There are 3 basic ways to homeschool for free:
- Use books from the library (and don’t incur late fees!)
- Use books people give you
- Come up with everything on your own: spelling words, math problems, science projects, free field trips, etc.
I’m sure there are other ways and online programs and such, but these are the ways I homeschool for free, so these are what I’ll talk about today.
1. Use books from the library
Any topic they’re interested in
When my children were small I homeschooled exclusively with library books. We would wander up and down the non-fiction section and pck out any books they’re interested in: airplanes, reptiles, China, volcanoes, hurricanes, you name it. When children are interested in something they will absorb about 90% of what they are reading. On the other hand, if children are given a book about a topic they aren’t interested in at all, they will probably only absorb 10% of it. So let them pick out what they want!
Then when you get home, let them go through the bag of books one after the other reading to their heart’s content. I always make sure not to schedule any activities after a library trip or even any other school work. When we get home everyone plops on the couch or a cozy corner and reads until dinner. Let them!
To use for textbooks
There are so many great books you can use for textbooks at the library! History encyclopedias, weather books, animal books, you name it! Get one and then skim through it, deciding how much you will cover each day. Jot down notes about your lesson plans. What pages you’ll do on day 1, any other activities you can do along with it such as making a snack or craft or acting it out. Then decide which pages you’ll cover on day 2, etc.
You know your kiddos best and how much they will want to learn. Maybe pages 1-4 are boring so you do them in one day. Then spend two whole days on page 5 because it is so fascinating to your little ones and you can think of activities to do. Then spend one day on page 6, one day on pages 7-9, etc. You get to decide! Go with your gut. Plan for studying it once a week, three times a week, five times, whatever works for your family. Maybe the book lasts 3 weeks, maybe 3 months. See more about how to write your own lesson plans here!
To use for read alouds
Using the library to grab books to read out loud to your children is an excellent idea. This way you don’t have to buy or store too many books you may not read very often or ever again. You can try out lots of different read aloud books that go with your history or science lessons. I do frequently buy textbooks used online after trying them from the library so that I can use them the whole school year, but I never buy read aloud books. You only need them for a few weeks, so it’s the best thing to get from the library.
2. Use Books People Give You
Use until workbooks go on sale
People frequently give me half used workbooks, or out of date textbooks. I don’t keep them all, but if your gut says you could use this someday and you have space, keep it. I use half used workbooks for the first half of the school year and can often find really cheap new ones on clearance at Walmart or Target in October. They’re anxious to get rid of school stuff and put out holiday stuff. By my child using an old workbook for a couple of months, it buys me time to wait for clearance on a good one.
Maybe you don’t like it, but your child does
Sometimes I’m given brand new workbooks or textbooks. They may not be what I would pick out for my child, but hey, it’s free! If it looks decent and I don’t have the money to buy one myself, I count it a blessing. I take what we like from it and skip the rest. Don’t forget to ask your child if he likes it. He may love it whereas you don’t. Once we were given a math book that looked super boring without colorful pictures. I knew my child would never like it. What child would? It didn’t have the cute color pictures of animals doing math. Well, I was wrong. My child loved it. It was simple, not distracting, and easy to grasp the concepts. So I’m glad I let her try it.
Supplement with your own ideas
Sometimes when I’m given textbooks I can use them as the basis for some lesson plans and then supplement them with updates from the internet like facts and such. Once I was given an animal encyclopedia that was very old. It was accurate, just old photos, many black and white. I was able to find videos showing some of the animals my children were the most interested in. Then I had them write a story about the animal. I had them draw a picture of the animal. We made edible play dough and sculpted the animal. We acted out how the animal behaves. With this one old animal encyclopedia we covered many subjects. And we had a great time learning for free! Then a few weeks later we saw one of the animals in a newspaper article! We were thrilled.
3. Come Up With Everything On Your Own
This is the most time consuming way to homeschool for free, but it definitely can be done. Especially if you have the Internet. You can decide what subjects to study then research those topics online or teach them what you already know. Instead of printing off a coloring sheet of an animal, have them draw it themselves. Instead of printing off a free math worksheet, have them write their own for themselves or a sibling and then switch. Kids actually love this. Coming up with story problems is really fun.
You can plan out the whole school year in advance by going through topics y’all are interested in and finding online resources to go with them like astronomy, poetry, scientific revolution, etc. Or you can fly by the seat of your pants and whatever your child is interested in that day, look up and learn about! Don’t forget to add more subjects to the study by incorporating food, movement, art, music and more about that topic. Sometimes learning this way is the most effective of all because the child is truly invested in learning about it.
More Ways to Homeschool for Free
There are many more ways of how to homeschool for free. But hopefully this gets you started.
We’ve had a few years where I was able to buy new textbooks for each child and spend like $1000 on curriculum. But most of the past 20 years I’ve homeschooled I’ve had less than $200 to spend total. Most of the time I can look on a Facebook “Homeschool books free for shipping” group and find free books if I pay only the shipping. Moms are happy to get rid of their books and give them to a family in need. I also find them cheap on used book stores.
I’m sure you’ll see lots of other ideas and come up with your own thrifty ways too. I never want money to be the reason parents don’t homeschool. If I can homeschool 10 children for the past 20 years almost always making less than $40,000 a year, you can too! Feel free to leave comments to help others.