Heavenly Homemakers

I’m a little bit hesitant to share about our homeschooling budget because…oh, I don’t know…I just am. I want to discuss it…I just think it can be a bit of a touchy subject. It’s a good thing all of you are so nice.

There are different ways of thinking about how much money families should spend on their homeschooling materials.

Some people look at it like:  “It’s my child’s education. I’m not going to skimp one bit and I’ll spend as much as I can to make sure my child gets the best education possible.”

Then there’s the flip side:   “I can teach my child using everyday things around the house and a pencil and a notebook and the Bible. That’s all I need.”

I agree with both ideas to a certain degree. I think that it is very important to invest in the education of our children. And I also think that our children can learn a great deal by just living and experiencing life with their families…without spending a dime.

I used to skimp more than I do now when Asa and Justus were in the earlier grades. That worked fine because at that point it was really just about teaching them how to read and a few other basics. I tried to just get as many of the Sonlight recommended books at the library as I could, while spending just a little bit on their math books and a few other things.

As my kids get older (and as I’m schooling more of them) I’ve found that it’s harder and harder to get to the library to get all the books they need to read so that we can cover everything I want to cover in the school year. Having the books at our house on our shelves has been so helpful.

So while I’ve struggled with the fact that I could save quite a bit of money by going to the library everytime one of the kids finished one of the books on their list…I’ve just been unable (or yes, possibly unwilling) to make it happen. I LOVE having all the books we’ll need right on the shelf ready to grab at a moment’s notice.

And these books that Sonlight recommends? They are worth paying money for. They are worth reading over and over. They are really great books. (Sonlight is not paying me to brag on them, by the way.)

Having said all of that…I will tell you that our annual homeschool budget is $450. Total. For all the boys. For the year. That amount includes field trips and school supplies from Walmart. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it’s enough, but that’s all there is. Some of you may see that number and be shocked that I spend that little. Some of you may be shocked that I spend that much.

I’m able to keep it at that number by doing several things. First, I combine curriculums as I mentioned in this post. I don’t buy a separate curriculum for each child.

Second, I reuse many “consumable books”. There are a few exceptions, but many of the History and Science books I ordered for Asa when he was younger, I am able to re-use with all of the boys now. If there was question-and-answer stuff in those books, we did them orally. (He got plenty of writing practice elsewhere.)

Third, once I buy a book for Asa, it is passed down and used for the other boys when they’re ready. I don’t have to buy lots of books for each boy each year.

Fourth, I look for some things on ebay. I got a pretty nice deal on ebay for a Teaching Textbook 7 for Asa this year.

Also, this year I saved up all my Swagbucks…redeemed them for Amazon cards…and ordered a whole bunch of readers for the boys. For free. If you haven’t signed up to earn Swagbucks while you’re doing online searches…you should. Their program helped us get many of the books we needed this year. They were truly a blessing. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for Swagbucks.

So there you have it. If you homeschool and care to share a bit about how you budget for it, I’d love to hear!