Preparing to Homeschool

I don't have any children (yet) but I've been preparing to homeschool since I was 10 years old. In recent years I've really kicked it up a notch. I am to get at least one new resource EVERY DAY! For those of you who think this is expensive, you are very wrong. (Though I do buy a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction, that I plan to use for homeschooling.)

Firstly, I check out my libraries. Any books I am interested in I read FIRST. I used to just buy the books, but I was spending about $50 a week, so I stopped doing that. Read first, buy later. Many books I bought were good, but not really worth buying, and certainly not worth buying new. Libraries also have large numbers of educational DVDs,and lots of CDs. Not including my uni library I am a member of 8 different library systems.

I buy cheaply. I get a lot of stuff from op shops, second hand book stores and eBay. When buying from a second hand book store or from eBay I make it a general rule not to pay more than 1/2 of what it costs new. I don't always stick to the rule, but its a good guideline.

I photocopy a lot of material from uni and the school I work at. Science experiments are a good one to photocopy because they are short and usually are already in A4 format. I have 2 lever-arch folders both 3/4 full of science experiments for my kids to do.

I check out Everyday News. Some of the activities that the kids there do are easy done. So I make a note of what to do. Voila! New resource.

I also make a use of my friends. Most of my school friends are musos, so they have an endless list of CDs - many of which they are on. They are also very willing to give me all of their old school books, often for free! And you can't get much cheaper than that!

I like to be prepared, and so this is something that I love to do. I may not use every single resource, but I'm always glad to know that I have them ready for at a moment's notice.