The Ultimate Guide to Florida Homeschooling Success

Resources and Support for Florida Homeschooling Families

Welcome to Florida Homeschooling!

If you are new to Homeschooling, this site supports your journey.

Additionally, it provides legal and practical information for both new and experienced families.

Florida county-specific listings of evaluators, tutors, support groups, and umbrella schools support families.

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Parents decide to homeschool their children for many reasons.

Additionally, in our family, it was a mix of factors.

I recall an early discussion with my husband.

We agreed I could homeschool our kids for far less than private school tuition.

Of course, the savings would be offset by the fact that I’d no longer be working full-time.

Suddenly it became important to find low- and no-cost ways to homeschool our kids.

It turned out to be surprisingly easy to do.

Here are some ways we saved money while still giving our children a top-rate education.

The Internet is a valuable resource.

My business background involved computer research.

I was comfortable online even in the early 2000s when internet use was less common.

Today, there are numerous sites offering free materials for Homeschooling.

Sign up for FreeCycle. Join this internet-based group whose mission is to reduce waste and strengthen communities. For Homeschooling, head over to https://www.freecycle.org/. There are groups in every state. Odds are excellent you can find a group in a city near yours. List the items you are willing to give away and post what you are looking for.

Look for a Buy Nothing Group in Your Area – The mission of the Buy Nothing Project is “buy nothing, give freely, share creatively.”  Members can offer up items they no longer have use for or ask for something they need. You can give or ask for both products and services, with the only stipulation being that anything you ask for or receive has to be used by you and not sold. No Buy Nothing group in your area?  Start one! 

Befriend Your Librarian – The library is an obvious choice of free books and videos but can offer much more. Inter-library loans allow you to borrow materials from other libraries. Look into the availability of free passes to local museums and attractions, which are offered by many libraries. And don’t overlook children’s programming. Over the years, my kids participated in Science Club, Game Day, American Girl Club, Chess Club, and more. All of these provided educational and social enrichment and they were completely free.

4H Isn’t Just For Farmers – Are you still under the impression that 4H is a specialty program for kids in rural areas? Well, you’re wrong! Through 4H kids learn about leadership – each club has a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer and follows Roberts’s Rules of Order – as well as about the specific content areas determined by the club. Offerings span the gamut from aerospace to workforce readiness. Check out the 4H Curriculum page. Then, view the 4H Home page to find (or start) a group near you.

Join a Homeschool Support Group – Your local support group will provide many benefits, from co-op opportunities to field trips (at discounted, group rates) to park days. In addition, by connecting with other homeschooling families, you can join or create your own curriculum sharing (or swapping) group. See our list of Florida Homeschool Support Groups, sorted by county.

Scout Around – Both Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts offer opportunities for your kids to learn skills in a wide variety of areas. Although both clubs have dues, these are typically minimal and offer a good return on investment.

Buy Wisely and Re-Use – I learned early on the value of maintaining purchased items in very good or like new condition. The easiest way to achieve this was to have my children write their answers in a notebook rather than in the pages of the purchased work- or text-book. This allowed me to re-use a single book with all three children or to swap or sell it once we were done.

Sell What You Can’t Use – You won’t get rich this way, but you can make a few extra dollars by selling materials you no longer need and which cannot be swapped for something you do need. Many support groups host used curriculum sales at the end of the school year.

Use Your Kindle (or other e-reader)— There are many books that are out of copyright as well as free content from many publishers. Get started by looking through 2,500,000 titles at Internet Archive (which also includes free software, audio and more), Amazon (MOBI format) and Open Library (over 1,000,000 titles). Other sources include Project Gutenberg and Google Books. Don’t have an e-reader? Download a free app! Check the app store for your device to find the best one for you.

Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be – Thrifty homeschoolers know to ignore this adage. If you have an e-reader or reading app, you can borrow and lend titles for free and it’s totally legal. Check out Booklending.com. Finally, don’t overlook your public library. Most libraries offer e-books for loan to members.

Watch a Movie or Some TV – If you haven’t discovered the Teach With Movies web site, you are missing out. The site offers lesson plans in English, Social Studies and the Sciences for movies and films. Also check out the History.com classroom, which offers free study guides for History Channel shows (which air at 6am Mondays – a recorder is a good idea!), or Discovery Channel’s teacher resources, which are conveniently organized by grade level.

Take Classes Online – Many states offer online (virtual) schools that provide free courses to all students in the state, regardless whether they are educated at home, at a private school, or in public school. In Florida, the Florida Virtual School offers a wide variety of classes, completely free, for grades 6-12. These courses are aligned with the Sunshine State Standards. Other, less formal, sources of online classes include the Khan

Academy, MIT, and Harvard.

Get a Discount Card — Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and other retailers offer discounts to homeschoolers. You may also want to consider joining the Homeschool Buyers Club.

With a little research and ingenuity, you’ll be on your way to homeschooling for free… or pretty close to it!