Have I Mentioned That I Like Free (and inexpensive) Resources?

It is a well known fact, that many homeschooling families are one income households.  Not all are, I realize, but the point is that by and large we value the offer of something that is free or inexpensive.  It’s not that we are cheap, but many of us have found a need to be frugal.  In that spirit, and to that end, here are some resources that I’ve compiled over the last two and a half years that you may have missed in your web travels.

Grade Books-For those of you that are interested in a free online grade book/ school calendar/ report and progress report generator, there are others, but I use Snapgrades.  I found it recommended in another home school blog, and I have found it easy to use, and a great resource!  I love the fact that during those weeks that I am questioning whether we are doing enough in school I can easily check the interactive calendar, and rest my nerves.  The irony is that the weeks that I question whether we are doing enough in school, are usually the weeks that I find that I’ve been “cracking the whip” in school and trying to do more than I need to.  The boys love the fact that they receive a report card just like they did when they were “ in school” before we started homeschooling.

Curriculum- Lapbooks, and worksheets, and worksheet generators . . . oh my ;)  There are so many choices when it comes to finding free and inexpensive curriculum, but here are some of the ones that I like.

Homeschool Buyers Co-op and Christianbook.com are awesome websites for deals.  Next to attending a home school curriculum fair, these are the best places to save money on your homeschooling resources. Well worth checking out before you spend more elsewhere!

Homeschool Share is a site full of free lapbooks (including preschool lapbooks!) as well as other wonderful resources.

 Hands of a Child also offers one of their awesome lapbooks free semi-annually.  The others are not free BUT here’s the thing . . . they are reasonable, they are beautiful, they are well researched and thought out, and they almost literally offer lapbooks on just about anything you can think of from World War II to Hot Dogs (it was more cross curricular and in depth then it sounds, really LOL ;).

Learningpage is a wealth of free printables for Pre K- 3rd grade!  Here you’ll find professional worksheets/fun sheets to teach many basic skills like handwriting and counting money, printable themed wall murals that you can color and piece together with themed worksheets to match, and many wonderful free resources by current event in the monthly themed worksheet area.

ReadWriteThink is full of interactive resources to teach kids how to write a postcard or a newspaper, create a crossword puzzle or a action hero trading card (in lieu of a book report ;), or many other fun activities of Language Arts learning.  At the end of the activity you are then able to print your creation.  So much fun!  There are also lesson plan ideas each activity for those that want to use them.

Binding Books Beautifully features a book binding tool that is both inexpensive and versatile. It facilitates the older method of binding books by sewing them together between cloth or paper covered book covers. Imagine not only being able to create a beautiful book out of your kids best school and artwork, but to be able to create your own books and yearbooks, economically.  It is a way to do what the product name suggests . . . bind books beautifully!

Pizza Hut BOOK IT! is also offered to homeschoolers!  I love that Pizza Hut allows our kids to enjoy the free personal pizzas as well!  It starts in October so you may be too late to sign up for this year, but if you haven’t already, you can still try.  

I have more . . . but phew, that will have to wait until next time.  The school bell is about to ring for today, and being that I’m the teacher, well it’s time to go ;)

Until next time, God Bless ;)