Frugal Homeschooling

Some people do not homeschool simply because of the cost. While homeschool curriculum CAN cost a lot...there are SO many things you can buy, dirt cheap, and turn them into a lesson.





For Example:


I bought this pirate game at the Dollar Tree for $1.07, including tax.

You each pick a pirate. You read the cards and follow the directions. The cards tell you how many treasure pieces to pick up or how many to throw back. They say things like, "You have great wind for sailing today, Collect a treasure piece." "You are forced to walk the plank, Divide your treasure evenly among the players." "You discover an ancient treasure map in Paradise Cove, Collect 2 treasure pieces."

You play until the treasure box is empty. Whoever has the most pieces wins. Simple.

I turned the whole thing into a learning experience. Thomas got upset when he kept having to throw his treasure back. We talked about how a pirate's life is very hard and how choosing to do evil things like stealing will bring many bad things your way. (history and character)

Judah read his cards by himself. (reading...and may I add that he can now read the words ancient, Paradise, and treasure with no probs.)

When we got finished with the game I had them sort their pieces and lay them out in a graph style. (see above pic)

Then we talked about which kind of treasure they had the most of, least of, first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.

After that we did a bit of Math. I would ask them things like, how many more rings would you need to equal the amount of cups you have? How many would you need to have MORE rings than cups? etc.

So we have history of Pirates, reading, and Math all rolled up into a $1.07 game that they boys enjoy playing.

Sneaky and frugal!!

Now if I were really cool like Brenda http://familyrevised.blogspot.com/2008/06/summer-theme-week-pirates.html I would have had us make pirate costumes and play the game. I'm not that cool but we still had a great time. :)