This list includes my favorite homeschooling resources, my favorite blogging resources, and my favorite financial resources. I use and love every single resource on this list, and whenever I find something new and start to use it on a regular basis, it is added to this list.
My Favorite Homeschooling Resources
Amazon.com is my very favorite homeschooling resource, especially because Amazon Prime makes it so handy to quickly order what I need, and receive it in two days or less with zero shipping costs and not having to cart my kiddos to the store! Plus, I love that I can almost always find used (cheap) versions of what I need.
Amazon Prime offers other fantastic perks for homeschoolers, too.
You’ll have free access to hundreds of educational documentaries through Prime Video, in addition to educational shows like Popular Mechanics for Kids, Once Upon a Time: The Explorers, and The Torchlighters. Between all of the documentaries and educational TV options, use of Prime Video is a terrific benefit for homeschoolers.
Amazon Underground is my favorite source for free high-quality Kindle apps. There are oodles of free educational apps to choose from in Amazon Underground. These apps make it easy for my kids to learn even while they’re playing.
Amazon Prime also gives you special access to more than a thousand magazines and books each month through Prime Reading. It also gives you advanced free access to new book releases. The only drawback is that you are just borrowing these books. With an audible membership, you actually get to add the books to your own personal library.
And finally, Amazon Prime Music
Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks Between music lessons, orchestra, homeschool co-op and sports, we spend hours each week in the car. I love that our Audible membership allows us to keep learning instead of wasting our time. We have listened to fantastic and interesting audiobooks — things that I enjoyed right along with the kids! I was amazed when my children chose Hidden Figures and enjoyed it every bit as much (even my five-year-old!) as I did. Audiobooks make ‘grown-up’ material more accessible to kids. When you sign up, you ‘ll get your first month free. You will also receive access to all of the audible channels, filled with premium podcasts you can stream.
If you have Amazon Prime, you may not know that you already receive some of the audible benefits for free with your membership. Yep! Amazon Prime members (Not a member? Try Amazon Prime free for 30 days) can enjoy unlimited FREE access to Audible Channels. With Channels you can listen to original audio series and handcrafted playlists, as well as a rotating selection of more than 50 audiobooks from Audible’s catalog! Prime members also enjoy access to a rotating list of 50 audible selections, although they will not own the books, like they would with a separate audible membership.
RainbowResource.com and ChristianBook.com are my favorite places to purchase curriculum that I can’t find on Amazon. They both offer free shipping when you spend over a certain amount, and they have great prices all the time.
I also love finding and using terrific, FREE curriculum, which I have compiled into a huge list, The Ultimate List of Free Homeschool Curriculum, organized by subject.
My Favorite Blogging Resources
Do you need some extra income? Who doesn’t, right? I need to be able to make a great income from home, and I need complete control over my schedule. As a homeschooling mom of eight, I don’t have a whole ton of spare time.
I started my first blog about ten years ago, as a means of sharing our lives with our families, and especially my sister, who lives in China with her cute family. It was hosted on blogger, and my kids ended up doing most of the blogging, but it was fun. The only people who followed that blog were my siblings, though.
When I decided to try to monetize my blog last year, I realized I needed to build a nicer-looking and easier-to-navigate blog. Blogspot wasn’t going to cut it, and I needed to purchase hosting and a domain. I put it off for awhile, because I’m such a naturally frugal person, and I thought it would cost a whole lot more than it actually does.
When I finally did a little research, I realized that it actually didn’t cost all that much to be self-hosted. In fact, with Bluehost hosting I only pay $2.75 a month AND they gave me my domain FREE.
Less than $3 a month? That was a risk I was willing to take, so I signed up. And here I am! I don’t make as much as my husband, and I’ve definitely put in a lot of work, but it’s great money for something I enjoy and can just work on in my spare time, from the kitchen table, while overseeing our homeschool.
Plus, I really just wanted some spending money for extras, like all the trips I’m planning. And I know I can scale up whenever I need more money for our next trip! I’m not super techy, so if I can do this, anyone can!
If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a super easy tutorial ‘How to Start a Blog in Less Than 15 Minutes‘ that will help you, starting at only $2.75 per month (my link gives you the extra discount) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receive a free website domain (usually $15) through my Bluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting upfront. Talk about a low investment!
>>> Want to make money from home? Start a blog of your own in just a few minutes!<<<
Bluehost
Bluehost has the lowest price I’ve found and their support is wonderful. It’s fast, reliable, hosting that is SO easy to set up. AND you’ll get your domain free! You’ll also get free domain privacy if you purchase at least 12 months upfront, through my link. You’ll absolutely love Bluehost!
- Free domain
- Free SSL certificate
- 24/7 support
- 1-click WordPress install
Tailwind
Once your site is set up and you’ve posted some content, you need to advertise, so that people will actually find and read those blog posts. You might think that people would just google a related term and your lovely article would pop up. Not so!
The best place for new bloggers to advertise is Pinterest. And the best way to get your pins seen is by using the Tailwind App.
At first I didn’t want to pay for Tailwind, so I pinned manually for a couple of months, but it took hours each week and I hated feeling like a slave to all of my social media accounts. I couldn’t take a vacation, because the days I didn’t pin, I didn’t get traffic, and when I didn’t get traffic I didn’t earn money.
My entire reason behind blogging was to make it work for me, and not the other way around!
