Considering Homeschooling Question:
Posted By Jacque on July 19, 2008
I received an email from a Mom who is considering homeschooling her two sons. She, like the rest of us, wants the best for her children in the least expensive way possible!
Hi Jacque,
My husband and I are considering homeschooling our younger two boys. Hunter going into 5th grade and Daniel going into 7th grade. Currently I am looking for any way to do this cheaply. I would have loved to use the A Beka DVD series but we just can’t afford that per month. I have been teaching for 4 years a Christian school and my boys were going there. I taught a combination class of 3rd and 4th graders so I am familiar with A Beka curriculum.
Any tips on how to acquire curriculum cheaply?
If you can give me some great ideas about how you homeschool cheaply, with great resources, let the ideas fly!! If you would prefer to Email Me, that is fine too!
Here are mine:
First of all, if you know the LORD, trust Him to lead you.
Ask Him to guide your decisions and show you ways to homeschool your family. He is concerned with them and you and your relationships – your sanity! – and does want to be a part of these decisions!
Be sure to check out your State Homeschool Laws
It is important that you know the homeschool laws in your state. Indiana school representatives have tried several times to tell IN homeschool families that they need to report to the Superintendent of their school district to report their homeschool information. That is entirely against the law for them to do, and they were called on it. Some state DOE’s WILL try that stuff. They just will. Some states have a few different way s to homeschool. The state will most likely tell you to do whatever it takes for them to have some control over your school (I have heard of this also), so you need to know your state laws.
HSLDA has a great Homeschool Laws page. There is a pdf format Legal Analysis, which is a summary of the homeschool laws for each US state. They used to have charts for each state, but they have been removed. Since we are looking to move, I rely on these pages frequently.
A to Z’s Cool Homeschooling has a page with links for Homeschool Laws and Legalities for many different things.
Each state has its own homeschool central of some type. Indiana has IAHE: Indiana Association of Home Educators. They have a page specifically for IN to inform homeschoolers of the IN homeschool laws. For your state, do a search of your state name and “homeschool laws”.
Homeschool them in the same subjects you can together.
A lot of times, doing a unit study of a topic, using the same books and movies or crafts is a great way to not have to buy separate textbooks. What can you teach together as unit studies??
Buy non-consumable textbooks.
We use Saxon for some of our children, and then we pass it down as necessary. Some workbooks we have them write in, but some of them they copy out of.
Make up your own worksheets and curriculum.
Honestly, anyone can do a google search and find resources and information on a specific topic. Children can even do their own research on safe sites after a certain age and can certainly read topic-specific books and articles and write reports to learn about them. Here is an example of what I am talking about: Gardening 101 – You *Can* Teach Your Children!!
Teach out of the Bible.
There are many truths and a lot of history in the Bible. The Word is so precious and can sustain you for an entire year if you wish it to.
Teach life skills.
Life will last a lot longer than school days, and it is so important to equip our children to live in the world and with others. Life skills is not really a class, but a mindset. It is ok to stop and take time out of a day to talk about or include your child in your everyday jobs around the home. It is important that they learn a good work ethic and how to care for a home and family.
Buy on EBay.
A lot of times homeschoolers purchase something they loved, only to find it didn’t fit them or they didn’t have time for it. I have built up my homeschool resources library on EBay.
Stick with something you trust and love.
If it works for you, don’t change it. I am saying this because it is easier to use a curriculum you know and love instead of spending time and money looking for something else. We used to use all A Beka. Now we are eclectic in our approach, but I still buy the math workbooks and some grammar for the Littles from A Beka. It works for us.
Look into several different homeschool approaches/methods,
and choose what will fit your family lifestyle and philosophy best. There are many ideas out there and resources online that are free using these approaches. Some that come to mind are:
The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach
The Charlotte Mason Method-Ambleside Online
HOW has a chart with many different homeschool methods listed. They are ones that are incorporated into the HOW Teaching Approach
Do what you can for free.
There are many sites that allow you to use their resources for free. Search the internet and see what fits you. Some of my favorite FREE Resources are from:
Let’s Homeschool has a list of Educational Freeware site
A to Z Home’s Cool Homeschooling has a LIST too.Donna Young’s site is so awesome, you can find so much there! She has a lot of organization resources for mom, but also a lot of worksheets for use with textbooks in Math, History, Science, English, Handwriting and Art.
For new homeschoolers, Donna also has:Homeschool Math has free worksheets and information on free resources and math books.
Google search “free homeschool resources“, and you will find pages and pages.Become and Affiliate
with online stores you love and trust. You can earn credit and sometimes cash with them by referring people to their sites.
We homeschool our writing skills by Blogging To Learn.
I explained that a bit in my TOS article. Basically, I read and correct and teach them from writing assignments they publish on their blogs, but there is so much more to it. There are also so many ways to work it. I am working on setting up my site to add more information to it. It has opened up doors for graphic design and web design. Amazing! and, we all learned HTML by designing our Homeschoolblogger blog templates. Jocelyn is now proficient enough in CSS to design blogs and just finished upgrading her blog version.
