Free or cheap ways to home school
I have been homeschooling for over 20 years. I am always on the hunt for the best deals that I can get to save money.
I have homeschooled 8 children at one time or another. Today, I am traveling lite. I am only home-schooling 4 at the time of me writing this. I have a 15, 12, 10, and 8-year-old.
There are many curriculums to choose from.
Anything from books, to online programs, and USB drives is available today. There are so many options out there to meet your child’s needs and learning styles.
In this blog post, we are going to look at the different free or low-cost options that may help you on your homeschooling journey.
LIBRARY
LIBRARY – The library can be a great asset to any homeschool lessons. If you need to know what your child should be learning. You can look up online scopes and sequences for the grade that your child is in. You can find books or depending on your library, videos to cover the topic that you are teaching.
Some libraries offer games, read-along books for younger children, and teaching tools that you can check out and borrow. Sometimes you can keep these items for up to 3 weeks at a time.
Of course, you would have to check the borrowing policies for your local library.
You can check in at your local library for storytime. Some of the libraries that I used had story time for the younger ones, where someone would read a book to the children, and do crafts and snacks. It’s usually geared toward 1-5-year old’s, but my older kids enjoyed story time as well.
It’s a great way to develop a love for learning in your children at an early age.
Some parents would bring young toddlers. It is never too early to expose children to a love for reading and learning.
If you don’t have an internet connection at home most libraries have available for you to use computers, for a limited amount of time. You can also print worksheets or school lessons from the library.
GOOGLE– can be your friend for school too. Even if you don’t homeschool, the internet has a vast of things that can be used for all your learning needs.
For example, you can google a list of reading books for your child’s grade. Then you can check your local library for readers before purchasing books elsewhere.
Also, you can search and download a list of spelling words for each grade. You can use these spelling lists and put them with other words such as cat, hat, rat, etc. Doing this will help your child learn the spelling patterns that are similar.
SHARE WITH FRIENDS
SHARE WITH FRIEND – If you have another homeschooling friend, you can share curriculums or pass along curriculums to others when that grade is no longer needed. Sharing textbooks or teacher’s manuals with someone using the same program can save money by not having to purchase those things.
PURCHASE SECONDHAND
PURCHASE SECONDHAND – buying gently used items is another way to save money and get things cheaply.
Check out some of these options for secondhand curriculum.
Thrift store
Goodwills
Bookstores with discounted books
KHAN ACADAMY
KHAN ACADEMY – is a free nonprofit organization that provides free online courses and lessons for different ages, especially in math. However, they do have some lower-grade reading and vocabulary lessons for younger grades. They also offer “get ready courses” to help your child be prepared for the next grade in math. They provide courses in high school and college classes in Science, Math, Computer Science, Economics, and Arts and Humanities. Students can also do practice tests for the SATs.
Khan Academy Kids
KHAN ACADEMY FOR KIDS – is an app geared to your younger children between 2-7. The app focuses on core subjects such as reading, writing, and early literacy, including language as well as math. Khan Academy for Kids offers free educational games. Download the app today for free and let the learning begin.
ALL IN ONE HOMESCHOOL
EASY PEASY ALL-IN-ONE
EASY PEASY ALL-IN-ONE – This is another free online program offering according to the website a complete, all-free Christian curriculum. They offer this program to help families that may not have the resources to pay for an expensive boxed curriculum. Their desire is to make a way for anyone that chooses to homeschool, an affordable and attainable way to school their children.
ALL-IN-ONE HIGH SCHOOL
ALL-IN-ONE HIGH SCHOOL – Is the sister website that holds the high school courses that are available.
FREEDOM HOMESCHOOL
FREEDOM HOMESCHOOL.COM – is a free website that brings you to curriculum links for various subjects. The site was created by another homeschooling mom to help her homeschool her own children.
Some of the subjects offered on the website are the basics such as math, language, science, and history. It also has classes in life skills, technology, and even foreign languages.
ARCADEMICS
ARCADEMICS.COM– is learning with games. They have a free version, Basic Arcademics, they offer free for life. You can assign games for your child to play. The student earns badges as they play.
EDUCATION
EDUCATION.COM – has free online worksheets, games, and more. They offer a premium plan with more features. Right now, they are having 50% off making it $8.00 a month or you pay $5.00 a month for the site when you pay annually.
MATH-DRILLS
MATH-DRILLS.COM – offers over 58,000 free math worksheets to help children learn math skills. The website has worksheets for different subjects such as arithmetic, pre-algebra, geometry, money, and more.
This program uses math flashcards and dots math games for learning.
MATHFACTCAFE
MATHFACTCAFE.COM – Create custom worksheets with Math Fact Café. They offer a free version but if you want it without ads it is $2.99.
SUMDOG
SUMDOG– Math and Spelling practice personalized to each child. Games tailored for learning. They offer a family subscription that covers 3 children for $8.99 a month.
FIRST-SCHOOL.WS
FIRST-SCHOOL.WS – is a website for young children ages 2-6. It has activities such as preschool crafts, and printable crafts with lesson plans for preschoolers and kindergarten levels. However, it can be adaptable to use with toddlers. First-School has free activities and resources that are ideal for homeschoolers, daycares, and more.
GETEPIC
GETEPIC.COM – has book titles for different levels for kids. They offer one book a day for free, but the options are limited. They have a monthly plan that is unlimited books for $9.99 a month and you can track the child’s progress. You can get it for $6.67 a month billed annually. They have read books, audiobooks, and videos.
TOKYBOOK.COM
TOKYBOOK.COM – is a free website that has free audiobooks on it. There are ads on it, but if you don’t mind the ads you can find books for your child to listen to audibly.
YOUTUBE
YOUTUBE – I know we all know about YouTube, but I just had to add it to this list. Maybe someone might not know just how helpful YouTube can be for education as well as entertainment.
Youtube has phonics and reading for the little ones, history, algebra, or whatever you are studying at that time. When you need more instructions on a subject or just to supplement the curriculum you currently use, YouTube can come in handy for a lot of your educational needs.
This is not an exhaustive list by any means but there are some great tools to be able to help you on your homeschooling journey that doesn’t have to break the bank and have some fun and entertaining resources for children of all ages.
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