Also, Tailwind has really helped my Pinterest stats immensely, with no work on my part! I started this whole journey with less than 100 pinterest followers and currently have almost 1500 followers. About 80% of my blog traffic comes from Pinterest. The tailwind app seriously saves me hours a week and saves me from getting burned out working on social media postings. Tailwind is essential for bloggers!
Tailwind has partnered with both Instagram AND Pinterest and will post to both platforms for you. Try Tailwind for free with this link!
ShareASale
Once you’ve built a blog, added content and have some traffic, you’re ready to start making money — time to get paid for your great content!
That is the point at which you start joining affiliate networks. An affiliate network is just the middle man between bloggers (content publishers) and merchants. Merchants have a product to sell, and they want to advertise on the publisher’s site. The network keeps track of all the merchants and all the bloggers, makes it easy to sign up with multiple merchants, provides links and banner ads for the bloggers, and takes care of payments. There are several networks specifically for bloggers. Learn how shareasale can increase your sales, develop your brand, and generate interest in your site.
My favorite network, still, is the first I joined — ShareASale.com. They were so easy to join, and have been fantastic to work with! Most of the links you see on my blog are from merchants in the ShareASale program. Join shareasale.com and start earning cash today!
Blogging Training with the Billionaire Blog Club (BBC)
You’re going to need help learning all of the blogging tools at your disposal, as well as learning how to please Google with good SEO, so you can rank in their searches, increase traffic, where and how to monetize, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I initially purchased several trainings, each covering one different aspect of blogging, and I spent quite a bit of money doing so. Then I learned about the Billionaire Blog Club, which covers all of the aspects of blogging in one large (and relatively inexpensive!) course. It is by far the best of all the blog trainings I used. The author, Paul Scrivens, operates something like 13 blogs and is making hundreds of thousands of dollars every month between all of his blogs. Who better to learn from than such a master? This training is definitely worth looking into!
My Favorite Easy Ways to Make and Save Money
You won’t get rich with any of these side hustles, but you can make extra spending money, or enough to pay some bills and put gas in your car. My favorite way to use these programs is to cash out with gift cards instead of cash, and give gift cards as Christmas gifts, rewards (bribes) for my kiddos, and dates for the hubs and me.
It helps to sign up for all of these because they don’t all have the same offers, and sometimes one won’t have an offer that another will. As a member of several, you’ll maximize your opportunities to earn and save. Plus, it’s hard to earn very much from and single program, but what if you earn $30-$40 a month from each?
Ibotta: Use the ibotta app to save money on groceries, clothing, travel, housewares and more. It really couldn’t be easier — just choose which items you want cash back for inside the app, then scan your receipt, and start saving! The best part about this app is that it’s not always brand specific, like most coupons are. So you’ll be able to scan “any brand of bread” for 50 cents off, etc. If you do coupon – you can STILL use Ibotta and get a rebate. Great app! It’s best to join both Ibotta and Ebates, because it doubles your chances of getting a rebate for an item you need.
Get a $10 bonus just for signing up with Ibotta through this link. You’ll see your first $10 bonus after your first purchase. Next time you go are running errands, open the app and tap the items you will be purchasing. Once you earn $20 or more, you can transfer the money to your bank account via PayPal or Venmo. It won’t take you long to get to $20 – I made $40 my first month!
Ebates: Hello! Free money just for shopping online! I made over $500 from Ebates just last year. All you do is join the Ebates website, click on the store you want, make your purchase as normal, and your cash rebate is deposited into your PayPal account. Sign up here to get a $10 bonus after you spend $25. If you join both Ibotta and Ebates, it doubles your chances of getting a rebate when you’re looking for a particular item. They usually have different rebates, so between them all your potential earning bases are covered!
Swagbucks: Earning couldn’t be easier! Swagbucks is the largest online rewards site that gives free gift cards to its members for their online activities, such as Taking Surveys, Shopping, Searching the Web, Watching Videos, and Playing Games.
I work online a lot, and love that I can cash out with a couple of gift cards for just doing what I would have done anyway. I bribe my kids with gift cards, or I use them as gifts.
Survey Junkie: When you first sign in, you’ll be asked for all of your demographic data, so they can send you the surveys that will best fit you. Then they’ll send daily emails with survey opportunities just for you. Or you can sign in and look for surveys. I frequently fill out surveys on my phone while waiting at my kids music lessons, and I can easily make about $35 a month here, just during those few minutes of waiting-room time. Once you’ve worked with them for awhile, they’ll also give you higher-paid opportunities to work in focus groups and such.
Pinecone Research: Pinecone Research is another company I use to complete surveys. It’s best to use several different survey companies in order to maximize your opportunities to earn. I like that they also occasionally send free products to review. Click here to sign up for Pinecone Research.
American Consumer Opinion: American Consumer Opinion is another survey company that I highly recommend. They also pay you for each survey you complete. Click here to sign up for American Consumer opinion.
Make Money Online From Home
VIPKids: I have four good friends who teach with VIPkids, an online teaching service that connects teachers and young students in China with a fully immersive English education. Teachers earn up to $22 per hour and work from home. You can sign up for enough hours to make this your full-time job, and my friends have! They love it!
The only drawback is that most of the hours are either really late at night or early in the morning, because you’re working on China time. Although, if you have kids, you might consider that a perk — you can work while they’re asleep!
You also have to have a decent internet connection. I looked into this very seriously about a year ago, but my internet connection (VOIP is all that’s available because we live in the boonies) is too slow.
To become a teacher, you need to have a bachelors degree or be a junior or senior in college. Course materials and lesson plans are provided for you. If you like teaching kids, this just might be the career you were looking for!