Budget-Friendly Ways to Study Language Arts

Language Arts is one of those subjects that you just can not avoid teaching. It can also be expensive to get everything that you need to cover for this subject. When you are first starting off homeschooling you may not know that you can actually teach Language Arts in a budget-friendly way.

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Language Arts is the study of grammar, composition, reading, spelling, vocabulary and literature. That is a lot of different components to make up one subject. If you are first starting off you may be tempted to pick up a big reading kit, and then a spelling program, a writing program, vocabulary etc… Before you know it, you may have 5 different books for one subject! Not only is this overwhelming, it is also expensive.

Thankfully, educating at home has come so far. There are many ways that you can get what you need inexpensively and sometimes free. Many homeschoolers are eclectic and like to piece their curriculum together. This is a great way to stay on budget and save money.

Check out these budget-friendly ways to study Language Arts in your homeschool:

Websites:

I love using websites in our homeschool. They are great to supplement with and work well when you have a lot of children you are teaching. I like to use websites when I am working one on one with a child. Then I have my other child working on their spelling words, or playing grammar games on a website. 

Websites for Lessons:

Mr. Nussbaum Language Arts teaches spelling, language arts, reading comprhension, author study and more with fun games and activities.

Language Arts Power Point Presentations – Mr. Donn

ReadWorks is a non-profit that works with teachers to help improve reading comprehension in students in grades K-12. There are teacher guides and free reading comprehension passages that you can use for many different themes and topics. These are also broken down by grade.

English Grammar Online is full of free grammar lessons broken down by topic. There is also writing and vocabulary lessons as well as tests and study tips.

Reading Bear teaches beginning readers to read through videos that sound out the words slowly, then blending them with a picture illustrating the word. This multi media approach is great for visual and auditory learners and it is very cute.

Websites for Learning Games:

Word Central from Merriam-Webster Dictionary  – you can build your own dictionary, read a vocabulary word of the day and play fun games with words.

Teach Your Monster to Read has a computer version and a paid app. The computer version is completely free and what my daughter used to help her learn how to read. It has 3 different levels and is great not just for beginner readers, but for struggling readers as well. The monsters are a lot of fun to play with and create.

Starfall – Starfall was one of the original free reading websites. They offer a paid version now, but there are still some fun reading games that are free.

Spelling City – you can use this website to put in your own spelling lists for your kids to work on during the week with fun games. They have a free and a paid version. 

Books and Videos:

Project Gutenberg is home to over 60,000 free ebooks that you can read on your computer, or phone or ebook reader. Many books on reading lists are available for free here.

LibriVox -hosts audio books that are from the public domain. All the books are read outloud by volunteers. We love using this in our homeschool. They are great for children who are dyslexic, audio learners or families that are in the car a lot.

Big list of Language Arts You Tube Channels and Videos for Kids

FREE Curriculum:

You know we absolutely love free curriculum and free homeschool resources around here. These resources are completely free!

Ambleside Online is a free literature heavy curriculum that is as close as possible to the curriculum that Charlotte Mason used in her schools. It is full of high literary standards and uses as many free books as possible. 

The Good and the Beautiful offers completely free Language Arts downloads for grades 1-5. This is a Charlotte Mason and Classical style course that thoroughly cover phonics, reading, writing, spelling, literature, grammar, punctuation, art, and geography all in one. 

Scott Foresman Reading offers complete workbooks for free for grades 1-6.

FREE Grammar Printables for Upper Elementary 

Unit Studies and Writing Prompts:

Writing with Sharon Watson creates some very affordable curriculum, but she also offers tons of free writing prompts on her website. There are prompts for Middle School and High School. These are fun and engaging on a wide variety of topics from creative writing to current events.

Our Language Arts Fun Printables are a great way to add some variety and creativity to your language arts lessons. Your hands-on learners will love the cutting, pasting and fun game activities and printable board games.

We also have FREE Poetry and Author Studies, Poetry Writing and Analyzing Unit Studies, Creative Writing and Illustration Prompts and Grammar Packets in our Subscriber Freebie Library.

Budget Friendly Resources in our store:

All of our resources are created for the busy homeschool mom. They are self-explanatory and there is no need to purchase a separate teacher guide. They can be printed over and over and used within your own family to save money.

Daily Skill Building: Vocabulary is a complete, 36-week vocabulary curriculum for grades 1-7. It is open and go, simple and easy for your child to use independently. 

Daily Skill Building: Spelling is a companion to Daily Skill Building: Vocabulary and weaves in the vocabulary words into a full spelling curriculum. 

NonFiction Reading Comprehension, Written Narration and Research – This is a full year of reading comprehension that includes geography, history, and science units for 4^th-8^th grade. There are 75 reading comprehension lessons in 10 units that you can mix and match and use in whatever order or theme you choose.