Homeschooling can be done without spending hundreds of dollars a year. In fact, the amount of money homeschooling families spend makes little to no difference on the child’s level of success. To help make your homeschool budget stretch farther, look for free stuff for your homeschool with these simple tips.
Don’t miss the giveaway at the end of this post!
1. Follow homeschool freebie bloggers.
There are sites like Free Homeschool Deals and Homeschool Giveaways. These large sites have databases full of thousands of free printables and resources. They strive to bring you great deals on homeschool goodies that will help cut your budget further.
2. Use your library’s resources.
Use your local library to enjoy books and movies at no cost rather than buying your own. Make friends with your local librarians for regular updates on free educational activities going on nearby.
3. Take advantage of Pinterest’s resources!
Check Pinterest to find free printables and lessons for nearly any topic. A simple search will pull up endless printables that will help make building any unit study a breeze. Make boards for each topic to help keep everything organized.
4. Join homeschool freebie groups on Facebook.
With these groups, you can gather limited time freebies that bloggers share with you. Be active in commenting in these groups so Facebook will put the posts in your feed allowing you to never miss a thing.
5. Take advantage of free Kindle book offerings.
Amazon offers an entire range of free digital textbooks for all levels. Free book offerings change daily so it is worth keeping an eye out for deals every day.
6. Check your local laws.
Some states require public and even charter schools to provide services and textbooks to homeschoolers inside the school’s boundary lines. IF your area offers it this can save you a large chunk by providing textbooks and sometimes even services for your homeschool use.
7. Let friends and family know that you are a willing dumping ground.
People hate to throw away books and art supplies. Let everyone know that you are willing to take what they no longer want. You will get plenty of odds and ends that will make allowing your child to let their imagination go wild with supplies easy. Anything you cannot use, post to homeschool groups offering the items to other moms.
8. Join local buy, sell and trade Facebook groups to find free items offered.
Often desks, bookshelves, and of course school supplies are offered on these sites and can be a great way to cut your budget. If you are looking for something, don’t be afraid to post it in these groups. The right person just might see it!
9. Upcycle!
Get creative and upcycle free items you get your hands on into items you can use for your homeschool. Cube shelves and an old door from your local freecycle can make a great free desk with built-in storage. Extra gutters form someone home improvement project makes a great display bookshelf and keeps the scraps out of the dump.
10. Swap with other moms.
If you have a certain skill or expertise, trade skills or services with other homeschool moms!
When it comes to finding free things for your homeschool, the best thing you can do is to be open with people and be willing to make do with things a bit differently than you imagined. A willingness to experiment and try something different is a great way to homeschool for next to nothing!
Are you ready for a new (home) school year?
There are really good finds in the thrift bookstores! There are also cheap and used books but in good condition that we can order online. It really is beneficial to follow fellow homeschoolers online not just for the tips, but they also share and recommend their resources 🙂
Thanks for sharing. I found a lot of interesting information here. A really good post, very thankful and hopeful that you will write many more posts like this one.
This is very helpful!
I actually have a toddler who is currently enrolled in the home school program of an international school in the Philippines ( http://www.georgia.edu.ph). Since I am his mother, teacher, friend and classmate, I am always praying to have a very long patience in preparing activities weekly so that we can practice identifying and writing the alphabets and numbers and survive the whole year. These kinds of articles are very helpful for moms like me. Please share more of this soon. More power to your blog!
Please share more of this soon yeah thanks
great