I home school my son who is going into third grade. Money is very limited and I need cheap text books.

Question

I was going to get them from a surplus book store but they closed their doors. Does anyone know of a web site that has a years worth of free printouts or where I can get really cheap books. I have already looked on ebay, amazon, craigs list they are too expensive since my child support stopped in June. I am in need of a math book, science, history the most. I have the other subjects covered. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi, I tried to answer this question earlier today and suddenly lost my internet connection, but I'm back on-line now ans hope I can help you.

You can easily do History from the library, all you really need is a guideline of what topics to read about and you can get tons of books about History, both factual books and Historical Fiction to go along with them.

For Math you might try this site, it has free Math lessons:

http://www.eduplace.com/math/mw/

Also, this website has a lot of links to Free Curriculum, the goal of the site is to provide homeschoolers with a free Emergency Curriculum:

http://www.angelfire.com/me3/dorioakes/E...

In addition, check out these sites:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com (Free learning site with purchased membership, this is the one "membership" site I have found to be more than worth the cost of membership.  Lots of stuff in every subject.  Also has some things available without membership.)

http://www.tlsbooks.com  (LOTS of free stuff-no membership required)

http://www.mathsisfun.com (free activities and games)

http://www.coolmath.com (free activities and games)

http://www.funbrain.com (Free games and activities)

http://www.letteroftheweek.com/index.htm...  (Free curriculum for preschool to age 8)

For a guide about what to teach when, go to:

http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?cur...

The rest of my links are in the "source" section, because Yahoo has decided to limit how many links can go in the answer section.

Answer 2

Try http://www.oldfashionededucation.com They provide links to all kinds of stuff that you can freely print.

Do know that you don't have to recreate school in your home--that is, you don't need a textbook for everything. You can learn a lot of history simply by taking out books from the library, doing projects based on them, etc. Science--tons of stuff at the library, including books with experiments detailed.

Answer 3

Join a home schooling association in your area.  Many have a book fair annually where text books are traded or sold for low rates.  You may also be able to borrow from others.

Answer 4

I have a list of materials you can ue to Homeschool for free!

http://www.dorioakes.bravehost.com/grade...

Dori Oakes

Answer 5

hey hun, I can defeintatly understand your boat your in. we too are limited on funds.

I got everything I need fro my son this year, but that was before I foudn out about a neat website for homeschoolers. its www.booksmaritian.com

now, whats neat about this site, is it wil lsend you the materials you need "free" of charge. the matierals are used of course, but if you lt them know your a low income family, (I think they ask for your proof of income), they will provide you with EVERYTHING, all the yask is if you cna a donation, & that when your done with the material you send it back. When you send it back, I think they pay for the postage too!

I wish I wouldve known about this website when I was havign to buy stuff on our own.

Also like your 1st answer, you can find great stuff at the local thrift stores, we have (its a God send when that happens). Also heres a neat website I bought a few used things off of too for my son www.thislittlepiggystayedhome.com

Also try www.half.com (this is owned by ebay, btu they have texts on there so cheap its not funny)

I hope this helped you out, Good luck,

Also wanted to let you kow theres a website called www.hslda.com (think thats it) it state all the laws in every state for parents homeschool rights!

See we had to get an advocate too, because my son "was" in public school until the 3rd grade. He is severly dyslexic, & the schools here along with the school board has todl us 3 times, "Dyslexia DOSNT exist!" Everyone knows thats bull****!!!!

Also my son couldnt read to me, & we were helping him out at home so much. I told the school, Ihave had it! I will homeschool my son.

They got mad, said its against the law, & I told them talk to my lawyer!!

Seee, when a school loses a child, that means the lose state taxes on a child!

When our advocate was at our house talkingot us, teh school board came knocking on our door. We showed them ourrights, & that we knew we had every rightto homeschool, they were back peddlin out our door. That was 3 years ago, & I havnt heard from them since!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let them know you KNOW your rights, & and you have every right to homeschool your child!

What they want & what they get are 2 different things!

Another reason we homeschool too, is because my son is on a feeding pump every 3 huors. the school said they handlethis, ONLY if I can up to hook, & unhook him. I couldnt do this every 3 hours, so I told my husband I can do a much better job them the schools are!!

Another thing that pissed me off 1 time, when my son was in special ed, his teacher called him "stupid" to get his attention. I was mad as h**l, & I asked her why she did this, it hurt my son so much.  She admited to me she said it, & todl me "It got his attention!" I got in her faace, & said "well, Now you got MY attention!

The very next day, I went to the school, & made her apologize to my son in front of the whole class!! She never did this again, becuase she knew Id be right back in her face!

Answer 6

I would go to Ambleside Online http://amblesideonline.org/ or Old Fashioned Education http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/ .  Both of these website offer FREE lesson plans, links to online books or lists of GREAT library books.  OFE has a FABULOUS math website that I have been using instead of Saxon or Singapore.

Answer 7

I know you've said you use the state curriculum because that's what you know. Take our advice and chuck it. It won't take you long to get to know something else. As you've said, the public school sucks. That's a good reason not to do what they are doing! If your town doesn't have a library, I'm sure the town where your boy does his extras does. Borrow everything, do timelines for history etc. The others have given you great lists of resources and they'll be much cheaper than using school text books. Probably more interesting too.

Answer 8

Try the Goodwill Store and Salvation Army Store.  

Look under HSMom's previous anwers.   She has listed many free sites in her answers.

Now, this last suggestion is a bit of a long shot but just may work.

I'll give you some background so you won't think I'm crazy.   My husband and I work for the public schools.  They trash tons of books every year.  Many are sample books from publishers who want to get their books in the system.    Some books are sent back to the main office, some go in the garbage cans.

Contact your local school guidance counselor or principal.   Tell them what you are doing and ask if they have any books that you can either have or borrow.   Tell them it would be nice to have the teacher's books, answer keys, etc. but you can teach without them.  

If they are less than polite, simply say 'thank you' and walk away but I think it  would be worth the gamble to get free books.

By the way, if they were to let you borrow or give you  the text books without any of the extras, go to the publisher's webpage.   There are usually many extra helps there on their pages.

If all else fails, use your local public  library resources.  

If you need help in knowing what a 3rd grader needs to know, go to the public school's webpage.   They will have their standards listed.   Don't let it scare you.  They have a way of writing out simple accomplishments in complex ways.   I think it helps to create the illusion that the education process is mysterious and complicated. :-)

You can use those standards as suggestions for yourself in creating a curriculum.