Many families are taking up the mantle of educating their children at home. The reasons for doing so are numerous. Once the decision is made, proceeding through the process of acquiring the correct material can seem a slow process.
The first decision to make is which curriculum to make to use. This choice is dependant upon one’s income and the number of children in the family. Then comes the extras. Science kits, art materials, music cd’s, all of these and more enhance a child’s learning.
How Can I Afford Everything?
Well, you don’t need to purchase everything immediately. Stick to the basics like reading, writing, and mathematics. Next, realize what would actually benefit your household and what is reasonable. Once you make those selections, then the investigating and comparing begins.
Buying New
The direct source of home educating material is through the curriculum press. Often purchasing in lots or additional children will enable the parent to receive a discount. Christian Book Distributor is another source for new materials. For science material, Home Science Tools has a plethora of items for all ages. They also offer pre-assembled packages for individual curriculum.
Slightly Used
Formerly used items can work. Textbooks in particular can be purchased once and passed among many children. Therefore, after the initial investment for the oldest child, the next child would essentially cost less as the textbooks can be reused. However, it is not good to reuse workbooks. Who really wants to spend days erasing another’s work, or even doing a white-out job on an entire year’s worth of work? Highlighting is one thing, math answers is another.
But where to save money?
One of the more popular places to get material is Ebay. Slightly used items can be bought for a fraction of the price. Another popular website is craigslist. One additional online store exclusively for homeschooling is homeschoolclassifieds. Yard sales often have good books. Thrift stores have waves of homeschool materials for sale. If you belong to a local coop, members often share materials as well as insight.
Just a word of warning. As with any item, it’s best to see the item for sale before the exchange of money.
ebay
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