Use non-consumable books
Books or curriculums that can be used over and over again are a great way to save money. Non-consumable curriculums can be a bit more expensive initially, but spread out over the years and used with several kids, well just do the math!
Buy and sell used curriculum
If you`re not going to use the curriculum again sell it! Make some of your money back. Of course, if you`re in need of curriculum, but it used! Some great sources for buying and selling used curriculum online are VegSource, Cash4books.net, Paperback Swap and
Amazon.
There are also used curriculum sales that can be found locally. Contact your local homeschool support group for more information. You'll save money on curriculum and shipping.
Plan ahead
Know what you need - write it down! If money is short, don't buy what you don't need, even if it is a spectacular deal.
Use what you already own
This may not apply so much to the newer homeschooler, but after homeschooling for a few years, we have a LOT of resources lying around gathering dust. Using things that you already own in your homeschool can also be accomplished fairly easily with younger children by playing games and creatively integrating learning into their everyday play.
Use the library
Libraries are not just for books these days. You can use the library for finding historical documentaries on subjects you are learning about, borrowing otherwise expensive audio books, attending classes, enjoying performances and learning from speakers. There are many opportunities for learning at your local library and the best part is that most of them are completely free!
Use the Internet
A quick Internet search will show you that there are a number of amazing sites dedicated to finding and offering deals on homeschool materials. Be sure to subscribe to these sites and receive their updates directly to your inbox as some of the deals are time-sensitive.
Be sure to check out some of my previously published homeschooling articles such as FREE Homeschool Planning Resources. You can also see ALL the articles I post on the homeschool category page.
More resources:
Need help finding what you are looking for? Links are by subject, topic and grade level; for example, astronomy would be listed as Science: Astronomy. To find something specific, try hitting Control-F, and typing in the subject or topic.
► Administration: Library Organization: Elementary Printable Library Organization System
► Administration: Planner Software: Homeschool Tracker
► Administration: Planners, Info, Lessons (K-12): Donna Young
► Administration: Planners: Homeschool Scheduling with Printables
► Administration: Printable DIY Planner: 7 Step Planner
► Administration: Online Planner: My Mardel Homeschool
► Bible: Free Lesson Plans: Future Flying Saucers
► Bible: Online Games and Activities (K-6): Adventure Bible
► Fine Arts: Art Appreciation Games from the National Gallery of Art (K-8): Kids Art Zone
► Fine Arts: Art History (3-12): Timeline of Art History
► Fine Arts: Art Lessons (K-6): Art Projects for Kids
► Fine Arts: Art Lessons (K-6): Video Art Lessons from Deep Space Sparkle
► Fine Arts: Art Prints (K-12): Art Prints
► Fine Arts: Artist Study (K-6): Printable, grade level art lessons from Concordia Univeristy
► Fine Arts: Classical Music (K-8): Classics for Kids
► Fine Arts: Music Theory (3-12): Music Theory Web
► Fine Arts: Piano Lessons (K-12): Hoffman Academy
► Fine Arts: Preschool Music (Pre-K-1): Musical Zoomy Lesson Plans
► Foreign Language: French (K-6): Just for Kids French
► Foreign Language: German, French, Spanish (K-12) Video Lessons with Printable Lesson Plans from KnowitAll
► Foreign Language: Japanese (9-12+) Japanese 1 with Video Lessons
► Foreign Language: Latin (3-12): Headventure Land
► Foreign Language: Spanish (K-2) Salsa Spanish
► Foreign Language: Spanish/ESL (5-6): McGraw-Hill
► Health: Health and Safety topics (K-12): Kids Health in the Classroom
► Heath: Health Workbooks (K-6): Harcourt Health and Fitness (to use with these low cost textbooks- buy used)
► History: American History (3-7): Mission US American Revolution Interactive Website
► History: American History (K-12): US History
► History: Ancient History (K-6): Mosaic Maps, Myths, and Marvels
