Homeschooling on the Cheap Part 6: Art

Here are my 3 favorite art websites that include step by step instructions for many different art projects.  For free or cheap of course.

Free site that include step by step videos - this is our very favorite!
http://artforkidshub.com/

This one has some free projects and some you can buy.
http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/

And this one has some free projects as well.
http://www.thatartistwoman.org/


As far as art supplies go, you really can't go wrong.  If you are really strapped for cash, buy inexpensive supplies.  Some art is better than no art.  If you can afford some nicer supplies, then by all means buy those.

Homeschooling on the Cheap Part 5: Public Library

I find it hard to find a place to start explaining all the wonderful reasons that I love my library.  I'll do this in list form:

1.  Free Books
There are so many books that can be borrowed from the library.  They allow you to borrow them for 3 weeks which is a pretty good bit of time.  Need them for longer?  You can renew them as long as they are not on hold for someone else.  Which brings me to point #2.

2.  Holds
You can use the library website to place holds on books that you may want to use for upcoming lessons.  All you need to do is go to their website, log in with your library card number and search for the book you would like to borrow.  Click on "place hold" and that's it.  When it is ready for pick-up, you will get an e-mail and then you just go get it.

3.  Drive-through
That's right!  My library has a drive-through.  When you are notified that your book is on hold, you just drive up to the window, hand them your card, and they hand you the book!  Saves me so much time from having to get 3 kids out to go in to check out a book.

4.  Request an item they don't have.
When you search for a book and the library doesn't have it, you can request that they get it.  Pretty awesome!  I do this all the time.  Most of the time, they are able to get the book I request (even new releases!).  This is probably my favorite feature.

5. TumbleBooks
These are videos of books being read with the illustrations from the actual books.  Pretty fun for kids!

6.  There is a whole list of "free stuff" on the library's website.  These include ebooks (some of which can be read directly on their website), ancestry info, magazines and so much more!  Check out your library's website for sure!

7.  Tons of free activities
Our libraries host so many free activities for kids, teens and adults.  We have been enjoying "Homeschool Hangout" at one of our libraries.  This is a 2 1/2 hour time slot where the children's librarian sets up learning stations for homeschoolers.  Last month was Chemistry.  This month will be Geology - so fun!  Don't forget out the summer reading program where you can even win prizes!

I hope this gives you just a glimpse into how the library can help your homeschooling journey.  Connect with your library and check out all the things available for free!

Homeschooling on the Cheap Part 4: Science & History

My biggest tip for saving on Science & History curriculum is to teach all your children together using the same curriculum.  We love reading living history books and biographies such as Little House on the Prairie, American Girl books, and the Who Was? series.

These books can be borrowed from the library or purchased used from half.com or Amazon.com.  After we read a book, journal in a composition notebook to cement our learning.  We have downloaded lapbooks from homeschoolshare.com, cut out the pieces and added them to our notebooks.

We do the same thing for Science.  We use books from the library or purchased used and then we journal.  We also love Apologia and those can be purchased used for cheap as well.  We are currently reading "Burgess Animal" and journaling about the different animals that we are reading about in the book. This is a free Kindle download!

Coming next is how to get the most out of your public library!

Homeschooling on the Cheap Part 3: Handwriting

This may seem the most obvious thing that you can teach on the cheap, but I'll touch on it just the same.  For pre-writers and very early writers, you can print some of these fun pages from makinglearningfun.com.  I also love this site for fun free preschool printables.
Here are a couple of examples.  The letter K is a play dough mat for the kids to make playdough snakes to place on the letter.  The letter G is  for those car loving kids on which to drive their matchbox cars.

Ready to teach writing?  Here is a site where you can make your own handwriting worksheets.  http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/index.htm

If you are looking for cursive worksheets, HERE is a great site where you can print different styles of cursive sheets.  The work is already done for you!

Homeschooling on the Cheap Part 2: Reading/Phonics

There are many different ways you can teach reading/phonics very inexpensively.  I like starting off by reading these books and teaching letter sounds.  These books can be borrowed from your library.

Then we move onto teaching blends.  My son absolutely loves Lego so I used that as a way to teach him how to build words using blends.  I used small labels and wrote letters on them.  When he put 2 Lego together, he made a blend!

Once he was proficient at blends, I showed him how to add a consonant to the end of a blend to make a word.

We also used this book which was a great inexpensive resource to practice phonics and reading.
 

As your student progresses, many easy readers can be borrowed from the library to practice reading.

Homeschooling on the Cheap Part 1: Bible

Homeschooling can be expensive and the temptation to buy all the latest and greatest full color pretty curriculum can be too much to resist.  But I'd like to share some of my tips for giving your kids a well rounded education for very little money.   So I'm going to write a series of posts that will hopefully help you find some really great free and cheap resources to guide you in your homeschooling journey.

For this post, I'm going to talk about what we do for Bible class.  There are so many really good Bible curriculum out there but if you are strapped for cash, here are some things that we have done.

1.  Pick a passage of Scripture, read it and discuss what it means.  You can add in an object lesson if you want.

2.  Pick a passage of Scripture to memorize as a family.

3.  Use what lessons your kids have learned at children's church and review it with them.

4.  Choose a Bible story to read and have your kids illustrate it.

Worst Blogger Ever!

I'm the worst most inconsistent blogger, but I have a series of posts coming up that I hope will be an encouragement.