderful!  Queen's Homeschool has taken multiple older works and revised them or created amazing  studies into science or history!

Don't let expense of materials keep you from homeschooling.  There are so many options in this day and age that it can actually be overwhelming.  Hop on the computer, research away, talk to other homeschoolers, read some books from the local library.  Don't be afraid that your child will not receive a quality education at home because of expense.  That excuse no longer works very well.  Homeschooling can be expensive if you think that is the only way to give your child a good education; or it can be as cheap as you need if you take some time and effort... and get a little creative.  And, if you do choose to invest in some quality materials, know that you are investing in your child.  It is never wasted.