How To Stretch Your Homeschool Dollars - A Tip for Reselling Curriculum

Do you have one of these in your back yard?    I certainly don't, and I'm constantly looking for ways to cut costs in our education budget!    I learned this tip from someone in our co-op last year.  I think it had to do with The Story of The World Activity Guide.  I now use it with all of our curriculum that is in the form of a workbook.  I'll use our writing curriculum, Writing With Ease, as an example.

I did watch for the workbooks to be on sale at our homeschool used book sale, but I didn't have any luck.  (I did, however, find two years worth of our Latin program for a total of $17!)  After that I went to Amazon and purchased the workbooks ($23 each for a total of $46) I would need for both children.

 

I took them to the office supply store and had them unbound ($3), purchased 2 spiral notebooks ($3 each) and then three hole punched the workbook pages and put them inside.  I also bought two additional notebooks (one for each child - another another  $6 total) in which I will put copied pages as need be.   These are their own Writing With Ease Notebooks.  

At this point, I have spent $58 on their writing curriculum.   When the time comes for the next child to use them, or for us to be finished with them, I will have a clean copy, ready to pass down or sell.  If I can recoup 40 or 50% of what I spent I think that's pretty good... after all, they are like new, and even if their own notebook.  Now, if you came upon these at a curriculum sale for maybe $10 or $12 a piece , wouldn't you think, "JACKPOT!"??    

 

When I did this with our Story of The World curriculum last year it worked so well!   The children each have notebooks with their names on them and know what to pull out when the schedule says "history", "writing", "science", etc...    (follow the link I gave you to find GREAT printable notebook covers for each volume of Story of the World!) In many subjects, this lends itself well to notebooking, of which I'm a huge fan!  If you're interested in notebooking, this "Learn More About Notebooking" post might help.   (I'm digressing....)

The best thing is that everything is organized in our bookshelf.   Last week we took a field trip that referenced some of the things from the beginning of last year in history - Miss B took out her SOTW notebook and was reviewing the information.  I love it! 

I'm sure you do something similar or have another great organizational tip for me... can you leave me a comment and share?  

What Worked For Us This Year - E is for Eclectic

Linking up this Tuesday with 5 Kids and a Dog for the letter E.    The timing is quite perfect, because I've been evaluating how our year has gone, and what I need to change for the coming school year.   Although we are a heavily Classical homeschool (using First Language Lessons, Story of the World, and many things suggested in The Well Trained Mind) we still pull things from a few different methods, so I would classify us as ECLECTIC!

Here are the top five eclectic resources/ideas that have worked for us this year - maybe you can get some ideas, or maybe you have some  for me when you're done reading the list.  Just let me know!

• Unit Studies -  We have loved Download 'N Go unit studies by Amanda Bennett.   I have also made up several according to my children's interests.   They usually seem to be about science.  The biggest resource I can't live without here are our Magic School Bus books!   We have two Magic School Bus briefcases full of books and there are great starting points to create science units.  They also work well with the age ranges of my two children.  

• Easy Grammar - My daughter will tell you grammar is her favorite subject.  I can't quite put my finger on why she loves Easy Grammar so much, but my guess is it is because the lessons are short, achievable, and very easy to understand.    Her mastery of prepositions and other parts of speech is impressive, and I know it is due to this grammar program.  

• Five in a Row - We have slowed down with our rowing the past couple of months, but I love what these books did for my little guy.    It is such a beautiful program, and we hope to do some more this summer, and also use Beyond Five in a Row with my nine year old.    Have you visited my FIAR page??  

• Ambleside Online - The online free Charlotte Mason curriculum!  I always check what is on the Ambleside website to get wonderful book selections.  Perhaps our favorite from this past year was The Burgess Animal Book for Children.  (Click on the link to read it for FREE!)   What a sweet book that was, and it cemented my children's knowledge of North American mammals, that's for sure.   

• The Handbook of Nature Study - After reading A Pocketful of Pinecones  I had to order this book and I am so glad we have it in our home library.   We have been watching birds, learning about trees, gardening - so many things that would have been outside of my comfort zone before.    

