Homeschool Your Child for Free: More Than 1,400 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Educating Your Family at Home

Homeschool Your Child for Free: More Than 1,400 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Educating Your Family at Home

Provide a solid education at home without breaking the bank. Introduced in 2000, Homeschool Your Child for Free gave countless parents the plan and peace of mind to get their kids’ education on the right track. Now, authors LauraMaery Gold and Joan M. Zielinski have revised and updated their popular guide, offering their expert homeschooling advice and information, plus new tools and resources to help you and your child succeed: • Complete curriculum plans for a comprehensive education, from preschool through high school • Where to find free online courses; NEW! • Ways to partner with public schools; NEW! • Legal guidelines and compliance requirements for home educators • Keys to graduating a homeschooler; NEW! • Developing personal finance management and life skills; NEW! • Teaching tips and motivators from successful homeschoolers • Career and vocational guidance; NEW! • And so much more! Comprehensive and clear, Homeschool Your Child for Free gives you access to free instructional material–from reading-readiness activities for preschoolers to science projects for teens–to help build a strong foundation that will last into adulthood. You don’t need to drain your bank account to guarantee a good education for your child. With a computer and the Internet, you have the largest library and laboratory right at your fingertips–all for free! For Families Who Want to Splurge on Education but Scrimp on Spending LAURAMAERY GOLD writes a popular weekly online column for homeschoolers and operates one of the largest homeschooling lists on the Internet. She and her husband, Dan Post, are the homeschooling parents of seven and the authors of a number of books on technology, religion, and business. The family resides in Kent, Washington. JOAN M. ZIELINSKI is the mother of four–one of whom is LauraMaery. A professional educator for nearly thirty years, Joan is a former Teacher of the Year for the Kent, Washington, school district, where she lives with her husband, Stan. Chapter 1 Why We Homeschool All good parents homeschool their children. Some do it full time. Some do it part time in partnership with professional educators. And some do it while their kids are on break from traditional schools. If you teach your children at all, you homeschool. Homeschoolers cut across all segments of the population. Although the movement is indisputably largest in the United States (reliable research puts the number of American homeschooled children at 1.5 million, or 1 to 2 percent of school-age children), Canadians, Europeans, and thousands of expatriated North American families in the military, in missionary service, in business, and in the civil service are also embracing homeschooling. Homeschoolers advocate dozens of educational philosophies, ranging from strict school-at-home programs to militant unschooling. There are parents who have homeschooled from birth, parents who enroll their children in supplemental classes, and parents who embrace public or private school and supplement it with their own after- school and weekend programs. While the homeschooling movement is often perceived as conservative in nature, a sizable number of homeschoolers are adamantly liberal. Homeschoolers cover the range of human experience. They include self- avowed "hippies," rural farm families, gay couples, single parents, grandparents, stepparents, and kindly aunts. Some families homeschool in small church or neighborhood "co-ops," some are affiliated with charter or private schools, and some go it alone. Some homeschooling families are devoutly religious; some have no religious affiliation at all. The homeschooling community embraces Pagans and Catholics, Baha'is and Mormons, Buddhists and Sikhs, Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestant Christians, Hindus and serious atheists, Muslims and Jews. Parents homeschool because their children are gifted, learning disabled, behavior disordered or easily overlooked, hyperactive, or just plain bored. Some parents homeschool because they feel undermined or unsafe. Most parents homeschool for smaller classes, individual attention, and customized curriculum. And most of all, parents homeschool their kids because they simply want to. Because they're good parents, and they believe it's the best thing for their children. No matter how-or why-you homeschool, you're welcome here. And congratulations on choosing to teach your children both economically and intelligently. Intelligently? Absolutely. In choosing this book, you're gaining access to thousands of resources that make up the best and most current information available anywhere. No stodgy, fifteen-year-old, out-of-date textbooks for your kids. By choosing to homeschool your child for free, you're also choosing to homeschool your child for now. For the world your child lives in today, rather than the world that existed in 1996, when many of her friends' out-of-date social studies and science textbooks were written. If you use this book properly,