► HKindergarten: Lessons (K-1) Kindergarten Themes Monthly Lessons
► Language Arts: Aesop Stories and Lessons (K-6): Aesop Stories
► Language Arts: Audio books (K-12): Librivox Audio Books
► Language Arts: Daily Grammar (K-12): Daily Grammar Lessons and Quizzes
► Language Arts: Dolch Word Lists (K-4) Sight Word Vocabulary Lists
► Language Arts: Early Reading (K-3) You Can Read Sight Word Program
► Language Arts: Early Reading- I see Sam (K-2): I See Sam Downloadable Readers
► Language Arts: Grammar (K-6): Scholastic DoDEA Workbooks
► Language Arts: Grammar and Spelling (?) National Treasures Grammar and Spelling Workbooks► Language Arts: Grammar Sentence Diagramming (K-12): Parse a Sentence
► Language Arts: Grammar Handbook (3-8): Zaner Blosser GUM Workbooks
► Language Arts: Grammar- Mad Libs (K-12): Kids MadLibs
► Language Arts: Grammar Textbook (K-9?):English Banana Grammar Courses
► Language Arts: Handwriting (K-6): Donna Young Handwriting Worksheets
► Language Arts: Handwriting , D’Nealian (K-2)Editable Handwriting Worksheets
► Language Arts: Handwriting help (K-2)Handwriting Helps and Information
► Language Arts: Handwriting: Copywork: Copycat Books
► Language Arts: Literature (K-12): Manybooks
► Language Arts: Literature (K-6): Classical House of Learning Literature
► Language Arts: Phonics (K-3) Progressive Phonics Phonics Readers
► Language Arts: Phonics (K-3) Reading Bear
► Language Arts: Phonics (K-3): Reading Games with Printable Worksheets from Starfall
► Language Arts: Picture Books (K-4): Read On-Screen Picture Books from We Give Books
► Language Arts: Reading and Grammar (K-6) Scott Foresman Reading Workbooks
► Language Arts: Reading, word families (K-3): Word Family Printables
► Language Arts: Spelling (K-12) VocabSpellingCity Free Spelling Games
► Language Arts: SightWords (K-3) Free Resources for Teaching Your Child to Read
► Language Arts: Word Families (K-3): Lots of Printables and Lesson (scroll to the bottom for the Freebies)
► Life Skills: Financial Literacy from the Actuarial Foundation (9-12) High School Finance Curriculum
► Mathematics: Algebra from Purple Math (9-12) Algebra Video Lessons
► Mathematics: Mathematics Enhancement Programme (K-6): MEP full printable curriculum
► Mathematics: Comprehensive School Mathematics Program (K-6): CSMP full printable curriculum
► Mathematics: Explorations and Fun with Math from the Actuarial Foundation (grades 3-8)Real World Math Units
► Mathematics: Games (K-12): Learn with Math Games
► Mathematics: Games and Lessons (K-12) Xtra Math Fact Drill
► Mathematics: Games from Big Brains (multiple grades) Big Brainz Games
► Mathematics: Living Books (K-6) and Ancient History Living Math
► Mathematics: Virtual math manipulatives from Utah State University (multiple grades)Virtual Manipulatives
► Multiple Subjects: BBC (k-12) BBC Educational Videos
► Multiple Subjects: CM curriculum (K-12) Charlotte Mason Help
► Multiple Subjects: Free Textbooks, mostly science and math (9-12) CK 12 Textbooks
► Multiple Subjects: Full Curriculum (K-12) Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool
► Multiple Subjects: Full Curriculum (K-9) Guest Hollow Little Otter's Lesson Plans
► Multiple Subjects: Full Curriculum (Pre-K-5) Head of the Class
► Multiple Subjects: Full Curriculum: Teach with Me
► Multiple Subjects: Full Curriculum program from Ambleside (multiple ages) Ambleside Online
► Multiple Subjects: Games (K-12) Family Games Downloads
► Multiple Subjects: Games (K-6): Educational Games by Grade Level
► Multiple Subjects: Lapbooks (K-12) Homeschool Share Lapbooks
► Multiple Subjects: Lesson Plans (K-12): Lesson Pathways
► Multiple Subjects: Montessori (ages 3-6): Full 40 week Montessori Lesson Plans
► Multiple Subjects: Resources and Lessons (K-12): Teachers Pay Teachers Freebies
► Multiple Subjects: Resources and Lessons (K-12): SAS Curriculum Pathways
► Multiple Subjects: Teaching Resources (K-12): Learning Page
► Multiple Subjects: Topic Links (K-12) Usborne Topic Links
► Multiple Subjects: Unit Studies (K-9) The Homeschool Mom Unit Studies
► Multiple Subjects: Units (K-12) School Express Free Worksheets
► Multiple Subjects: Videos and Lessons (3-12): Khan Academy Video Lessons and Math Help
► Preschool: Full Curriculum, Letter of the Week (PreK-K) Letter of the Week Preschool
