Investing in Homeschool

Good evening, 
As some of you may not know, our family lives on a very tight budget. Eating out is a luxury in which we seldom partake. Homeschooling five rowdy children can often times lead to parental disappointment when you see that one particular item you really want your children to have access to, but simply cannot afford it. As a parent and teacher, it weighs heavy on my mind. And being the Scorpio that I am, I become obsessed with the idea until I find a way to make it happen (or as close to the original as possible). I surf Pinterest for ideas, shop at yard sales and flea markets, and I am even on the lookout for businesses that are liquidating for general office supplies, just to save a little money. What I did not realize is that you can invest in your home-school without breaking the bank. 

Over the course of the last three years, I have built our home-school from scratch. With the help of a few Facebook friends and a library with frequent book sales, I managed to build a pretty decent home-school library. We also visit our local Little Free Library to switch out books that we have read for those we have not (with a special thanks to Pay It Forward-Paragould for their various LFL locations). 

A visit to our local Walmart allowed for me to purchase two white boards, two bulletin boards, some manila folders, hanging file folders, hanging file cabinets, and other office supplies (of my favorite - the laminating machine!). Being a college student myself, I can purchase paper, folders, binders, art supplies, pencils, pens, markers, and other school supply items at the campus bookstore for much less than I would pay at Staples or Office Max. Additionally, their markdowns are much more drastic. For example, I could have paid $3.99 for one package of modeling clay at our local retail store... But I got it on clearance for $0.99 a box - I'll take four, please! And higher quality water color palettes that would have cost $9.99 at an art supply store - $1.99 - Give me four of those, too! 

But the crux of my home-school prep shopping is done at none other than Dollar Tree! That's right. Their school section is unbelievable when it comes to posters, borders, educational books, certificates, workbooks, organizational items, trinkets (for good work/behavior/grades/etc.). Finger paint, paint brushes, beads, twine, construction paper, poster boards, rulers, hole punches, envelopes, craft supplies, books, candy, science project materials, the list goes on and on and on. In fact, I would wager that I've spent more at Dollar Tree than any other store, and probably more than all the other stores combined. A word of advice, however - the Dollar Tree post-it notes are not good quality and tend to either be too sticky, not sticky enough, or fold up and fall off). 

Not everyone can afford all the things they want for their home-school room - but I'd say ours is just about perfect for us!

You can build a homeschool room for pennies. It does take some extra effort to find good deals and joining a give-away site such as Lystia.com can also be a good way to get items for little to nothing. 

Regardless of how much you spend, investing your time and energy in teaching your children is by far, the best investment you could ever make!

Now, if I can just figure out how to save on printer ink without resorting to handwriting each worksheet!!!

Stay tuned - new video blog coming soon! 

Until next time, 
LaVonda