The following tips are not organized into specific categories. They are a hodge-podge of ways to cut costs and reduce spending for school supplies while learning at home. Not all but some of them have been tried and tested in our own home school. We hope they are a blessing to your family and school. For money-saving curriculum and resources, visit yesterday’s post on Homeschooling for free.
20 Money-Saving Tips for Homeschooling:
Place blank transparency sheet over workbook pages and have student complete work on transparency using wet erase markers.
Place worksheets inside of page protectors and have student complete using wet erase markers.
Instead of filling out workbooks, have students write answers into empty notebook or on loose notebook paper. Student will need to be diligent about numbering each answer to avoid confusion while work is corrected. Make sure student labels their paper with the workbook title and page number.
For daily work, consider using dry erase or chalkboard instead of paper.
If needing/wanting to eliminate the expense of printer’s ink used when printing out free resources online, pull work up on computer screen and have student write answers onto blank notebook paper. As with above tip, make sure each answer is labeled and/or numbered and page is labeled. This eliminates confusion during record keeping. As above, dry erase or chalkboard can be substituted for paper on daily work.
If loose-leaf notebook paper is a better bargain than spiral notebooks, consider creating individual notebooks by fastening paper together with brads. Uniquely fun covers can be fashioned from a variety of free sources. Colorful cardboard boxes can be cut to size(think cereal boxes) and cardboard from the inside of shirts can also be cut to size and covered with brown craft paper or brown paper bags cut to size.
Before purchasing new supplies such as pencils, erasers, pens, colored pencils, have everyone in the house gather items they already own. This allows stock to be taken so that unnecessary repeat purchases are avoided. Also, consider sharing supplies between all students.
Treat supplies with respect taking care to keep them as nice as possible. This practice provides a two-fold benefit. School supplies last longer and students learn more about becoming wise stewards of the things that have been entrusted to them.
Another ink and paper saving tip for computer use: have students save completed work such as papers and reports to disk or zip drive instead of printing out each completed assignment. Disks and zip drives can be turned in to the monitor/instructor for grading.
Students at our school have also successfully emailed assignments to their instructor. Corrected assignments were then forwarded back to the student.
Teachers too can utilize the computer in order to save paper and ink. Records and assignments can all be created and kept on the computer. If needed, items can be printed out. However, they can also be sent via email to the student. Another option is to save each student’s lesson plans and downloaded resources/books to a disk or zip drive. Each student will then have everything he/she needs to complete his or her work in one, convenient place. Space is saved and paper use is kept to a minimum. Anyone needing/desiring to save the schoolwork of more than one child will appreciate this tip. Remember: everything saved to a disk or other drive can be printed out as needed and/or desired.
No extra disks or drives? No problem. Set up individual folders for each student in the documents section of the computer. Items can then be saved to the desired folder.
Dry erase board can be made using old picture frame. Place plain paper or fabric in frame. The glass/Plexiglas can now function as dry erase board. Great use for unused picture frames. Using patterned paper or fabric instead of plain, makes a dry erase- style memo board to use in the home.
Chalkboards can also be fashioned from just about any flat surface by applying chalkboard paint. Chalkboard paint is available in both spray and brush on.
Gather all of those little nubbins from the bottom of the crayon container. Sort like colors together. Melt each color individually in double boiler fashioned from a metal can sitting in pot of water. Pour each color in separate sections of old ice cube tray. Allow to harden thoroughly. Pop out and Viola! A new crayon is formed.
Put empty laundry detergent and cereal boxes to good use. Cut diagonal cut to replicate shape of magazine storage box. Boxes can then be spray painted, covered in paper or fabric or left as is. Great for magazine/catalog/thin book storage. Makes excellent file folder storage too.
Empty cereal boxes can be glued together to form vertical storage for papers. Close top end back up. Cut out long end of box. Laying boxes flat on sides, glue boxes together and cover with paper or fabric. Sides can be reinforced with cardboard cut to size before covering. Have not personally tried this idea. Having tried the following idea, this one ought to work well. Placing flat pieces of cardboard in between boxes before covering might add some stability to “shelves”.
Cracker boxes can be cut on the diagonal to provide inexpensive storage for Cds, larger index/recipe cards, or DVDs. These too can be painted or covered to suite personal taste. It does not look as tacky as it sounds when painted. Honest, I tried it before posting. I would, however, recommend giving the boxes a light sanding before spray painting. The glossy coating does affect the paint’s ability to adhere. Also, due to having several sides, inside and out, this is a project requiring patience waiting for the paint to dry on one side before painting the other. Yes, mine smudged. How did you know?
When possible, use literature that is available in the public domain. These books may be freely downloaded and printed because of their early copyright date. Even small portions of books may be copied and pasted into lessons. Not only are these works freely available without concern over copyrights, they are usually of a much higher quality literature than more modern works.
Paper leftover at the end of rolls of newsprint used in the printing of newspapers are often easily obtained free or very inexpensively. Visit your local newspaper office and see if there are any rolls available. Newsprint can be put to use in any number of ways. It makes great wrapping paper and can even be rolled out to use as a covering for tables. Wanting to make a life-sized drawing of your students? Newsprint is perfect for that very thing.