Do you want to home school but you’re not sure if you’ll be able to afford it? Have you checked out the prices of home schooling curriculum only to be discouraged? Do you think you’re out of options?
Well I’m here to tell you you’re not! Home schooling can be about as costly, or inexpensive as you want to make it. You just have to know where to look to find those free home schooling curriculum materials.
For starters you might want to re-think your definition of curriculum. Is it something you pay a lot of money for? Does it come together all boxed up? Is it textbook like? Are there a lot of workbooks included? Many are like that, but you do have other options.
Before you do anything else plan your course of action. Make a list of subjects you want to cover. Say maybe math, science, history, and language arts. Then decide what you want to cover in math, science, history, and language arts. Be sure to take into account the ages of your children. The younger they are the easier it will be to save money. But take heart, you can always find ways to conserve.
Now let’s use history as an example. You have decided to study American history. Great. First stop should be your local library. Second stop the Internet. There you will find a wealth of Internet home schooling information. From your library will come books and from the Internet will come lesson plans and free printables.
Do the same for science for science and language arts.
Math is a little trickier. For younger children you should be able for find free worksheets. Once you get into pre-algebra and above you will probably want to invest in a math program. I would recommend “Teaching Textbooks”. And I would recommend checking out E-bay and other used curriculum sites; you very well might find a used copy.
As a sidebar, if you do purchase new books or workbooks be sure to tread lightly with them. And copy workbook pages whenever possible. Do this and you will be able to re-sell them yourself on E-bay or other used curriculum sites.
Try to steer away from textbooks and boxed curriculums whenever possible. Not only will you save money, but also your necessity for creativity will pay off with a better learning experience for your children. The books you find at the library and the information on the Internet will be much more interesting to them than the dry material found in conventional history and science textbooks. It’s a win, win situation!
