There’s a saying that the best things in life are free, but what about education? Can you give your kids a quality homeschool education at low or no cost? Is it even possible to homeschool cheaply without buying tons of expensive curriculum? What about homeschooling for free without buying curriculum at all?
With a few handy tools and some extra time in your budget, you can substantially reduce the amount of money you spend on homeschooling your kids.
Budget Friendly Homeschooling
First, let’s talk about homeschooling cheaply, but not necessarily free. This can be a significant need because a lot of homeschool families are on one income. To homeschool our kids, many of us have given up one of two incomes that the family might otherwise have.
Today, more and more people are also working and homeschooling. No matter what your income level, chances are, you would like to find affordable, effective options for homeschooling your child.
If you have the time, you can homeschool for a lot less money. If you have the budget, you can buy yourself the convenience of homeschooling more easily. Over the years, I’ve learned that what I give up in money, I have to spend in time to find the resources.
What I give up in money, I have to spend in time.
Homeschooling is just like a lot of things in our lives. If I have more time, I can save money. If I have a little bit of extra money, I can save some time.
Can You Homeschool For Free?
Yes, you can homeschool for free.
Is it going to take you a little more time to do that? Yes.
You are likely going to have to spend more time looking for things online. You’re going to have to spend more time preparing lessons. You may have to spend more time making copies.
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The Best Option For Budget-Friendly Homeschooling: The Library
How can you save a little bit of money with your homeschooling? My number one tip is to use the library for everything. All the books, all the free services, classes, etc. Use the library to its fullest potential.
Homeschoolers often have these big home libraries of lots and lots of books, but you don’t have to do that. There’s nothing that says you have to buy all the books. You can go down to the library and borrow the books that you want to use in your homeschool.
There is so much cheap homeschooling that can be done with just a library card.
What if your library doesn’t have the books on your book list? The books that a lot of homeschool book lists recommend are not necessarily going to be the one at your library. Here are some options that can help.
Library Book Sales
Now I just told you not to buy books, but if you can get your hands on some good old books that your library might be phasing out for a quarter or 50 cents a book, it’s totally worth it to do that.
Inter-library Loans
You can get books from far off libraries within your library system, using inter-library loans.
Library Resources Are Not Just Books
A lot of times libraries will have things like microscopes, telescopes and other science experiment equipment that you can borrow and use in your homeschool.
Homeschool Curriculum Choices: Be Flexible
To effectively homeschool for little to no money, we need to not be married to a particular resource. If the homeschool book list suggest this book about apples or this book about reptiles, and we can’t find that book, well, then we have to come up with a different resource.
We have to either choose a different book that the library has just because they have it. Or maybe we go online and we search out an alternative resource, like a YouTube video. There’s so many fabulous little YouTube videos about reptiles and just about any other topic.
The good news? YouTube is absolutely free. (Just watch the comments and ads on there to make sure your kids aren’t being exposed to things you don’t want them to be.)
Yard Sales, second-hand book stores can also be great resources! You may also be able find used curriculum sales. If homeschoolers in your area are doing a used curriculum sale, you can, a lot of times pick up things, very cheaply there as well.
Online Homeschool Resources That Are Absolutely Free
There are several online curriculum resources where you don’t have to pay at all for homeschool curriculum.
Free Monthly Learning Themes
For example, on our website, we do monthly homeschool themes that are absolutely free. If you put in the name of the month in our search bar, we have themes done from about October through March at the time of writing, and will be adding more as the year goes on. These make a wonderful preschool, our elementary curriculum for your kids.
You can use these as a foundation for what you’re teaching your kids. So much of your science, history and unit study topics can be found using these free themes lists.
Ambleside Online
Another resource for finding free homeschool curriculum online is Ambleside Online. This is based completely on the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling. Because of this, I highly recommend that you read some of Charlotte Mason’s books, all available for free online, so that you understand this method. Before you decide to dive into this particular approach, make sure that it meshes with your own philosophy of education for kids.
In Ambleside Online, the entire curriculum is laid out for you. There are some books you will have to procure in some way, but many of those can be found for free as well.
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Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool
Another fabulous free resource is Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool. This resource includes homeschooling from a Christian perspective, but there are secular materials available as well. You’ll have to determine whether or not that’ll work for your family, but the entire curriculum is written and laid out online, using free online resources.
If you look at easy-peasy, you may decide to pick and choose what makes the most sense for your family. It’s totally okay to do it! It’s not like you’re spending money on something you’re not going to use. There is no cost and so much gain.
Unschooling
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one other kind of free resource for homeschooling for free, and that is unschooling. You don’t have to buy any curriculum. That’s actually the point.
Please don’t immediately dismiss this idea of unschooling. It is an actual, real educational philosophy. I highly encourage you to look at the writings of John Holt to see what unschooling is all about. It was something that I toyed with and never ended up doing, because I felt like it took a lot of work on the part of the mom.
The truth is, it’s easier just to buy the curriculum than it is to put in all the work of unschooling. Incidentally, many unschoolers will probably tell you that unschooling is also not all that cheap because you’re constantly buying games and different experiences for your kids..
What it really comes down to in the end is if you want to homeschool for free, you absolutely can! Just be prepared to take the time to find the resources you need.
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