I discovered McGuffey's Eclectic Readers
years ago when I was looking for free resources to teach my oldest
child Language Arts. These books were used in the American school system
as textbooks for close to a century. My son enjoyed what he was reading
and I liked how the stories taught morals and made references to God.
What I Wish I'd Known Then
However, when I attempted to use the readers I felt that it
wasn't enough for a complete Language Arts program. My son would read
the passages in just a few minutes and then it seemed that he was done.
But I recently learned that you can use these texts for: reading
comprehension, copy work, dictation, recitation, spelling, and studying
poetry.
There is a free guide available that teaches you how the originators of the readers intended for them to be used - The Eclectic Manual of Methods for the Assistance of Teachers.
I read over the section on readers and it is now clear to me that these
books can be our entire English curriculum. Also, I believe that they
can be used in a way consistent with a Charlotte Mason style of
homeschooling.
When
my husband and I married almost 9 years ago, we agreed that I would
stay home with the children. A couple of years after that I became a
homeschooling stay at home mom as well. Since marriage, I have never
worked outside of the home and I wanted to share some tips on how we
homeschool within our means.
1.
We borrow hundreds of books a year from the library. This is no
exaggeration. Our library has a check out limit of 50 books for a
lending period of 21 days. So every 3 weeks we check out the maximum
number of books. Just this one resource alone is invaluable to us.
2. I use public domain books found on the internet. There are thousands of free books available for downloading or reading on Google Books and Archive.org.
I printed off and bound primers and readers to give my children a
strong foundation in reading once they learned phonics. They learned
phonics from library books and Starfall.com (also free).
3.
We use non-consumable textbooks. Once my oldest started middle school I
felt that he needed textbooks to continue on his educational journey.
But I have 3 more children that will eventually need those books as
well. So, I applied a great approach that the public schools use. I pass
down the books to the next year’s student and the children are not
permitted to write in them at all.
4.
I buy used books. Those non-consumable textbooks that I mentioned,
whenever possible I try to buy a used copy in good condition from
Amazon. At the beginning of the school year I was able to get a
Pre-Calculus book and a Chemistry book for under $11 (total) for my 10th
grader.
5. We use free video courses available online. You can find several at Learner.org and
M.I.T.’s open coursework site.
Those books that I bought for my son, he uses those to go along with
the Chemistry course on Learner.org. And, his Pre-Calculus class is
taught by an M.I.T. professor - courtesy of the internet. For Spanish
II, he’s using the 52 week video course Destinos. There are practice lessons to go along with the course on the site, so there was no need to purchase a textbook.
Aside
from the $11 I mentioned above, the only cost for our homeschool this
year has been for: basic school supplies, gas to go to the library,
printer paper, and ink cartridges for our printer. It takes some
planning and extra prep work, but it is possible to homeschool almost
for free.
Serfronya Wallace
The
six loves of Serfronya Wallace's life are God, her husband, and her 4
children - whom she homeschools. Serfronya enjoys sharing educational
tips and writing about her family's homeschooling journey at Cookie's Domain.
My
oldest took U.S. History a few years ago when he was in the 7th grade. I
was concerned about how we would approach that subject since I have
never been particularly interested in History in any form. I think part of the reason for that is because it was taught in such a dry way (from a textbook) when I was in school. I
didn’t want that to be the case for my son as well. So, I prayed and
considered a few ways to go about it. What we ultimately
ended up doing worked very well and I would like to share it with you.
I
purchased a book that gave very brief accounts of major events in U.S.
History. And I used that book as a guide to know what to learn, and in
what order. Then during our weekly library trips, I would let my son
pick out any books he wanted that pertained to the following week’s
History topic. For example, for the Industrial Revolution I let him pick
out ANY book or books that looked interesting to him. Because it was
his choice, he found very informative and entertaining books.
Sometimes
he would get so into a topic that we would get more books the following
week and extend the lesson. Those were also times that I would tell him
to do a project on the topic. Again, I left it up to him. But I was
available to offer suggestions if he was having a hard time coming up
with something. Other times, he wasn’t very amused with that particular
topic so we moved on quickly.
My son also kept a timeline so that he could refer back to what he learned later on. I used Donna Young’s approach
for that. Like I said, I did purchase a U.S. History book, so the way
we did it wasn’t completely free. But you can use a timeline online,
like this one from Wikipedia.
And then the subject wouldn’t have to cost you a dime. We did not cover
every major event, time didn’t permit that. But my son did learn a lot
about the history of our country that year. He sometimes discusses what
he learned with others who also share an interest in U.S. History.
Serfronya Wallace
The
six loves of Serfronya Wallace's life are God, her husband, and her 4
children - whom she homeschools. Serfronya enjoys sharing educational
tips and writing about her family's homeschooling journey at Cookie's Domain.
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