Catholic Homeschooling for Free (or at very little cost)

WARNING!  THIS IS A LONG POST!

As I enter my twilight years of homeschooling, I have been in the process of clearing out a lot of old curriculum.  I am very chagrinned to find that most of this stuff was a complete waste of money.  Actually I have been clearing out curricula for years.  There's a constant sloughing off that goes on.  And I am ashamed of it.  Because looking back I see what a colossal waste it was.  It was my consumerist mentality - a thing I buy will fix my need!  It will guide me because I don't know what I am doing!  It will make it fun and my kids will love me again!  Blah, blah, blah.  I called myself a curriculum junkie.  I knew I had a problem.  Sadly, in the homeschool world it is often all about curriculum.  On the Catholic Relaxed Homeschoolers facebook group there is an inexorable drift towards threads that obsess on curriculum.  Should I enroll here?  Will All About Spelling cure my 10 year old's lack of spelling prowess?  My dd hates math - will Teaching Textbooks make her love it?  And then you get all the testimonials from folks who swear up and down!  They've been using this new curriculum for two weeks now and everything is coming up roses!

I do think curriculum can be useful at times, but for the most part it is unnecessary until you get older and are concerned with getting those credit hours for high school by doing things formally.  Then I do think you need something for Algebra and Biology and the like all spelled out for you.  Although, there are unschoolers who do things differently and somehow their kids seem to come out well.  But really, in truth, curriculum is such a crutch.

Throw away your crutches!  Get up and walk!

First of all, you have to believe in your heart that God made your child in His image and likeness.  Do you believe that?  That means that your child has a natural desire to create.  People who create need to acquire a certain amount of knowledge and skill in order to be creators.  They will naturally gravitate to absorbing knowledge and skill in order to support their creativity.  It often happens unconsciously and very naturally.

Appreciate your child's curiosity.  Aristotle said: Man, by his nature, desires to know.  The word man there means human being.  I am guessing your child is a human and therefore, you can trust that your child wants to become knowledgeable about the world around him.  Your child has probably been asking 'why?' for a while now.  Children are curious and want to explore, experiment, and talk about stuff.

Imitation - your child wants to imitate you.  Especially when they are little.  But they actually want to imitate you when they get older too.  It just isn't as obvious.  Teach through imitation.  Let them pretend they are like mommy or daddy, unloading the dishwasher, shaving, reading.  Model learning for them by doing it yourself when they are little and when they are older let them witness how you handle things in life; how you use your brain to accomplish what you need to, how you broaden and educate yourself.  Live out loud so your children will see you.

Your children want to grow into competent adults.  Trust that.  But this is a marathon, not a sprint.  It's complicated.  And everybody runs at their own pace.  I think this is the thing that really brings us worry.  We are afraid they won't launch and the failure will reflect on us.  So bottom line obsessing on finding the perfect curriculum is our pride and vanity speaking!  We don't want to look bad!  We are afraid that if Johnny isn't reading at age 6 he'll never make it to college.  That if Mary Catharine isn't getting 100s on her spelling quizzes each week she'll never be successful as an adult.  This is fear-based and irrational thinking on our part.  It doesn't take into account that when Johnny is older he might decide he'd rather be an airplane mechanic and doesn't want to go to college.  Or that Mary Catharine might decide she's going to major in music so spelling really doesn't matter and plus there are editors and spell check anyway.

Most importantly it also doesn't take into account the fact that children change as they mature and they might click with reading and spelling or what have you, later in life when their brain develops or when they see the point in what they need to learn so they choose to focus their attention on it of their own volition, instead of your volition pushing it on them.

So you've got all the above going for you when it comes to teaching your child:

1.  Made in God's image
2.  Natural curiosity
3.  Natural desire to imitate
4.  Natural desire to grow into competent adult
5.  Maturity and development

So here it is:  Even if you never bought a single piece of curriculum, your child can grow into a capable, well educated adult.  They do this if you read to them, talk to them, allow them freedom to play, let them be with you as you do your daily tasks and projects, take them on outings, let them intermingle with other people, and most importantly, love them.

You will also need access to books and pencil and paper.  If you have access to the internet, you are golden!

Where to get books - even though I've bought lots of books, I've also gotten lots of books free.

Library - If you have a library card you have access to books there and through intra-library loans.

Gifts -  You can ask for particular books as gifts from grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.

Borrowing - You can borrow books.

Cast offs - People give away books too.  Neighbors, other homeschoolers, libraries, family members.  I've got tons of books from my grandparents, parents and aunt.  All free.

If you have access to the internet - you can find tons of free books on line.  If you have a kindle there are many, many books for free there.

But you say, you want teaching books - books on phonics and math that are set up to teach children.   I don't know how to teach!  I need someone to hold my hand!  First of all, you could choose to educate yourself on how to teach while you are doing the easy thing of reading to, talking to, playing with, working with, living and loving your children.



 If you have access to internet, you are completely covered for everything!  Even if you have really limited access you can still do it.  Even if you have to get internet at the library once a week or at your parents house or at your husband's office, you can still do it.  Because this stuff is supplemental anyway to real learning.

Here are some on line math resources:

Free Math Resources

Jumpstart Games

Math.com

Khan Academy

This is just a tiny smattering of what is available on line.

