You're a single parent and against the odds and naysayers, decide to homeschool your child(ren). The Internet can be a maze of confusion in looking for inexpensive homeschooling aides. Just look to a local library, park, backyard or big city and keep your creativity at the ready!
Visit Your Local Library
But for a library card (since you're on a budget, late books aren't an option!), that’s a great place for your homeschooing family to research world atlases and reference guides, gather science data or review past magazine periodicals to glean information on whatever subject you and your kids would like to know -- for FREE! Check your library hours for other fun activities or how-to classes in home repair, starting a business, applying for colleges and scholarships or workshops in SAT preparation. On occasion, the National Audubon Society (which focuses on conservation and restoration of the planet via birds and other wildlife) meets once a month or so to discuss beginners of bird watching spots in parks and open country.
Take a Field Trip of the Post Office
Nerdy? Maybe. But it's great to learn how mail gets processed, what can and cannot be mailed, how bulk rate gets computed and what interesting things—like Dear Santa Claus letters and how they get handled, and yes, even a taxidermied ferret, it's true—end up in the dead letter section of a local post office. Why not visit yours? You can ask the postal staff how their jobs have changed due to e-mails, cell phones, texting, and faxes sent all day every day, too.
Become a Tourist In Your City
Places like New York City, Venice, Italy, Washington D.C., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Boston or Philadelphia offer a fantastic opportunities to homeschooling families to get to know a city’s rich and sometimes turbulent history. Why does Washington D.C have lettered streets? Why are gondolas used as "traffic" on Venice's waterways? Where did Queens and Brooklyn get their names from? What part of Chicago was almost destroyed by fire? Vintage information like this is a prime learning tool ... if a bag lunch and tired feet don’t scare you from making the trip.
There’s a Forest in Your Park!
Yes, you read right. In your backyard (or neighborhood park), engage your homeschooler into the world of outdoor life from an ant’s point of view. Or a butterfly's. Perchance a spider's. To that view, what would the food source be? Can you find a spider’s water source from its web perch under your window ledge? How would the sun and wind affect their existence? And, how do the leaves and grasses play a role in their self-defense and end of their lives? In your yard or park lies not only a jungle, in it lies a botanical world of discovery you can truly enjoy, especially seen from an insect’s perspective.
Used Books, Anyone?
When inhospitable weather drives you indoors—or if a “seatwork” school day’s on tap--many homeschooling co-ops, yard and garage sales, used bookstores, Internet sites like Amazon or Ebay and homeschooling networking groups listed with Yahoo! can steer you to available used books based on your child’s age, comprehension level and ability. A caveat, though. Parents sometimes turn to their local school districts for these “free” materials to defray costs. Should you elect this route, be ready and willing to adhere to the school and state’s teaching curriculum for your child, even if this curriculum goes against your traditional beliefs. In other words, just because you’re using materials your property taxes paid for, you’re no longer autonomous in how your homeschooler’s learning day unfolds.
Overall, it’s easy to find used, inexpensively priced and free teaching materials. The bulk of homeschooling costs come from needed supplies accessible in twice yearly sales at office supply stores. Offering your homeschooled child(ren) the best education you know how stems from how much ingenuity you devise on a shoestring budget. It can be done because, after all, it is about imagination!
