Homeschooling on the cheap or thrifty homeschooling

Homeschool Hoopla post #3 OF 5

HOMESCHOOL HOOPLA IS SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN THE BRYAN COLLEGE STATION AREA. COMMENT ON THIS POST FOR MORE INFORMATION AND I WILL GET BACK TO ASAP. THIS IS A TITUS 2 EVENT SO IT IS OF COURSE FREE!

There are many different kinds of homeschoolers. We are just going to mention two right now: Those who do not care (or justify) how much a curriculum costs and those of us that care because we like food, electricity etc... So this homeschool hoopla post will address lowering the cost of homeschooling.

Complete Free Homeschool Lesson Plans /Recommendations

An Old Fashioned Education (Textbook/Charlotte Mason Style) -Maggie (site owner) "... prefer(s) to teach with a balanced combination of textbooks and so-called living-books. " She has both free and low cost recommendations for individual subjects and a full curriculum for us to follow.

• Ambleside Online (Charlotte Mason) - This is pure CM site that is run by about 4 or 5 ladies. It also offers recommendations for certain curriculum's as well as full curriculum for us to follow. I have used AO and was very happy with it and I still use their book choices! They have the best list of high quality books that across subject matters.

Used Book Sources:

• Homeschool Classifieds
• Veg Source
• Yahoo groups (find used books for sell by typing in for sale and your needed item)
• Well Trained Mind forum
• Homeschool Book Store in Houston (they have a huge selection of used HS books)
• Garage Sales

I'm sure there are more used sites out there that I am missing please post them in the comments and I will add them to this page as time permits! But for now you get the idea. All you have to do is Google a local or national Homeschool For Sale and your possibilities become limitless. Normally, I check all of these sites before I buy anything new. In an attempt to be a good steward of the Lord's resources. However, some things you cannot help but buy new like math work books but for non -expendables I try to hit the used sources first.

Reduced Price New Book Sellers:

• Rainbow Resource
• Christian Books Distributors
• CurrClick (purchase electronic curriculum from major Homeschool Providers!)

Here is the last resort. When I use this resort I usually use Rainbow Resources because they offer free shipping on orders over $150. So I get together with 1-3 friends and we order together thus avoiding the shipping charge. Additionally, Rainbow's prices are usually 10-50% less then retail so I am getting another discount there.

So there are some options for you and your homeschool as you pursue thrifty homeschooling.

BTW I have set a curriculum spending maximum this year of $350 for 3 children to purchase about $700 worth of curriculum; it looks like I'm going to make it. The largest expense this year is Pearsy's PK curriculum, which is new this year, so there are no used copies available. So I'll have to post later and let you know how I did keeping my budget.

My final note is that another key to saving money on homeschooling products is planning. I plan what I am going to use as my major curriculum and what enhancements I also want. So maybe tomorrow or the next day I will share how I plan!

I hope this is an encouragement for folks, especially folks that maybe felt overwhelmed by the cost of homeschooling. It can be done for much less, much...much less!

Getting it done for less!

RHA