Homeschooling on a Budget

Homeschooling on a budget is much easier than you might imagine. Keep in mind that money doesn't qutomatically equal quality in any avenue of life. You can spend a great deal of money on a useless car, or a modest amount on a trusty, reliable, dependable car. The same is true for education. You can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a preparatory school edcuation that may be inadequate, or send your children to public schools for the cost of proerty taxes (which you would pay anyway), or for a modest amount of money as a homeschooler.

The hardest budget issue with homeschooling is the loss of the homeschooling parent's income. This is the first financial hit most families experience, but once you become accustomed to changing your budget to fit the reduced income, the next question is: how do I homeschool on a tighter budget?

First of all, you are giving your child the greatest resource of all: yourself. Your child, even if he or she has siblings, will have the best teacher ratio imaginable: 1:1 or 1: however many children you homeschool.

But homeschooling isn't all about spending time together; it's also about learning. If you unschool, you still need to have resource materials available to follow your child's passion. If you work on curriculum from a box, you need the curriculum. if you're somewhere in the middle, you need access to books, video, science materials, and other items to feed your child's curiosity and to meet any curriculum benchmarks you might choose to follow.

No matter what, eveyone benefits from one completely free resource: your local library. Budgeting homeschoolers know that this free resource isn't just about the books, videos, and CD that are there in the building. You also get access to interlibrary loan (ILL) in most states, which means you can go into the all-state or all-region catalog and order ANY item you find. It will be delivered to your local library, and you can check it out for as long (in most cases) as any item you'd check out form your local library.

In many instances you can get foreign language courses like the BBC's Muzzy series, entire science courses and teacher guides from Schlessinger Media (an educational media company), and so much more for budget homeschooling. The library isn't just about the books and videos you see; take full advantage of this free resource when you're homeschooling on a budget.

Second, go online! Internet resources are more obvious than others, but you do need to be careful that what your children are reading and learning is valid. Don't just trust what you see; read two or three different online sources to get the full picture. Wikipedia, for instance, can be edited by users and may have bias in some entries; scroll down to the bottom of each entry and read the supporting links, which are normally valid news and government sources. Teach your children how to critically analyze an information source and you give them a gift that makes them a better student, a better citizen, and a better thinker.

When you're online, also look at The Annenberg Foundation's free online college courses. These are video courses that are completely free and great when you're homeschooling on a budget. You must register, but it's free registration. With more than 50 college courses covering American Government, U.S. History, Chemistry, Biology--and many education courses on HOW to teach math, social studies, and other subjects, Annenberg is an outstanding resource.

A third cheap--though not free--resource is eBay. Some packaged curriculum, like Calvert, costs $695 or more per grade, per year. On the other hand, some homeschooling parents sell their old curriculum for a fraction of the cost of new; they are stretching their homeschooling budget as well. If you're willing to erase the marks from a previous child's education work in the workbooks, you can get full cirriculum sets for as little as $125; that's a homeschooling on a budget feat!

In the end, homeschooling on a budget isn't hard to do--an internet connection, a library card, and a small amount of money can be enough to make it work. You are your child's best resource. Use these tips to give your homeschooling child the resources he or she needs in spite of your budget.