Thanks to the World Wide Web, you have at your fingertips a wide range of free worksheets. Can you use these to homeschool your children? Will your

child be getting a quality education? Sure. Here's how.

Plan Ahead

With such a wide range of free teacher worksheets to choose from, it's easy to lose sight of your goals and priorities for the year. Before you start your search for free worksheets, sit down and plan out your school

year.

• List what your child should accomplish academically this year according to scope and sequence charts or state standards

• List the areas your child is weak in and could use extra work

• List the areas your child is strong in and could use extra challenges

By putting together this list, you have a written plan as a guideline when searching for worksheets. This will keep you from getting sidetracked and printing out worksheets that you don't need.

Scope and Sequence

A good reference book every homeschooling family needs is a "scope and sequence" book. This book will tell you what your child should be accomplishing in each subject according to grade and age.

This isn't set in stone and you shouldn't be rigid about it. Simply use it as a guide. It can give you a good idea of what to expect and what to teach each year. If your child is behind in a subject -- that's okay. Just provide more opportunities to review the subject they are having difficulties in.

Use your scope and sequence reference book to help you decide which free teacher worksheets to print for the upcoming year.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Because you homeschool your child, you know his strong and weak points. This is good. Use the worksheets to provide extra challenges to your child who is ahead in a particular subject and review for the subject your child is falling behind in.

Be Choosy

Because these worksheets are free, it's tempting to just print off everything you find willy-nilly! Resist this urge. First, print only the worksheets that fit into the plan you wrote out earlier and second print out only quality material.

As you search the internet for worksheets, you'll begin to see that many are poor quality. Look for worksheets that:

• Are Neat

• Are Organized

• Explain what they are teaching

• Give clear directions

• Don't overwhelm the student with too many problems

• Give room on the worksheet to answer the problems correctly and neatly

• Are professional in appearance

• Are bright and colorful making them more appealing to kids

By planning ahead, following a good scope and sequence reference book, and being choosy about which worksheets you give your children, you can replace curriculum with free teacher worksheets and save a lot of money.