Use your local library.
We use ours for the books as well as videos and DVDs. I do not, however, let my younger children (and I mean 14 and under) go there very often. The books on display in the children’s and youth section alone are mostly inappropriate. Most of the videos are definitely inappropriate. They do not go down those aisles. A couple of great things about the library are their inter-library loans, where you can borrow resources from other libraries through yours, and also access from my own computer to their database. I can search for resources and request them and not spend time searching at the library. We rarely have our children on library computers, and, as I said, never the younger ones. We have been thoroughly disgusted at what adults and children are allowed to view and play online just a few feet from another computer user.
Make up a schedule or a plan.
As with all things in life, homeschooling economicallyworks better with a schedule or a plan. You won’t feel like you are lost and have to buy something – anything – and make an unwise purchase you will later regret.
Buy things at a convention or display with a discount.
A Beka does local homeschool displays where the shipping is free. It saves me at least $50 if I drive to it, and also gives me the opportunity to check out the products and make sure they are in line with where my children are in their studies.
Get on some mailing/email lists.
Don’t get me wrong: I do not like junk mail. However, if you are looking at a product, it is a good thing to know when they are having a sale or there are discounted items you may be able to purchase.
Have a homeschool budget.
Plan to buy. Work it out with your husband/wife how much you can reasonably sock away to use when you find something at a good price. Sometimes our children work through what we planned earlier than expected, and we will want to purchase something at an off-time. A budget ensures that you won’t be taking away from your household budget, and it won’t appear to be a burden (which it isn’t).
Subscribe to reputable a homeschool magazine, like The Home School Digest.
A subscription isn’t exactly free, but for what you get in 4 issues a year is definitely a wise purchase for your homeschool. There are many encouraging articles, godly encouragement and tons of homeschooling information.
Subscribe to and read homeschool blogs.
Find like-minded homeschool families – bloggers and familiarize yourself with what works for them. Most homeschool bloggers will readily tell you what they use in their homeschool. A blog is a great tool, in that it allows you to search what they have already written about their favorite curriculum. You will certainly glean a lot of information and find some ideas that will work great for your family. If you find a blog you like, a good way to find like-minded bloggers is to check out what blogs they read. Those are usually listed on their sidebar. If you want some great ones to get started, see my sidebar!
Read homeschool sites
like Homeschool Blog Awards for tips, contests, resource reviews and homeschool-related articles to find out more about homeschooling and the homeschool community.
Peruse Walking Therein
I have pages with Product Reviews, How We Learn, and Links for Homeschoolers. I have listed great blog rolls and a widget of my recommended resources, many of them being homeschool resources. you can also peruse Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths where I have a lot of posts I have yet to transfer!
If you would like to know more about how we homeschool here at our home, I am happy to tell you that I have an article in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Summer 2008 Issue. You can also search my archives here or read them at my original blog, Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths.
My top resource recommendations to new homschool moms would be The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach, Teaching the Trivium, Educating the Wholehearted Child, and The Charlotte Mason Companion.
I hope this is an encouragement and some good information as you seek God’s plan for your homeschool!
Thanks!!
blessings!
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6 Responses to “Considering Homeschooling Question:”
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Along with your wonderful suggestions, I would also suggest a couple other items-
OldFashionedEducation.com -a full curriculum online very heavily based on free online books.
Amblesideonline.com -similar to Old Fashioned Education
Both of the above need books printed off the computer and I save money there by printing at the library, printing two pages to a paper and printing both sides of a paper.
Google a subject and you will find free stuff online for just about everything.
Join a good yahoo group or the like that discusses free ed. stuff from the internet. People on those lists are a wealth of info when it comes to finding sites for different subjects.
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Yes, Kate, good suggestions!! How could I forget the Yahoo! Groups?? I blogged a whole list of them on the HSBA! I guess I should re-post them to here.
Thanks!
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Excellent post! This is one to bookmark for future reminders, even if you’ve already been homeschooling a little while or a long time. Thanks so much for sharing. I look forward to reading your article in TOS.
I’m also glad to see a picture of you & Matt on the blog. While I love seeing the kiddos, it’s nice to see a shot of you two as a couple. Very sweet picture.
Dianne – Bunny Trailss last blog post..Let’s Party, Peeps!!
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Jacque, this is a great listing. I’m adding it to my homeschool list tomorrow at The Homespun Life
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Great post Mother dear! I’m sure it answers a lot of good questions for people and I hope they will take it to heart!
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Thank you for all the suggestions. I will have to weed through them all and see what I can come up with. Unfortunately, the way my brain works is the less I have to choose from the better. I have a difficult time narrowing things down and making decisions when there are so many different choices. I appreciate all your help it means a great deal!
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