One look at any curriculum catalog is all it takes to make someone realize that my philosophy of "keeping it cheap and simple" appears to be a pipe dream. A math program alone can run more than $50...per year!! How in the world is it possible to home school on the cheap?
While this won't work for everyone, here's what we do in our family.
One of the biggest blessings of being home schooled myself is that I inherited a lot of curriculum from my mom and mother-in-law. And when I say a lot, I really mean TONS! On top of that, when other people learned of our desire to home school, I received even more. We have complete, brand-new sets of preschool and kindergarten curriculum as well as first grade English; a slightly-used set of Mortenson Math with Cuisinaire rods; multiple "teach your child to read" methods; books on parental preparation; and pamphlets on "need to know" facts. And this is just the abbreviated list! If you're not terribly picky about which method you use, hand-me-down books (or new books, if you're as blessed as I was!) are an excellent way to keep down costs when home educating (more to come on methods and brands of textbooks).
In addition to free curriculum, we utilize our public library. We can check out books for history, geography, science, art, or whatever else we need that week. I've also found several phonics videos that I let the kids watch whenever I need them to stay occupied for a set amount of time. I do find that I need to check on content before reading to the kids, and this might not work for someone whose public library is less than stellar, but it can be an excellent resource for many people.
Something else I do is scour the internet for free, printable worksheets. This takes care of our spelling needs (for now) and supplements our math and other areas whenever I feel we need a little more work. It's amazing what's available online for the cost of printing a sheet of paper.
Another friend gave us a white board, and a neighbor kindly supplied us with a small American flag. I hung those on the wall along with some "teacher's helper" reminders (turn on lights, dust chalkboards, etc.) that we were given. It transforms our dining room into a cute school room, and the kids love the decorations. When they're older, I may even put together some bulletin boards. Just because we home school doesn't mean that we have to be boring!
One other fantastic idea comes to mind: re-purposing items on hand. A seasoned home schooler gave me a unique item. She had taken the metal disks from frozen juice cans and stuck number and letter stickers in the centers (a Sharpie would be even more economical if you want to try this). Voila! Instant flash cards for letter and number recognition, or, for more advanced students, spelling, addition, and subtraction. And the best part? She'd salvaged a clean, plastic peanut butter jar and stacked the disks neatly inside so that they wouldn't get lost. Cheap, simple, and best of all, the kids think these are lots of fun!
The list of "cheap and simple" ideas goes on and on. There are just too many to list, and I know others have far more splendid ideas than those I've jotted down here. I certainly never would have thought to be creative with juice tops, but I'm learning fun and frugal ways from others all the time. I'd love to hear how others are being creative with limited means. Feel free to share!
These are some great ideas! Teaching our kids to be resourceful will profit them in life.
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