People often think homeschooled children are deprived of good educational materials and opportunities. How could a family provide nearly enough resources for learning? The truth is there are abundant resources for teaching your child, and many of them are low cost or even free.
Children learn many things from their surroundings. Your home is full of resources. Cooking meals is a great time to teach following directions, measuring and even science lessons. A special gift provides a chance to practice spelling and penmanship and learn the correct way to write a letter. You might even squeeze a little art in if your child makes their own card. A trip to the store provides the opportunity for socialization, planning, following a budget, reading and counting. Your community offers many events that are wonderful places to learn from weddings and concerts to speaking engagements and ball games, there are all kinds of places to go and all kinds of information to learn about the world around them.
Check your local library for a section devoted to homeschooling. Of course the library is full of wonderful materials, but it is nice to find a shelf just dedicated to kids that are taught at home. Sometimes there is a local home school group in your area and they are a great resource to keep up with community events, or even swap books for new materials. Check with the local school system to see if they are getting rid of books. Good books are passed over for new materials and sometimes you can get books for free. There are hundreds of home school websites that offer lesson plans and ideas. There are countless teaching websites with everything from free coloring pages to math and science worksheets.
The problem with resources that homeschoolers face now is there are too many options. There are hundreds of companies all wanting to sell the latest homeschooling materials to families. Read reviews and ask other people before you spend your hard earned money on an expensive book. When possible look at materials before you buy them so that you are sure of what you are getting. And always think outside the box and see what things you can learn for free. You may find that there is still a resource that you never ever have enough of. That resource is enough hours in the day to teach your child all the things they want to know.

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