When You REALLY Have No Money for Homeschool Curriculum – Dynamic Reader Question

No matter how long it takes me to reply to my emails, every email I get is important to me.

I am not made of stone and so when an email touches me to my heart and brings tears, I have to share it with you too. (Of course I always get permission first and I never share any private information so I can preserve dignity, privacy and respect for my followers.)

I am hoping that by sharing this email from one of my readers that if you are feeling alone and defeated but are hesitant about reaching out, you will find some comfort.

Look at my follower’s words:

I am a struggling homeschool mom of two with a husband that can only work part time. This is my second year homeschooling and I feel stressed to the gills. I have an 11 yo son who has Asperger’s and ADHD and a 10 yo daughter with dyslexia/dysgraphia.
I made the mistake of unschooling last year and I regret it but I don’t have the funds to order a curriculum. My children are working in all the same grade levels.
I may have to go to work because of my husband’s health so I am trying to plan as much as possible. It’s overwhelming to put it lightly.
I have internet access and a mono color printer, oh yeah and Netflix. Is there anything you can suggest that can keep the tears from falling?
I am to the point of when telling my husband that we are out of toilet paper that makes me cry because he is trying so hard…. Thank you for reading :/

After I replied about wanting to help her, her response moved my heart even more.

Thank you Tina for your time. I am an emotional wreck right now and currently crying because this is the first time that I have reached out to anyone that doesn’t know me. I don’t want to send my children back to being bullied and put on meds.
I will not do that but everything seems so stressful right now and I am suffocating with everything that it takes to plan a school year. I have a goal to hopefully start on July 6th considering we have a lot of catch up to do with them being at a third grade level. If I start working I have to get on the ball and make a dent in this madness A.S.A.P! Thank you again Tina!

First, I want to say THANK YOU for reaching out to me. This is something you should never have to bear alone.

And though I can’t completely say that I understand everything that you are going through, I have compassion and sympathy for you.

To give you practical help, let’s break this down into two parts.

One, I want to help you find peace with your present circumstances and two, I will give you specific tips and a starting point for curriculum.

Control What You Can.

I do understand your feelings about your husband’s health.

When my husband had a massive heart attack a few years back and I thought I would be raising my three boys alone, I realized I was not the invincible person I had always thought I was.

After nursing him back to health, I realized that trials have a way of strengthening us though we feel very weak at the time.

Of course we would rather not learn it that way.

I learned to control what I could and that really nothing mattered more than being together as a family because life is precious.  After I put things in perspective, I had a beginning point.

Letting go of the way things use to be before his health declined spurred me on to find new creative ways to homeschool and spend time together.

Homeschool Mistakes. It’s NOT About Forgetting

Another thing I learned along the way was that I didn’t want to exactly follow the popular saying to “forgive and forget” when it came to homeschool mistakes I made.

While I wholeheartedly endorse the thinking that homeschooling is about forgiving your past mistakes so that you can have the energy to move forward, it’s also a lesson in how I don’t want to homeschool.

Instead of carry feelings of guilt, turn those feelings of guilt into some get up and go.

It was just a lesson learned in how the unschooling approach did not work for your family.

You now have a clear direction of the way your family needs to go.

Lesson learned and now you will be a much better teacher because of it.

New Homeschool Beginnings

Next, though it may take you more time to put together your curriculum, if you are willing to work hard in poring over resources, you can just about homeschool for free and your kids receive an excellent education.

Spending a lot of money doesn’t always equate with having an excellent education.

Your upbeat attitude and eagerness toward learning even with the most minimal resources are way more important to success than an ample supply of curriculum with an unmotivated teacher.

One caution I will give you is to not get yourself so overwhelmed with poring over free resources constantly that you don’t have a beginning point.

It is important to pick a main or spine resource and stick with it though you can use other things to supplement it with.

Though I will give you numerous sites at the bottom to find more free resources that I think are worth spending your time at, I have also lined out specific curriculum suggestions that I have picked out uniquely for you.

My reasons for choosing these sites are because they are either laid out to help ease planning stress and some are interactive sites to help with the unique needs of your children.

Reading

Choose from Baldwin online living books to read together on line and fill in with other books you get from the library.

There are many grade levels to choose from at the Baldwin website and I have used it for many years.

Children with special needs are not evenly developed across the board (not any kid really is) so it allows you to choose grade level books based on their progress through the year.

Go through them and pick out the ones you want to read together.

