Interested in homeschooling but afraid it might break your family’s budget? Read this post for some really great tips on how to homeschool for free — or very close to free!
{Don’t miss our weekly round-up of all the best FREE homeschool curriculum & resources! And you can also check out my Top 10 Favorite Free Homeschool Sites here.}
Guest post from Jessica of Where’d My Sanity Go:
Yes! It is possible to homeschool for free or cheap!
Once you dig into all the homeschool curriculum products available, it can be overwhelming. When you check out the prices on those bad boys, it can get scary.
Don’t worry though, there are a lot of ways to give your child a great education at an affordable price. Some of the homeschool lessons and curriculums we use are completely free!
So if you’re wondering how to homeschool for free, here are my top tips…
Use what you’ve got:
Search your home for any books you may have forgotten about.
When I started out, I had no idea how I was going to afford all the things I thought I needed.
Luckily, my son had a ton of nature and science books already. I used these to build a few of my lessons for him, and we had a set of dictionaries we used for spelling lessons and other subjects.
Borrow:
If you already know of other homeschool families in your are, ask them if they have any old schoolbooks or homeschooling curriculum books they aren’t using and that you might borrow for a while.
If you’re not familiar with any other homeschool families in the area, look on Facebook for local homeschool groups or ask your friends and family, your church, or even your local schools.
When I pulled my son out of public school, they were kind enough to give me some information about local homeschool programs.
Shop for used books:
Check local garage sales, used bookstores, and other local stores for discounted items.
Join a few Facebook groups where people are selling their used homeschool books for dirt cheap. I have saved so much money by doing this and hardly ever purchase anything brand new. Before buying anything, I always first search for used homeschool supplies or books.
Utilize free homeschool resources
There are tons of free online homeschool curriculum options out there. You don’t have to stick with just one either, you can take different lessons from multiple online curriculums to fit your educational outline.
A few popular free curriculums:
- Easy Peasy – All In One Homeschool – 180-day lesson plans for PreK-8th. (this is one of our favorites)
- Khan Academy – Free online lessons for just about any subject.
- K12.com – Independent teacher-led courses for homeschoolers.
- YouTube — there are a ton of educational YouTube channels out there that are perfect for supplementing your homeschool curriculum. You can find different channels that range from preschool to high school subjects.
Finding affordable or free homeschool educational materials or curriculum is not as hard as you think!
I recommend scouring the internet to find out what’s available. Join local homeschool groups, find local Facebook groups, etc.
Several of our local homeschool families often get together for different field trips — many places even offer homeschooling families a discount on tickets!
Do you have any other advice on how to homeschool for free? I’d love to hear in the comments!
Jessica Fuqua is the owner/editor of Where’d My Sanity Go, where she often writes about family, parenting, and homeschooling.
