Do you DIY? Homeschooling on a Budget

Do you DIY homeschool materials? While we have purchased many of our Montessori Materials, we made several DIY Montessori Materials at first to afford the cost of homeschooling, and to really ensure that Montessori was right for us.

Here are some tips for how DIY can help you afford to homeschool.

Part of my decision to homeschool my daughter was the extreme cost of sending her to a Waldorf or Montessori preschool or elementary program.

Although some schools are now equipped to provide subsidies to families who would not otherwise be able to afford them, the application and approval process is quite invasive and even with financial assistance, the programs can still end up costing a few thousand dollars. In our city, you can’t even qualify for assistance at the Montessori schools until you’ve attended for more than a couple years – so it’s more for families who can normally afford it but have fallen on hard times.

However, homeschooling can easily end up costing as much, or more, than traditional Montessori (or Waldorf) options. Both methods of teaching utilize many beautiful and well-designed materials which are often made of wood or other natural materials, and are hard to source beyond a few specialty retailers.

For me, the solution has been to (attempt to) DIY as many materials that I deem worthwhile to our homeschool journey and only purchase those that cannot be adaquately reproduced at home, or whose reproductions would take up a disproportionate amount of time relative to their cost.

I am not a DIY-wizard; the projects that I have attempted and shared are all quite easy, and just require some out-of-the-consumer-box thinking.

My tips for incorporating DIY solutions into your homeschool plan:

What’s the Principle of the Material?

Familiarize yourself with the principle and teaching methods behind each material you create or bring into your home, so as to determine if its presence is warranted, and also so as to ensure that any DIY materials take into account all of the necessary design elements.
For example, knowing that the colour cards are self-correcting by the placement of a symbol or number on the back of each tablet, you now won’t waste time painting (or adhering paint chips to) both sides.

Split the Work

When we split the work (and cost) of making three Montessori brown stairs among three people, it was a lot more affordable than if one of us had purchased the same amount of wood and stain. We were also able to affordably hire a carpenter by pooling our resources