Homeschooling for Cheap

I was totally inspired recently when I read another mom's guide to homeschooling for nearly-free. She also lists her curriculum for quite a few grades, which is so helpful! This site is also a tremendous resource for curriculum.
We first started Emily with the complete Sonlight Kindergarten curriculum. It is a wonderful curriculum and includes such variety and excitement! But it is also extremely expensive and not something we could afford long-term. (Year after year, with multiple children etc.) SO... in reading about those cheap/free curriculum ideas I was encouraged that this is indeed possible to do, and to still get a good quality education!

I found Sonlight to be a bit overwhelming. It was so much material to cover, I got bogged down very easily. I decided I wanted schooling to be much simpler which I think will make it much more doable!
The best part of Sonlight were the read-aloud books. I began by reading them to her and we read a few that way. Then I quickly realized that Emily was perfectly capable of reading these books for herself and that kind of threw me for a loop! So I started just giving her a book and when she finished it we'd talk about it and then I'd give her the next book. She completed all twenty-plus books this way and did a fantastic job. And most of these books are on a 3rd-6th grade reading level! It's no lie- I'm SO proud of her!

We decided that we couldn't possibly put together such a great variety of books for her as Sonlight did, so we are going to find all of the 1st grade read-aloud books at used book stores. I'm determined! This kind of literature has proven to be a huge part of her schooling and I love it!

In addition to the Sonlight reading list, we have invested a little in an online curriculum that will cover math, language arts, science and history. We are also adding in Bible curriculum and writing. This new system is significantly less expensive than Sonlight and we've already gotten started since we were at a transitional point and ready to start something new and different!

We're also planning on trying different scheduling options. I'm interested in the 6-weeks-on-1-week-off idea. Or 6 weeks on and 2 weeks off. May try both! Not sure yet! Just gonna take it a week at a time. :)

This is the list of books she completed this past year (not including the chapter books that she was given and just read for fun on the side and there were also quite a few of those!):

The Apple and the Arrow - Buff The Boxcar Children - Warner Dolphin Adventure - Grover Five True Dog Stories - Davidson A Grain of Rice - Pittman The House at Pooh Corner - Milne The Hundred Dresses - Estes In Grandma's Attic - Richardson Treasury for Children - Herriot Johnny Appleseed – Holland The Light at Tern Rock - Sauer

The Llama Who Had No Pajama - Hoberman Mary on Horseback - Wells My Father's Dragon - Gannet The Real Mother Goose Richard Scarry's Please and Thank You Book The Story About Ping - Flack, Wiese The Story of Dr. Dolittle - Lofting Capyboppy - Peet Dolphin Treasure - Grover The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Baum

And this is our new 1st grade reading list which we'll start collecting in various used book stores/libraries soon:

Archaeologists Dig for Clues - Duke From Akebu to Zapotec - Hathersmith George Muller - Benge The Great Wall of China - Fisher Missionary Stories with the Millers - Martin Greek Myths for Young Children - Amery Henry Huggins - Cleary Homer Price - McCloskey Tut's Mummy Lost and Found - Donnelly The Usborne Time Traveler - Usborne The World Series - Bowyer The Greek News - Powell&Steele

I Heard Good News Today – Lehn Little Pear - Lattimore Mountain Born - Yates Mr. Popper's Penguins - Atwater Understood Betsy - Fisher The Year of Miss Agnes - Hill Gooney Bird Green - Lowry Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - McDonald The Wheel on the School - Dejong The Best Trick - Lewis A Big Ball of String - Holland The Bravest Dog Ever - Standiford