Customer Reviews

Homeschool Your Child for Free: More Than 1,400 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Educating Your Family at Home

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my first year Homeschooling so I really need materials that I can read through easily and find information quickly. This is one of those kinds of resources. It is laid out well and we have used many of the websites recommended for many different subjects of study. My son has enjoyed the activities on these free websites included in the book and when he wants to practice math or whatever subject online he has many options to choose from. It includes preschool ages on up to High School.

I've read the last version of this book at the library, some of it is a rehash from the first. I found so many dead links in the new version it frustrated me. While there are a few good quality sites in the book it's not worth the price of this book to come by them. I began searching the internet for my own links. I have found much better sites with a number of free things to download or print. There is a homeschooling mom who locates and publishes free homeschooling sources on her blog and her sources are much better than this book. There is nothing life changing here. If you want to homeschool economicly or start out on the right path I recommend reading When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today. With the methods described in this book you could use the library for nearly all your curriculum.

Homeschool Your Child for Free is a homeschooler's guide to more than 1,400 free educational resources on the Internet. Each resource listing includes a brief description of what you will find on the site, as well as its URL. The resources are organized in chapters as follows:

* Why we homeschool
* Homeschool How-tos
* Education Essentials
* Language Literacy
* Mathematics Mastery
* Art Appreciation
* History Highlights
* Music Marathon
* Social Studies Skills
* Humanities Home
* Science Scholarship
* Health Handbook
* Graduation Guidance

Gold and Zielinski prove that education doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Using this book, your local library, a computer and an Internet connection, your family will have a good start on homeschooling for free. The resources listed here cover every subject and every grade level.

I will add, however, that education is never totally free. You'll still need to purchase supplies, a computer, the Internet, the price of this book, etc. So, although you can't really homeschool for free, you can homeschool "without breaking the bank," as stated by the authors on the back cover of the book.

If you want a resource to locate these free educational resources for you, this is the book to buy. The only problem with a book consisting of Web links is that it has a tendency of going out of date quickly as Web links frequently move around on the Internet. That is the reason I gave it four stars. I found a number of links in the book that did not work; however, using the description supplied, I was able to do a Google search and locate most of them.

DISCLAIMER: As well as receiving this book free as a review copy, I also discovered, upon reading the book, that the authors have listed several links from my Web site. Neither of these factors influenced my review. My goal is to provide an honest review based on my opinion and one that will meet the needs of my readers.

Even when I decided to purchase this book, in the back of my mind I knew there would be dead links. Web sites change every day. Web addresses are complex and easily misspelled. I just knew it would be a risk! This is far worse than I expected; to date I have not found a single working site (just out of the ones I've tried, there may be plenty that work - I have just given up). The second star I give because there are ideas contained in the book that one could use to research alternatives on one's own. For example, I wanted to look up "felt boards" through a site listed in the book. The site was dead, but I was able to find suitable info via Google. Seeing the idea in the book helped me remember something I had wanted to try. I guess I'll use the book as a way to jog my memory about things I would like to do with my children and homeschool.

I am still going through this book, but i have already found a few gems. I have long been an internet homeschooler, but this book really takes the footwork out of it. Great compilation of links, and a very wide variety for every subject.

I will keep this book forever. All the information I could possibly need to homeschool for practically nothing!! I love it!

This book is awesome!! It has a wealth of info/websites that any family can use!! I would reccomend it to any parent whether homeschooled or not.

This book has loads of online sources and such. But if you want more details on how to she recommends you to her Other book, I found this annoying as she'll name something and then say more on this later, after a few vague paragraphs of other peoples stories it will say more on this on my other book Homeschooling Step-by-step. A lot of the sources are dead ends.
All in all it's a good book, as long as you have a lot of time on your hands and a computer with internet connection, also URLs and sites change or go out over time, so if you plan on letting this sit on your shelf it's probably not a good idea, instead of letting it sit there print out anything you find useful in case it disappears!
Good luck and happy homeschooling to all!!!

I bought this book from the Barnes and Noble bookstore. Though is has good information in it and does suggest some good websites to try out, I unfortunately found a lot of dead links in the book. Though I admit, my son is only in the preschool level so I haven't need to look through most of the book yet. I've done better just doing Google searches on my own.

How to home school your child for free:

Step 1: Buy our book.
Step 2: Oops!

All joking aside, this is a good idea probably delivered in the wrong medium. While the concepts are going to stay the same, any web resources that are referenced can easily change or move. Home schooling is relatively inexpensive. I certainly pay less to home school my child than the school district is allocated per child.

My advice for getting started: Search the web for resources. Find a group of like-minded parents that are already home schooling (they are out there). Find your local home schooling groups and conventions. And, be sure to go through those groups to get some legal advice just in case you need it.