Obviously, the crowning benefit of using free stuff is…it’s FREE! Right? No rocket science there. But let’s think further.
How much money have you wasted because you read/heard recommendations about some fabulous (and perhaps spendy) product, bought it, tried it, shelved it? Me too. Something we need to remember is that each of our kids is pretty intricately designed. Buying what Ursula Unschooler or Becky Abeka did because it worked so fabulously for them might not be the best use of your precious homeschooling funds. One HUGE benefit of using free materials is that if you don’t like it, there is no guilt in kicking it to the curb.
Another benefit of utilizing free resources is that (unless you are unusually blessed) your kids will probably each need a different approach to their schooling. You may have one child who is not academically wired at all and requires quite a bit of coaxing along. The next child may be bright, but struggling with a learning disability which requires you to rethink e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Yet another child may thrive on using workbooks, and functions exceptionally well independently. Another may be a move-and-touch learner…NO WAY workbooks will work. Have you felt this dilemma? In a perfect world, we could buy one box curriculum, and it would be seamlessly one-size-fits-all. But this is not a perfect world, and our kids are wired with amazing and wonderful diversity. Using free materials can help us adapt from one child to the next. It may enable us to tweak an existing curriculum so that it is usable between child #1 and child #3, by adding more audio appeal, more visual appeal, more touch appeal, more interest-led appeal.
Quite frankly, using free materials may make our break our ability to homeschool in the first place! These days, and with our current economy situation, it can be harder and harder to homeschool. The paycheck doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, and you may need one parent to be stay-at-home in order to make everything work. (If you have both parents in the home working while homeschooling, check out this blog post for some good coping strategies.)
In our home, I stay home with the kids. But that means we do a lot of penny pinching. We shop sales. We visit Dollar Tree routinely. Lots of our clothes come from second hand and consignment shops. We don’t do a whole lot of eating out or activities which require financing.
When I really launched our homeschool journey, I was stuck between a rock and a hard spot. I knew we had to quit what we were doing (public school virtual academy, where everything was provided free), but I did not have the funding to buy curriculum, and I needed something NOW. We withdrew our kids from the academy mid-Spring semester, Not ideal from a planning standpoint. How did we survive? Free curricula and internet. And the library became a very regular stop for us each week.
In previous years, we had various curricula given to us or purchased for us. We did Bob Jones dvds, Abeka dvds, and Rod and Staff because of gracious gifts and provisions. They were not only pricey–they were also not “us”. I had not found our niche yet. So, I scrambled. I gave our kids a couple weeks to “deschoolify” (we did reading and basic math I scraped together in a flurry) and used that time to pour hours and hours into scouring the internet for quality, free resources. That was back in 2007.
Things have really stepped up since then. As homeschooling becomes more widely accepted, the internet has exploded with great stuff to use! Amazing, worthwhile stuff. Back in 2007, things were not so plentiful. It’s amazing the difference only a few years can make!
The lifesaving freebies for me in our transition time were:
- http://allinonehomeschool.com/ This was by far my biggest salvation. It is Christian (which is my preference), and structured, with lots of printables and live links included. It is now available through high school. This website alone gave me the format I needed to move forward even while I kept searching for ideal stuff that would be tailored to our family. It covers the core subjects and also electives. Flexible and free, you can do it at your own pace.
- http://keysforkids.org I used this site as additional Bible material. It is free and gives some practical application for basic Bible truths through stories kids can relate to.
- https://www.amblesideonline.org/ When I needed more material to beef up what we were doing, I started looking into the Charlotte Mason method to see if it would jive with my kids and their learning styles. In the end, it was a bit suicidal for me because it required a lot of hunting down of resources, scouring the web again, and finding out of print books. My health was not good at the time, so this was all pretty overwhelming for me. God was so gracious, and when I went to the used bookstore in our little western town, I found several old volumes that I needed. The likelihood of that happening is pretty slim. I’m grateful He was looking out for me!
- At this link you’ll find the Schoolin’ Swag Pinterest board for complete curricula (and there’s a LOT more there, too). Not all of the pins are for free stuff, but many of them are!
- I highly recommend following this site and this one as well, for lots of high quality freebies!
As a result of my scrambling, Schoolin’ Swag was born. It has now become a favorite resource to nearly 4,500 homeschoolers and continues to grow on a daily basis. Daily, we have dozens of freebies, discounts and deals posted. Of course, I highly recommend joining there as well!
For the Love of Learning,
Diane
BUT I wanted to share what came in MY mail today! Santa’s brown elf (not to be confused with wood elves, LOTR fans) visited us today. I know we homeschoolers get a special thrill from receiving boxes of books, so I thought I’d post a pic so we can squeal together!
We have had a great time during our “Homeschool Homestretch” event! So far we have been able to offer these encouragements to lucky winners in our group:
The On the Go Planner from the Well Planned Gal is a beautifully designed day planner and home management system perfectly sized to fit in your purse. Take it with you everywhere you go and stay organized at home and on the go! Look inside 
Family Magazine meets you at the intersection of your life and faith. Committed to engaging today’s homeschooling family in thoughtful discussions of relevant topics, we bring you the best articles by the best authors about the most important issues facing families today. No cookie-cutter answers here—only practical, current homeschooling advice and resources. Come join the most meaningful discussions taking place in the homeschooling community!
Today we are offering two paperback copies of “Fatal Illusions” by my author friend, 
The Schoolin' Swag Blog 