Cheap Homeschool Curriculum

Here in Canada school has been out for less than a week. Kids everywhere are having the best days of their life right now soaking in the hot, popsicle-sprinkler-late-bedtime days. They come in the house at the end of the day with dusty feet and suntanned skin and they fall into bed tired. But, even with school just ending, if you are a homeschooling mom you may be thinking about cheap homeschool curriculum for the Fall.

Homeschool curriculum can add up in a hurry. Whenever I open the homeschool catalogue I am like a kid in the candy store, wanting to buy everything! 

There are so many great resources and we naturally get excited at the prospect of using those resources to teach our children so many cool things.

Over the years I’ve had to learn how to homeschool on a budget. Of course, when my kids were younger it was easier to keep the prices down, but as they get older and their grade level increases, it gets a little more complicated, and to put it bluntly, more expensive.  

However, you can still find cheap curriculum for high school students as well.

I also am very adamant on not picking a curriculum just because it’s free or super cheap.  While I want to keep prices down, I want my children to be using what I believe to be quality curriculum.  

I’ve seen some super cheap curriculum that I felt didn’t teach them enough.  Cheap homeschooling doesn’t have to equal poor quality.

For me, it’s worth it to spend a few extra dollars to make sure they are learning enough.  That being said, you don’t need to buy the most expensive curriculum to make sure your child is receiving quality education.

And, I do know of a few people who use a free homeschool curriculum called “Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool” and they are very happy with the program. If you use your local library as a resource to go along with a free online curriculum such as Easy Peasy, you’ll have a year of free education!

Individual courses are an excellent option for crafting a personalized education plan without breaking the bank. By selecting specific subjects or skills, you can tailor the curriculum to your child’s interests and strengths, ensuring a more engaging and effective learning experience.

But homeschooling isn’t just about textbooks and workbooks. It’s essential to incorporate hands-on learning opportunities to enrich your child’s education. 

Field trips are an excellent way to bring learning to life and explore the world beyond the confines of a traditional classroom.

Whether it’s a local museum, a nature reserve, or a historical site, these outings provide valuable real-world experiences that enhance understanding and foster a love for learning.

Remember, a curriculum is not just a collection of separate parts; it’s a cohesive plan that guides your child’s education journey. 

As you embark on this homeschooling adventure, consider the first things your child needs to learn and build upon that foundation. By starting with essential skills and knowledge, you can gradually expand their horizons and ensure a comprehensive education.

So, take advantage of these resources to create an enriching and affordable homeschool curriculum that caters to your child’s individuality, includes exciting field trips, encompasses all the necessary parts, and promotes a fun learning environment.

When it comes to finding a budget-friendly homeschool curriculum, there are several key elements to consider. One essential aspect is incorporating hands-on activities into daily lessons.

These activities not only make learning more engaging and enjoyable but also help solidify concepts through experiential learning. 

Whether it’s science experiments, art projects, or building models, hands-on activities allow your child to explore and apply what they’ve learned in a practical and meaningful way.

Another advantage of a cheap homeschool curriculum is the flexibility it offers. 

Your child can progress at their own pace, allowing them to delve deeper into topics they find fascinating or take additional time to master challenging concepts. This personalized approach ensures that your child’s education aligns with their individual needs and learning style. 

Additionally, many affordable homeschooling programs now offer automatic grading features, making the process of assessing your child’s progress more convenient for you as a parent.

With automatic grading, you can save time and effort by letting the curriculum handle the evaluation while you focus on providing support and guidance. 

Lastly, video lessons have become increasingly popular in homeschooling curricula. These instructional videos provide clear explanations and demonstrations, enhancing your child’s understanding of various subjects.

Whether it’s math, history, or foreign languages, video lessons can be a valuable tool in delivering content in an engaging and accessible way. 

By combining hands-on activities, daily lessons at their own pace, automatic grading, and video lessons, you can create an affordable homeschool curriculum that meets the needs of your child while providing a rich and interactive learning experience.

 Today I want to share with you my favorite cheap homeschool curriculum that fit nicely into a tight budget.

CHEAP HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM

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Rod & Staff – For younger kids, these are great books. These were the first books I ever used to homeschool. this is a Mennonite based curriculum. We are not Mennonite, but when it comes to 4 and 5 year olds I felt these books were a great fit because they were very simple – focusing on letters, numbers, cutting, pasting, colouring, etc.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons – This is hands down one of my most useful and favorite homeschool books. I taught my first two kids to read with this book by age 5, and my third child is learning how to read with this textbook at age 6 right now. I have been able to use this SAME textbook to teach all three kids, saving me lots of money. It is in rough shape because it has been WELL used!