Here's an old fashion Catholic beginning arithmetic text.

Language Arts - I just googled this and someone else has come up with an excellent list of free lessons and resources.

Catechism - Here's something that looks helpful.  You need a printer though.

Here is  a free catechism course on line.

Here is a list of links for every subject.

If you want Catholic history the best resource is Heritage History.

Perhaps you are still floundering with how to teach.  This is all very well and good but I don't know have confidence in being able to educate my kids without enrolling in Seton.  Here are ways you can teach without have to worry about method:

Answer questions your child asks.  If you don't know the answer, search for the answer with your child.  Try to mull it out together.

Play games with your child.  Your child will learn math through card games and board games.  Your child can learn spelling through boggle or scrabble.

Read out loud to your child.

Granted there are some things that need to be taught rather systematically and it might be good to be able to present them clearly and in a certain order.  The things that I think are hardest to explain well are math concepts, phonics or spelling rules and grammar.  But I find it is often a matter of looking things up when you stumble upon it.  It is good to have references available for just this sort of situation.

Teaching phonics rules.

Spelling rules (this one has 9 spelling rules but then scroll down and the rest of the 26 rules are exceptions).

Free grammar rules

Here's some sound advice about teaching math.

What it boiled down to after 20 years of homeschooling

What follows is a list of the curricula, references, tools or programs that I've bought that I thought were worth the money to purchase.  This means that after all my wasteful outpouring of money over the years (I could have fed a village of starving children in Africa!) this is what turned out to be worthwhile:

Reading:
Phonics Pathways - a one book reference from beginning reading to high school spelling.
At Last a Reading Method for Every Child - great for dyslexic kids.
A set of basal readers - if your child needs lots of practice before launching into 'real' books.
Bob books

Writing:
Beginners kit from Handwriting without Tears - if your kids really struggle with handwriting.
A template for how to form manuscript and cursive letters
Copy work (lots of it!)

Math:
A white board or chalk board
Any kind of manipulatives - such as craft sticks, pennies, anything that can be counted and grouped.
Money
Math picture books you can find at your library
Living Math website
Games and puzzles
The TMs from Modern Curriculum Press, especially for Kindergarten and 4th grade.  3rd grade might be helpful too.  Some of the Kindergarten concepts are too advanced so you can basically use them for 1st and 2nd grade too.  At some point you need to teach regrouping ( borrowing or carrying).  The 4th grade book teaches long division really well.  You can buy these TMs used really cheaply.
*** If you have been reading math literature as well as engaging your child in real world math, they will have already encountered and learned a bit about things like fractions (cooking teaches this well), decimals (money!), and percents (sales, tips for waiters, etc).  Saxon always starts at the very beginning so you can actually start formally teaching this stuff at the pre-Algebra level and your student will catch up amazingly quickly.  So fast, that you will truly wonder why schools take YEARS to teach this very simple stuff.  The trick is to teach it later, after the student has encountered the concepts in real life for a while and their abstract thinking skills have developed.
Saxon 7/6, 8/7, Algebra I, Algebra II, Advanced Math
Fun math worksheets and puzzles you can print off

Religion:
Lots of picture books with faith related themes (Tomi DePaola, Demi, Weight of the Mass, etc)
Saints books - Sisters of St. Paul, Vision Books, etc.
Living the liturgical year (ideas abound on line at places like Catholic Icing, etc)
St. Patrick's Catechism
The Creed in Slow Motion
Quiet Waters Stations of the Cross
Beginner's Bible
Saint of the Day
CCC videos
Veggie Tales
Glory Stories
(note that the last three listed in religion make great Christmas, birthday or even Easter gifts, so you can collect them slowly over several years.)
For teens, books and talks by Scott Hahn, Matt Pinto and Jason Evert

History:
Lots of historical fiction read alouds (lists abound everywhere!)
Lots of biographies (including saint biographies)
A timeline of some sort
A Little History of the World (or some other classic narrative telling of history aimed at children)
Unit studies on various topics (again these abound - many for free on line)
Didache Church History text
Teaching Company lecture series (for high schoolers; check your library or buy them during one of Great Courses' frequent sales)

Literature:
Library - encourage lots of reading, watch classic movie adaptations too.  Don't forget audiobooks!
Jim Weiss's audio retellings of stories and biographies (these make good gifts!)
Kolbe's junior high literature program (nice but not really necessary)
Lightning Literature (all of them are great but again this is nice but not necessary)
Free on line resources at sparknotes and many other free study guides

Science:
Read lots of science literature, biographies, natural history
Lots of fun science videos and shows - TV, youtube, netflix, library
Field trips to museums, nature centers, planetariums, etc
Nature walks
Science kits and experiments - Christmas and birthday gifts or while doing a unit study.
A Beka's High School biology, chemistry and physics (but we've always learned these subjects through formal classes in the homeschool community.  I don't really see fundamentalist Creationism as good science or good religion, but these classes have been taught by Catholic women who really understand the Church's teachings on the matter so they modify the A Beka bias.)

Latin:
Free Latin lessons on line
Free Latin course by Catholic priest
Textkit Latin
Latin games
Quia
Quizlet
Absolutely best and simplest introduction to Latin - Getting Started with Latin
National Latin Exam website

****A really great Catholic on line resource that is also very inexpensive - LPH Resource Center