Also, Jennifer over at Contently Humble has a wonderful list of free graded readers. You won’t run out but you will run out of time deciding which gem to do first.

One more wonderful resource for reading is by Jamerrill, which is the Ultimate Guide to Free Kindle Books (psssst, you don’t have to own a kindle to get the free kindle books).

Spelling

Free 3rd grade Spelling book. (200 pdf download.) Just look ahead at the lessons, plan, print and go slow. It’s laid out for you.

Vocabulary

Because children that have special needs do better sometimes with interactive content, use this site by Wordly Wise with interactive vocabulary.

The word is pronounced out loud, gives the part of speech and is used in a sentence.

If your children become overstimulated, then turn off the sound.  It’s already laid out for your children. If they finish one grade level, just go to the next one.

Copywork

To help their handwriting to improve as best you can, use free copybooks from copy cat books.

Remember too that they can copy small passages from history and science books but this gives you copywork already laid out.  And already laid out curriculum is easiest when overwhelmed.

Another backup for copywork is Amy over at Are We There Yet has the ultimate guide to free copywork if you run out of ideas or are short on energy.

Grammar

Free grammar pdf download for Grades 1 – 5. (141 pages.) This will help you to go back over the basics and to be sure you strengthen their grammar skills as best you can.

Free pdf math download for grades 1 – 5. (229 pages)  Use this as a main math spine and use the parts you need to reinforce concepts and teach new ones.

In addition because ck12 elementary math is interactive, your kids can do some math on their own to give you a break as well.

Too, using part printed and part interactive helps to give you some planning help and still addresses the needs of your children.

Though I have two free middle science books here on my site, they are middle school science books. I wanted to be sure you knew about them in case your kids love science and want to go ahead in grade levels.

However, for the time being use this free science book that is a 3rd grade level.

It is a free book online and it is interactive.  When the sound button is clicked, the science book will be read to your children. This will aid them in comprehension.

Again, this gives you a break too if you need to care for your husband, think about part time work or just need to find your calm point again. The kids can read this together or with you or you can choose the interactive portion where they are read to.

If you want to focus on one area of science, then check out these free guides, which are ones I picked out that I think your children will find fascinating based on their ages.

The Ultimate Guide to Studying Plants and Flowers
The Ultimate Guide to Studying Space
The Ultimate Guide to Studying Insects

You didn’t mention a specific time period you wanted cover, but here are some free things to use as a spine.

Heritage History books on line. Pick your time period.

America’s Heritage – An Adventure in Liberty. Three free levels to download; Elementary, Middle School and High School.

LibriVox – Has about 25 G.A. Henty books for free.

You know I have LOTS of free lapbooks and unit studies here AND they are in chronological order if you need them.

Don’t forget to ask other homeschoolers if they are pitching out some unused or gently used curriculum.  Too, we had a homeschool co-op where we exchanged or borrowed curriculum.

Though you may already know, it bears repeating to not forget garage sales, thrift shops and used curriculum sales.  Don’t forget when family or friends ask about gifts for your kids, to steer it toward something educational that your children will like.

Near my last home in Texas we lived close to a big state park. So I checked into park programs that were FREE for the boys to join. They taught science and about nature and it was a fun time to get out of the house. We packed a picnic lunch and spent the day at the park.

Living overseas now, science materials and supplies are non-existent. I have to resort back to my thrifty ways by saving all kinds of material.

I keep and collect ALL empty bottles, jars, liter bottles, shoe boxes, empty toilet paper and papertowl rolls and other things I come across. We now have a nice stash of ready to go science supplies when we need them for hands-on science.

Though I haven’t listed free lessons for art, typing and music, I do have them too.  I wanted to be sure you got to read this in one afternoon and to not also be too overwhelmed, so I stuck to the core subjects.

Once again, I am so grateful that you reached out for support.  I care about you.

Though it won’t be easy, you certainly can homeschool successfully and I hope in some small way that I have eased your stress.

What about you? Do you have any other suggestions to help her?

Hugs and love ya,

 Also, check out my other articles and check out other places to find free curriculum.

Digital Homeschool Curriculum – Big Ol’ List. Some are free, others not but still inexpensive.
Is Homeschooling Expensive?
Homeschooling History – Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix
Studying Science in your Homeschool with Netflix
Homeschooling with Netflix {Health Class}
Also grab freebies from Homeschool Giveaways and Free Homeschool Deals