Getting Started With Homeschool: 
You Don't Have to Spend That Much!
By Teresa Higginbotham

Here are a few ways many homeschooling families create a quality curriculum for their children and stay within a budget.

It seems when a family embarks on the adventure of homeschooling the first tell-tale sign are the homeschool curriculum catalogs on the coffee table and all the homeschool vendors bookmarked on the computer. This is where it gets fun, but if you're not careful it can also get very expensive. Here are a few ways many homeschooling families create a quality curriculum for their children and stay within a budget.

1. Use the library! O.K., you're looking through the catalogs and see a long list of great historical novels your children can be reading along with their history studies. I found a wonderful description of The Tree in the Trail and decided that one was for us. Instead of paying the amount in the catalog, I went to our public library and checked it out. The catalog was right--it was wonderful except that we read it for free!

Every week I plan on Wednesdays and go online and put holds on books, videos,  and audiotapes. By Saturday or Sunday my pile of educational goodies is usually all waiting for me behind the checkout desk so I just drop by and  pick it up! You can also usually find lists of award winning books and if you have a children's librarian she can help you find lists of grade level books.

2. Buy your curriculum used! Yes you can. There are several ways to do this. If you belong to a support group you may find curriculum sales within that group or at the homeschooling convention in your state. I went to ours last year and bought so many books that I had to drag my bag all the way out to the parking lot. I probably bought 80% of our school year's materials (for two kids) and walked away spending only $125. If I had bought these materials first hand I would have paid probably around $500 for all of it. 

You can also buy used curriculum off of curriculum boards. The best one I've found is Homeschool Classifieds at http://homeschoolclassifieds.com. You can post an ad there in 30 seconds and there are so many ads (over 1400 at this writing) that you can find just about anything. There is also the Curriculum Swap at http://theswap.com, which is another posting board. It is probably 
the next biggest and has plenty of variety. Whenever I'm looking at 
curriculum boards I tend to look for organizational features like a  search button. I am usually not looking to browse but for specific items. I also usually need to hurry because supper's boiling over and I have allotted myself exactly three minutes to find a certain textbook. (The life of a homeschool mom-uncensored)

3. Those three little words: Clearance/Sale/Overstock! Shop the sales and bargains. Where do you buy school supplies? If you said the drug store or super market you're paying too much. Find the local dollar store in your town and be amazed. Many times a store like this will carry notebook paper, writing tablets, construction paper, glue, pens, pencils...you name it. Why pay more when you can just pay a dollar!

If you frequent internet vendors then look for phrases like "Web Specials" and "Internet Specials". Many of the sites will feature one book a month to keep their internet customers ordering. Another good place to check are the large toy store sites. Most of these sites have a giant clearance during the summer months and you can find microscopes, telescopes, science kits, arts and crafts, books and videos for up to 50% off. This is timed perfectly if you're planning for a new school year. If you know your child has to study magnets this year you can buy magnet kit for $19.95 in April or maybe just $9.95 on sale in July. Take your choice!

4. Find it for Free! My kids have probably watched five to ten great videos in the last year and I never paid a cent for them. What kind of topics? Fire safety, electrical safety, food bacteria, aquatic animals and others. Many corporations put these videos out and give them away for free. One of the best places to find these is at Video Placement Worldwide at http://www.vpw.com. You can also check the large assortment of freebies pages on the internet and look for "Teacher Freebies". 

You can also find listing for books, stickers, lesson plans, posters and much, much more. If you go over to PBS http://www.pbs.org, you'll find lesson plans to correlate with Arthur and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The more you look the more you'll find sites for kids to play games and learn.

5. Create your own teaching materials online. There are several sites that do this. I recently stumbled onto one called Quia http://www.quia.com and found it was wonderful. You create your own class page and then you can input information and create javascript flash cards, matching, word searches and other things. Then your child can go to your file and play the game while learning. My son just went in and reviewed his muscle groups for health using 
the matching game. There are also sites out there to create math and English worksheets as well. You don't have to sit at home and write everything out on the kitchen table. You can print it out on your computer!

Now you're ready with some oldtimer wisdom under your belt. You can homeschool and for less than you thought!

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