It's about that time again. For our family it's actually a little later than usual. We usually start our home school year the first Monday after the 4th of July. It's so hot down here in the summer we figure we might as well spend the hottest days working on academics and then we have more time to play outside and enjoy going to places when its much cooler, but this year we decided to take a longer break. Tomorrow its back to the books for us :) .
Everyone in the house is anxious to get back to our normal routine, especially me! The fall term at LUO (Liberty University Online) starts on Monday and I have to take Intermediate Algebra... I've been putting it off for five years but now I have to take it as a prereq for Statistics. I have to teach Algebra I to my freshman daughter this year anyway, so maybe this will help us both get through it. She's a lot better at Math than me, though! I'm also taking Marketing, International Business, and Organizational Ethics. Oh, my, it's going to be a long academic year!!! At home this year I have a freshman in high school, a seventh-grader, a fourth-grader, a second-grader, and a pre-schooler.
Has anyone else been feeling the economic crunch in the homeschooling area? Well, we have. In fact, I decided to go through the house, attic, and storage to see what we have for curriculum that we have accumulated over the years. I found a lot of stuff!! In fact, I found so many things that I decided not to buy a lot of new learning materials this year, but to use the ones we already have and supplement with the internet and the library.
I am going to be using a unit study for my younger students this year and supplementing it rather heavily with other materials. The reason for this is because the unit study we are using is a little above the grade levels the two youngest girls are in right now but I really love this curriculum because it is so comprehensive. It is the Learning Adventures series by Dorian Holt. A few years ago we did the first unit called A New World of Adventure (ancient history) when the big kids were in middle school. This time we are doing A New World of Adventure which covers early American history. These unit studies are so wonderful. You can grab the reading books needed from the library, Paperback Swap, or wherever, and literally sit down one day and teach, that's how complete they are! Ideal for the mom with a large family, really. Of course, as I mentioned before, I will be using an eclectic mix of other things to supplement since my two little girls are a bit younger right now.
For one thing we will not be using the science sections of ANWOA, although we could as the material is appropriate age-wise. This is because I am absolutely hooked on Apologia science. In fact, I am assigning Apologia to my high-schooler as well, instead of 9th grade Physical Science included in the AOP curriculum, switched-on-Schoolhouse that she is doing this year. If you already use Apologia, or want to, did you know that you can purchase an inexpensive supplement for the texts, and print whatever you choose from it? Yup, it even includes two options-the lapbook pages or the more traditional lab journal. Very nice supplement for just a few dollars. Its at Christianbook.com. This is probably the discovery I am most excited about using this year. We are not huge science lovers around here and I'm hoping this will bolster our learning in this area.
My seventh and ninth graders will be using SOS. They started this when each of them was in fifth grade and it has been a real life-saver to me. I'm really excited because they finally updated it and it now keeps your high school transcript for you. We do not like to use SOS before fifth grade because I really like to try to teach my little kids to love learning and honestly they need to be taught stewardship and excellence in their work before attempting SOS because they will be working on their own at that point for the most part.
I always like to use Abeka phonics and reading for K-3 because the kids I did not use it for have a harder time with phonics than the ones who learned to read with Abeka. Luckily, I have a lot of these books laying around already so that saves a lot of money. We usually stick with Abeka for math and handwriting for the first years also. My littlest guy is turning 4 in October so we will be buying those things for him soon. Honestly, though, I stick to buying what I need instead of kits that contain items I don't want and will never use.
If you do want or need to save money I just want to share some ideas for resources with those of you who may just be starting to homeschool for the first time or even veteran homeschoolers who may be looking for some new ideas:
1. Your own house/storage- You would be surprised how much curriculum and learning materials I have bought over the years and put away in storage or on a shelf. Oftentimes the bigger kids outgrew it or we never used it, or whatever. It does me absolutely no good to leave it sitting there so this month I cleaned it all out and sold what I will never use and put the rest of it to use this year since I need to save money. Oh, yeah, by the way, if you have older children be sure and check out what they have squirreled away. My oldest daughter is a terrible packrat and she had a ton of useful books, etc. packed away in her stuff! We also recycled a lot of old binders, folders, and found a large amount of unused lined paper and notebooks in our foraging.
2. Outside resources- this is a big one for me. My sweet little sister graciously helps me out a TON here. She shares her SOS with me for my middle and high-schoolers. I absolutely love, love, love her for this. There is no way I could homeschool all these kids to my satisfaction without the SOS!! Over the years we have shared a lot of homeschooling materials and this has been a real blessing to both of us. If you have friends and family who homeschool it is a great idea to pool your resources or swap or trade materials to freshen things up or save money.
3. Paperback swap- You can set up a free account online and list books that you don't want or need and trade them for books that others do not want. We are usually able to always find whatever book someone wants or needs there. Last year, I even got all the Abeka readers I needed for my first grade student! It was great. You do have to pay media mail shipping costs, but that is still way cheaper than buying a new book.
4. Buy piecemeal instead of bulky packages. If you do need to purchase curriculum try to only buy the items you truly need and will use for the year you are currently in. I have saved a lot over the years by doing this.
5. Library- We have a great library system here and that is an invaluable resource to me. Most library cards are free and most libraries have online systems where you can research and reserve books without ever entering the library.
6. Online resources- here is a short list of websites that have free/low cost worksheets and supplemental materials for homeschoolers:
www.learningpage.com
www.donnayoung.org
www.littleexplorers.com
www.guesthollow.com
7. Prayer- This should have been number one on the list! I can't tell you the times I have needed a resource and God brought it to me from an out of the way place. After all, God called you to homeschool your children and He will supply all you need to get the job done. The problem is, sometimes we try to get the job done without Him. At least I do anyway. Then one day you have an epiphany and realize that you were all caught up for years and years in what you were going to teach to your kids so you plan and buy and buy and plan, but never realize you could have taught with far fewer books and a little more faith. Do you realize that a century ago or so many children were educated with only a Bible in the home? We are so blessed to have all we have.
I'll be back later in the week to review what we did in our homeschool in week one!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment