Sunday, July 20, 2008

Homeschooling On No Budget.... Is It Fair.....

Now that the new school year is about to begin (I told Kelly Aug. 4th. sounds good - Our local public school starts the 10th). I have been getting a number of brochures in the mail, all the internet homeschooling groups activities revlolves around buying and selling curriculum ect. as I mentioned I sold some of our past books to use that money to buy some new ones for this year, that worked okay but I needed to use most of that money for food/bills. I have had to face facts - I have no budget for homeschooling! This year the computer is going to be my only source for teaching supplies (as long as we can still pay the internet bill). I have a few books that I already have that we will use but other then that, there will be no new books, no trips even the little ones to the park may be an issue with gas prices, no experiments other then stuff I have on hand, no special activities like horse back riding lessons or lessons of any kind, No homeschool outings with our local homeschooling groups, lets face it we can't do anything that will require us to leave the house or needs special items to do..... I have to wonder if this is really fair for Kelly? Has anyone had a year where they homeschooled with no budget? I would love to hear how you made it exciting for the child? Please e-mail me at justme32110@yahoo.com I'd love to hear your stories...

5 comments:

Mrs. Darling said...

When I went to school I attended a mountain school with 8 children in one room in grades 1-8. We were all very poor!!!We never did anything special but it was my favorite year of school. I was in the 3rd grade. The things that stand out in my mind were the nature hikes in the woods behind the school, the log cabin we made for art out of sticks and leaves complete with a little creek and pond. It was all constructed on a wooden platform.

It was that year I learned to sketch with lead pencil and shade with lead because there were no crayons or colored pencils. I learned all the bird calls and the different names of the birds in our area through the bird study we did. None of it cost a penny!

I do indeed think you can school successfully on no income. I think it could end up being the best year your daughter ever had. The life lessons she will learn are going to be invaluable.

Read some of the old books about school longer ago and see how they did it. Think of Laura and Mary in Little House. Lauras education was definitely not hurt by lack of funds. She grew up to be an author.

Picture Abraham Lincoln learning to read by candlelight in his log cabin. This thing of needing money to educate is a fairly new thing. Years ago education at the grade school level and money were not synonymous. I think you can and will do a great job without money.

You have so much more at your fingertips now then even when I was a child. The internet is loaded with resources from worksheets to animated learning games.

You really can do this no matter how hard it looks. And your daughter will not be the worse for it. Hard times can only make her more appreciate and more in tune with real life.

I wish you the best!

Kate said...

There were times, when I was in your shoes. We walked to the library, to the park, and to the grocery store. These places were not close. Walking became Physical Education and nature study. Get a pile of those 10 cent spiral notebooks and cheap pincils from Wal-Mart to use with your library card and you are set.

You do not have to let this get the best of you. Stand up and rejoice. You don't love in Germany, where you could be hauled off to jail for homeschooling. You, mom, are enough with your library card and your determination.

If you can't afford a science curriculum, get the book The Story of Blood by Edith Lucie from the library. Read a little every day for one month; renew if you have to. Draw the diagrams, and narrate what you learned. Then get Pagoo by Holling and do the same for sea Creatures. Of course you don't have to use my suggestions; any book on any nonfiction topic will work. For US history The Childhood of Famous Americans or biographies of your choice are great. Look at this article for ideas on world history.http://milestonesacademy.blogspot.com/search/label/Family%20History%20Rotation

I wrote a free downloadable resource for Writing, Grammar, Copywork, Dictation, Poetry, Memorization, Recitations, and Public Speaking http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php?fTagsSelected=&fSort=score&fSearchDataFamily=&fSearchDataQuery=Kathryn+Louis&additionalFilter=0&fCatId_1=&fCatId_2=&fCatId_3=&fCatId_6=&fCatId_4=&fCatId_5=&fCatId_7=&fSearchData%5Btitle%5D=&fSearchData%5Bauthor%5D=&reviewsFilter=fAny&fSearchData%5Blang_code%5D=&fSearchData%5Bcountry_id%5D=&publishDate=fDateAny&fSubmitSearch.x=0&fSubmitSearch.y=0

Ideas for literature are nearly unlimited at the public library.

Penny Gardener has oodles of ideas for textbook-free math using the library.http://www.pennygardner.com/math.html

At my site I have lots of ideas many of wich can be pulled off using only the library. milestonesacademy.blogspot.com

Teach her to cook on a shoestring and shop at thrift stores, a skill that is valuable beyond belief. The key to this is not to do it down heartedly but with a winning spirit. After all, you are taking money out of the pockets of rich corperations, when you are frugal.

Don't get discouraged. Like Mrs. Darling said, this could end up being the best year your daughter hever had.

Donna said...

Thank you for your posts ladies, I appreciate them : )

Freakmom said...

You mentioned the camera in another post. If it is digital, let her go wild with it for art.

Thinking of you and sending hugs.

Rhonda said...

I have to agree with these ladies. A little paper, a pencil, and some library books, combined with the world around you and you have everything at your fingertips to have a wonderful homeschool year!