Search around here to fill in your Health Curriculum. The lecture programs are more for older kids and adults who will understand them better. There are dvds and teacher/student guides.

One of the best buys I got at the library was book-on-tape: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn which comes in a video-tape case type of thing, has around 4 tapes, I believe it’s the unabridged version, for 50-cents! The cost of it brand-new I think would be over $20!

Library book sales are the best! I’ve been to the sales at my local library and my first experience with them was amazing. I did not realize the sale was going on and when we got there it was going to be over in about one hour. It was also the last day so the library had the prices $5/bag (they used the brown paper grocery bags). Because we got there so late, I actually got $5/car! I ended up with six computer paper boxes and several grocery bags full of books – and the library wanted me to take more! They really tried to get me to take their romance novels (ugh!), which I would have taken directly to a used book store to use for store credit . No more room. I got some American Heritage encyclopedia style books and quite a few other sets of encyclopedias. My kid can use them for projects and cut them completely apart and I certainly will not mind. My parents, when my sister and I were young, bought the Encyclopedia Britannica set which cost them quite a bit of money. The pages were thin and I was so afraid I would tear them just turning a page. I am glad I paid only pennies per book so my kid can enjoy them! Because of our adventure that day at the library, they took my name and phone number to call me when they have another sale. They welcome us when they see us come in, ‘here’s our homeschoolers’ LOL!

Costco and Sam’s Club have inexpensive books if you want a workbook. I get the Learn At Home book (at Sam’s) and supplement it as we like (or I feel a need to). Some might call it a ‘spine’ – basically a starting off point.

Money is better spent on museums, zoos, aquariums (most offer homeschooler discounts or a discount where you get a pass for one place and receive similar discounts at other locations – see the discount page for info on the ASTC Passport Program – if your nearby locations are not listed, you can always call and ask too), etc and if she chooses a favorite animal head back to the library and read about it, search for free craft projects on the net – www.enchantedlearning.com is a cool place to start.

Some people may set up ‘centers’ in their home (as one would find in a preschool). If you’d like to try that and don’t have the room, an idea would be to use a tote or bin of some kind. Example: Say she or he really likes cars – put some toy cars, books about cars, a coloring page of a car, paper model to make of a car, homemade game with a car design (like matching 1 car with the numeral one), etc in a tote (I prefer the clear plastic totes), a tracing sheet spelling the word car, car cookie cutter to use with playdough, and as my kid just told me – a book about mechanics. You could even label the outside with a sticker that says the word Car, and your child could decorate the tote with car stickers.

Homeschooling preschool page on the website: http://www.homeschoolingonashoestring.com/preschool.html

Tim Tebow, quarterback for the Florida Gators at the University of Florida is the only sophomore ever to win the Heisman Trophy.

Famous people who are or were homeschooled or who homeschool their children. Just a couple you may have heard of include Lisa Whelchel who played Blair on the television show “The Facts of Life” and Wikipedia founder Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales.

A side note: The State of Alabama’s “Tim Tebow Bill” is legislation that will allow homeschooled students equal access to sports and extracurricular activities.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• 2 Learn what the words “socialize” and “socialization” mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you’re talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we’ve got a decent grasp of both concepts.

• 7 We don’t look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they’re in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we’re doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

• 13 Stop assuming that because the word “home” is right there in “homeschool,” we never leave the house. We’re the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it’s crowded and icky.

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Debbie Schwarzer, HSC Legal Team Co-chair, posted information on what to do and what not to do on the list sponsored by HSC, the large California Homeschool Association, HomeSchool California (HSC). You can read the article here.

Note: I originally posted this on myspace May 20, 2007. I am revisiting this because the Iditarod is coming up March 1, 2008. My educational links that contain facts about the Iditarod are on my other blog at Homeschooling on a Shoestring Blog – Iditarod. I understand that the media exaggerates and mistakes happen. What upset me when I originally posted that last May was that this was this man’s sport and his valued dogs were hurt and he was the abuser, and he was only given a 2 year ban. I do not like animal abuse. I also began to question my thoughts, teachings and myself. Walter McKenzie of Surfaquarium makes his notes at What About the Dogs?. His site has given me a better perspective.