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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