Homeschooling on a Budget
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If you’ve seen the supply lists for schools lately, you’ll know that it costs more money now than ever before to make sure that your children are completely outfitted when school comes around. These supply lists can cost upwards of $100. Then, if your children are in a school that requires uniforms, add on another $300 to $500 per child.
Reasons to choose Home Schooling for parents
Since one of the many reasons that parents choose to home school their children these days is due to financial issues, they don’t need to trade one financial problem for another. So one of the first things that these parents are going to want to do is find the lowest cost home-school resources around to remove some of the financial burdens from them even more.Teaching at home doesn’t require ordinary textbooks that you have to pay fees on. You can also decide what sort of supplies that your children will need to complete their work in homeschooling.
Available resources for Home-Schooling
Following is a list of some of the best resources for free and low-cost homeschooling materials:
- The Public Library: This is the best resource you’ll find anywhere when you’re homeschooling your children. There’s something at the library for everyone, no matter what the age. You’ll find books that teach things, books to read for fun, music, CDs, and DVDs. Choose the most effective method of teaching for you and simply sign it out in your library. All of this stuff is free to check out and use for your homeschooling curriculum. If you do your planning the right way, you’ll be able to time things so that you’re finished with any materials that you’ve borrowed from the library by the time they’re due back. On top of that, you can probably borrow them a second time in a row if you need to wrap up any loose ends. It is the perfect place to start when you need free homeschool materials.
- Online Websites: The Internet is quite possibly the best information resource that you’ll find when you’re looking for free teaching material for homeschooling. Many websites specialize in helping out parents that are homeschooling their children.
One such website is edhelper.com. You can obtain some free materials from this site, but for a very affordable yearly membership fee, you get unlimited access to everything that they have to offer. They offer materials for all age groups that you can simply print right from your computer. With this website, you may not need any other materials for the lower grades.
It’s at sites like these that you’ll find tons of material that you can print out right from your home printer and use as worksheets for your children. There are also many projects and learning aids for each age group that you’ll be able to print out and use as teaching materials. The only cost involved in this is the printing paper you’ll need.
- On Hand Materials: These include things like magazines, newspapers, and things you already have on hand for other reasons. You can find many articles, pictures, and various other things that are in these places. Simply put them to use by incorporating them into your teaching curriculum.
- Thrift Stores: If you’re lucky enough to be located close to a thrift store, you’ll find so many things there that you can use in homeschooling that will amaze you. These shops carry a little bit of EVERYTHING. Granted, not all of it will be in excellent shape, but even the things that are incomplete sets of things or aren’t in perfect condition can still be used in different areas of your homeschool teaching. The prices on things at thrift shops are very affordable, so keep that in mind.
- Yard and Garage Sales: These are other events that carry things you can use in your homeschooling venture. When you find something at the yard and garage sales that you can use, the prices are not only even lower than thrift shop prices but are also negotiable. That’s because the people running these sales want to sell the items rather than being stubborn and having to repack them into the basement or the attic. So if you find something that you want to buy but don’t want to pay the full price, you can offer a lower price than you feel is reasonable. Most of the time, your offer will be accepted.
- Dollar Stores: These stores have been around for over 25 years and are still thriving The thing that’s the biggest draw to these stores is that you can find just about anything in them and all for only one dollar each. Several items are paired so that you get two for a dollar. Either way, when you spend ten to twenty dollars in an actual dollar store, you’ll leave with bags full of things. You FEEL as if you’ve bought something and got your money’s worth.
- Online Auction Sites: Websites such as eBay sell many homeschooling materials. Many times you can get full sets of homeschooling books if you’re shopping at the right time the When parents buy an entire program from a homeschool, many times, they can’t use them after that year is over. So, rather than just throwing them out, they’ll put them up for sale at a very affordable buy it now price or you can bid on them.
Those are the perfect ways to start your homeschooling venture for very little out-of-pocket expense. As you go along, it’s easy to find other ways to add to your teaching curriculum. Your imagination will kick in, and you’ll learn to use everyday things to help teach your kids. A big part of the fun involved in homeschooling is looking around your environment and picking out things that you can use to teach your children about life and school subjects.
The more you look around, the more things you’ll find that you can use. In most cases, something you see on your own will most likely also be more fun for both and your children. It works out easier with younger children because you can use just about anything you may have on hand to teach them. It’s as they get older that you’ll need to get more inventive, but it’s still possible.
