Oddbean

Homeschoolers of Nostr, what are some of your favorite tips to save money on schooling? What would your advice be to someone daunted by the expense of homeschooling? #asknostr #homeschool #homeschooling #unschooling #worldschooling

We do freeschooling / unschooling / selflearning. Foundation phase I teach them the fondamental basics, reading, writing and math. Give them lots of play time and pencils and paper. But we keep it short and fun. And have access to books all the time. If they can read, they can teach themselves. In my opinion, children learn far better in a playful environment. If you keep it short, they have time to process what they learned and not get overwhelmed. As they get older I observe what interests them and help open the possibilities to get better at them. If they have particular interest, find an online course, YouTube videos or books about it. We don't do grading, we don't do curriculums and we don't have set "time" for school. Life is school. Each child is different and so is the way they learn and take information in. I feel the traditional way of education is dead and we live in a time where education and information is free. I am not from the US though.

Definitely takes time and patience and might not be for everyone, but with my eldest being 13 years old I'm already seeing the benefits with this way of "schooling". That is the great thing about homeschooling, it can be adjusted to both the child's and parents needs.

Yes 100% agree on that My kids both went to a free school in Berlin and Goa and I'm happy they don't have to go to the same sh*t as I had Kids need a free inspiring surrounding and become self-taught and creative

We use the My Fathers World curriculum for my 1st grader and pre K. Having multiple children we are able to reuse the primary teaching materials for each grade and we only have to replace the workbooks that get filled out throughout the year. I believe this is one of the more affordable programs that’s Christian centered and if I remember correctly you can even do many of the supplemental stuff yourself to further save money. They also typically go on sale around April

We live near the St. Louis area and there are great free resources like the St. Louis Zoo and the Science Center. You can spend a whole day at each covering multiple school lessons. And the kids get to be out of their normal learning environment. Another is to do age appropriate science lessons. Cornstarch/water for younger kids, done outside and hose them off afterward by playing in the sprinkler. Kitchen chemistry is great and there is a whole world of it out there that doesn’t involve baking. Simple experiments that can be easily taught with household ingredients. Household physics is another category with some great resources. My personal favorites are the ones you can do the same experiment with multiple ages and discuss different aspects. Oil/water is a great example. Magnetism is another.