Hi! My name is Crystal McNerney and I’ve been providing my children with a high quality education while on a strict budget.
I didn’t exactly plan to homeschool, it was sort of a last resort for us. I had no idea how I was going to handle it or where to start but we succeeded. After one year my child was learning at a grade 5/6 level from a grade 2/3 level. Turns out, it was the best decision we’ve ever made but it was overwhelming at first. I had to quit my job and we were already a low income family. That was tough but we’ve learned to live better on less.
Anyway, that’s my intro. If you’re interested, please come and join my discussion group. It’s only 3 weeks old but I have well over 200 members and everyone is extremely supportive. Be sure to check out a couple of my favorite links at the bottom.
Wishing you and your family all the best,
Crystal McNerney
Homeschooling On A Budget
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Exchange time & money saving tips, low cost educational ideas, activities & resources with homeschooling families interested in providing a quality education for less.
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EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE
Owl and Mouse
This site has free downloadable software for maps, build a castle, make a town or village, make a farm, learn the alphabet, bridge to reading, lettersounds (my 3 yo’s favorite), shields-knights and heraldry and active learning projects for k-8.
My favorite for math is www.inew.com Inew Math
Current Events is http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/ Time for Kids
One of my Fav’s for Free Worksheets is http://home.att.net/~bandcparker/worksheets.html and this one is great too http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~baugust/worksheets.htm
My favorite for Unit Studies is- well actually this is my favorite homeschooling site- I think :-)http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8259/unitstud.html
One of my fav Homeschool Link sites is http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/tiredmom3/links.html
Crystal
Re: Can comment on a couple of things....
In my opinion, Singapore Math is the best math program around, and it’s relatively inexpensive. You supply your own manipulatives from items around the house (for example, I bought some inexpensive poker chips and multi-colored index cards for some of the manipulatives). There are some good posts about SM on the “Reading and Math” homeschooling board at http://www.vegsource.com. You can find them using the search option over there. Personally, I wouldn’t go with any other math program, and it goes through grade 12. Website is http://www.singaporemath.com
Great Leaps has a good track record and is easy to use.
Audiblox is an excellent home-based cognitive skills training program that tends to help LD kids a lot. Among other things, it works on developing visual and auditory short-term memory. For about $80 you can get the book, video and starter kit of manipulatives. Website is http://www.audiblox2000.com
Mary
Quality on a Budget
Thanks, Mary. You have given me something to go for! If anyone else has ideas, please write!
Again, thanks…
Lorna
Re: Homeschooling On A Budget & My Fav Sites
A good and inexpensive source for science curricula would be Janice van Cleve’s books- Chemistry for Every Kid, Geology for Every Kid, etc. Each book is about $10. She presents a good overview and experiments that can be done at home, and you could supplement with library books for more in depth discussion of the various topics.
Jean
Re: Homeschooling On A Budget & My Fav Sites
Thanks for the tip! I’ll check out her books.
Lorna
Hello,
I thought I would ask the pros on homeschooling these questions since homeschooling is new for us. My 9-year-old son is gifted with ADHD-inattentive. His academic strengths are in science (9th grade), math (6th grade), social studies (6th grade). He does need work in the humanities (4th grade), though. So…here are my questions I hope people can help us with:
* Are there any financial scholarships, grants, community funding to help offset the costs of homeschooling? Our budget squeaks!
* What top quality science curricula are available for chemistry, physics and biology?
* What are the best math programs that use manipulatives?
* What resources are available that increase memory retention, fluency in reading?
* Has anyone used “Great Leaps?”
* Does anyone know of Dr. Mel Levine’s work? If so, would you share your thoughts?
Thanks for your time,
Lorna