Our Homeschooling Journey

For us, the first step in homeschooling was to simply make the decision to do so. Although I had no reservations, my husband did. So, after many discussions weighing both pros and cons, he agreed to give it a try. I was very relieved and also pleased that he wanted to be an active participant in this journey.

Next, we began to gather our information. We were scouring the internet, talking with other(s) who homeschool, checking in at the library, and reading books about this subject. The flood of information was rather overwhelming for us. There were (and are) so many methods of teaching and even more types of curricula out there.

Next on the list was the topic of cost. Since we are a one income family, we did have a limit of what we could afford to spend on homeschool materials. Some of the more highly recommended curricula had quite a high price tag. I wondered if we could afford to do this. Eventually, I found out about some ways to cut the costs of homeschooling. I discovered some websites where you can buy gently used books/supplies for a part of what it cost to buy it new. Also, there are numerous sites online which will allow you to access their resources for free  (worksheets, etc). Our local library has many resources available for Homeschoolers. Some thrift stores sell used textbooks. We have even learned to resell some of our curriculum items as we finish using them. We try to keep items in mint condition during our time of using them. That way, we have a better chance of reselling them.

So we have learned to take advantage of these many ways to save on the expense of educating our son without sacrificing the quality of the experience.