It's extremely hard to narrow the list to five resources, so I have to also tell you that we read as much as we possibly could.   I got ideas from The New Read Aloud Handbook, reading homeschool blogs, other homeschooling moms, and browsing through the library and bookstores.   We also love to notebook, and I could list a bunch of sites that I get free pages from!   

What is your ultimate favorite resource?  Do you have something you think I would like?    

Our Classical Curriculum - The ABC's of Homeschooling

The letter of the week is C! As I've just returned home from a used curriculum fair and have been thinking a lot about our materials for next year, my post today is about Classical Curriculum.

Our homeschool has evolved into a mostly Classical environment. I'll share with you what we are doing that is Classical, and if you have anything you do, or any suggestions for me, I would LOVE to hear them! I'm a relative newbie on this journey and can use all the help I can get!

I am so thankful for Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well Trained Mind. This book sits on my shelf and is read OFTEN. This description of Classical Education, taken from The Well Trained Mind website is a great summary:

A classical education, then, has two important aspects. It is language-focused. And it follows a specific three-part pattern: the mind must be first supplied with facts and images, then given the logical tools for organization of facts, and finally equipped to express conclusions.

But that isn’t all. To the classical mind, all knowledge is interrelated. Astronomy (for example) isn’t studied in isolation; it’s learned along with the history of scientific discovery, which leads into the church’s relationship to science and from there to the intricacies of medieval church history. The reading of the Odyssey leads the student into the consideration of Greek history, the nature of heroism, the development of the epic, and man’s understanding of the divine.

This is easier said than done. The world is full of knowledge, and finding the links between fields of study can be a mind-twisting task. A classical education meets this challenge by taking history as its organizing outline — beginning with the ancients and progressing forward to the moderns in history, science, literature, art and music.

(image courtesy Google Images)

This is what our Classical homeschool looks like:

• History - we are following the 4 year history cycle as prescribed in The Well Trained Mind. To this end, we are using The Story of the World Volume 1 right now, and will be using Volume 2 next year. History is the peg upon which we hang everything else in our homeschool, and WHAT FUN IT IS!

• Grammar - my youngest does First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind and my oldest listens each day (she uses Easy Grammar and loves it, so I'm not changing!)

• Math - we have used Horizons Math from the start. I selected it because it was what came with our Sonlight package the first year of homeschooling. Sonlight has never disappointed me and I feel that they recommend Horizons because of its rigor, mastery, and short spurts of new activities. My children both do well with it and I don't see the need to change. It seems that Saxon Math is the recommended course of study for Classical education - correct me if I'm wrong! I found a very interesting article entitled "An Apology for Latin and Math" - if you have a minute it is quite interesting.

(image courtesy Spurlock Museum)

• Latin - this is where I'm taking a leap! I just purchased (for $17 for BOTH, I might add!) Prima Latina and Latina Christiana. I think we will start gently (since I will have a first and fifth grader next year) with Prima Latina together and if all goes well progress to Latina Christiana.

• Writing - I'm struggling here, so could use some suggestions. We used Writing Strands this year and it was pretty much a flop. I'm thinking of Writing With Ease next year. I also am confident that lots of reading produces good writers, so I don't harp on writing too much right now. As my children get older will get more serious about this.

• Science - This is my weakest area. Currently we are very Charlotte Mason where science is concerned, with a lot of nature discovery and eclectic science units thrown into the mix. I don't know that there is a need for change, because it's working for us, but I wouldn't call our approach to science "Classical".

• Art & Music - I try to pull in artists and composers from the time period we are studying. Since I have a music degree the music part is fairly easy, and with research, the art falls into place. I don't have a set curriculum for either of these subjects.

(image courtesy Google Images)

I like to be spontaneous and use an occasional unit study or go off on a tangent that interests my children, but for the most part we are a classical home educating family. Do you have any thoughts/recommendations for me? I'd love to hear from some of you experienced homeschoolers out there!

Also, hop over to Five Kids and a Dog to see what other people are blogging about today that starts with the letter C!

*Linking up as well with The Hip Homeschool Hop!