This year was my year to take the time to scope out the internet for all of it’s FREE resources for schooling your child.
Last year we did some allinonehomeschool.com as well as my own online kindergarten classes, but my children wanted more. They WANTED to do worksheets and papers and I didn’t want to have to take turns using the laptop between 3 children. Thus it put me on a path of printing off all of their schooling for the year and ensuring that they would be busy with some sort of paperwork each day.
Here I start with my kindergarten and first grader—we have 1 that is more of an end of the year kindergarten and one that is about first or second grade. I don’t like labeling grade levels but I have to have a general guideline.
Here is what we did for
Math
This is a hard one, as there are many individual lessons available online, but it is hard to find a complete FREE printable resource online. I actually found one for the UK and think it will fit us fine. Click here for it. The only flaw is that some of the problems use pounds instead of dollars and metric instead of standard. But I am ready to change that when we come to those pages.
I used the level “1” for kindergarten and the level “2” for first grade.
I printed out all of the pages and found that they need to complete 1 page per day to finish in a 180 day school year.
Writing
I made writing journals for my children and you can view those here.
They are to do 1 page per day.
Spelling/ Reading Comprehension
Found this great FREE printable resources here at K12reader.
Look on the left hand sidebar for the different grade levels of spelling.
I will have them do:
Monday–copy the spelling words
Tuesday do the corresponding reading comprehension page—available on the site for FREE
Wednesday I will dictate the words in a sentence–that they provide
Thursday will give them a final test and have them copy words they missed
English
Scott Foresman had these workbooks for FREE to download. They are complete Grammar books.
I am having them do 1 page per day.
Reading
I will have each girl pick out some books from the library and read for about 1/2 hour each day. They are doing better and can do simple reading on their own. Makes it easier.
Thinking Skills/Lapbooks
For my next part it is more of a mix of different resources that I found online. I wanted some busy work to keep them occupied plus learn some things. I basically did searches online for different free printables. I won’t include them all because they are all scattered but you can get the idea of what I searched for.
Here is the schedule I made to help me keep track of what I am to do. I filed all of their work in the order that we will be doing it.
To help explain what I we will be doing–I have us reading a devotional story of some sort each day and we will be doing the following:
Leading little ones to God—finishing up from last year
Prudence and the Millers–along with the accompaniment workbook pages
Wisdom and the Millers
School Days and the Millers
A Hive of Busy Bees
They will then do 2-3 pages of miscellaneous stuff I found online, here is some of it:
lots of free worksheets here–various topics
These next ones are from teacherspayteachers.com—you have to create an account–its FREE then it will allow you to download, worth your time they have many free resources.
I also have them making stepbooks at various times throughout the year. I purchased these from Oriental Trading years ago and just did nothing with them–included in my schedule.
I know there are many more FREE resources, I just didn’t document all of them, I suggest sitting by your printer and just searching one night for different free worksheets and then printing. Cover a variety of topics.
Lapbooks
This was the last resource I came across and it helped fill my day perfectly. This link to these FREE lapbooks is numerous.
I decided to do Little House on the Prairie series with my 2 girls. I chose to read 1 chapter per day. That way when life gets crazy—because you know it will–it won’t be too overwhelming. After we read each chapter, there will be a lapbook page for my daughters to complete. Thought it would be fun to do. Plus we get to read these books aloud. I will be doing the following:
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House in the Prairie
On the banks of Plum Creek
Little Town on the Prairie
The Long Winter
For my 4th /5th grader I did similar things:
Math
I did the same math from the UK as I did for my 2 younger ones, I will adjust pages according to needs. Click here and choose level that is appropriate for your child.
We will be doing 1 page per day.
Math Drills
I loved xtramath last year as my child was able to do math facts and I got an email each week letting me know how they were doing. It is FREE and is a resource we will be using.
This takes about 7 minutes per day.
Spelling/Read Comprehension
I used the same K12 reader for my older elementary child. Choose appropriate level, and then get the corresponding reading comprehension papers.
Each day will be done this way:
Monday–copy spelling words
Tuesday–read comprehension page
Wednesday–dictation with spelling words–provided on site
Thursday–test
Writing/Journal
I made my own writing journal for boys. You can click here to see what I did.
They are required to complete 2 pages each day. One for penmanship and one for journaling.
Grammar
Scott Foresman offers a complete FREE download book that you can print off. Click here for the different levels.
One page per day
Critical Thinking
I did a search for this one as I did the girls. I found numerous pages, puzzles, games, etc. Just sit down and print a bunch off. You need 180—1 for each day.
Here is a start for a free 81 page book
Lapbooks
My son really enjoyed doing lapbooks last year and is looking forward to them this year. I found this great site that lists them FREE. Check it out.
I just went through the list and asked my son which ones he would want to do. I figured out roughly how many pages were to be completed and figured 2 per day was sufficient. We then printed off enough to do for the entire year.
Some he chose were:
chickens
ducks
detectives
Beavers
Wolves
Christmas around the world
Reading
I will also be having him read a book for 1/2 hour each day.
I did multiple searches for great pre teen boy books. Pioneer Women had a good listing of some of them. I have my list and will just order them and let him find which ones are interesting.
I am finished!!!! This was my total cost for all of this: includes 4 packages of printer paper–$10, 2 ink cartridges–$10 and 3 journals–$10. If you divide that out, it is $10 per person.
Definitely took me some time, but that time saved our family hundreds of dollars on curriculum.
Do you have any FREE resources to share??
9 responses to “How I home schooled my 3 elementary children for $10 each!!”