By the Book

This summer I've seemed to hit the jackpot on books at thrift stores.

This pile will nurture my art and soul. ;) A perfect find on a gloomy day. 

And this pile of workbooks was bought for only $2.50 and will get us through the summer and beyond. 

As a homeschooling family, curriculum purchases fall on the parents. Both the financial burden, as well as the burden of choosing a complete year's worth of educational materials. Some families buy sets of books, others pick and choose workbooks and materials, and others put together their own system. Whatever works for their families.

It can get expensive though. Especially when you are teaching several grades. All materials, such as art supplies, science experiments, etc. also come out of the parent's pockets.

So far I've done the complete school curriculum sets. I've done the mix and match of curriculum. The latter works for our family better than the former. I'm thinking this summer, as I organize all our school materials, I may realize that I have enough to put together our own curriculum for the year, supplemented with books from the library. I have some fun books (like a history book based solely on the Little House Series books). I have a home economics book that is popular among homeschoolers. Both bought at thrift stores for under $1. I have Alice and Jerry readers. Piles of workbooks. Plenty of chapter books. Art supplies. School supplies. I'm excited to set aside a day or two to go through our school items and come up with a lesson plan to meet our needs for the year...and possibly save hundreds of dollars in the process as well as use up the items we have on hand.

I'll highlight what I've come up with later this summer, but given that the beginning of the school year starts just a little over two months from now I need to get on it, because if I do need to order a few pieces to complete the year then they will need to be ordered soon.

A homeschooling mama's work is never done!