Schoolhouse Teachers – This is what I am using this year, and it’s awesome!  It’s one price for multiple kids and multiple courses.  I wish I had known about Schoolhouse Teachers previously because I would have used it long ago!

BOB Books – this book set is a great accompaniment to “Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” or it works as a great resource on its own. There are different levels for different skills of reading, and the books are short and easy to read.

Editor in Chief – I really liked this curriculum for grammar.  Even though I somehow managed to do well in grammar during my school years, I still struggle with remembering and understanding all the terms.  This curriculum lays it out in a very simple manner and teaches grammar in a way that my child found enjoyable.

Christian Light Education – I have enjoyed some of the courses through Christian Light. We don’t use it anymore, but it filled in some gaps years ago. I was a fan of the science and social studies.

The Good & The Beautiful – This one is a fairly new curriculum for us but it is an affordable christian homeschool curriculum and so it works well for us. We started using it last year. We are doing the language Arts but they also have science and math as well as handwriting.

The hard copy is a little more expensive (especially if you live in Canada and have to pay for shipping and duty) but you can actually print out the curriculum for free online. I love the high quality of literature in this curriculum, especially as I am finding it harder to come across quality literature for the kids as they get older.

Handwriting Without Tears –  This series includes printing and handwriting books. My kids learned to write cursive with these books. Some may wonder what is the point of teaching cursive anymore.

One of the driving forces for me wanting to teach the children cursive is to be able to read historical documents. Can you imagine finding a diary or letters from your great grandparents only to discover you can’t read it? Cursive is a beneficial skill to learn!

Teaching Textbooks – We have been using teaching textbooks over the past few years and I love this math curriculum.  There are video lessons that are easy to understand, and the computer program automatically grades their assignments for me so I don’t have to worry about using answer keys to check their work.

Along with these textbooks that are a few of my favorites, we are adding some online learning into our curriculum this Fall. While I can’t speak to how the actual courses are since we haven’t actually done them ourselves yet, I have done quite a bit of research on them. 

Here are some cheap homeschool programs you might enjoy:

Acellus -This is one we are most likely adding into our learning this Fall. With many subjects, you can take multiple courses at only $9.99 a month per student, or $99.99 a year.

Discoveryk12 – This is a free online learning curriculum. There are upgrade options for a fee, but their basic curriculum is free.

Outschool -This one I’m pretty excited to try out. It is a database of a bunch of different courses and teachers. Each course has an individual price set so while some are a little more money, there are cheaper ones. Some courses just run for one class, others run a few weeks, while others run the whole semester. There are so many different subjects, the sky is the limit on this one.

HOMESCHOOLING FOR LOW INCOME FAMILIES

If you are a low-income family, you may find homeschooling difficult to fund.  The above options are cheaper ways you can homeschool your children on a very limited budget. 

You will want to check out some free homeschool printables as well to supplement your homeschooling and save even more money.

INEXPENSIVE HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM IS AVAILABLE FOR THOSE HOMESCHOOLING ON A BUDGET

Homeschooling doesn’t have to be expensive. There are so many options out there to fit every budget. These cheap homeschool curriculum options are excellent quality to assist you in teaching your child at home.

When it comes to homeschooling there are times we try out a curriculum we don’t particularly love. From year to year we often change things up. For us, only the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, the Jump Math books, and the Handwriting without Tears series has remained a permanent fixture in our homeschooling curriculum.

All other books have changed over the years due to something just not working the way we had hoped.

That is when it is really beneficial to spend only a small amount on the curriculum. It is always disappointing to spend a huge sum of money on a textbook we thought would work really well, only to discover it just isn’t meeting the needs of how you want to teach your child.

In our house, to make it possible to afford our homeschool curriculum without pulling out the credit cards, we use our yearly income tax refund for the books.  Sure, it’s disappointing to not to be able to use that money for something like a weekend away, but the peace we feel knowing we can pay for the school books without going into debt is worth it.

There have been times where I’ve wondered if homeschooling is too expensive and if it would be cheaper to send them to school, but I really think it would balance itself out.  If my child was in school we’d be buying stuff to pack lunches every day, indoor shoes, giving money for pizza days or special fundraising days, etc. 

My thoughts are that whether your child is in school or educated at home, you are paying money either way!  Homeschooling is just often an upfront cost as opposed to spread in small increments over the year.

So, if you are looking for cheap homeschool curriculum options, be sure to check out the textbooks and websites on this list. You may just find the right fit for your homeschool budget.

Related:  Why I took my son out of school to homeschool again (and why I support BOTH homeschooling AND public school)