When we were just starting out, I had gone to the library to see if they had any books to help me know what I should be doing. I found this book: Home Learning Year by Year. I would call and check it out over and over again until I finally found it on Amazon.com and ordered my own copy for less than $10.00. It covers Kindergarten through 12th grade and breaks down every subject for those grades. It gives links you can visit and suggested readings. It lists what they need to be learning about in math and language arts. It tells the people, time periods and topics they should study in history and science. It explains how deep they should go in art, music, physical education and foreign languages.
We were on a very limited income so my main expense to begin with was the Home Learning book and a library card. I paid $45 a year for a card and the Payette Public Library became our home away from home. I had a list in my hand of who we needed to learn about that week and would load up my oversized blue-jean bag with books and videos and audiobooks. I would grab family magazines for me to get craft and game ideas.
Library books were not my only resource. Over the years, I have kept an eye out for good deals on books. Because I had my Home Learning book at my fingertips at all times, I would know what to look for. I could always find good reading books for the kids at yard sales. The Dollar Store and I became very well acquainted. They had the math and language workbooks usually through grade 2. Then they started getting Spectrum Test books in up through grade 8! When these first came out, my boys were still very little but I loaded up and bought two for each grade. Every once in a while they will get some great little science and history books in so I snatch them up. They always have colorful charts and such too. I have even gone to the public schools at the end of the year to see if they are getting rid of any old text books. That step alone supplied me with Saxon Math text books for four years.
Of course, the highlight of my year was (and still is) the CHOIS Homeschool Convention. The Thursday before the convention is the used curriculum sale. The first time I attended this event, I was overwhelmed. I walked around like a zombie the first half hour. There was a whole gymnasium filled with tables of books and games and gadgets and more books. I didn't even know where to begin. Once my head cleared, I was in heaven. The deals I was able to find there had me dancing on cloud 9 for a week! I learned a valuable lesson that first time though; make a list. Before I go to this sale, I go through the material I have at home and and decide what I will need for the next year. I make a list and try to set a limit on what I will spend. Those are the first things I look for when I walk in. Once I have fulfilled those needs and if I still have money left, I look for fun stuff.
I shared my anxiety about telling people about my choice of curriculum. That panic ended when I attended one particular workshop at the convention. A woman was speaking about how much she would spend on her schooling supplies each year. She opened it up with, "The only thing that you need in order to homeschool your children is a comfortable couch." A couch? That statement actually changed our lives. For the first few years I had been trying to bring the public school home. The boys each had their own little desk . The room I used was set up like a school room, but I realized how rigid and legalistic I had been. That next Fall when I grabbed our stack of books and went and sat on the couch the first day of school, the boys weren't quite sure what to do . It has made things much more relaxed and we have had some great conversations on that old couch.
So there you have it! A book, a library card and a comfortable couch is all you need to begin homeschooling your children!
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