► Preschool: Montessori: (PreK) Free Montessori Printables
► Science: Anatomy (5-12): Anatomy Arcade
► Science: Animal Science (K-6): National Wildlife Federation
► Science: Archeology, Dinosaurs and Fossils (3-12) Earth Science Lesson Plans
► Science: Astronomy (K-12): NASA Lesson Plans
► Science: Biology (9-12) Quarks and Quirks High School Biology
► Science: Chemistry (grades 3-6) ACS Inquiry in Action Chemistry Curriculum
► Science: Chemistry, Periodic Table (K-12): Periodic Table Videos
► Science: Coloring Pages (K-12): Science Coloring Pages from Home Training Tools
► Science: Computer Programming (6-12): CodeAcademy
► Science: Computer Programming (K-12): Kodu Programming
► Science: Computer Programming (K-12): Scratch Programming
► Science: Computer Science (K-12): Computer Science Unplugged
► Science: Elementary Science (K-5): Discovery Education Free Resources
► Science: Elementary Science (K-6): Howard Hughes Medical Center Resources
► Science: Engineering (K-12) Teach Engineering
► Science: Engineering (K-12): Engineering Games Online
► Science: Evolution (k-12): Berkeley Education
► Science: Evolution, Tree of Life (?): Tree of Life Website
► Science: Experiments (K-12) Science Fair Projects and Experiments
► Science: Free Course (?) Supercharged Science Freebie
► Science: Full science courses (grades 6-9) Jason.org Free Science Courses
► Science: Full Curriculum from McGrawHill (grades 1-6) McGrawHill Science Texts, Activity Books and Labs
► Science: Games (K-6): PBS Kids Science
► Science: Games (K-6): 24/7 Lawrence Hall of Science
► Science: Geography (K-6) Gutenberg Primary Geography
► Science: Geology (K-5): AGI GeoSource
► Science: Human Evolution (K-12): Human Origins by the Smithsonian
► Science: Life Science (1-6): Mr. Q Printable Life Science Course
► Science: MIT courses (9-12): MIT OpenCourse
► Science: Multiple Subject Curriculum (K-12): Science Mate Science Lesson Plans
► Science: Multiple Subjects (K-12): Science Lessons
► Science: National Geographic (K-6): National Geographic Kids
► Science: National Geographic (K-9) Teacher Lesson Plans
► Science: Nature Study (K-6): Nature Studies Printables
► Science: Physical Science, various "ologies" (K-12): American Museum of Natural History - Ologies
► Science: Physics (K-9): Physics, and yearly free PhysicsQuest science kits
► Science: Projects (K-6): PBS SciGirls
► Science: Satellite Earth Science (K-12): NASA Weather Adventures
► Science: Science Journal (4-8): Natural Inquirer
► Science: Videos (K-12): The Happy Scientist Freebies
► Science: Virtual Museum (K-12): Virtual Museum
► Science: Zoology Links (K-12): National Zoo Homework Helper
► Social Science: American Folklore (K-12): Famous American Folklore
► Social Science: American History (3-9): History of US
► Social Science: American History (K-3): Mind Fires Academy
► Social Science: Current Events (3-12) Time for Kids
► Social Science: Current Events (3-12): YoungZine
► Social Science: Current Events (K-12): Smithsonian TweenTribune
► Social Science: Geography (K-6): World Maps
► Social Science: Government (K-6): Ben's Guide to US Government
► Social Science: Greek Myths Flashcards (3-9): Greek Myths Flashcards
► Social Science: History Unit Studies (2-12) Learning Through History
► Social Science: History, National Archives (3-12) National Archives Teacher Lesson Plans
► Social Science: Human Trafficking from Free the Slaves (grades 6-12) Free the Slaves
► Social Science: Multiple Subjects (3-12) Social Studies for Kids
► Social Science: Mythology (3-9): Myth Web
► Social Science: Narrative History (K-12): Macrohistory
► Social Science: Talking Pyramids (K-9): Ancient Egyptian Games
► Social Science: US History Timeline (3-9): History Timeline
► Social Science: Vikings (K-9): Vikings Lessons from BBC
► Social Science: World History (K-12): World History for Us All Lesson Plans
► Social Science: World History (K-6): Little City Kids
► Supplemental Resources: Information (K-12): Free Lesson Plans
► Supplemental Resources: Maps (K-12): Printable Maps
► Supplemental Resources: Worksheets (k-12): Printable Worksheets
► Supplemental Resources: Logic (7-12th): Self-Taught Logic
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